The new French thriller, “Under a Dark Sun” (Original title: Qui sème le vent, TV Mini Series 2025), aims to be the latest binge obsession. It has all the designed elements of a guilty pleasure: families thick with secrets, hiding more than they will let on, shocking murders and conspiracies, and revelations into illicit, repressed relationships. It’s supposed to hook you but becomes something looser, unfocused, and unsure.
Intrigue works when there’s solid character motivations and the reveals are threaded with sincerity and craft. None of it is present in the show, which just dials up surprise and attacks in a terribly implausible fashion. It even dares to tack in the great Isabelle Adjani onto one of the most thankless roles. She wields a lot of showy threats but ultimately gets nothing worth her salt. There’s a crisis with the thrillers, and the show is symptomatic of all its malaise.
Under a Dark Sun (Qui sème le vent, TV Mini Series 2025) Episode 1 Recap:
Alba has fled her husband, taking her son, Leo, along with her. They get on the road and she scours for jobs in the newspapers. One catches her attention as something feasible. It’s the gig of a seasonal harvester. She pops up at the designated place and requests that the employer at the flower farm, Arnaud, give her the job. She also pleads for a place to stay. Tentatively, Arnaud agrees. He asks her to meet him the next morning before work starts.
When she shows up at the stated time, she discovers, to her horror, him all bloodied and stabbed. Alba tries to escape, but she has been seen by others chatting with Arnaud. The police also dug into her history of drug abuse, previously suspected violence she enacted upon Leo’s actual dad. She is questioned by the cops. It comes to light that Arnaud had changed his will six months ago, and the new one entitles Alba to a quarter of his property because he is her biological father.
Alba claims she is hearing of this connection for the first time. Manon, Arnaud’s grandfather, represents Alba as her legal client. The reasons will become clearer in later episodes. Alba also discovers on a laptop in the family house, pictures taken secretly of her and Leo. Right when she exits the house, she’s hit on the head, finding out later she has been buried in Arnaud’s coffin.
Under a Dark Sun (Qui sème le vent, TV Mini Series 2025) Episode 2 Recap:
There was also a planned agreement with Oris perfumers, who were willing to bail the Lasserre family out of debts contingent on their exclusive access to the estate’s roses. Arnaud had refused. Alba’s mother confesses she’d been adopted. She also finds out by sneaking through the notary, Jacques’ phone, that Beatrice had been informed of the will change. Lucie also chafes at her mother, Beatrice, who is vexed with Arnaud for diminishing the scale of the debts.
Alba’s adopted father also has an axe to grind with her. The police swoop over Alba because of her past with her partner. She is apprehended for having killed him. Beatrice goes to Alba, blackmailing her about Leo. If Alba confesses to murder, at least Beatrice can sell the family business and make sure Leo will be alright. Alba won’t hear of this at all. Meanwhile, Leo finds a gun in his mother’s belongings.
Under a Dark Sun (Qui sème le vent, TV Mini Series 2025) Episode 3 Recap:
There are again flashbacks to Alba and her ex, Dimitri. He also used to be high all the time. Contrary to suspicions, it turns out he had slipped off the balcony in his constant state of addiction stupor. The senior employee at the farm, Valentin, and Mathieu, Arnaud’s son, clash. He fires her. Valentin helps Alba get to a hidden house where there’s a DVD player and a bed. There’s grotesque footage of a girl being made unconscious and sexually abused. Beatrice and Jacques announce their engagement. Lucie tells Mathieu she wants to move to London with her boyfriend. Leo declares he’ll live with his grandfather, Thierry, since he’s mad at Alba for not telling the entire truth. However, Leo gets kidnapped while he’s in Thierry’s car.
Under a Dark Sun (Qui sème le vent, TV Mini Series 2025) Episode 4 Recap:
Leo wakes up in a car’s trunk. Elsewhere, things between Beatrice and Jacques sour when he threatens to expose her gambling history. He rakes it up because she isn’t keen on selling out the estate entirely. Together with Valentin, Alba spikes a drink and offers it to Jacques. He collapses. Lucie also spikes another drink, which knocks Beatrice out. She has long been nursing grievances against her mother. With Valentin, Alba sets out looking for Leo. However, a twist is sprung when he aims a gun at her.
Under a Dark Sun (Qui sème le vent, TV Mini Series 2025) Episode 5 Recap:
The episode drops a hell lot of revelations, hidden connections among its ensemble. Suspicions escalate, and so does surprise. We discover Valentin was the one who buried Alba in the casket, and also behind the videotapes and the perv acts. Alba succeeds in killing Valentin. Cops dig further. Valentin is revealed to be a long-time predator who’d ensnare girls working the fields. He was the one who sent Alba an email.
Beatrice finds herself at a psychiatric ward, which is the doing of Lucie. Beatrice and Josephine, with whom she shares history, have a scuffle. The latter is also housed at the ward. Alba’s suspicions mount. She thinks Arnaud had a woman working the fields pregnant twenty-five years earlier. She also suspects Mathieu of killing Arnaud. However, she couldn’t be more wrong. Mathieu turns out to be her father. Her biological mother is someone called Nadia, with whom Mathieu had an affair, cheating on his wife, Josephine. A vividly disconcerted Alba heads to the ward where Josephine is, only to find a bloodied Beatrice.
Under a Dark Sun (Qui sème le vent, TV Mini Series 2025) Episode 6 Recap:
Who murdered Arnaud?
When Alba lands at the ward, she finds Manon there as well. Several startling secrets tumble out. Manon knew everything about Alba’s biological roots. Manon brought Alba into the scene to frame her for the murder. She made Valentin do all the unpleasant work. When Alba and Manon reach the spot where Leo and Hadrien are, they find the latter dead, killed by Leo. An agreement is struck.
Manon wouldn’t reveal to the cops how Hadrien was killed. In return, Alba won’t rat out that Manon was the one who orchestrated the murder and other grisly things. Since Alba isn’t Arnaud’s daughter, she inherits nothing. She gets a job. The series ends with Alba going back for one final time to Arnaud’s house, on the occasion of its sale. The ending note is of surprise with Alba’s biological mother walking in. A second season is potentially set up.
