As the first episode of For Her Sins begins, Laura (Jo Joyner) talks about life. She thinks people will take it if someone comes into their lives and makes them free a bit free and wild. At the park, Laura picks up her baby and begins hunting for her daughter Eliza (Romi Hyland-Rylands). She begins panicking when she can’t find her. Someone grabs the little girl from behind. Once Laura catches up with them, Emily (Rachel Shenton) apologizes and says Eliza claimed she was lost. Laura scolds Eliza before calming down and telling Emily she is sorry. Emily says it is okay since she would do the same thing.

They go their separate ways. At home, Eliza continues disobeying Laura. Rob speaks to his kids on the phone. Laura admits she can’t get the idea out of her head of Eliza being led away by a stranger. She wonders if Eliza is just desperate to get away from her. Rob insists that isn’t true. She tells him good luck with the clients. He checks on her before the call ends. Laura has a flashback of an accident from the past. Then, she hears the baby crying again. The following day, Eliza doesn’t want to go to school. Laura pleads with her to go because she cannot be late. Eliza causes a scene in front of the other kids and parents. She runs into Emily who tries to get her to go to school.

Once Eliza goes into the school, Laura asks Emily how she did that. Emily says she is still working out the kinks in her daughter’s morning routine since her dad left. Laura walks away when she receives a call from her mother. Once Emily gets in her car, she calls Liam Stevens (Gerard Miller) to tell him it is definitely her. Laura takes the baby and meets Tom (Ansu Kabia). She introduces Tom to Elliot. Tom tells her about the difficulty they’ve had while she has been away. Laura is confident she’ll be ready when she returns. Tom invites her to a drinks thing on Friday night. Laura congratulates him on the promotion. At a café, Laura sees Emily and invites her to sit down.

Emily tells her about meeting a guy she found online only for him to be 18. They talk about Laura being a lawyer. Eventually, the conversation turns to Rob who is amazing according to Laura. She goes on to say Eliza is a difficult child, but Rob is out there living his best life. They hang out and drink for a while. When Laura gets up, Emily holds the baby and asks for another bottle. Rob makes it home. He is shocked to find Emily with Laura who is out of it. When Laura gets up, she sees Emily and Rob sitting at the table together. Emily tells her that she picked up Eliza and they’re sleeping. Emily decides to leave as Laura begins calling herself a terrible mother.

They go to bed. Rob remembers when Laura used to be able to drink more than anyone, but she thinks those days are gone. She doesn’t want to get romantic because she isn’t feeling very attractive. The next day, Laura and Rob take the kids out together. After they reach the park, Rob asks Laura if she saw Tom at the office yesterday. She says briefly. Laura asks if he has booked some time off for when she goes back to work. Rob insists it isn’t a great time. That upsets Laura who says the kids need a bit of stability. Later that night, they have out with Emily and Rachel. Eliza comes downstairs and tells them that they’re being too loud so she can’t sleep. Emily agrees to take her back to bed.

Rob goes up there and finds Emily telling Eliza a story. Once she is alone, Emily pulls out a knife. She comes down and learns that Rachel is gone. Emily tells Rob and Laura that she needs to go and get back to the babysitter. Laura and Rob begin making plans to pick up Eliza the following day. Eliza ends up joining them in bed because she had a bad dream. While speaking to someone, Laura admits that she found being a parent completely terrifying. It wasn’t what she expected. She says she just expected to bond with her kids because they are hers even though she sometimes wishes they weren’t. Laura tells Emily that she got a call from a work colleague who wants her to go for drinks.

Emily reveals that she studied with Tom, worked with Tom, and slept with Tom although he was never a long-term option. Then, she met Rob. Laura gets a call learning that Eliza has done something at school. Rob and Laura arrive and learn what happened from Ms. Price (Isla Jackson-Ritchie). She calls it a very worrying escalation. Ms. Price explains that Eliza has been called into her office several times this year for being aggressive and disruptive with her peers. It may be a good idea to call in the behavioral team before Social Services. Laura argues that Eliza doesn’t understand the gravity of it. Ms. Price thinks otherwise though. It largely depends on what is modeled at home. Laura asks if this is being blamed on her.

The behavioral team will be in touch to schedule a home visit. Rob and Laura speak to Eliza in private hoping she’ll tell them what happened. Eliza tells Laura that she hates her and wishes she was dead. Laura gets upset and storms out of the school. She leaves and sits alone. Laura notices that she has a knife in her bag. Rob and Eliza go home where they find Emily cleaning up. Rob says the teacher talked about Eliza like she was a problem child and he didn’t know it was that bad. He doesn’t understand why Laura didn’t tell him. Emily says Laura is trying her best so he should give her a break.

Later that night, Rob tells Laura that they’re not going to escalate it. He says it doesn’t make any sense because the kids were such good friends. Laura asks if he believes what the teacher said about consequences. Rob says maybe. Laura worries that Eliza could turn out to be violent or aggressive. She says she is practically bringing her up by herself. Rob apologizes for not being there and says he’ll take the kids to his mom’s place tomorrow. Laura has a nightmare in which Eliza stands near the crib with a knife. Laura says her mom has a saying that they all have to make difficult choices. She doesn’t believe she has ever made a choice for herself until now.

Emily speaks to Laura on the phone while waiting for the babysitter to get there. Once she arrives, she tells Laura that she wants to see her and not the wife or mother. While looking for shoes, Laura pulls out a box that triggers a memory. Once Laura isn’t looking, Emily looks through the box. She takes pictures of newspaper clippings about a drowned boy. When she finds a necklace in the box, she almost cries. Laura and Emily go to a club after that. Laura thanks Emily for dragging her out because she really needed this. Laura reveals that her maiden name is Gibson. She asks Emily to make sure she is home by midnight. Laura explains that the behavioral visit is tomorrow. When Tom comes in, Emily begins lusting after him.

They hang out and drink. Eventually, Emily insists they have one more drink before leaving. When Emily is alone, she confirms that her booking at the Arlo Hotel was successful. She drugs one of the drinks. That drink is likely given to Laura.

 

For Her Sins Review

The opening episode of For Her Sins was okay and mostly well done, but it is hard to find anything new here. It seems like we’ve seen this same story countless times before so it is going to be very difficult for this series to stand apart. The performances are okay, the flashbacks are well done, and the camerawork is good.

It is really hard to care about the story though because this has been done hundreds or even thousands of times before. We can only hope there will be some interesting twists in future episodes that make the series unique. Rachel Shenton and Jo Joyner are good in their respective roles and deserved a more original story.

The opening episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of For Her Sins are available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.