Is Netflix’ Echoes starring Michelle Monaghan inspired by real-life instances of twin switching?

The Michelle Monaghan-led Netflix limited series Echoes is a good mystery with excellent acting from the entire cast, but especially Michelle Monaghan (Black Site) who effectively portrays two different people, well….differently.  Netflix’ Echoes made a splash on the streaming service when it premiered last month, knocking Sandman out of the #1 spot within 48 hours of its release.  Echoes is about twin sisters Gina and Leni, both of whom are played by Michelle Monaghan, and all the secrets that come to light across seven episodes after one of them goes missing.  This review contains spoilers (I mean, the show was released a month ago).

Gina is the twin who made it out of their rural hometown while Leni stayed back, married the high school sweetheart Jack (played by Matt Bomer, White Collar), had a baby, and looks after their widowed father (Michael O’Neill) and disabled older sister (Ali Stroker), while running a stable with her husband.  Gina moved to California, married a wealthy psychologist Charlie (Daniel Sunjata, Rescue Me), and is a published author.  Rounding out this all-star cast is Karen Robinson (Schitt’s Creek) as Sheriff Louise Floss, who is much sharper than the twins (and everyone else) gives her credit for.

When Leni goes missing, Gina immediately returns home to help find her twin sister.  It becomes evident pretty quickly to Gina that Leni staged her disappearance to look like a crime, but she is running away from her life…well, their life.  Leni and Gina have been secretly switching lives since they were children, and it is really Gina that has run away with HER high school sweetheart Dylan James (Jonathan Tucker, Westworld) while living Leni’s life.  After Leni confronts Gina at their birthday party, Dylan turns up dead – stabbed to death, body burned – and Jack is the prime suspect.  The investigation into Dylan’s death re-opens a murder investigation (a man burned to death in a church fire) from the twins’ high school years and things begin to unravel very quickly from there.

When it comes to identical twins, as in Netflix’ Echoes, there are cases without enough evidence to convict one over the other, and so both go free.

Leni was threatened by Gina’s relationship with Dylan and set fire to the church, driving Dylan away when they were teenagers, and then killed him when Gina tried to run away with him as adults to manipulate Gina into keeping their annual life-swap arrangement going in perpetuity.  The sheriff arrested them both, but didn’t have enough evidence to convict one over the other as they both so convincingly played the parts of either twin – almost no one could tell them apart.  Add that to the fact that any DNA evidence collected could belong to either twin, and there is enough reasonable doubt to get a conviction overturned or not indict at all.  Additionally in the case of Gina and Leni, their twin-bond was stronger than the law, and neither one wanted to see the other in prison, no matter how awful her actions had been.

While Netflix’ Echoes isn’t based on any particular case, twin switching is not a new story – either in fiction OR real life, and Michelle Monaghan extensively researched instances of twins swapping lives, conjoined twins, and the mysterious twin bond.  If you had an identical twin, why wouldn’t you pretend to be your twin to get out of an uncomfortable conversation or speeding ticket, or to play tricks on friends, family, teachers, and even dates?  There are reddit threads dedicated to stories of twin switching; I’d be surprised if a set of twins had NOT done it at least once or twice in their life.

As far as criminal activity is concerned – when there are identical twins involved, witness statements can’t be trusted as it’s impossible to tell WHICH twin was witnessed, DNA evidence is identical, and even fingerprints are so similar that if there isn’t a clean set of prints, they could be inconclusive too.  Science is catching up to DNA, though, in the study of epigenetics: chemical modifications to DNA that may change how genes are expressed, and in the case of identical twins differs at birth because of small differences in utero. So while twin switching may always exist, twin criminals going free may be a thing of the past.

Netflix’ Echoes is currently streaming.

Have you ever been duped by twin switching?  Sound off in the comments!