Series / Salatut Elämät

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Salatut elämät ("Concealed Lives") is a Finnish Soap Opera that premiered on 25 January 1999. The series focuses on the daily lives of several families who live in a fictional apartment block "Pihlajakatu 23 B" in Helsinki.

During the series' 25-year run, over 4,000 episodes have been aired, making it the longest running drama in television in the Nordics and the longest-lasting drama series of all time in Finland. The series has also spawned a number of spin-off web series and films.

This series provides examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Gunnar's Alzheimer diagnosis was a major plot point when he first debuted, but the plotline was since abandoned aside from one-off jokes.
• Abortion Fallout Drama: After Mika Paju dies in a car crash driven by an intoxicated Saku, Mika's father, police inspector Tapani Paju, attempts to blackmail Miia into giving birth to Mika's unborn child in exchange for not pressing charges. Miia decides to get an abortion and upon learning this, Paju snaps and takes Saku hostage.
• Abuse Escalation: Aaro was originally introduced in the series as a mild-mannered and professional private detective who starts displaying more and more manipulative traits, such as putting sleeping pills in her fiancee's coffee to get her fired.
• Abusive Parents: Ismo, early on in the series. He hits his children several times and has difficulty with son's homosexuality. Implied with Ismo's father as well.

• A Deadly Affair: Nearly. After discovering Aleksi and Hanna's affair, Jukka shows up at a cabin they rented carrying an axe. It takes Ismo and Maarit arriving to calm him down, and Jukka later admits he is not sure whether he would actually have gone through with it.

• Anti-Interference Lock Up: In one of the most memorable events in the series, Aaro kidnaps and locks up Paula in a root cellar.
• As You Know: Due to the long-running nature of the series, newer episodes have included flashbacks when an old plot point is referenced.
• Attack on the Heart: Jenni is killed by a sniper bullet to the chest after walking in front of the actual target, Seppo.
• Attempted Rape:
  • Prior to the start of the series, Kari is stated to have gone to prison for assaulting a rapist who attacked his sister Elina.
  • Isabella almost gets raped outside a bar while walking around in a fugue state.
• Big Bad:
  • Aaro Vaalanne. Can be considered the series' most famous antagonist, Aaro has a narcissistic personality disorder and is characterized by manipulative and controlling behavior, particularly toward women. Over the course of the series, he commits numerous crimes, ranging from kidnapping to murder. Many characters end up severely traumatized, insane or dead due to his actions.
  • Heiskanen started out in the series as a small-time crook. During season 15, it was revealed that he is the son of mob boss Korppi, who was killed accidentally by Helena Kuula. Heiskanen set out to avenge his mother by tormenting the Kuula family, accidentally shooting Jenni Vainio and eventually escalating to trapping the entire Kuula family on a plane and crashing it down over Siberia.
  • Noel Axelsson. After accidentally running over a boy on a crosswalk, Noel gaslights his wife Elina to convince everyone she is insane after she finds out the truth. He has her committed to an asylum (later to prison) and starts a relationship with a much younger woman.
• Billy Needs an Organ: Twice for one character:
  • After being shot in the head during a charity gala massacre, Paula falls into a coma and is eventually declared brain dead. Meanwhile, her great-niece Nella desperately needs a heart transplant due to a serious heart condition. Her heart is donated to Nella, saving Nella's life.
  • Years later, Nella needs another heart transplant - this time it comes from a recently married woman who dies in a car crash. The widowed husband and Nella begin dating after a while.

• Bookends: The series begins with the murder of Tyyne Puustinen, and the audience never finds out who truly did it. In the 20th anniversary episode of the series, Sami Kosonen is found murdered exactly 20 years after the death of Tyyne. Not only that, but the killer is also the same man who killed Tyyne!

• Breakout Character: Ismo Laitela became easily the most popular and recognizable character in the entire series, similar to Rokka, as both are considered to represent the very nature of a Finnish man.

• Brother–Sister Incest: Elina Taalasmaa and Juha Viljanen date until they find out that Martti Viljanen is also the father of Elina, and thus they are half-siblings.

• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The upper-middle class Salin family. Alcoholism, divorce, troubled children... and a sexual relationship between the step-mother and step-son.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Aaro and Noel both have a calm and charismatic demeanor in public. When they are alone or with someone who isn't falling for it, this facade often breaks.
• Coming-Out Story:
  • Kalle Laitela is a notable example. During the early 2000s, an episode where Kalle kisses a man was so controversial that the studio received over 40 meters of fax from viewers. It has even been said that the storyline had an effect in changing the public opinion towards gay people in Finland!
  • Lari and Elias, sometimes referred to online as the story of Larias. Lari was originally introduced as a stereotypical popular teenage "jock" with a beautiful girlfriend. He bullied the openly gay Elias and cornered him on a dark alley after a masquerade party with the intent to beat him up. He instead kissed him and revealed he was gay too, having to suppress it due to his homophobic father and hockey friends.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Aki went through several foster homes and was sexually abused as a child.
  • Ismo's past can be considered this. His wife's death from cancer has really taken a toll on him by the start of the series.

