The Following Events are Based on a Pack of Lies is a captivating scam drama that depicts what happens when someone places a lot of trust in their loved ones, only to be deceived at the end. The BBC drama tells the story of Alice Newman, a middle-aged woman who had lost contact with her husband, Robbie, for years. Robbie had gone out for chow-mein one day and never returned, leading Alice to believe he might have passed away. She moved on with her life, but one unexpected morning, she spotted Robbie in a completely different guise. This discovery turned her life upside down, prompting her to investigate her ex-husband’s actions and uncover how many lives he had negatively impacted, just as he had done to Alice. Join us on Alice’s journey as she seeks the truth about Robbie and works to bring him to justice.

Spoilers Ahead

Recap Summary: What Happens In Season 1?

The Following Events are Based on a Pack of Lies‘s story starts with Alice Newman, a fashion designer, who discovered her husband Robbie, now posing as Dr. Rob Chance, a climate scientist and head of Saatut Climate Academy. This transformation from an ordinary man into a climate scientist was a surprise to Alice. During their marriage, Robbie, formerly a property developer, duped Alice’s father and some friends into investing in a Florida holiday home business, only to disappear with the money. As Alice remained apart from her husband for several years, she thought he might have died. She pursued a relationship with another guy, with whom she had finally found some solace. However, upon discovering Robbie on Oxford Street, Alice decided to investigate the scam. Her boss, Juno Fish, advised her to go to the police. However, the authorities required concrete evidence of the scam to take action. Unfortunately, Alice and her family had no documents involving the scam. Meanwhile, Robbie, now Dr. Rob Chance, targeted a famous fantasy novel author, Cheryl Harker, in a new scam. With the backing of Ralph Unwin, a natural historian, he organized a climate academic event at Gideon University to get close to Cheryl.

Why Did Cheryl Give The Money To Rob?

Cheryl Harker and her husband, Lance, established a scholarship trust. Unfortunately, Lance fell ill, suffered from severe dementia, and couldn’t recognize Cheryl anymore during his last days. Despite this, Cheryl continued to care for him with love and dedication. However, on a heartbreaking night, Lance briefly recognized Cheryl through a favorite song of theirs and talked to her the whole night, but that was the night when he passed away. Cheryl poured her love into her stepdaughter Dannie and the poodle, named Goblin, she had given her. She cherished her family while also focusing on her writing. But when she decided to kill off her protagonist in her novel, her fans criticized her, going as far as even telling her to die for taking creative liberties. This left her emotionally fragile. To escape this negativity, she attended the climate academic event.

Meanwhile, Rob, who had researched Cheryl extensively, took advantage of her vulnerability, pretending to offer support while secretly planning to exploit her. He won her heart with his outward charm and manipulative skills. As they started dating, he suggested a vacation, which Cheryl declined as she would have to take care of her dog. However, the next day, at a book launch event, Rob kidnapped Cheryl’s dog, Goblin, and took it to a lake near the woods to drown it. Fortunately, Alice, who had been keeping an eye on Rob, found and rescued the dog. Posing as Juno Fish, she made a hasty handover of the dog to Cheryl but didn’t have the chance to reveal the full truth about Rob. Alice faced a significant dilemma because she couldn’t decide whether to confide in Cheryl, confront Rob to expose his true intentions, or handle the situation differently. There was a crucial obstacle preventing her from taking action.

During her marriage to Rob, he manipulated Alice into believing that she was mentally unstable and needed medical help. He almost convinced both her and her family that she suffered from delusions whenever she tried to ask him about the business or expressed her concerns. To support this deception, he might have given Alice medication to make her feel disoriented and question her own sanity. After enduring years of this psychological torment, Alice lost confidence in herself, thinking that Cheryl would not believe her without concrete evidence. Nonetheless, her father objected to her proposal, stating that they shouldn’t wait for Rob to cause more harm, but Alice remained focused and gathered proof before confronting Cheryl.

Meanwhile, Cheryl began to place her trust in Rob, who appeared caring by pretending to search for the dog in the woods. She saw him as someone reliable who even collaborated with her scholarship trust, receiving financial support from his climate academy. However, this was all a facade to win Cheryl’s affection. One day, Cheryl’s editor, Regina, cautioned her not to blindly trust Rob. This warning made Cheryl reconsider, but when she returned home, she found Rob severely injured. He explained that some researchers from their climate academy had been kidnapped by Russian criminals who demanded a large ransom. Rob claimed that the academy was working on confidential matters that the Russians wanted to keep secret. To pay the ransom, he asked Cheryl for permission to access the scholarship money in her account, promising to return it the next day. Even though she had doubts, Cheryl reluctantly agreed to help save the researchers. But little did she know that those researchers didn’t actually exist.

Why Was Rob Arrested?

In the meantime, while posing as Juno Fish, Alice wanted to design Cheryl’s cape for her scholarship announcement event. However, when Alice visited Cheryl’s home to deliver the cape and managed to acquire Rob’s Filofax, she accidentally confronted Rob. Rob insisted that Alice give him a ride, and during the journey, he threatened to expose her true identity as Alice and tell Cheryl horrible lies about her if she didn’t stay away from him and Cheryl. But Alice was determined not to give up. With the information from the Filofax, she uncovered details about people Rob had deceived before, including his ex-girlfriend Kelly, who had suffered manipulation just like Alice. She even reconnected with Rob’s ex-wife, Claudia, who had previously warned her not to believe Rob, despite which she still married him. She apologized to Claudia after visiting her and seeing that Claudia had a daughter with Rob, who never came to visit his child.

