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Series Synopsis
LAUREN DANIELS has spent her whole uneventful life in Philadelphia. But when she discovers that her idyllic mother, HELEN DANIELS, isn’t who she thinks she is, she learns that she was stolen from her real parents in London. Her mundane life is turned upside down in an instant when she realises that she could have had a completely different past, present and future.
When discovering the identity and location of her birth parents, Lauren abandons her so-called family and heads to London. The attractive, kind stranger ETHAN BRIGGS insists on following Lauren on her journey, but with his secretive texts about her, he clearly isn’t what he seems.
Tracking down Lauren’s birth father FRANK PORTER, the seedy middle-aged man proves to be a disappointment when they catch him cheating with a young woman. Sickened, Lauren’s dreams of her perfect parents crash and burn even more when she discovers that he and her angel-faced mother KATHLEEN PORTER, now have a pretty young daughter; AMANDA PORTER.
In the darkening streets of London, Lauren’s world caves in further when she finds out that Ethan was sent by her family friend CHRIS HILLMAN to stop her from finding her family, so that he wouldn’t be found out for illegally helping Helen to change her identity and run away in 1989. But with Ethan’s decision to turn his back on his mission, and confessing to caring for her, she forgives his truly kind heart. The pair spend the night together, but Lauren decides to return to her own mission alone.
Tracking down the pristine home of her disappointing family, Lauren meets the surprisingly scruffy-looking Amanda. Soon realising in conversation that they’re not related, Lauren discovers that this new daughter was her replacement. Frank and Kathleen confess that the actually Romanian orphan Amanda, was illegally adopted. Sickened to her stomach, Lauren leaves, vowing to never see this mess of a family again.
But later, when the drug fuelled Amanda lures Lauren to her house, Amanda brutally attacks and ties up Lauren, planning to kill her. But to save her own life, Lauren is forced to kill Amanda instead. Realising that her fate is the same as her mother’s, she’s forced to change her identity and run away. Reconnecting with Ethan, the pair disappear for good.
Changes Made
- The first paragraph was rewritten to make it clearer and more effective.
- Additions, removals and alterations were made in line with each episode's changes.
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Episode One Synopsis
Its England 1989, an excited and well-presented couple by the name of Kathleen and Frank Porter are preparing for their unborn baby. The couple have put her trust into a gestational surrogate; the gentle young American, Julia Drennen. Although she has no biological relation to the baby, Julia constantly looks down lovingly at her stomach throughout her pregnancy. One day, when Kathleen mentions that if the baby is a girl, she wants to name her Amanda. Over time, Julia loses her grip on reality, convincing herself that she can’t part with the child, and becomes panicked. Soon, Julia packs her bags in her cluttered London flat, and decides to go into hiding in order to steal the child and raise it as her own, while Kathleen and Frank start becoming more and more panicked over not being able to reach Julia. Eventually, Julia leaves and arrives at an airport. She hands over her new passport, which shows her photo next to the name ‘Helen Daniels’. With a relieved look on her face, she disappears into a crowd of people.
Its twenty-seven years later; 2016. An attractive young woman cleans the bar of a run-down diner, making witty jokes back and forth with the customers, her co-workers address her as Lauren. She finishes up for the evening and walks to her car in a dark, urban street. She sighs as she looks at her boring, dull hometown in Philadelphia. She arrives at her warm but shabby looking house, to an aged Julia (now known as Helen) and addresses her as ‘mom’. The pair talk about their days in routine, with Lauren once again pretending that she’s not bored out of her skull to keep her mother happy. The pair carry on with their evening at home, going through their day to day life that Lauren’s grown so tired of.
