Contains spoilers for Fool Me Once
After a lot of anticipation Harlan Coben's newest mystery series Fool Me Once has officially dropped on Netflix. The eight-part series arrived on New Year's Day and tells the story of Maya Stern (Michelle Keegan) who sees her dead husband on a nanny cam in her house shortly after his death, leading her to dig in what really happened to her husband, and ask the question, is he actually alive?
Also investigating Joe's murder is Detective Sergeant Sami Kierce (Adeel Akhtar) who appears to be suffering from a serious illness throughout the series, often experiencing blackouts and at one point crashing his car as a result of these blackouts. So what illness is Detective Kierce suffering with? And does he survive it? Here's what you need to know.
What is Detective Kierce's illness?
From episode one of Fool Me Once, it becomes clear Detective Kierce is living with a serious medical condition. On his way back from interviewing Maya in episode one he crashes into a fence, he collapses while making his morning breakfast cereal in episode two, and he suffers from blurry vision, shaking hands and hallucinations. So what is his illness?
Well, after encouragement from his AA sponsor Nicole (Jade Anouka) Kierce registers at a private clinic where he undergoes a series of tests including an MRI, a EEG and various blood tests to determine the cause of his blackouts. During episode five he is told by the doctor he has a degenerative brain disease, with his EEG and MRI scan showing signs of damage to his brain.
This causes him to panic and blame himself, believing his former alcohol addiction is the cause of his brain disease.
However, it is later revealed that in fact Detective Kierce was taking unsafe pills produced by Lambur Pharma, which is a wing of (you guessed it) Burkett Global. The pills caused him to experience hallucinations and blackouts. The pills were on the market as the Burketts had falsified drug trial records to get the drugs out there.
Does Detective Kierce survive his illness?
Contains spoilers! The good news is that despite spending most of the series unwell, Detective Kierce does survive his illness and lives for at least another two decades as he is seen in the final moments of the series with the flash forward '18 years later'. And most importantly he gets to see his son grow up.
Fool Me Once is available on Netflix now
