Boy Swallows Universe episode 1 kicks off the seven-part Australian drama about a young boy named Eli who is growing up in 1980s Brisbane.
Eli is dealing with a lost father, a mute brother, a recovering addict mum, a heroin dealer for a stepfather, and a notorious criminal for a babysitter, so his life is anything but ordinary and there are plenty of obstacles along the way.
The series is adapted from Trent Dalton’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, picking up in Darra, Brisbane in 1985. Throughout the episodes, Eli starts to experience the "harsh realities of life".
The first episode introduces us to Eli's family, the Bells, who are quite the eclectic mix and far removed from your average household, especially as the series opens with a very dramatic scene!
So what went down in Boy Swallows Universe episode 1? Here's what you need to know...
Meet the Bell family...
The episode opens with some intruders entering the Bell home, where one of them has a hand on young Eli's shoulder and places a knife on the table in front of him. Sitting opposite Eli are his mother Frances and her partner Lyle, with Eli's mute brother Gus next to him.
One of the intruders tells Lyle that he's got "one last chance to stop something very bad from happening". Lyle apologizes to the family and refuses to speak when questioned, and the intruder instructs the other men to get him out of there.
Frances shouts after them as they grab Lyle, taking him out of the house and stuffing him into the trunk of a car. They drive off, parking up where one of the intruders tells him not to mess with Ivan Kroll. They then torture him by drilling a hole in the trunk and feeding smoke through.
The intruders open the boot and grab Lyle again, before the scene stops and Eli's narration cuts in, telling the viewer that "life is different when you grow up in a family of outlaws". He also explains he wants to stop his family from making mistakes and to "go on the straight and narrow".
We follow Eli through his normal morning routine as he talks about how he feels about his family, saying that his mum does his best for him and his brother, Gus, but that she's too trusting of people. A criminal named Slim whom Lyle met is his babysitter, which even Eli admits is a little strange.
Eli explains that Gus has not spoken a word since he was seven years old, but he considers him to be the "smartest person in all of Australia" and that whatever he writes "comes true eventually".
Slim teaches Eli to drive and he crashes into some trash cans, and he reveals he's been writing to inmates in prison because it must be "really boring" and Slim had been in there for 25 years. Now we've met all the major players in Eli's life.
A news report on TV in the Bell home addresses the Brisbane Drug Wars and Eli is quickly told to turn it off before Frances tells the boys she and Lyle are going out later and Slim will babysit. When Slim arrives, Eli asks if Slim actually did kill the taxi driver like the papers suggest he did.
Slim gives a vague answer, telling Eli not to underestimate what anyone is capable of. Eli changes the subject and asks if he thinks Lyle has gone back to dealing smack, but Slim claims he doesn't know and should ask him. Eli says he didn't want to put him on the spot, but thinks he's "doing his best".
Lyle and Frances come home, and while she goes to check on the kids, he is seen hiding drugs in their wardrobe. Gus hears some banging and rustling and suspects something is going on. On their way to school the next day, Eli tells Gus that he also has concerns, worried their mom will become an addict again.
At school, Gus meets with the new guidance counselor who says everyone has agreed there's nothing wrong with him physically, and that he can hear perfectly fine, and also that his academic record is great. So there are some concerns about why he won't speak.
We learn that he is a very good artist but he has been drawing some disturbing things when prompted, including a dead body, a funeral casket with flowers, and a lot of his pictures feature the same car in them.
He is questioned about the drawings, and where the car was going. Gus refuses to speak, and is told that the school thinks both he and Eli have "enormous potential" if they apply themselves. They are worried about a potential trauma that has affected them both.
At lunch, Eli is taken into a room by two bullies who hand him a giant rat wrapped tightly with tape. He is instructed to hold it over the bin and one of the kids chops the tail off the rat, before it escapes. The deputy principal comes in and finds Eli there alone, holding the tail, as he didn't run quick enough.
Eli is blamed for what happened and the deputy principal punishes him by hitting him with a ruler. The scene cuts to one of the inmates who Eli has been corresponding with, who gives him some advice about bullies. He says there's two options; keep out of their way or take matters into your own hands.
Gus and Lyle return home from school to find both their mom and Lyle gone. They break into Lyle's room and Eli says that he'll kill them if he finds out they've been snooping. They're both concerned about her.
A flashback shows that Lyle had once locked Frances in a room and boarded up all the windows while she was at the height of her addiction, and as they investigate the room they find a secret hatch with ladders leading down to a red telephone.
Lyle catches them, getting angry because they discovered "the emergency tunnel". Later, he speaks to Frances and says he's terrible at this "dad stuff". She reassures him that he's not and is thankful that he gave them a home.
Later that evening, Eli confronts his mother and asks her to promise she's not using drugs again, given the traumatic events of what happened last time. She promises. He also asks about their biological father and why she left him.
Frances is dismissive of the topic because it's late and she doesn't want to discuss it. We learn he had been an alcoholic and that it was a disease, so she left. Eli gets emotional and tells his mother that she's too good for his dad or Lyle, and that she could have been better. Lyle overhears this.
Later that night, Eli is woken by a noise and decides to follow Lyle, who is dropping something off at a house down the street. He's invited inside and the door closes. Eli watches through a gap in the curtains and sees Lyle sitting down, where's he's giving bundles of drugs out of a brown paper bag.
He's caught snooping by Darren, the school bully who attacked the rat earlier. He casually tells him he thinks Lyle is collecting heroin from Darren's mum. Darren brings him inside and tells him he'd been spying.
Darren's mum asks why he followed Lyle and deduces that there's something he's worried about. She tells him that she'll "make Lyle answer truthfully". He asks why Lyle is dealing, and when he admits he's doing it for the money, Eli gets angry and asks why the family are still poor.
Lyle and Eli head home and Lyle tells him that he embarrassed him in there. Eli counters that by saying Lyle is the embarrassing one because he's a drug dealer. Lyle concedes that dealing is a bad way to make a living but that he's trying to help the family.
Back home, Eli tells Gus that their mother isn't using, but Lyle is dealing like they'd suspected. He also tells him that Lyle wants to earn enough to move the family away. Gus writes the words "boy swallows universe", but Eli has no idea what that means.
All 7 episodes of Boy Swallows Universe are on Netflix now.
