Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Vanished into the Night’ begins as one thing but turns into something else as one unexpected thing after another happens. The story primarily focuses on the disappearance of Pietro and Elena’s children, who are abducted from Pietro’s house. Wracking his brain about what may have happened to them, he has no idea how someone entered his house and took away his two children without making a fuss. It is a mind-boggling mystery, but he doesn’t have much time to think about it as he has to focus on the ransom demanded of him. By the end, however, things get much clearer, and Pietro realizes how he has been fooled by the person he thought he could trust the most regarding his children. SPOILERS AHEAD
Elena’s Desire to Win the Divorce Trumped Everything Else
When Pietro comes back after a dubious night of doing the job for Nicola, a curious thing happens. He finds his children at home with Elena, who claims to know nothing of the kidnapping and that the children had been safe and sound with her all along. This throws Pietro down a spiral, as he can’t comprehend how Elena doesn’t remember them being fitfully worried about getting the ransom money and him sailing off to get it by any means possible.
Elena tells him he is losing it and forces him to leave the house. As Pietro tries to process it, he goes back home and wonders why Elena doesn’t remember the previous day’s events. Her adamant about the kidnapping not being real makes him wonder if he is losing his mind, but then Elena does something that brings everything into perspective. It turns out that when Pietro tried explaining to Elena how he got the ransom money illegally, she had been recording him. If the kidnapping didn’t happen and Pietro arrived at her place out of the blue, how was she ready to record her words? This means that she had planned for his arrival, which means her plan had been in motion for longer than that.
Returning to the film’s beginning, Pietro and Elena are in the middle of a divorce, and she reveals how much she missed her life in America. She regrets leaving behind her illustrious career and moving to Italy for her husband. More than anything else, she was entirely focused on getting out of Italy, but that created a problem with the custody of her children. If Elena were to move to America permanently, she’d have to ensure she got full custody of her children. However, she couldn’t guarantee that because Pietro and his lawyer would do everything possible to get custody of him so the children could be in Italy.
Elena wanted to return to America but didn’t want to lose her children either. She’d already seen how the lawyers were ready to dig up every dirty detail about them, and she knew that the custody battle would only get worse with time. The only way to resolve the situation was to have Pietro voluntarily give up custody of their children, but she knew he wouldn’t do that. Their children being in America would put too much distance between them, and he would never settle for that. Considering how much he’d already invested in their house in Italy, he would never move to America. This left Elena with only one option: forcing Pietro to sign the document, no matter what it takes.
Elena’s Plan was Intricately Designed to Trap Pietro
Elena knew about Pietro’s connections with some shady people, especially Nicola, and she knew that he would have to turn to them in his hour of need because he didn’t have anybody else. He was also neck-deep in debt, so if he were to produce money suddenly, he would have to do something illegal. Given his past connections, it would be easier for the law to believe that he was involved in shady activities, and he would not be given custody of their children.
So, Elena put her plan in motion the weekend the children were to be with Pietro. She knew the house well, and she knew the habits of her children and ex-husband as well. She knew which room the kids would sleep in and how long it would take for Pietro to realize they were gone. Due to her past accident, she already had access to oxycodone, so she used it to render the kid unconscious because she didn’t want them to make noise and attract Pietro’s attention. She knew how much would be okay for them and administered that to take them home without a fuss.
Elena knew that Pietro would never think to look for the children at her place, so she didn’t have to worry about hiding them. All she had to do was bide her time, wait for Pietro to spiral, subtly push him towards Nicola, and wait for him to confess the whole thing so she could use the recording against him. If the blackmail failed, she could always use the recording in court to prove he was a dangerous man with criminal ties, and he would never receive custody of the children. The only mistake Elena made was leaving the pill wrapper at Pietro’s house, which was enough for him to make all the connections and figure out her plan.
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