The next morning, Lauren smells the sweet smell of her mother’s pancakes. Helen greets her with her usual upbeat tone, but this time Lauren catches sight of occasional pained looks on her face. Helen serves up Lauren’s pancakes with a trembling smile before clutching her chest and crashing to floor, knocking herself unconscious. As Lauren cries down the phone to 911, an ambulance races to their home. Once at the hospital, surrounded by glaring lights and empty space, Lauren is told by the doctor that her mother is stable but is suffering from anaemia which caused her chest pains. With the option of giving Helen some of Lauren’s blood in a transfusion to initially help her, Lauren agrees and undergoes a test. But when the results come through, Lauren is told that her blood type doesn’t genetically match her mothers, signifying that they are not related.
With her mother asleep, Lauren struggles to process the news and races home. Turning every area of their house upside down, searching for evidence of Helen’s lies and secrets. Lauren eventually finds what she’s looking for; a surrogacy document between her mother and a couple named Frank and Kathleen Porter, along with a photograph of them all together in London, 1989. Devastated and in shock, Lauren returns to the hospital with her evidence, only to find Chris Hillman, a friend of Helen’s since childhood who’s known Lauren her whole life. Lauren falls into his arms and tells him what she’s learned, Chris seems shocked and surprised. But once Lauren leaves him to talk to Helen, his sympathetic expression turns into a frown.
Lauren enters Helen’s hospital room to find her awake, full of emotion she demands the truth. Helen feels unable to continue to lie to her daughter now that she knows, and in a panicking flood of tears admits to her that she’s not her biological mother. Disgusted, Lauren turns her back and leaves the hospital. She decides that she needs to find her parents and know who she is. She returns home, grabs some money and hurryingly packs a bag.
She gets on a bus to the airport, once she arrives she stops in a dark and dismal bar and has a drink, looking at her missed calls from Helen. Soon, a seedy looking man approaches her and attempts to grope her. A young, attractive man sitting nearby sees this and goes to step in, but Lauren is quick to jump up and backhand the seedy man across the face. The young man tells him that he should leave and then takes a seat next to Lauren, he introduces himself as Ethan Briggs with a warming grin. They make small talk and Ethan attempts light-hearted conversation, but Lauren leaves once her flight number is called for boarding.
Ethan finishes his drink and leaves soon after. Later, Lauren sits on the plane and notices Ethan. He sits next to her with a smile, and Lauren rolls her eyes in annoyance. But the pair pick up conversation again and he asks her where she’s going, Lauren hesitates but tells him that she’s going to find her family. She looks out of the plane’s window, taking a last look at the town she now despises, as they prepare to take off. With Lauren distracted, Ethan quickly takes his phone out by his side and sends a text to a private number that reads “I’ve got her”. Lauren looks back at Ethan as he puts his phone away and smiles at her again. She looks away once more and Ethan looks forward, his smile fades.
Changes Made
- In an overall story/character development, instead of Chris telling Lauren about her birth parents and that he helped Helen, he instead pretends to be surprised and unknowing of the news. As this fits with his character's personality and intentions better - as he spends the story trying to protect himself.
- In relation, Ethan is the one to later tell Lauren about Chris's role in her past, this way she still finds out who Chris really is and why he sent Ethan.
- As Chris no longer gives Lauren the information that she needs, she instead finds it by rummaging through all of her mother's belongings at their home, finding evidence.
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Episode Two Synopsis
Lauren arrives in England, having told Ethan about her life’s secret and why she’s travelling to England on the plane, he stays by her side as they go through airport security checks, asking her questions and talking to her. Once they leave the airport Ethan offers to buy her breakfast, Lauren agrees. The pair sit in a busy café, talking over hot coffee, Ethan offers to help Lauren find her parents. Suspicious of his generosity, she asks him why he travelled to England, he tells her about a job interview in London and goes on to tell Lauren that she seems nice and that she’s interesting, so he wants to help. With his soft voice and gentle smile, he convinces her to accept.
