Chloe ends but will the truth be revealed?

A lot of us probably spend more time scrolling through social media than we’d like to admit, but the six-part thriller Chloe, which concludes tonight, may have inspired some people to put their phone down.

It might have also left a few of us wondering if we should be a bit more careful about what we post – and who can see it.

That’s because the drama has focused on Becky (Erin Doherty), a young woman who initially uses social media to follow the outwardly more successful Chloe.

As the series writer and director Alice Seabright explains: “This is the story of Becky’s obsession with her estranged friend Chloe. When we meet Becky, it’s 15 years since they last spoke, but she still regularly lurks on Chloe’s social media page.

“Becky is socially isolated, taking care of a mother with dementia, and her only outlet is inventing fictional personas to create fleeting connections with strangers. She lives dangerously.”

When Becky discovered that Chloe had died – and that she was the last person her former friend tried to call – she raised the stakes even higher, creating a new alter ego, Sasha, so she could infiltrate Chloe’s inner circle and find out what really happened.

And she was able to do it through learning about their movements – those of Chloe’s friend Livia (Pippa Bennett-Warner) in particular – through social media.

As Alice admits, Becky’s actions frequently cross a line – even before she found out about Chloe, she wasn’t adverse to a bit of identity theft, as well as literally stealing a coat – but the writer thinks that the character will strike her chord.

Even if you can’t relate to the obsessive use of social media, Alice points out there are bigger themes at play.

She says “One of the main themes we explore is identity. How it can be reflected in friendship, especially those formative friendships that feel like epic love stories. How it can be warped by social media, class, coercion, trauma… We look at the stories we tell ourselves – so often inaccurate and distorted. Stories about who we are, which can trap us in destructive patterns of behaviour. And stories about other people, which fuel our envy, insecurities and alienation.”

Alice adds: “At her core, Becky Green is someone I think we can all relate to. Erin Doherty brings her to life in an extraordinary, layered performance. She is yearning for connection. She struggles with social anxiety and intrusive thoughts. She is self-reliant and pushes others away to mask her low self-worth, always anticipating rejection. She is obsessive. She is weird, and surprisingly funny.I hope viewers will want her to succeed, even when they’re made uneasy by her actions and fear that her house of cards will collapse.”

In the final episode, it does seem like her web of lies is unravelling as she searches through a sleeping Elliot’s phone and sees a message from Livia confirming that they are doing a background check on ‘Sasha’ – and it’s proving tricky. Can she find out the truth about Chloe before her real identity is uncovered?

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