This article, “who is Laura Oliver” contains spoilers regarding Netflix’s Pieces Of Her season 1.
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In the opening installment of Pieces Of Her, the viewers are left with a million questions surrounding the enigma that is Laura Oliver. This mother becomes a local hero overnight, but her courageous actions uncover a darker side to her character. Daughter Andy is unnerved by her mother’s killer instinct and sets forth on a perilous journey to find the truth. So who exactly is this mysterious woman?
Who is Laura Oliver in Pieces Of Her season 1?
A speech therapist trained to kill. There’s something not quite right about Laura Oliver and the diner shooting just highlights this further. She shields her daughter from the gunman and slices his throat. In the hospital, you can clearly see certain dormant skills coming to life once more. Her eyes dart around the place and she makes calculated decisions. That night Laura is tied up and tortured by an intruder, yet Andy comes to her rescue. The mother sends Andy on a mission far away from all the chaos, where Andy uncovers more secrets.
Laura has multiple fake identities, a car stashed with money and a loaded weapon in the glove compartment. Is she a secret agent, a sleeper spy? Is she good or evil? Only through flashbacks do we get a better understanding of this complex character. Toni Collette expertly plays the mother in the present, with Jessica Barden on acting duties in the past. In this enthralling eighties timeline, young Laura even has a different name: Jane Queller. She’s the daughter of an influential billionaire, a skillful pianist, who catches the eye of anarchist Nick Harp.
The flashbacks reveal a tragic existence for Jane, she’s controlled by her father and soon to be entwined in a murderous vigilante group. Romantically involved with their leader Nick, she becomes entangled in a plot to topple her father’s empire. The dictator Martin Queller drugs his own daughter and forces her to leave partner Nick. She fights back and manages to persuade Grace Juno into assassinating the man. On the run, she becomes pregnant with Nick’s child, but her brother Andrew is killed. Beaten by her lover, having lost most of her family, Jane turns herself in and joins the Witness Protection Program.
This final decision is the making of Jane. She becomes Laura Oliver and moves to Belle Isle with her daughter. From then on, every action is for the betterment of Andy. She protects Andy with all her mite and lives a life of lies, hoping to keep her enemies at bay. Although, the secrets eat away at Laura and she wishes to die. It’s only Andy that keeps her sane and motivates her to battle the cancer within. Laura ends the saga in a quiet calm, accepting of her fate and happy to have given Andy a better life.
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