The pair move on and decide to go to a public library and use a computer, as Lauren knows her parents’ names she decides to look them up and track them down. In a corner of the echoing, dusty library, they hunch over a computer together and search for Frank Porter, a number of results appear, but one important one. Lauren opens a social media page with Frank’s name, picture, workplace, and relationship status that says: ‘Married to Kathleen Porter’. Ethan expresses doubt that they’ll find him but Lauren excitedly prints his picture and work address, and the pair leave in a hurry.
Lauren hires a rental car and they drive through London, parking outside of Frank’s office. Ethan tells Lauren that they don’t have to do this, but with a determined look on her face, Lauren jumps out of the car, enters the reception and asks for Frank, but is refused. Meanwhile Ethan makes a phone call to the private number, telling them that he’s not sure this is going to work. Seeing Lauren, he quickly hangs up, Lauren returns and decides to wait for Frank to come out and follow him, she soon recognises Frank from his picture, getting into his car. Against Ethan’s judgement, Lauren starts the engine and follows Frank through London, seeing him stop at a shop and pick up a huge bouquet of flowers, then drive and park outside of a quiet, well preserved house. Lauren parks at a distance and watches Frank. He gets out of his car and answers his phone, the conversation seems to be with Kathleen. Frank hangs up as a young, blonde woman runs out of the house and lovingly wraps her arms around him. He leaves his phone on the roof of the car and forgets about it as they walk into the house, arm in arm.
With the colour drained from her face, Lauren sees that Frank is cheating on her birth mother. Ethan appears sympathetic and places his hand on hers. He begins to suggest leaving, but Lauren suddenly bursts out of the door and snatches Frank’s phone from the car. She and Ethan look through Frank’s phone, finding messages from Kathleen, flirtatious messages from a woman named Sarah, and messages from someone named Amanda, addressing Frank as ‘dad’. Lauren’s eyes widen as she sits in shock for a moment, hit by the revelation that the family she’d been dreaming of are far from what she’d imagined; her father is cheating on her mother, and she has a sister that she’s never known. Lauren looks at a photo of Frank with what seems to be Kathleen and Amanda. She’s suddenly filled with emotion as she repeatedly hits the wheel of the car in anger and curses. Ethan grabs her and calms her down, they look at each other as a tear rolls down her cheek, and decide to leave.
Parking at a hotel, the pair decide to have a drink at a nearby bar. Under the low lights and depressing music, Lauren looks down at her second drink, with the hope drained from her eyes, she says that she doesn’t want to meet her family. Ethan agrees that nothing good can come from meeting them now, but Lauren looks at him with suspicion, finally realising that he’s seemed to be against this the whole time. Ethan goes to the bathroom, not noticing that his phone was left on his chair. Becoming rapidly suspicious, Lauren grabs the phone, finding the messages between him and the private number.
Lauren’s face becomes filled with rage, she drops the phone on the table, and runs out of the bar. Ethan catches sight of her leaving and sees his phone, making the connection. His eyes become panicked and he chases after her, managing to grab her in the street. She angrily pushes him away, shouting that he was trying to stop her instead of help her. Angry and emotional she demands to know who he really is. He looks down in shame, and tells her that Chris sent him, as he owed him. He goes on to tell her that Chris was the one that helped Helen change her identity and run away. And that when Ethan was a teenager Chris could have busted him for identity fraud when he and his mother ran away from drug dealers, but he didn’t. So in return to Chris, he agreed to try to stop Lauren from finding her parents, so that Chris’s secret of illegally changing Helen’s identity wouldn’t be found out.
But he tells Lauren that he cares about her now, and that he truly wants to help from now on, he says she’s more important than his debt to Chris, and proves it by launching his phone into the air and down the street. Lauren is shocked, but believes his words. She admits to caring for him too, and they soon decide to get some sleep. Getting separate rooms at the hotel they say goodnight, but Lauren changes her mind. Knocking on Ethan’s door, he answers confused. Lauren lightly kisses him on the lips, then they continue to kiss and eventually sleep together, spending the night in his room. Ethan wakes up the next morning to see that Lauren isn’t beside him anymore, just a note saying goodbye.