Alice brought Kelly along to Cheryl’s scholarship announcement event to prove to Cheryl how dangerous Rob could be. However, Cheryl’s invitation card had been sent to the real Juno Fish, who also attended the event. Meanwhile, during the event, Rob took Kelly away from Alice, and in a confrontation, he threatened Alice’s life by choking her in a storeroom. This horrifying assault left Alice in shock. On the other hand, Rob returned to the hall and proposed to Cheryl with a ring. Cheryl, seeing a chance for happiness and starting her life afresh, accepted his proposal. However, she didn’t inform Regina or her financial advisors about the money transfer from the scholarship account because Rob had instructed her not to tell anyone, but afterward, she was alarmed when she realized that the transferred money hadn’t been credited back to her account. Rob had already shown her a screenshot of the transfer, but it was fake as well.

Meanwhile, another crucial event took place. At the event, the real Juno Fish arrived, and Cheryl discovered that the woman posing as Juno was a fraud. She found Alice Newman’s profile and showed it to Rob, which made him fear for his own protection. So, to safeguard his reputation, before Cheryl could hear from Alice, he revealed the truth that Alice was his ex-wife. However, Rob distorted the truth, presenting himself as a victim of abuse and portraying Alice as a manipulative and obsessive ex-wife trying to win him back. He even claimed that on the event night, Alice had assaulted him, which prompted Cheryl to take action and suggest that he file a complaint against her. Rob reluctantly filed a complaint, but it backfired when police obtained video footage clearly showing that Rob had assaulted Alice. Consequently, Rob was arrested, but during the court hearing, despite pleading guilty, he was not incarcerated and was instead fined only £1,000 for assaulting a woman.

How Did Cheryl And Alice Punish Rob?

In court, Alice, who was determined to fight back, grabbed an opportunity to meet Cheryl in a washroom and confessed everything. Cheryl initially didn’t believe her, having resentment for Alice because she didn’t reveal her true identity. However, when Cheryl left the court to join Rob, he pretended to have a severe heart attack. While Rob acted out his symptoms and self-administered medication to lower his heart rate, Cheryl suspected foul play and decided to give Alice a chance to prove her claims. She started believing Alice and grew suspicious of Rob, especially since the transferred money had not been returned to her account. It tarnished her reputation and delayed the scholarships she had promised to students. Cheryl allowed Alice to stay in her house and provided her with Rob’s laptop to uncover his secrets. But what Alice discovered left Cheryl shocked and deeply concerned.

While Rob manipulated his heart rate to gain sympathy from Cheryl, she locked him in a room and visited Alice to check on her progress. Alice informed Cheryl about the pills Rob had been using, infuriating Cheryl, who then confronted Rob with the pill container. However, instead of acknowledging his guilt, Rob began gaslighting Cheryl, claiming that she was mentally unstable, using the same tactic as in his previous scams. He even played a recording of their arguments to make her doubt her sanity. Feeling helpless, Cheryl took a sip of a drink and started feeling dizzy.

Cheryl returned to Alice, who was hiding in a separate room where Cheryl’s late husband used to stay. During their discussion, Alice revealed that Rob had been using Cheryl’s email to send fake messages to her lawyers. He had also manipulated her credentials to make himself the beneficiary of their marriage agreement, which stated that if Cheryl died before their marriage, Rob would inherit £1.2 million. Cheryl’s nausea escalated, causing her to vomit. She soon realized that Rob had cunningly plotted to kill her to claim her wealth. He had even faked a suicide note in Cheryl’s handwriting to make it look like she intended to take her own life. Fortunately, Cheryl managed to vomit out the pills and survive. When she confronted Rob, he initially claimed to have written the suicide note for himself but later dropped the idea of taking his own life.

Later on, Cheryl and Alice discuss how to make Rob pay for his actions. They realized that simply handing him over to the police wouldn’t keep him in jail for long, so they devised a plan to expose the truth and damage his reputation. During a fantasy literature cosplay festival, Cheryl had Rob dress up as a knight, concealing his face, making it easier for them to execute their scheme. While Dannie kept Rob indoors, Regina, dressed as a knight, pretended to be him and engaged in bizarre activities that made everyone think Rob had lost his mind. Cheryl publicly announced Rob’s supposed mental instability. Even fake psychiatric hospital staff arrived to evaluate Rob, but when he claimed to see his ex-wife, Alice, outside the window in a bunny costume, the staff pretended not to see anything, trying to make Rob appear delusional.

As Rob began to realize that Cheryl and Alice had orchestrated this scheme, he genuinely snapped, clutching a toy axe and threatening everyone. However, in the meantime, real police were called to the scene and arrested him. Alice provided them with the information that his real name was Robbie Graham, a property developer who suffered from severe mental instability and had adopted multiple personalities, including that of Dr. Rob Chance. The psychiatrist placed him under psychiatric care for only six months, which Cheryl found insufficient, but Alice believed it was enough time to gather evidence against Rob and ultimately ensure he was incarcerated for good.

However, in a surprising twist, it was revealed in The Following Events Are Based On A Pack Of Lies‘s ending sequence that the psychiatrist had already fallen for Rob’s outward charm. This raised the possibility that Rob could manipulate her and eventually be released from the facility, posing a new threat to Alice and Cheryl’s lives. This intriguing development at the end of the show set the stage for an upcoming season to come, and we await Alice and Cheryl’s final efforts to put the conman behind bars.