Unbelievable
アンビリーバブル たった1つの真実
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A teenager is charged with false reporting; two detectives in another state prove she told the truth.
Lynnwood, Washington, August 2008. Marie Adler, a young woman who grew up in foster care and is living in her first apartment through a programme for teenagers leaving care, reports that she has been raped. Detectives Parker and Pruitt make her tell the story again and again, and when Judith, her most recent foster mother, tells Parker that Marie has sought attention before, they decide she is lying and press her into retracting. She loses the trust of her programme and her friends, her name is leaked to the press, and the police charge her with making a false report. A public defender gets her a plea deal: probation and a fine.
Colorado, 2011. Detective Karen Duvall of Golden investigates the rape of a college student, Amber, by an attacker who seems to know how police work; Detective Grace Rasmussen of Westminster has a case that looks the same. After a wary start they join forces, and they see what separate departments miss because they do not share information: a careful serial rapist who strikes only once in each jurisdiction. They follow a white pickup truck, a suspect police officer and a car seen near several scenes, which leads them to Christopher McCarthy. They arrest him, and among the photographs in his home is one of Marie.
By then Marie, in court-ordered therapy, has admitted that she told the truth the first time and was pushed into taking it back. Asked what she would do differently, she says she would lie sooner, to keep out of the system.
In the last episode Rasmussen sends the pictures to Parker, who realises he was wrong. McCarthy pleads guilty and is sentenced to 327 and a half years. The women he attacked speak at his sentencing, and Amber listens from the back of the courtroom. Marie sues the city and accepts $150,000 and an official apology. Before leaving town in the car she has bought, she stops at the police station and tells Parker that nobody has apologised to her in person. He does; Pruitt stands silent. She tells Parker to do better, and on the road she calls Duvall to thank her.
Starring
Kaitlyn Deveras Marie Adler
A young woman raised in foster care who reports a rape, is disbelieved, and is charged with lying.
Marie Adler’s story
Living in her first apartment through a programme for young people leaving foster care, Marie is made to tell the story of her rape again and again. When Judith, her last foster mother, tells the detectives she has sought attention before, they press her into saying she made it up. Her name reaches the press, friends turn away, and she is charged with a false report. She takes a plea deal, breaks her curfew and loses her place in the programme. In court-ordered therapy she admits she told the truth the first time, and says that next time she would lie sooner. Three years later, photographs found in a Colorado rapist's home prove her right. She accepts the city's settlement, makes Parker apologise to her face, tells him to do better, and drives away, calling Duvall to thank her.
Toni Colletteas Grace Rasmussen
A Westminster detective with a strikingly similar case, who joins forces with Duvall to hunt a serial rapist.
Grace Rasmussen’s story
Rasmussen, a Westminster detective, is working a case much like Duvall's when Duvall calls, and their start is prickly. Together they spend nights going through six years of Colorado rape files and see what separate departments miss: a rapist who strikes once in each jurisdiction. She stakes out a crime scene at night, and leans on her husband, Steve, in the attorney general's office, for the sealed files of police officers; when she tries to gather evidence on one of them, Massey, he recognises her and spits in her face. A car seen near several scenes leads them to Christopher McCarthy, and she stands aside so that Duvall can make the arrest. Finding Marie's picture among his photographs, she sends it to the Washington detective who disbelieved her.
Merritt Weveras Karen Duvall
A Golden detective whose investigation of one rape opens into a series of crimes across Colorado.
Karen Duvall’s story
Duvall, a Golden detective, takes the case of Amber, a college student raped by a man who seems to know how police work. Her husband, Max, tells her that Westminster has a similar case, and she calls Rasmussen. Going through nights of old files, she works out that the rapist strikes once per jurisdiction because departments do not share information, finds video of a white pickup truck, rules out one suspect after another and looks hard at police officers. She follows the wrong McCarthy brother before the right one is found. Rasmussen gives her the arrest, and with an FBI agent she finds the evidence that ties Chris McCarthy to the attacks. At the end, Marie calls her from the road to thank her for catching him.
Eric Langeas Detective Parker
The Lynnwood detective assigned to Marie's case, who decides she is lying and closes it.
Elizabeth Marvelas Judith
Marie's most recent foster mother, whose doubts about her story help turn the police against her.
Danielle Macdonaldas Amber
A college student in Golden whose rape, investigated by Duvall, begins the Colorado case.
Why it matters
Unbelievable is about what disbelief does. It comes from a real case, reported in the Pulitzer Prize-winning article "An Unbelievable Story of Rape" by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, and it runs two stories side by side: a young woman whose account was judged a lie after a foster mother's doubts and hours of repeated questioning, and two women detectives who proved it true through slow, shared, unglamorous work. It shows how questioning can wear a person down until she recants, how a hard childhood is turned into evidence against her, and how a serial rapist can hide in the gaps between police departments. It won a Peabody Award, and a month after its release Netflix said more than 32 million viewers had watched it. The question it leaves is not who did it, but why so few people believed her, and what it cost her to be right.