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Netflix’s Polish thriller Just One Look is the latest adaptation of one of Harlan Coben’s gripping mystery novels—and the streamer’s second this year, following its January hit Missing You. Set in Warsaw, the series follows Greta (Maria Dębska), a seemingly happy wife, mother, and jewelry designer, whose world collapses after she finds an old photograph of her husband, Jacek (Cezary Łukaszewicz), with a stranger’s face ominously crossed out. Within hours, Jacek mysteriously disappears, and as Greta searches for him, she discovers that he has been kidnapped while her children are being threatened.
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As she digs deeper, Greta realizes that the answers to this mystery lie in her own past—one she thought she had left behind. The series weaves a suspenseful web of secrets, betrayals, and long-buried truths. Now, let’s break down the key twists and revelations from the show’s shocking finale.
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The fire that started it all
The central event of Just One Look, first published as a novel in 2004, takes place in 2009, when Greta survives a fire that destroys an old steel plant during a concert and results in several deaths. Though she makes it out alive, she is physically and psychologically marked by this tragedy, and throughout the story, her nightmares become a key to the greater mystery that is about to unfold.
The photo arrives
On the 15th anniversary of the fire, Greta receives a mysterious photo, in which her husband, Jacek, is seen next to people she doesn’t know. In addition to trying to understand why she received the photo in the first place, her attention is drawn to the girl next to him, whose face is marked with a large red X.
The situation becomes further complicated when Greta asks Jacek if he is the man in the photo. He quickly denies it and suspiciously leaves the house, taking the photo with him.
The suspicion that Jacek might be involved in some sort of secret only stokes Greta’s curiosity to dig deeper into the mystery.
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Borys, the prosecutor, gets involved
Greta learns from a prosecutor named Borys Gajewicz that the person marked with an X in the photo was his daughter, a girl named Alex who died 15 years ago. Borys is determined to uncover the truth behind his daughter’s death, and finds Greta in the course of this search.
Borys receives a call out of the blue to visit a hitman named Marek, who is serving a life sentence in prison. There, he learns that his daughter’s murder was commissioned as a hit. Marek admits to being the perpetrator, but as he was only given the name “Alex,” he didn’t know that his target was a woman—an entire category of people he had previously refused to kill.
Borys believes there is much more to Alex’s death than meets the eye. As he investigates, he begins to suspect a connection between Jacek and Alex. And he’s right: it turns out that the two of them had been a part of the same band, called LAAD.
In a bid to find answers, Borys lies, telling Greta that Alex had been pregnant with Jacek’s child before her death. Borys hopes this will provoke reactions from people with information who might lead to the truth about his daughter. And this lie casts doubt on everything Greta thought she knew about her husband.
Meanwhile, Jacek remains missing, and when he finally contacts Greta, he asks her not to search for him, saying he needs space. The tension heightens when the prosecutor reveals more details about the past of Alex’s boyfriend at the time of her death, Szymon Adamiuk, who was also in the central photograph and seems to have disappeared without a trace after the fire. Even as answers begin to pour in regarding Alex, the mystery surrounding Jacek’s disappearance grows increasingly complicated.
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Sandra, the lawyer, stirs things up
Sandra, a lawyer whom Jacek contacted before he disappeared, soon reveals that she is more involved in the plot than we were originally led to believe. She has a connection to LAAD and also knew key secrets about Alex’s death and the fire. Her loyalty is called into question as the story unfolds. At first, she seems to be seeking the truth, but it soon becomes clear that she has her own agenda, manipulating the situation and hiding essential parts of the case to protect herself.
The photo, featuring Jacek, Alex, Szymon, and others, becomes a symbol of the multiple layers of mystery. Everyone in the photo is, in some way, linked to a secret. Each new detail Greta uncovers connects people and events in increasingly strange ways, and the truth begins to seem darker than she ever imagined.
The death of Jimmy
Jimmy, the singer performing at the concert during the fire, becomes another character crucial to untangling the mystery—though he meets an untimely death, getting run over by a car not long after encountering Greta. Just before that, he gives Greta an important warning about the dangers surrounding her and the secrets she is about to uncover.
He claims to have been deceived by Sandra and asks her to watch a video he sent on a USB drive with proof behind this claim. But his death only throws the case deeper into confusion.
Revelations finally arrive
As the finale progresses, the truth begins to emerge in shocking ways. Jimmy had told Greta her that Jacek has actually been dead for 15 years. Consequently, she starts questioning who the man she has shared her life with all these years really is. The revelation that someone is killing all the people in the photo Greta received creates a sense of urgency and fear. When the police begin investigating Jacek’s disappearance, it further solidifies that the man Greta knows as her husband may be an imposter.
Jimmy’s presence in Greta’s life is also mysterious. He knew far more than he lets on, and his warnings—“Jacek is dead, and you were there, backstage”—cast doubt on the version of events Greta thinks she knows. Soon, imposter-Jacek’s kidnapper is revealed to be Robert, a hired killer working for Sandra.
Memories return
When Greta begins to remember the events she had forgotten for 15 years, her mind is flooded with new information. She realizes that Szymon has actually been posing as Jacek, who died after a fight with Jimmy backstage at the concert in 2009. Jacek had accused Jimmy of stealing the song “Just One Look,” which Jimmy claimed was his. When they got into a physical fight, Jacek attempted to stab Jimmy but ended up getting hit with the sharp object and died.
Jimmy had been tricked into a conflict with Jacek. Sandra, who is revealed to be Jacek’s sister, and whose existence Greta was not even aware of, orchestrated their falling-out. After the incident, she made Jimmy transfer the rights to the song to her name so she could claim the royalties.
Sandra started the fire in order to keep the truth hidden about the real Jacek’s death. She convinced Szymonto take on her brother’s identity, offering him part of the song’s royalties so he could earn money he desperately needed to pay for his mother’s surgery.
Greta and Szymon
After being rescued, Greta’s husband—a.k.a. Szymon—is unconscious in the hospital, but when he wakes up, he apologizes to her. He hadn’t wanted to deceive her, but after falling in love with Greta before the fire, he thought they could be together when he found her again, after assuming Jacek’s identity.
Not long after his rescue, Szymon suffers a cardiac arrest and dies, leaving Greta devastated. Two months later, Borys reappears, revealing that he was the one who had sent the photo to Greta and marked his daughter’s face with an X. He thought that dragging her back into everything would help him to finally discover the truth of what happened to Alex after Marek admitted he had been hired to kill her.
Borys, it turned out, had known all along that Jacek was dead; Greta was just a pawn in his larger scheme for answers.
In a flash, the series ends with Greta remembering a key detail: she was the one who had taken the photo that kicked off this entire mystery in the first place.
