56 Days should have a gruesome warning since the episode started with a decomposing murder scene. Yet, I would expect nothing less from a thriller series that contains a lot of secrets, nudity, and chaos. From one second to the next, 56 Days episode 1 didn’t hold back. Between the detectives taking the skeleton case and our main characters meeting in a supermarket, this story isn’t moving slowly.
We’re thrown right into the conclusion of Oliver and Ciara’s time together when an unknown man discovers a decomposing skeleton in an apartment tub. The flashbacks to the days leading up to the murder immediately clue the viewers in that the apartment belongs to our main characters. But the detectives have to put those pieces together through their belongings scattered throughout the apartment. While they’re uncovering the lives through evidence, viewers are front and center for the explosive 56 days that came before between Oliver and Ciara.
I still had way too many questions by the end of episode one. Did Oliver murder Ciara and ditch all of his stuff? Or did Ciara murder him and flee the apartment? The possibilities are endless, and I’m eager to uncover them. Like Ciara, I like a good reveal to an interesting mystery.
56 Days season 1 episode 2 shows Oliver’s workday from day 1
We step back into the events that led to Oliver and Ciara exchanging numbers after their chance meeting. From the way they were eyeing each other in the supermarket, I’m not sold on it being accidental. I think she at least went there on purpose, looking for Oliver, and he immediately noticed a stunning woman nearby. This time, we see Ciara’s features shift as she walks away from Oliver, making them both look suspicious.
Oliver immediately does a Google search on Ciara when he gets into work after their chance meeting and coffee chat. His lack of discovery adds to Ciara having cutouts of her ID and practicing her name before going to the supermarket. He only finds one social media profile with no photo and zero followers.
Before he can dig any further, his boss walks up to check in on him. His boss gives him a hacky sack that he and Oliver’s father made years ago. They talk about his father’s memorial and memories of him. His boss discovers his father never taught him to play hacky sack, so they start it right there in the middle of the office.
Ciara’s memo speak for her in the present day
Back at the crime scene, law enforcement teams are scattered throughout Oliver’s apartment, labeling evidence and going through the tube. Karl confirms that the autopsy is set, but Lee seems doubtful that it will help since the body is in a million pieces. The smell could be a mix of Bleach and cleaner. Frustrated, Lee tells Karl to look for an ID since she didn’t find one in the bathroom. The crews in the bedroom didn’t find a wallet, but they did find a drug container by the bed that looked concerning.
Lee and Karl meet back in Ciara’s room, where Karl reveals the crime is already trending. Lee wants to use this to their advantage to get an ID on the Apartment Tenants. This is before they know who Ciara is, so they discover that the shoes belong to a woman with size 7 feet. That’s not helpful in the case when their skeleton has no feet. As they look through her belongings in Oliver’s apartment, they discover that she’s a white female from the makeup in the bathroom. She likes the movies since she kept a ticket stub from their date. For now, they don’t know if she’s alive or the skeleton in the tub.
Day 9: Oliver invites himself over
Ciara lies in bed, scrolls through her photos of Jane, the safe, and more evidence against Oliver until she gets an idea. She exchanges her glasses for eye makeup and styled hair. Putting on a bralette top, she poses on her bed and takes sexy photos to send to Oliver. She boldly sends one of the many selfies and invites him to join her for lunch. He immediately responds with a few emojis. Then gets ready to meet up with her. Meanwhile, Ciara’s sister leaves her a message revealing that her real name is Megan. Their mom isn’t doing so well as she goes through old photos. She begs Ciara to call home since it’s been a while.
A hostess seats Ciara at a table in a fancy restaurant. She lays her face on the cold table as Oliver approaches to ask if she’s okay. Playing it off, she says she really needs a nap. They joke around about the fancy restaurant and immediately go in, making a resume background for Ciara’s 90’s era dress. Honestly, his backstory for the dress is very detailed for an on-the-spot date talk. We learn why he hates credit cards and uses cash, due to a mistrust of corrupt people and eads him to question her about her non-social media presence. Her reaction seems off to him since it’s due to something that happened to her sister. She thinks her life isn’t very notable, but now we know it’s because her real name isn’t Ciara. Did she steal the name, or did she create it just for Boston?
Even though they both seem suspicious of each other’s background, they can’t keep their hands off each other. They make plans to see each other later at her apartment. After a lot of speed cleaning and setting an alarm for the next morning, Oliver shows up with flowers, alcohol, and dinner. They sit on the floor eating takeout, and Ciara is self-conscious about her apartment looking like a dump. Oliver assures her he thinks that her apartment resembles an apartment’s brain. She moved into it before her job was settled, and it was close to transportation. They easily move into one of Ciara’s childhood supernatural memories and her home life.
Before the scene shifts to them making out on the floor, we see a glimpse of a fortune. I believe that’s the fortune Lee and Karl found in her room at Oliver’s apartment. Little memos of her time with him, making different moments that led to a horrible ending. While Ciara excuses herself to the bathroom, Oliver quietly snoops around her small space. Just before he can search her bag, she returns. He jokes about her insect friends.
Kevin uncovers Oliver’s identity
Karl pokes around in the apartment until he becomes frustrated and goes to find Lee. He walks outside to find her in an intense conversation with an unknown male next to his car. Not knowing what’s going on, Karl jots down the license plate on his notepad. As soon as the elevator doors open, Karl doesn’t beat around the bush about seeing Lee talking to that guy. She tells him that it was a witness who lives in the loft selling pills, but the angle hit a wall. Immediately, Lee shuts down Karl’s accusations that she knew the witness with an explanation that one of the neighbors gave her the tip.
