Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘No Good Deed’ follows the story of Paul and Lydia Morgan, who put up their house for sale. Three prospective buyers eye the place, but none of them is the dark history of the place and why it has been put on the market now. As more characters come into the fold, the real history of the house comes to light. We discover that Lydia used to be a concert pianist but has since stopped playing the piano. She has left her seat at the Philharmonic and has become so removed from music that she doesn’t even touch the piano anymore. Her hands tremble at the thought, and the reason behind it is a heartbreaking tragedy that happened three years ago. SPOILERS AHEAD
Lydia’s Inability to Play Piano is Psychosomatic
When Lydia first reveals that she is unable to play the piano, it seems that she may have an illness that prevents her from doing so. Every time someone asks her to play, she looks at her trembling hands and convinces herself that she cannot play the instrument anymore. By the end, however, it is clear that whatever is stopping Lydia is not some physical illness. Yes, her hands are unsteady, which is a huge problem when it comes to playing a musical instrument, but this physical problem has its roots in the mind rather than the body. A couple of episodes in, it is revealed that Lydia’s son, Jacob, died three years back. His youth is not the only thing that makes it a tragedy. It is also the way he died. It turns out that he died in the house and was, in fact, shot to death.
To an outsider, the case remains unsolved. They see it as a robbery gone wrong where the murderer remained at large because there was nothing for the cops to go on with and solve the case. Moreover, the Morgans decided to keep the details of their son’s death closed, which meant that it would not go into the public record, and no one would be able to know what exactly killed Jacob. From the flashbacks and the information that trickles over the course of the episodes, it becomes clear that Paul and Lydia were there the night Jacob died. Not only this, but they also indulged in covering up the truth behind their son’s death, the entirety of which comes out much later. If the grief of losing her son wasn’t enough, Lydia also had to deal with the fact that she helped cover it up. Moreover, Jacob had been struggling for a while, and she knew about it. Still, she couldn’t help her son through it, and she considers that to be one of the reasons why the events happened that night the way they did.
Lydia’s grief and the unresolved nature of the circumstances surrounding Jacob’s death manifest in the form of a tremor in her hands. Because the truth is buried, she is not able to talk about it with anyone. Her husband is the only one she can lean on, but he has a habit of bottling up his feelings, so Lydia is devoid of the only support that she could have had at this time. Thus, everything about Jacob’s death remains unprocessed, and as Lydia’s mind works against her, she convinces herself that she cannot play the piano anymore. Another reason that she doesn’t want to play is that it reminds her of the time she taught Jacob to play. The memories surrounding it are too painful for her to bear, so she decides not to do it altogether.
The one time she is able to come out of this fog of grief and guilt is when she and Paul find themselves in JD and Margo’s company. JD sits down to play a song, but when he plays it wrong, Lydia takes over. At the time, so much is going on that it gets her mind off all the bad stuff for a moment. But the moment she becomes aware of it again, she stops playing. She doesn’t play again until the end when the reality of what happened the night of Jacob’s murder comes to light, justice is served, and Lydia has processed her feelings. So, when she finally plays the piano, it shows that she is working through her grief and has decided to move on with life rather than bury her in the darkness that had enveloped her since her son died.
Read More: Is No Good Deed Based on a True Story? Are Paul and Lydia Morgan Based on a Real Couple?
