Losing Alice Episode 1 recap: What is Sophie’s connection to Alice?

Losing Alice is Apple TV+’s latest series and possibly one of its best yet. The erotic thriller made its global premiere on Friday, with the first three episodes now available to stream after airing on the Israeli TV network Hot 3 last year. In short, the series is a tale of obsession as 48-year-old film director Alice (Ayelet Zurer) slowly becomes enthralled with 24-year-old screenwriter Sophie (Lihi Kornowski). Losing Alice Episode 1 shows us how these two women wind up on the same path.

But before we get to Sophie and Alice’s first official meeting, the opening of Losing Alice Episode 1 is actually much darker and more surreal. The hour opens with a young girl named Dana visiting a hotel to see her father.

Unfortunately for Dana, her father is not at the hotel, so the clerk must first confirm Dana’s identity with the man we’re told is her dad via a phone call. Once confirmed, Dana is given the key to enter room 209. Left alone, Dana perches on the edge of his bed in front of the television, pulls out a gun, and kills herself.

So, what’s the deal with Dana? Well, more on that a little later. For now, we are introduced to Alice and Sophie, who happen to meet on a train ride. Sophie immediately notices Alice because she’s her idol. She’s studied all of Alice’s work and knows an unnerving amount about Alice’s personal life, too. Later, we learn that Alice and Sophie have an even stronger tie to one another.

Losing Alice Episode 1 recap: What is Sophie’s connection to Alice and David?

Sophie wrote an incredible screenplay that Alice’s husband David (Gal Toren), a well-known actor, has read and played a part in getting it produced. The screenplay is about a relationship between two girlfriends, one of whom starts a sadomasochistic relationship with the other’s father. David tells Alice that the script blew him away and that a major studio will produce it with a notable director attached. Alice is surprised and intrigued, so she asks David if she can read it. He says it’s already been in her inbox for weeks.

That night, Alice stays up into the wee hours reading Sophie’s screenplay, aptly titled, “Room 209.” I started to wonder if that scene we saw initially was a scene from Sophie’s film. Alice is deeply affected by Sophie’s screenplay, to the point that she is both moved to tears and aroused. She initiates steamy sex with David when she returns to bed, but they’re interrupted by one of their daughters (they have three). She tells her parents that she saw someone looking in her window. Creepy, but Alice says there is no one there.

The next day, Alice chats with her neighbors, a couple named Keren (Nova Doval) and Tamir (Yossi Marshek). Keren stops by first to tell Alice some bad news. They’re currently having renovations done to their house, and the timeframe for completion has just been significantly extended. Also, Keren says that when they started digging for a new pond installation, they found several giant rats. I don’t know if the rats will be significant later, but I felt like I should add it in just in case!

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Later, Alice is cyberstalking Sophie when she gets the motivation to return to her own screenplay. I get the feeling that Alice is a little threatened by Sophie’s talent as much as she is fascinated by her.

She can’t focus because of all the racket next-door with the ongoing construction, and she storms outside to demand they shut up.

Tamir intercepts and informs Alice that Keren is struggling because their IVF didn’t take. I’m guessing he only tells her that at the moment to make her calm down and guilt her into leaving their construction workers alone.

There is a strange, flirtatious vibe between Alice and Tamir as they chat. He makes it obvious that he’s aware she isn’t wearing a bra under her t-shirt and makes a comment about her keeping her shades open at night. He wants her to be a “good neighbor” and leave them open a little, at least, maybe to watch her and David have sex?

That night, Keren comes over to babysit David and Alice’s kids while attending David’s big movie premiere. Alice is not in the mood for a premiere and all the chitchatting, interviews, and other miscellaneous headaches that go with such a huge, public event, but David tells her to get over it because he wants her by his side, so she sucks it up and attends.

Losing Alice Episode 1 recap: What does Alice think of Sophie’s script?

At the premiere, Alice runs into Sophie again in the restroom. Their first meeting ended with Alice holding the train’s bathroom door closed for Sophie (and eventually leaving when she reached her stop and Sophie failed to answer), so I thought it was a nice book-end that they should meet again in another bathroom.

Alice tells her that she read her script and found it impressive. Sophie is touched that Alice read it, and even more, she genuinely liked it and thinks she’s talented. The only problem now is that the director meant to helm Sophie’s film has mysteriously vanished. Hmm, could Alice be the one to step up to the plate?

After Sophie and Alice’s second interaction, Alice returns to David in a noticeably better mood. They watch his movie, and she praises him. She apologizes to him, although she’s not sure why, and they share a tender kiss while Sophie watches them from several rows down.

In the final moments of Losing Alice Episode 1, we see a glimpse of Sophie exiting a hotel room wearing a bloodied dress and cupping her pregnant belly, which is a far cry from where we’re at in the first hour, so obviously, we have a lot of ground to cover between now and whatever triggers that scene!

The first three Losing Alice episodes are now streaming on Apple TV+ with new episodes releasing on Fridays.