Lee gives her teasing a rest and walks into the apartment so Karl can show her what he found. The scene feels like it was Googled on how best to get rid of the person in the bathtub. There’s a crappy heater near the tub while a jacket fresh from the dry cleaners lies on the counter, making the scene look staged. They get frustrated because all this evidence could be wasting their time finding out who this guy is. Karl shuts that down, saying that’s not a he in there, that’s soup. The soup could be a he or she, they don’t know for sure.
Kevin Suvillian walks in, gagging from the horrible smell. The detectives have to immediately walk him into the hall, but at least he gave them Oliver’s identity. Or at least the identity he gave when he paid month to month. Karl tells Lee to call the owner of the apartment building while he goes and runs Oliver’s ID. He ushers Kevin out of the building as he leaves, so he doesn’t vomit on the scene.
In his tiny office, Karl finds Oliver’s identity and grabs some gummies for Lee. He pulls the ID off the printer and gets called into his superior’s office about his date’s concerning TikTok. Karl knows he screwed up and starts spiraling about leaving the force. But his superior declines his request to quit and tells him they need him. He accepts his fate, asks her to run the license plate from the witness Lee talked to. Before he heads back, he tells his superior how concerning this case is and how nothing is as it seems.
Day 10: Ciara fakes an apartment issue
The next morning, Oliver and Ciara are talking about what they have going on for today when Ciara’s alarm goes off. This allows her to fake a call to her apartment manager that she needs to find somewhere else to live for three weeks. He immediately invites her to stay with him because he has an empty spare bedroom. He charmingly convinces her to move in with him, even if she hates him by the end of her stay. They agree he’s falling for her fast as they make out and say goodbye for the day. As soon as the door shuts, she sits down at her table and opens her laptop.
Oliver returns to his apartment to check his mail, but what he finds sends him into a spiral. Meanwhile, Ciara is searching Google for the exact name that is on Oliver’s mysterious mail. What is St. Ledger Venture? Why does it send Oliver into a panic, and how does Ciara know about it?
Oliver finally gets in touch with his therapist, whom he left the rage-filled voicemail for in episode one. They’re video-chatting, and Oliver dismisses his lack of response to being busy at work. The therapist isn’t buying it due to how distressing his voicemail was. Oliver tells him about the envelope he got with his name on it and how nervous he is about his past catching up with him. He tells his therapist about Ciara, but doesn’t suspect her at all. Yet, the timing is suspicious and if he only knew what she was searching on Google, he’d see the clues, too. His therapist sternly tells him to get rid of the letter and break off his relationship with Ciara now. He at least burns the shredded envelope, but we know from the ending that he doesn’t end things with Ciara right away or maybe ever. Then, as if he didn’t just spiral, he calls Ciara to invite her to start moving her stuff to his place.
Ciara finally calls her sister, who calls her out on not getting in touch sooner. Her sister hands her phone to their mom so Ciara and her mom can chat. On the table, we see one of the glass figures from Ciara’s childhood memory, confirming there’s at least some truth to her backstory. Her mom confirms they got the notice about losing the house. Her mom clues us in on the dad not being in the picture, nor paying all of what he owes them. Ciara shuts down talk of her dad and confirms she can get the money for her mom. She’ll do anything to save her life back home, even if it’s trouble.
Oliver’s boss before and after
Meanwhile, we discover that Oliver’s boss is married to the woman he was talking to at the office. She’s sitting on their couch, going through their wedding stuff before they move into the dining room to chat. She cautions her husband not to forget who Oliver really is and even suggests firing him. But he turns that down immediately because Oliver is good at his job, and he owes Oliver’s father for investing in the company. She doubles down, saying that Oliver’s family can’t make him complicit in the cover-up. From their conversation, it doesn’t seem like they are on the same page about Oliver’s history and where he’s been the last few years. She worries that Oliver’s past catching up with him is unfair to them and the company, but he ends the conversation by asking that she stay out of it.
Lee meets up with the owner of the apartment building, who also happens to be Oliver’s boss. She confirms that his wife was in a bad accident that took her life, so he’s in pretty bad shape to be answering questions. He hasn’t been in the office in a couple of weeks and hasn’t seen Oliver since a couple of Saturdays ago. Then, he also doesn’t know who lived with him. Lee warns him about the drug found in the apartment and that they need his help. As she’s finally getting some information out of him, Karl walks up, and the boss takes back his story.
Karl tells him that Oliver isn’t who he says he is. But he doesn’t believe him, even though Karl has the evidence in his hands. Even though Lee tries to warn Karl that Oliver’s boss just lost his wife and is under a lot of stress, Karl doubles down and pisses him off. Oliver’s boss threatens to sue them and then storms off. Lee is pissed even though she lied, too.
Ciara moves in with Oliver
Ciara moves her stuff into Oliver’s apartment and sets up her art by her bed. After some steamy sex, they get ready for bed and talk about what tomorrow holds. He talks about how he just fell into working at the architectural firm because he couldn’t cut it in anything else. Oliver gets frustrated when Ciara doesn’t know what a logo is of something she claims to love. She laughs off his scary demeanor, then goes and takes a bath as if nothing happened.
Oliver readies a syringe while Ciara is in the tub, and then hides it next to him. She slips out of her towel and under the covers as they say goodnight. As soon as he thinks she’s asleep, he pulls the syringe out. He injects it into his arm and knocks himself out. I guess when you’re desperate for sleep, you’ll do anything.
A few minutes later, Ciara slips the towel back on and goes into her new bedroom. She uses her phone’s flashlight to find her red notebook and flips to a page with number sequences. Taking the notebook, she walks to the safe and tries to open it. None of her carefully thought-out codes work.
All episodes of 56 Days season 1 are now streaming on Prime Video.