• Dirty Cop:
  • Linda accepts bribes from Camilla to cover up an assassination. Aaro gets her arrested for this to prevent her from investigating the death of Anton.
  • Miki is sent to prison after getting involved in drug trafficking.

• Domestic Abuse: Ismo.

• Driven to Suicide:
  • Ismo nearly jumps off a bridge after losing everything to his gambling addiction.
  • Seppo mistakenly thinks he caused the death of his step-daughter-in-law Maria and attempts to hang himself. He is rescued by Ismo and Helena just in time.
  • Tuuli Rantala kills herself off-screen after continued abuse from her ex-husband.
  • Päivi Helenius shoots herself after being stopped from killing her ex-husband Aaro.

• Evil Twin: Aaro and Eero are identical twins, with Aaro being the evil one and Eero the good one (until his Sanity Slippage, that is).
• Exact Eavesdropping: Characters have a tendency to discuss secrets in the stairwell, and inevitably someone is listening. It is a staple of the series and it's even lampshaded by the characters several times.
• Fake Pregnancy: Isabella pretends to be pregnant in order to get back into the good graces of her mother-in-law Helena. Subverted when she finds out she actually is pregnant.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: Viola is actually the daughter of Linda, but has been raised to believe she is her big sister.

• Forced from Their Home: When the live-in janitor position at Pihlajakatu 23B is abolished, the Taalasmaa family faces eviction since their apartment is tied to the job as part of their contract. They eventually come up with the idea of starting a property maintenance business to keep themselves employed and retain their home.

• Forced into Evil: A mysterious figure (later revealed to be Heiskanen) threatens to harm the Kuula family's loved ones unless they do their bidding, which escalates from money laundering to disposing of a corpse (which turns out to be just a bunch of dirt wrapped in plastic bags).

• Hope Spot: When the Kuula family is trapped in Siberia, they experience several of these in a row:
  • They find a cabin in the woods... but no one is there and no one likely will be there for months.
  • They find a cellphone in the plane wreckage... but they only manage to answer one call before the battery dies.
  • Someone arrives at the cabin with a snowmobile... but it is Heiskanen, the one who tried to kill them in the first place.

• Identity Amnesia: After experiencing an intense emotional shock, Aaro forgets his "evil side" for a few seasons but regains his memories during his wedding with Dahlia.
• Inciting Incident: The first episode of the series begins with the discovery of an elderly woman Tyyne Puustinen dead in her apartment. The police determine that she has been murdered, and soon everyone at Pihlajakatu is a suspect.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: Heiskanen traps the Kuula family in a mine that he is planning to blow up. He gets trapped under a barrel when the others escape and has to cut off his own arm in order to escape the explosion.
• Local Hangout: Barbaari (later Kentauri) was the main local cafe until 2009, when a gas leak caused it to blow up during the season finale. From then on, the main hangouts have been the B&B Amanda, and Cafe Moose.
• Long-Lost Relative: After the death of his father, Ismo discovers he has a (much younger) half-sister, Hani.

• Magical Defibrillator: Averted. When Seppo suffers a heart attack after accidentally drinking champagne while on Antabus medication (disulfiram), the use of CPR and a defibrillator is portrayed realistically.

• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Salla is unsure if her child is Gunnar's or Kari's. It turns out to be Kari's.
• Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Ismo's father blamed Ismo for the death of his mother during childbirth, and thus always acted resentful towards his son.
• Mourning Apparition: Paula's spirit appears to comfort Lasse while Paula lies in a coma at the hospital. Interestingly, while its made clear that the spirit only exists in Lasse's head, the spirit tells him that she will "save" Nella (who needs a donor heart) right before Paula stops breathing.
  • Banish the Mourning Apparition: After Nella receives her second heart, Paula appears for a final time to tell Lasse she will now leave for good.
• Old Flame: After almost 17 years of separation, Ulla and Seppo finally got back together in the series' 25th anniversary episode.
• One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Jiri and Monica spend a night together, and Magnus is born.
• Parental Incest:
  • Aki was sexually abused as a child and spent decades resenting his mother for failing to intervene or help him. When he reconciles with his dying mother he realises he had repressed the truth: it was actually his mother who was abusing him.
  • Inka was sexually abused by her father, which led to her running away from home to Helsinki and living homeless near Pihlajakatu.
• Parental Love Triangle: Aleksi falls in love with his new young step-mother Hanna, after she and his father arrive back home from the Canary Islands at the start of the series.
• Rape as Backstory: Tanja was raped by Kristo Päivinen, and as a result got pregnant with Juulia.
• Retcon:
  • Liisa Laitela, the original wife of Ismo Laitela, was at the originally written to have died from cancer prior to the start of the series. In 2013, it turns out she faked her death and was still alive.
  • Aaro was killed when he was pushed over a balcony edge by Paula and Laura at the latter's wedding. Even though the character was pronounced dead on-screen, years later Aaro returned, with his resurrection being handwaved by him being nursed back to health by his mother who had access to old hospital equipment. This also had the effect of turning Laura's accusations into a Cassandra Truth.

