Girl Taken Series Recap: Does Lily Find Peace In The End?

Very few crime thriller narratives nowadays completely give away their central intrigue at the very beginning to create the potential for a character-driven drama like Paramount’s latest miniseries, “Girl Taken,” chose to do. But those that do don’t usually end up fumbling the ball like the series in question did.  Adapted from Hollie Overton’s bestseller, “Baby Doll,” the six-episode series tries to provide an in-depth look at the psychological impact of trauma, violence, and subjugation—resulting in identity dissonance and an acute struggle to get back control over one’s life. However ambitious “Girl Taken” is, it lacks the strength in its plot or conviction in its narrative treatment to do justice to its potential.

Spoilers Ahead

The series focuses on the Riser family, as viewers meet Eve, a single mother who is a nurse by profession, and the sole guardian of her seventeen-year-old twin teenage daughters, Lily and Abby. While Lily is outgoing, confident, and free-spirited, and has a relationship with her boyfriend, Wes, Abby is much more reserved and has found fulfillment in her academic career. Abby looks up to Rick Hansen, an English teacher at Lily and Abby’s school who encourages her and has gradually become her close confidante. 

On one occasion, Abby finds Lily hanging out with Wes and a bunch of his troublesome friends and shares her utter disappointment with her sister upon seeing her take drugs. A heated argument follows, after which an infuriated Lily storms off the scene. Walking alone, she accepts Rick’s offer for a lift—which turns out to be the worst mistake of her life, as Rick ends up kidnapping her. Locking up Lily in his isolated country cottage, Rick subjects Lily to extreme physical and mental abuse. Initially desperate to break free of Rick’s control, Lily gets subdued by Rick’s manipulation and fear tactics. Objectifying Lily as his babydoll, Rick tries to establish some sort of mental hold over his captive. Rick’s wife, Zoe, occasionally suspects Rick’s behaviors, but she is gullible enough to get easily gaslighted by her husband.

Lily’s disappearance breaks Abby, who blames herself for whatever happened to her sister on the fateful day. Eve, still holding on to hopes of the return of her daughter, resorts to her alcoholic tendencies. A year after the incident, a distraught Abby, who has completely given up on life, is able to connect with Wes due to their shared grief over Lily’s absence—and as they help each other heal, they end up getting into a relationship. Chief investigator of the case, Tommy Shah, starts an affair with Eve, and as he gets personally involved in the case, the failure to discover the truth about Lily stings him that much more. As if things couldn’t have been any worse for Lily, she gets pregnant with Rick’s child, and desperate to provide the baby a safe, normal childhood, Lily awaits an opportunity to break free. As Lily’s water breaks, she gets the chance to incapacitate Rick and attempts a daring escape. Lily’s attempt fails, and she loses consciousness while delivering the child. Rick lies to her, saying the child passed away, and blames Lily for the entire mishap. In reality, Rick takes the child, Alice, to his wife, Zoe, who wanted to have a baby for the longest time, and convinces her that he fathered the baby with one of his students after a one-night stand. Zoe not only forgives Rick, she even accepts the child as her own, and Rick makes arrangements to ensure Alice’s true identity remains a secret. 

Five years pass by, teenage twins have stepped into adulthood, and the hellish existence in captivity has taken a toll on Lily’s mind. Still, she is biding her time to escape to freedom on the first chance she gets. She finally finds her long-sought freedom when Rick forgets to lock the basement door of the cottage on one occasion, and after being rescued, she is reunited with her family. It takes a while for Lily to adjust to her new reality, and she reveals the identity of her tormentor. After realizing that Lily has escaped, Rick attempts to escape with his family, but to no avail, as he is promptly captured and sent to prison. Rick maintains his stance of being innocent to his wife, mentioning that Lily is infatuated with him and trying to get back at him upon being unable to face rejection—and Zoe, too subservient to ever question her husband, is convinced. In fact, Zoe too was manipulated by Rick and formed a relationship with him when she was still underage, something that her crooked husband has made her forget, conveniently. Rick maintained the image of a respected, kind teacher, and covered up his tracks pretty well—he has burnt down the basement room of his cottage, getting rid of any possible evidence linking him to it. Rick gets a dose of karma after he gets beaten up in the prison and sexually exploited by the prison warden in exchange for immunity, but there is not a shred of remorse in the mind of this feckless predator, so I am not sure he got the lesson to begin with. 

