The Abandons Recap ‘Orphans’: Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey star in Netflix’s new Western drama

The Abandons Season 1 Episode 1: Orphans

Spoiler Warning: This is a detailed recap of the first episode of the first season of The Abandons. If you have not yet seen the show, please head over to Netflix before reading on.

Trigger Warning: This episode includes a scene with sexual assault. It may be distressing for some readers and viewers. Please take care of yourself and proceed only if you feel prepared for this content.

I’m a simple girl. When I see a show with Gillian Anderson and/ or Lena Headey, I watch it, even when it is a genre I normally do not watch, in this case, a Western drama. A few minutes into Netflix’s The Abandons, I did find myself wondering if I made a mistake this time. Did they really cast Lena Headey to play a devout Catholic who fights for her farm and her adopted children, and that’s it? 

Then, after presumably praying her rosary (or perhaps she just held it), she placed her boot on a rapist’s neck and crushed his larynx – and told her daughter Dahlia that this was her second murder. Now that’s why you cast Lena Headey. And I am suddenly far more interested, despite the first episode being mostly flat and at times tethering to the edge of mawkishness. 

Fiona Nolan (Ms Headey) was a widow who built her own family of the abandoned – first with Elias and Dahlia Teller, whose father’s largesse allowed Fiona to own the farm, and later Albert Mason and Lilla Belle. Theirs was one of four families living in Jasper Hollow, a silver-rich land that attracted the unwanted attention of the aristocratic Van Ness family. 

Constance Van Ness (Gillian Anderson), also a widow, along with her children (Willem, Garret, and Trisha) were for all intents and purposes the first family of Angel’s Ridge. They were introduced riding slowly into town, with Constance opting to take her second son Garret into her meeting with the Mayor (Patton Oswalt – this cast is stacked) and relegating Willem to minding the horses and telling Trisha not to get into rash adventures. The yield from their mines was down, and their primary investor, Cornelius Vanderbilt, was getting nervous. The solution, not just to save their fortune but the town of Angel’s Ridge itself, was to expand Van Ness Mines to include the Hollow.

But the four families – Fiona’s family, Quentin and Oma Serra, Miles Alderton and his daughter Samara, and Walter Paxton – refused to sell. And so Constance continued the harassment that has been going on for over a year.

The Nolan farm was up next. Constance, with Garret, watched from afar as bandits harried the cattle and all but led them to the cliff where they had destroyed the stone fencing, leading about a dozen to fall to their deaths. Fiona woke her children and they rode out with guns, but the damage was done. Everyone knew it was Constance’s doing, but with no proof, there was little they could do but report the incident to the sheriff. 

It was on this day at town that Willem’s eyes fell on Dahlia. Trisha playfully tried to get Willem to talk to Dahlia, but when Willem went all rich kid brat on a man named Issac, Dahlia came to his defense. Dahlia’s snark about knowing Willem had nothing to do with the rustling that happened in their farm because that required brains led to muted laughter and left Willem embarrassed. He took his wounded pride to a nearby salon and got drunk. Later, though his mother’s man Jack told him to head home, Willem headed to Fiona’s farm, where he sexually assaulted Dahlia.

Lilla, who saw what was happening in the barn, ran and got help. Fiona was away with Elias, on a meeting with the other Hollow residents (except Paxton), so with Lilla came Albert (with a shotgun) and their neighbour Samara. Albert was able to pull Willem off Dahlia and had already decided to let the law handle it, when from behind Dahlia stuck a pitchfork through Willem’s chest.

Willem was still alive, though badly hurt, when Fiona and the others got back. Miles was adamant that this was a matter for the law, but Fiona’s side knew that Constance would blame all of them for the fate of her son. With the nearest surgeon in Oregon City a half a day’s ride, Fiona declared that if  Willem made it through the night, at sunrise, they would send for the sheriff and take him to Oregon City.

With the other families gone, Fiona sent her sons to sleep and allowed only Dahlia to remain with her and Willem. She asked Dahlia if she knew how her husband died; Dahlia only knew that Timmy fell off the roof. Fiona, with controlled anger in her voice, told Dahlia the story of how her husband beat her every night because she could not have children. When he stumbled up the roof that day, drunk as he often was, Fiona took a brick off a crumbled chimney and hit him on the side of his head. 

‘You forget when you are being beaten, how delicate the hand is that holds you down.’ Fiona had pulled the severely injured Willem down to the floor and placed her boot to his neck. Horrified though she was at what she witnessed, Dahlia did not ask Fiona to stop. From what we have been shown so far, Fiona’s children obeyed her; she could have made Dahlia leave with her brothers. A fellow victim of abuse, Fiona allowed her daughter to see the sheer violence she could bring to the man who wronged her. She did not attempt to protect Dahlia from the darkness of the deed, instead, she made her join her in her cold fury. Yes, it was Dahlia who struck Willem, in the heat of her anger following his heinous and unforgivable attack. His murder, however, was a decision, and one that Fiona made Dahlia a party of.  

