The Clearing is an eight-episode series that debuted on Hulu on May 24, 2023. The series is based on J.P. Pomare’s book In The Clearing, inspired by an Australian Cult.
Within the series’ first two episodes, we follow the stories of Freya and Amy. We begin to unpack many truths about what these characters are going through. One of the big ones is finding out whether or not Freya and Amy are the same person.
The Clearing is a psychological thriller that features some great performances from Teresa Palmer, Miranda Otto, and the rest of the ensemble cast.
It’s a haunting look at PTSD from the perspective of someone living with being kidnapped their entire life. Although the show has some faults, I was intrigued by how the script intertwined these two stories.
You can’t help but be invested in what’s ahead because of how the story is structured.
Who are Freya and Amy in The Clearing?
Freya is the lead character in The Clearing. She is forced to confront the trauma of her past upon finding out a little girl in her town has gone missing. She has a son Billy, who she struggles with being a little overbearing in the first two episodes as a direct result of her childhood.
Amy is the eldest daughter of Adrienne/Matriah, who is the leader of The Kindred. Because of being the eldest, the expectations from Matriah are at an all-time high, leading to Amy cracking several times in her attempt to impress or do right by her.
Are Freya and Amy the same person in The Clearing?
While early on in the first episode, we begin to speculate that Amy and Freya are the same person, nothing is confirmed until a meeting in the present day between Freya and Matriah. Within the confirmation that Freya and Amy are the same people, we realize much of what Freya is going through in the present day is a direct result of what happened to her as a child.
What does this mean for the timelines?
The Clearing is told from two perspectives. One is from the point of view of present-day Freya, and the other is her childhood as Amy and the battles she faced being the eldest daughter. With Amy, we witness the physical and mental abuse that she went through as she was being groomed as the replacement for Matriah as the leader of The Kindred.
With Freya, she is trying to raise Billy in this modern world while secrets of her past keep pilling up and catching up to her while she tries to live two lives. One is where she is holding a relationship with her mother, and the other is keeping her son away from her and the other cult members.
Throughout the next six episodes, The Clearing will explore how Amy battled through being a kid and those expectations. At the same time, present-day Freya fends off her ex, her mother, and the cult, trying to pry into her life and make monumental shifts in how she lives.
