The premiere episode of "Under a Dark Sun" unfolds with a harried woman named Alba abruptly bidding farewell to her partner, hastily bundling her son Leo into the car and speeding off into the inky blackness of night. However, Alba's conception of a fresh start proves far from straightforward. Jobless, devoid of familial support, and with an overdrawn bank account, her circumstances are dire. Furthermore, undisclosed until later, she harbors a criminal record and scarcely possesses enough provisions to sustain them.
A glimmer of hope emerges in the shape of a seasonal position as a Flower Harvester. An email beckons her to attend a preliminary meeting, yet a hitch arises. Upon her arrival, the interviewer remains oblivious to her identity. However, his composure crumbles upon realizing that the email, addressed to him—Arnaud Lasserre—originated from his own account. Reluctantly, he consents to hire her, though the motives behind his decision remain shrouded in mystery.
Valentin is entrusted with orienting Alba within the estate's operations, but she arrives woefully unprepared. Leo still lingers in the car, a source of concern for Valentin. Alba clings to the aspiration that three weeks of arduous labor will suffice to amass the funds needed to flee France and embark on a new life in Barcelona.
The labor is grueling, and Alba stands as a palpable outsider amidst this environment. Unable to converse in Arabic like her coworkers, she finds herself increasingly isolated. Arnaud, feeling threatened by her presence, confronts her, issuing an ultimatum for them to meet in the field the following day, heightening the tension and uncertainty surrounding her fragile new beginning.
Alba is afforded lodging in the guise of a cozy bungalow, albeit one surreptitiously equipped with cameras, turning her private moments into public viewings. As she converses with Leo, honing their Spanish skills and sharing laughter, unseen eyes watch their every interaction. Prior to her workday, Alba ventures out to rendezvous with Arnaud Lasserre, only to stumble upon a harrowing scene: Arnaud lies prone on the ground, his life ebbing away from a gaping wound in his abdomen. The question hangs heavy in the air—who could have wielded such brutality?
Gathering her belongings in haste, Alba prepares for an abrupt departure, but the police arrive with swift precision, blocking her exit. They insist on recording her statement at the station, leaving her with no escape. To her dismay, they delve into her past, unearthing a criminal record marred by addiction, violence, theft, and drug abuse. Matters worsen when an employee testifies to witnessing her flee the crime scene, casting further suspicion upon her.
Compounding her plight, the detective wields surveillance footage depicting Alba in a mad dash, coupled with eyewitness accounts from her recent encounter with Lasserre, and her tainted past. Each piece of evidence piles onto her shoulders, shaping an unfavorable narrative.
To add insult to injury, Lasserre’s will unveils a bombshell revelation: Arnaud was the father of not three, but four children. And who is this fourth offspring? None other than Alba herself. Stunned and disbelieving, she rejects the notion outright.
Regrettably, from an outsider's perspective, it undeniably seems like the perfect pretext for homicide. Nevertheless, the Will contains a clause stipulating that anyone implicated in a murder shall be disqualified from receiving any inheritance. Hence, should the courts convict Alba, she stands to gain nothing from the estate. Fortunately, Alba is not embarking on this journey alone; she is accompanied by Manon Simoni, an attorney who arrives to lend her a helping hand. With no murder weapon in sight, mere speculative photographs, and a dubious testimony from the unreliable Lasserre family (whose true colors we shall soon uncover), Alba's prospects begin to brighten slightly.
It transpires that the Lasserre family is far from blameless. In reality, they have concealed the truth about the events leading up to the murder. The day preceding the fatal incident, the entire family converged at Maison Oris, a prestigious perfumery, with the intention of purchasing the estate to secure exclusive rights to its roses. While this proposal promised a lucrative payday, it also allowed the Lasserre family to continue managing the farm. However, Arnaud, too proud to surrender his business, refused to sell, much to the astonishment and fury of his kin. This revelation underscores that one of the family members indeed possesses a motive for murder, a fact that Manon, Arnaud's granddaughter, is acutely aware of.
Alba is eventually freed from custody and reunites with Leo. Though she harbors doubts about Manon, she desires to uncover the truth and needs her assistance. Manon is confident they can prove Alba's innocence, but this mission hinges on uncovering concrete evidence—a task that promises to be arduous given the circumstances and the people involved.
Certainly, here's a more expressive and vivid rendering of the given passage:
Well, one might naturally assume so. In the subsequent scene, Lucie, one of the siblings, stumbles upon a shocking discovery—the murder weapon concealed in a zipped-up bag, tucked away at the rear of the toilet. The revelation sends shockwaves through her.
At Arnaud's funeral, his wife Beatrice utilizes ChatGPT to pen his eulogy, displaying an eerie lack of concern over his demise. In fact, she daringly opens the casket, casts a dismissive glance at him, sneers, and strides out, dismissing it all as a mere joke. Whether she is genuinely complicit in this saga or merely a misleading distraction remains unclear at present.
With the family preoccupied and scattered, Alba seizes the opportunity to infiltrate the office computers. There, she unearths an entire folder bearing her name, teeming with a myriad of diverse photographs. However, her investigation is abruptly halted by an ominous error message, which triggers a safety precaution, erasing everything in an instant.
As the funeral concludes, Alba dashes out, only to be met with a brutal blow to the head by an unseen assailant outside. When she awakens, she finds herself trapped in a casket alongside Arnaud, equipped with nothing but a lighter, buried alive beneath the earth.