Constance may not have treated Willem as her heir and right hand, but she still worried when he did not come home that night. In the morning, she sent for a bandit leader named Xavier Roache (Michiel Huisman, Daario Naharis of Game of Thrones) to look for her son. She also personally rode out to the Hollow. Her first stop was Fiona’s farm, to speak to Dahlia.  

The tension between the two women went beyond their social class, or that one owned the land the other wanted. Constance could not even bring herself to call Dahlia Fiona’s daughter. Blood was what mattered to Constance, and for her, Fiona could never understand the depth of her pain for Willem. Yet, even through the fog of worry, Constance still needled Fiona for turning down her generous offers for her land. Fiona, who a mere few hours ago was committing her second murder, declared that God gave them their home and only He could move them off of it.

Though Fiona tried to protect Dahlia from Constance’s questioning, Dahlia did come out of the house, the bruises that Willem gave her still visible on her face. She admitted to the harsh exchange that Trisha and others witnessed, but she denied that Willem came to the farm afterwards. This was not expressly said in the scene, but the way it was staged, the words carefully chosen by both Constance and Dahlia, it was almost like Constance expected Willem to do exactly what he did to Dahlia, and Dahlia understood that that was what Constance was asking of her. It was a horrifying snapshot of the life they lived, of the extent of Willem’s entitlement and the violence that came with it, of Constance’s tolerance of her son’s misdeeds.

Fiona knew that with the ongoing search for Willem, they needed to gather the Hollow, the residents of whom all but Paxton knew what happened. But, when both Fiona and Daphne tried to talk to Paxton about Willem and an unnamed incident, Paxton declared that though he harboured no ill will toward anyone in the Hollow, he also did not care what happened to any of them. Paxton had just seen Constance act all lady of the manor with his beloved dog (the dog scared Constance’s horse, which enraged Constance) when she and her crew stopped by looking for Willem, and he still did not care. He just wanted to be left alone, with his dog and his memories of a family he must have had at one point, with their beds still made and the table still set for three. 

And so it was Fiona’s family, the Aldertons, and the Serras who came together for a meeting. Outside of Fiona and Dahlia, all everyone else knew was that Willem died in his sleep. Albert brought out sticks and stones – each family had two votes. Stone, they would go to the sheriff, stick, they would remain silent. Dahlia and Albert voted for Fiona’s family; they both chose sticks. Quentin Serra chose a stick whilst his wife Oma chose a stone; wisely, she told the group, ‘A lie sets no one free’. Despite Samara’s protest – Samara, who witnessed Willem’s assault of Dahlia – Miles insisted their two votes were both stone. 

The Hollow was divided down the middle until Paxton walked in with his beloved dog Sweetie lifeless in his arms. Constance had her killed. It was there that he finally understood Fiona and Dahlia’s earlier visit; he saw the body in the barn and immediately figured out who it was. He voted his heartbreak, and the Hollow remained silent.

They dug up a grave for poor Sweetie, but underneath, the earth was for Willem as well. 

Truthfully, this is a show I only watched for the cast, but there are points of story strength here that could lead to a good series (as of this writing, I haven’t seen the rest of the first season). The duality of Fiona’s deep faith and her violence. Constance’s casual violence and her absolute determination to hold together her family enterprise following her husband’s death, in very harsh conditions. The tension between blood and the ties that bind a made family.  A town built on the fragile foundations of an exhaustible resource mined from the earth that was slowly running out. A next generation of de facto society leaders who may not have their mother’s strength. There is enough here to warrant a full season watch. But, what do you think? 

Rating: B

Strays

👒The story is set in 1854, which I should have included up front. 

👒I can only imagine how difficult it was to shoot that night time rustling scene. 

👒Trisha Van Ness had her eyes on Elias Teller, and brought him a whisky at the bar. Garret tried to pull her away, which led to Elias standing up for Trisha and pushing Garret to the ground. Garret may be more involved in the business, but he was no less spoiled and entitled than Willem; he was furious that Elias dared lay a hand on him. Jack and Albert almost managed to break up the fight, but when Garret had some choice words for Fiona. Albert himself punched him, and a whole fight broke out. Even Lilla eventually joined. The fight only ceased when Constance walked in and fired a shot through the roof.

👒Elias blamed himself for not taking better care of the family and apologized to Dahlia. 

Episode Title: Orphans

Episode Writer: Kurt Sutter

Episode Director: Otto Bathurst

Original Air Date: December 4, 2025

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