Lily finds out that escaping the basement has not really freed her, as lingering trauma keeps her awake at night and makes it impossible for her to find a ‘normal’ rhythm. She is not able to connect with her family as easily; paranoia and anger issues have gripped her mind. Additionally, she realizes that the world she had left five years ago is no longer the same; upon realizing that Abby and Wes are in a relationship, she starts feeling betrayed. Being tortured for five years in her nightmarish existence, Lily almost gave up hope of being rescued, which is why she finds it hard to believe that Abby and Eve didn’t lose hope till the end. Tommy connects the dots and speculates that Lily was not Rick’s first or only victim; he is able to connect a seven-year-old cold case—the disappearance of teenager Isobelle Yates—with Rick. Tommy feels that there is still an off-chance that Isobelle is being held captive by Rick somewhere and is in desperate need of rescue. However, to verify his theory, interrogating the suspect is not enough, and he requests Eve to ask Lily about it. Given how traumatized and anxious Lily is at the moment, it is almost impossible for her to face her worst fear, facing Rick, in an interrogation and extract intel from him. However, Lily had noticed evidence in the basement that indicated that another victim was imprisoned there in the past, and as someone who is too familiar with the helplessness, agony, and fear, Lily acknowledges that she should confront Rick. Unfortunately, things go wrong when Rick continues to gaslight and lie to Lily during the confrontation, prompting Abby to lash out and ruin the interrogation. Having her past dissected and questioned by the lecherous criminal, Lily feels humiliated and powerless and finds herself unable to trust anyone. 

Tommy decides to approach the case from a new angle, as he suspects Alice is Lily’s child, whose true identity Rick has kept hidden. He shares his theory with the Riser family, conveying if this turns out to be true, Rick can no longer hide behind false excuses and deceits.  On the day of Rick’s trial, Abby decides to pay Zoe a visit to make her see reason, as her resolute stance in support of her husband has made the case more complicated than it needs to be. Abby catches a glimpse of Alice, which convinces her that Tommy’s theory is indeed true. As Abby tries to reach Alice, a scuffle ensues between her and Zoe, which results in Abby getting knocked out. A terrified Zoe reflects upon her actions and recognizes the series of horrendous mistakes she has been making so far by blindly trusting her husband. She can no longer hide from the truth that Rick is truly an irredeemable monster, as fear about Alice’s future starts taking over her mind. In the trial, Zoe buries every chance of Rick talking his way out by exposing him. The timely arrival of Tommy at Zoe’s place results in Abby getting rescued, and she confirms the officer was quite on point regarding his assumption. Additionally, the date on Alice’s birth certificate and the timeline of Lily’s childbirth sync up as stronger evidence. Zoe makes an attempt to escape with Alice; as cop cars corner her, she realizes that separation is inevitable, and tries to take her own life. Zoe is rescued by the cops, and Alice is taken away to foster care for the time being. Lily stumbles upon Abby’s journals, and the heartfelt messages that Abby chronicled there for the last five years allow Lily to understand that her family truly never gave up on the hope of finding her. 

Rick makes a last-ditch attempt to flee and manages to escape while being transferred to prison. Rick calls Lily and acknowledges that Alice is indeed her child; he further taunts Lily by mentioning their shared past in an attempt to exert control over her. As the news of Rick’s escape reaches Tommy, he arranges a safe refuge for the Riser family in a secluded establishment. In the meantime, Lily had learned that Abby is pregnant with Wes’ child, and before leaving, she advises her sister to share the truth with him. Things change after the Riser family reaches the safehouse—the fact that her tormentor is roaming free causes Lily to suffer recurring panic attacks. Abby realizes that as long as Rick is alive, Lily will not rest easy, and decides to take drastic measures. 

The next day, Abby takes a knife and reaches the burned-down basement of Rick’s cottage—proving her assumptions true, Rick is seen there. A scuffle ensues; Rick manages to get the upper hand before Abby finds an opening and fatally stabs him in the neck. Lily, accompanied by Eve, Tommy, and a cop, arrives at the scene, and she is the first to witness Rick bleed to death in his basement. It can be argued that the scoundrel got off way too easy, given the nature of the crimes he committed, but for Lily to finally find peace and relief, seeing her tormentor breathe his last was somewhat necessary. The cops find Isobelle Yates’ remains buried in the vicinity, which once again showcases what a horrid criminal Rick truly was. Tommy, knowing the Riser family has suffered a lot, spares Abby from the possibility of facing legal troubles and covers up her action of killing Rick as self-defense. 

Sometime later, as the Riser family awaits the arrival of a new member with Abby’s pregnancy reaching its final stage, in a strange cosmic connection, she too is going to be a mother of twins. Lily too appears to be hopeful for a new beginning; as she goes to foster care to meet Alice, she knows that the kid might be too confused to readily accept her as a mother—and accordingly, she is willing to wait for as long as it takes for their bond to form. As the series ends, it remains in question whether Lily will be able to fully accept Alice as her own. Even though, as Eve previously mentioned, Alice’s birth had a violent origin, the innocent child has nothing to do with what happened in the past. Lily can heal her own wounds by trying to ensure a safe, loving future for her child—showing she is greater than what she had suffered.