Lauren sits on a bus, looking hopeful at Frank’s address on his phone. She arrives at the tall, pristine house and nervously approaches the front door. A young, attractive, yet scruffy-looking woman answers; Amanda. After going inside and building up courage through small talk, Lauren tells Amanda that she’s her sister. Amanda doesn’t believe her, but Lauren tells her what she’s learnt so far about their family and that she was stolen as an unborn baby. Amanda sits in silence, processing the information and clenching her fists, while Lauren looks at her, noticing that she looks of a similar age. She asks Amanda when she was born, and realises that her birthday is only a month after her own, meaning that Amanda can’t be her sister. Lauren begins to remember what she’s learnt; that Kathleen couldn’t carry a child, that no known investigation was ever made to find Julia Drennen or a stolen unborn baby from London, then her face turns pale as she realises. At that moment Frank and Kathleen enter the room, Lauren turns to them with devastation across her face and says “you replaced me”.
Changes Made
- Other than rewriting some areas to be more descriptive or to increase the synopsis' quality (also done with all other synopsis), no major parts of the second episode were changed.
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Episode Three Synopsis
Kathleen and Frank stare at Lauren with confusion and ask who she is. Lauren tells them that they’re her parents, but Amanda, hysterical and angry, refuses to believe Lauren and wants her parents to deny what’s being said. Kathleen tells them both the truth, while Frank remains silent. Looking ashamed, she tells Lauren that she wanted to find her, but if they wanted to save their family the shame from trusting a woman that ran away with their baby, they were never going to tell the police, and were going to have to pretend that a different baby was the same one they were expecting months later. So they flew to Romania, and illegally adopted a two month old orphan; Amanda.
Frank insists that Lauren isn’t their daughter anymore, and they don’t want to know her. Feeling hurt, Lauren bites back by hinting at his affair as she hands him his phone. Frank suddenly backhands Lauren across the face, stunning everyone into silence. Lauren looks at him with disgust and runs out of the house. Kathleen chases after her, begging her not to leave in floods of tears, but Lauren realises that this isn’t her real family.
Lauren melts down as she processes the fact that she has a cold, unfeeling family. Not belonging anywhere, she gives up and decides to get drunk. Spending the night downing drink after drink in a number of bars and clubs, meeting strangers along the way, Lauren tries to forget her problems. But amidst the fog and flashing lights, she thinks that she sees Ethan and follows the man outside, only to find that it’s not him. Lauren realises the mess she’s gotten into and leaves, ending up sat in an empty park. She decides to call Helen, and tearfully apologises to her for leaving, planning to return home the following day. She stumbles back to her hotel, and collapses onto her bed for the night.
The next morning, she wakes up to find a note left by Ethan, containing a sweet message and a new phone number, with a smile, she keeps the note. About to check out and go home, Lauren realises that she left her bag with her passport behind at the Porter house. She leaves to get her bag, but suddenly, Amanda turns up with the bag, looking manic and angry. Amanda grabs her arm, but Lauren pushes her away and Amanda stumbles, causing a bag of cocaine to fall from her coat. Sympathising with her, Lauren suggests that she gets help, but Amanda aggressively says “fuck you” and storms away. Elsewhere, Frank is seen still seeing his other woman at her house, while Kathleen searches through his things at their home, finding evidence of his affair, she bursts into tears, smashing a photo of her family.
As the sun sets, Lauren heads for the airport, but receives a call from Amanda, crying for help and sounding panicked. Feeling concerned, Lauren gets her address and makes a detour to her house. Lauren approaches Amanda’s unkempt house, noticing that the door is ajar. There’s no one to be seen, but she’s surrounded by trash, broken items and the sound of loud music as she walks through the dark halls, calling out for Amanda. Looking at the drug den-looking living room, Lauren’s face fills with fear, when suddenly Amanda appears behind her, smashing her across the head with a lamp.