• Rooftop Confrontation: Helena and Sergei confront the mob boss Korppi on the roof of a warehouse. After a struggle Korppi falls to her death.

• Sanity Slippage:
  • Laura develops schizophrenia after the psychological torment Aaro puts her through. She first discovers that he had been gaslighting and drugging her right before they were set to be married. Later, after she befriends Aaro's twin brother Eero, Aaro kidnaps him and impersonates him long enough to marry Laura. After Aaro is seemingly killed, the final straw comes in the form of a videotape Aaro leaves behind, ominously promising that he will "see her soon". Laura becomes convinced that Eero is actually Aaro in disguise, kidnaps him, and attempts to kill him, resulting in her being placed on indefinite psychiatric hold.
  • Eero seems to also develop schizophrenia after the years of abuse finally get caught up on him. Very similar to Laura, he starts hearing voices and believes Aaro is still out there, and proceeds to do whatever is necessary to protect his unborn child.
  • Päivi Helenius was already a nervous wreck, but after her ex-husband Aaro kills her son Anton, she goes off the deep end, kidnaps Aaro and prepares to execute him. Unfortunately for her, Aaro had just lost his memory and Linda convinces Päivi to drop the gun. Fully broken after her daughter seemingly sides with Aaro, she walks outside and shoots herself.

• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Odd example. Played straight early on, then dropped later, resulting in weird instances of siblings having a closing age gaps.
• Speech Impediment: Eero has a noticiable stutter from years of abuse at the hands of his twin brother Aaro. It gets better or worse depending on his proximity to Aaro.
• Switched at Birth: Jenni switches the babies of Ossi & Cindy (OJ) and Sebastian & Isabella (Oliver) at the hospital. Later after OJ dies from a birth defect, Jenni confesses to having switched the babies and leaves the country.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Ismo and Ossi become this when they briefly form a singing duo.
• The Alcoholic: 
  • Seppo starts to develop a drinking problem after being forced to shut down his property maintenance company Talotaikurit following a string of burglaries by his employees and the resulting bad publicity. This gets worse after he mistakenly thinks he ran over his step-daugher-in-law, Maria, during a snowstorm.
  • Dr. Kalle Laitela is addicted to alcohol, resulting in operating on a patient while intoxicated.
• The Gambling Addict: Ismo begins to develop a gambling addiction after a visit to the horse track. He eventually loses everything from his home, to relationship and friends.
• The Topic of Cancer: In one of the most touching storylines in the entire series, Miia Laitela dies from a brain tumor.
• These Hands Have Killed: Seppo shoots Heiskanen and saves everyone at the end of the Siberia plotline. He becomes so upset about this that he decides to leave Pihlajakatu for good.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Ismo develops from bigoted and violent to a more mellow and accepting person over the years.

• Wedding/Death Juxtaposition:
  • In the season 19 finale, on Ulla and Gunnar's wedding day, Aaro rigs a tripwire at Kari's garage. The mechanism causes a car suspended overhead to fall when the trap is triggered. Unfortunately, Anton enters the garage first and is instantly crushed to death.
  • Subverted in the season 11 finale, where a pregnant Paula appears to have been buried alive by Eero during the wedding of Ismo and Salla. She is still alive and ends up ok after being found by Lasse.
  • Played straight with the wedding service itself, as the venue blows up and multiple characters are killed.

• Would Hit a Girl: Ismo hits his daughter Miia, and several of his fiancees.
• Worst Wedding Ever: While it has been lampshaded by the characters in-universe that weddings in Pihlajakatu rarely turn out well, the aforementioned wedding of Ismo and Salla during the season 11 finale takes the cake, with the entire venue blowing up due to a gas leak.
• Widowed at the Wedding: Averted. Salla is initially pronounced dead, but later wakes up at the morgue when Ismo kisses her goodbye. Also overlaps with Mistaken Death Confirmation.