What would happen if, one day, your partner disappeared without a trace during a romantic vacation? That's the premise of Amazon MGM's latest mystery thriller, Vanished, starring Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory) and Sam Claflin (Me Before You). Episode 1 opens with Alice Monroe, an archaeologist, washing blood off her hands in a hotel bathroom. A delivery man knocks on her door, and when she chooses not to answer, the knocking intensifies.
The man is clearly not a delivery man; he's a professional killer. Alice seems aware of the potential threat, and as the knocking gets louder, she climbs out onto the balcony and manages to reach the road. The man chases her; he's about to stab her with a knife when the screen cuts to black. To understand why the supposed delivery man attacked Alice, we have to go back a few weeks.
Creators: David Hilton, Preston Thompson
Stars: Kaley Cuoco, Lassana Lestin, Sam Claflin
Because Alice was an archaeologist and Tom worked for SOS Global (a non-profit organization dedicated to helping refugees), they found it difficult to find time for their personal lives. During their four-year relationship, they met in various hotels around the world. They didn't let the distance affect them, and whenever they were together, they were immensely happy. Alice met Tom in Jordan; he needed a ride because he had a flat tire. He was carrying a box of vaccines that would spoil if he didn't get to the camp within two hours.
Alice thought she couldn't live with a clear conscience if she didn't help him, so she offered him a ride, and that was the beginning of their relationship. Alice was surprised and impressed when she saw Tom confront local bandits who had broken into the camp and were trying to kidnap refugee women to sell them later. He had a gun pointed at his chest, but that didn't diminish his resolve. He made it very clear that if they wanted to take the women, they would have to kill him.
The bandits knew they would be in trouble if they shot him, so they had no choice but to leave. Alice remembered that a colleague of Tom's had mentioned he was brilliant at convincing people, and Alice didn't doubt the claim. He had convinced her to give him a ride to the campsite even though she wasn't going in the same direction; even the bandits realized he wasn't someone they wanted to mess with: Tom had a way with words, but perhaps there was someone out there who hated him to death.
The night before Tom disappeared, Alice had told him that she had been offered an associate professor position at Princeton and was thinking of accepting it. Tom was happy for her, but when she added that she was looking forward to them living together, he didn't seem entirely convinced. Although he loved Alice, there was something bothering him. Perhaps some unfinished business he needed to take care of before settling down in the States? Or maybe he was worried that the kind of shady people he had to deal with in his work might cause problems for Alice. Tom guessed that Alice really hoped he would accept her proposal, so he agreed to move to the States and build a life there with her.
The next morning, when Alice woke up, she saw Tom talking on the phone with someone. He seemed a little mysterious about the call, but he clarified that he had been talking to his uncle Brian and had booked a room at a fancy hotel in Arles. Alice was beaming; she was looking forward to their relaxing vacation, but unfortunately, the future would be far from relaxing! During the train ride to Arles, Tom received a call from an unknown number. The woman sitting across from them indicated that phone calls weren't allowed in the carriage. Tom stepped out of the carriage, and that was the last time Alice saw her boyfriend.
Shortly after Tom left, the train stopped briefly, and Alice also took a picture of the bridge she saw from her window seat. Alice dozed off for a while, but when she woke up, panic began to set in. Tom still hadn't returned, and she couldn't understand what was taking him so long. She searched the train for him, but couldn't find him. When she asked the conductor for help, he was rude to her. She begged him to let her into the staff compartment, as it was the only place she hadn't checked, but he refused to listen. An investigative journalist was also on the train, and she seemed quite intrigued by the situation.
She offered to help Alice when they arrived at the station, but Alice preferred to handle it herself. Helene Lando gave her her business card and asked her to call if she needed any help. Was it pure coincidence that an investigative journalist was in the same carriage as Tom? Did she already have information that something was going to go wrong and was planning to use Alice to find clues that would help her in her investigation?
Alice decided to file a report at the local police station, but Inspector Drax refused to do so unless 48 hours had passed. He suspected that her boyfriend had abandoned Alice and that she hadn't yet come to terms with it. But Alice knew that Tom wouldn't abandon her like that, even if he wasn't sure about the future she had envisioned. The next morning, Alice decided to visit the bridge she had seen a few minutes before the train stopped in Avignon.
She noticed a hole in the wire mesh separating the train tracks from the road, suggesting that someone could have easily gotten off the train and escaped. She looked for clues and found a chewing gum wrapper that she assumed belonged to Tom. She also came across a waterfall and immediately remembered the phone call from Tom she had received while frantically searching for him on the train. He didn't say a word, but she had heard the sound of a waterfall and, a few seconds later, the sound of a car engine starting. She noticed tire tracks on the road and wondered if someone from the nearby house could help her solve the mystery.
Upon entering the property, she noticed blood on the ground. She followed the trail of blood and found a disemboweled animal hanging. After returning to Arles, Alice spoke to the police officer again, but he didn't think a chewing gum wrapper was a significant enough discovery to warrant his attention. He simply told her to wait 48 hours, but Alice wasn't willing to leave things at that. Finally, she contacted Helene. The investigative journalist encouraged Alice to look for clues; she reminded her that it wasn't much different from her work as an archaeologist. Helene was willing to help Alice if she found anything worth investigating, and a wrapper wasn't considered potential evidence to prove that Tom had been kidnapped.
After returning to her hotel room, Alice checked all of Tom's belongings. His passport was missing, and while that could be interpreted as Tom having intentionally abandoned her, perhaps there was more to the story. She found an envelope with the "Hotel Regina" letterhead, and inside was the hotel receipt, along with a record of a phone call made from the room.
This was the hotel where Alice and Tom had stayed before traveling to Arles, and the phone number on the bill was supposedly "Uncle Brian's," but the fact that it was marked "local" made Alice suspicious, since Brian was supposed to be in London. Alice decided to call the number; she wondered if the story Tom had told her about Uncle Brian was completely fabricated. The person on the other end of the line said it was the office of "SOS Global Marseille." So, clearly, Tom wasn't talking to Brian, and that explained why he had been so secretive about the call.
At the end of the first episode of Vanished, Alice looked through the photos on Tom's camera and realized that Tom and his colleague (whom Alice had met in Jordan) at SOS Global had the same tattoo: an eagle. Was Tom part of a secret group that had gotten involved with dangerous people who now wanted to kill him? Did Tom discover something about SOS Global's operations, voice his concerns, and that's why they wanted to silence him? Or perhaps, dangerous men wanted a favor from SOS Global and that's why they kidnapped Tom? Furthermore, is Tom really the kind man Alice believes him to be? One thing is clear: Tom wasn't honest with Alice. Maybe it was because he wanted to protect her, or maybe he never considered her part of his long-term plans. Tom is far more complex than he appears, but hopefully, he's still the heroic man Alice fell in love with.
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