Eventually, Lauren wakes up on the living room floor, realising that her hands and feet have been tied up. She sees Amanda, lent over a table, snorting a line of cocaine. Lauren starts to wriggle and scream, but it’s muffled by the blaring music that fills the house. Amanda hears her and turns around, appearing paranoid and emotional, she looks at Lauren with glassy, unfocused eyes, taking out a knife. With tears rolling down her cheeks, Lauren continues to try to wriggle free. Amanda leans over her with the knife and tells her that she won’t take her family away. Lauren’s ties suddenly snap away and she shoves Amanda to the ground as she attempts to run. Amanda manages to knock Lauren back to the floor, leaping on top of her and plunging the knife down next to her in a missed attempt. The knife gets knocked out of reach, so Amanda strangles Lauren in an attempt to kill her. But in her struggles, Lauren grabs a nearby loose pipe and smashes it across her head. Amanda falls to the floor, killed on impact.
Sat in shock for a moment, Lauren looks over at Amanda’s body, and realises that the police will have been called by neighbours. She’s forced to pull herself together, cleans up evidence of her being there, and leaves. Lauren runs out of the house and slows down as she walks down a dark alley. The flashing lights and sirens of a police car speed past, but Lauren goes unnoticed.
The following morning, Lauren stands at a distance from her birth parents’ house, certain that the police will arrive soon. But she sees that Frank is leaving the house with packed bags, pleading with Kathleen, who wants him gone. As they argue, the police arrive, and Lauren watches as her birth parents are told that their daughter Amanda is dead. As she watches her parents react in devastation, a tear roles down her cheek, and she turns and walks away for good.
After killing Amanda, Lauren’s freedom is at risk. Still shaken, she calls Ethan, asking if they can meet. She explains to him what’s happened and he takes action to protect her. Calling Chris, Ethan tells him that Lauren needs to disappear. Destined to live the life of hiding that her mother faced, Lauren now needs to change her identity. The next day, Lauren and Ethan arrive at the airport, Lauren hands over her passport, which shows her photo next to a new name. With a relieved look on their faces, they disappear into a crowd of people, hand in hand.
Changes Made
- The third episode was written in too much detail (similar to my first draft) in comparison to the other synopsis', therefore not written descriptively enough about atmosphere, character's, settings etc. So the synopsis was reworded in large areas to improve this.
- Their wasn't quite enough content in the third episode in comparison to the first two, so an extra scene was added; the scene of Lauren getting drunk, thinking that she sees Ethan and calling her mother. This scene adds more depth to Lauren's character and more excitement in the episode.
- The scenes that follow this; Lauren reading a note from Ethan and having an altercation with Amanda, were adapted to follow on from the drunk scene.
- Helen is removed from the end of the story, therefore she doesn't travel to London and isn't killed by Amanda. This change was made to make sure that the end of the episode/series/story didn't become too dark.
- Added Kathleen deciding to leave Frank and have him move out, giving extra drama within their story of his affair and betrayal. This also develops Kathleen's character from being a push over to her beginning to become stronger.
- The ending has been changed to Lauren realising that she has to disappear so that she's not found out by the police for killing Amanda. This gives the ending a strong sense of the identity theme, and the sad realisation that she now has to live the life that her mum has by changing her identity and running away. But the positive side to the ending is that she has Ethan by her side.
- Worded the ending (Lauren leaving) to be very similar to the start of episode one, when Helen runs away - signifying further that Lauren's is destined to follow her mother's path.
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I'm extremely pleased with all of my final synopsis, they have all developed in great detail since my first draft and initial idea. The story feels realistic to be made for television, it has the sense of a gripping drama that would draw in an audience, and now feels well structured throughout. The end result of The Identity's story has become much better than I could have imagined at the start of the project, due to helpful constructive tutor feedback, and large amount of time and effort.
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