A Nearly Normal Family is a thriller-drama series revolving around the Sandell family after 19-year-old Stella is accused of murder and her parents do everything they can to protect her. The series is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Stella Sandell went to handball camp with her team when she was 15 and at the camp, she was raped by the assistant coach, Robin. When she tells her parents, her mother, Ulrika, suggests they avoid filing a report since it is her word against his.
Ulrika is a lawyer and knows how the procedure works in this situation, which is why she convinces her husband, Adam, that they are making the right decision.
4 years later, Stella has dropped out of school and is working full-time at a cafe. Her relationship with her parents isn’t as strong as it used to be, and Adam and Ulrika aren’t doing too well as a couple either.
She goes out with her best friend, Amina, for her 19th birthday, but when Amina is pulled away by some friends, Stella leaves the club.
She runs into a cute guy outside and tags along with him to an art gallery and then a nightclub. He drops her off at home the next morning and introduces himself as Christoffer Olsen.
6 weeks later, Adam is preparing dinner on a Saturday night when he finds out that Stella is out with Amina. He hopes that Ulrika will join him but she says that she needs to head out for work as well, leaving him by himself.
Adam sends a few texts to Stella checking in on her and even leaves a voicemail. He wakes up in the middle of the night after hearing some noises and finds Stella getting out of the shower. He notices some blood on her sleeves and asks her about it, but she ignores him.
The next day, Adam drives past a crime scene on his way to work. He learns that a murder took place there and being a member of the church, he offers his services if they require it.
Ulrika said she was going in to work, but she was actually having an affair with her former colleague Mikael Blomberg. After meeting him that night, she got back home around 1 am, before Stella got home.
Mikael calls her the next day to inform her that Stella has been arrested for the alleged murder of Chris Olsen, and the police are on their way to her house with a search warrant.
Ulrika searches Stella’s room and finds a bag with the bloodied clothes. She grabs it along with Stella’s phone and puts it in her bag before the police arrive to take her in for questioning.
Stella asks Mikael to represent Stella and provides her version of the events of that evening to the police. She visits her father in an old age home and stashes the evidence there.
Stella is taken into custody and Adam and Ulrika are distraught by the whole situation. As the investigation progresses, Adam and Ulrika process their emotions in different ways.
Adam visits Chris’ ex, Linda, to get an idea of who Chris was and see whether she could be a potential suspect. He also runs into the prosecutor outside the station and harasses her.
Ulrika uses her connections as a lawyer to find out more about the case and look for potential arguments that Mikael can make in court. When Adam finds out about Ulrika’s affair, he says that he had suspicions for a long time and didn’t say anything.
To vent his anger, he goes to Robin’s house in the city and beats him up. Ulrika still wants to work things out but Adam suggests that they get a divorce because they have failed their daughter.
Stella meets a psychologist while she’s in custody, and they help Stella make an emotional breakthrough. Stella blamed herself for her rape and how it affected her family, but she comes to realize that it was not her fault.
Linda visited Stella while she was dating Chris and told her that Chris was not the nice guy he portrayed himself to be. He is controlling and paranoid and gets triggered if Stella doesn’t answer her calls.
Amina visits Ulrika one night and reveals that she was present during Chris’s murder. Ulrika tells her not to reveal anything until her testimony in court.
A Nearly Normal Family ending explained in detail:
What evidence does the prosecution have?
The prosecution questions a man staying in Chris’ building, who says that he saw Stella the night of the murder before hearing screams from the park ahead.
A forensics expert confirms that the shoe print found at the scene belonged to Stella’s shoe after analyzing the microfibers on it. They also question one of Amina’s friends who ran into Stella that night and saw her panicking and acting aggressively.
When Adam is called to testify, he lies about when Stella arrives home at night. When the prosecutor points out messages from his phone that went out later and that he deleted, he blames it on network issues.
They also accuse him of dumping Stella’s phone and clothes from the night, but he doesn’t know anything about that as it was Ulrika who took on that responsibility.
What is Amina’s testimony?
Amina is the last witness called up by the prosecution and Ulrika tells Mikael to ask her about her relationship with Stella and if she has any history of violence.
He then turns it over to the prosecutor who asks Amina about her relationship with Chris. Amina mentioned that she met Chris a few times, but here she admits that she met him on the night of the murder.
She then confesses that he drugged and raped her in his house that night before she ran back home.
What is the verdict?
Ulrika knew that if Amina admitted this, it would raise the question of an alternate perpetrator and that would force the judge to drop the case against Stella.
Her prediction comes true as Stella is acquitted and finally reunited with her family and her best friend. Adam and Ulrika decide to make things work, as Adam leaves the church and Ulrika confronts her alcoholism.
Stella gets to fulfill her dream of traveling and lives with the knowledge that she got away with it.
What happened that night?
Stella had mentioned to Chris that she was meeting Amina that night at a bar, so Chris showed up there earlier. He drugged Amina and waited for her to leave the bar so he could take her back home.
Stella got there later and began panicking when she couldn’t find Amina. She immediately assumed that Chris might have something to do with it and rushed to his house.
She manages to get into his apartment when he’s raping Amina. She pepper sprays him in the face and knocks him in the head. She and Amina run out while Chris chases them with a knife.
He falls over in the mud, and Stella is overcome with a feeling of rage as she grabs the knife and stabs Chris multiple times. Amina embraces her and they get rid of the knife before running away.
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