Character Relationship Map: Side Effect

Characters

• Andrey (played by Semen Serzin) — protagonist

  Andrey is the central protagonist, a husband desperate to erase Olya’s painful memory through Witch/Mara’s magic. He follows the instructions involving the strange substance and apartment, then invest...

• Olya (played by Marina Vasilyeva) — supporting

  Olya is Andrey’s wife, whose painful marital memory becomes the target of Witch/Mara’s intervention. After initially seeming happier and preparing for a solo performance, she becomes unstable, experie...

• Witch/Mara (played by Aleksandra Revenko) — supporting

  Witch/Mara is a mysterious practitioner of magic who offers to erase Olya’s painful memory in exchange for Andrey and Olya caring for the apartment. She uses a supernatural force connected to guilt, i...

• Old Man (played by Anatoli Zhuravlyov) — supporting

  Old Man is a supernatural or prophetic figure who warns Andrey about Witch/Mara’s motives and history. He explains that she feeds on guilt and seeks eternal youth, while also revealing that Andrey has...

• Little Mara (played by Mariya Abramova) — supporting

  Little Mara appears in a vision of the past as the child sacrificed during a bargain made to save a settlement. Mara’s Father surrenders her while Mara’s Mother protests helplessly. Her fate establish...

• Mara's Mother (played by Natalya Dedeyko) — supporting

  Mara’s Mother appears in the vision of the past surrounding Little Mara’s sacrifice. She protests helplessly when Mara’s Father bargains with the villagers and gives up their child to save the settlem...

• Mara's Father (played by Ivan Dergachev) — minor

  Mara’s Father is shown in a vision as the person who bargains with the villagers to save the settlement. He surrenders Little Mara despite Mara’s Mother’s protest, committing the act that becomes the...

Canonical Relationships

Family, romantic, and professional connections based on plot evidence.

• Mara's Father → Witch/Mara (father)
• Mara's Mother → Witch/Mara (mother)
• Mara's Father → Mara's Mother (Family Parental Conflict) — Their opposing responses to the sacrifice reveal a severe family conflict.

  Mara's Father bargains with the villagers and surrenders Little Mara while Mara's Mother protests.

• Mara's Mother → Little Mara (Family Mother) — Mara's Mother is connected to Little Mara through a failed attempt to protect her.

  The vision shows Mara's Mother protesting helplessly while Mara's Father gives Little Mara up.

• Mara's Father → Little Mara (Family Father) — His decision to sacrifice Little Mara becomes the origin of the curse's guilt.

  A vision shows Mara's Father surrendering Little Mara to save the settlement.

• Witch/Mara → Olya (Power Manipulator) — Witch/Mara's magic exerts destructive influence over Olya.

  Witch/Mara's substance is intended to alter Olya's memories, but Andrey realizes that it has changed Olya's identity and relationship to reality.

• Andrey → Witch/Mara (Professional Client And Practitioner) — Andrey becomes dependent on Witch/Mara's supernatural service.

  Andrey visits Witch/Mara and asks her to erase Olya's memories; she agrees to help through a strange substance.

• Andrey → Olya (Romantic Spouses) — Their marriage is the emotional center of the story.

  Andrey identifies Olya as his wife, and they move to the suburbs together while trying to repair their marriage.

Story Dynamics

Alliances, conflicts, and narrative interactions that evolve throughout the story.

• Old Man → Andrey (Alliance Warning Advisor) — Old Man acts as Andrey's source of supernatural and moral knowledge.

  Old Man warns Andrey about Witch/Mara and explains that Andrey has repeated the crime committed by Mara's Father.

• Witch/Mara → Old Man (Conflict Opposing Witnesses) — Old Man provides information that exposes Witch/Mara's nature and motives.

  Old Man warns Andrey that Witch/Mara feeds on guilt and seeks eternal youth.

Story Analysis

A husband's attempt to erase marital guilt transforms into a supernatural confrontation with identity, sacrifice, and inherited violence.

Plot Progression

1. The Memory Bargain — Andrey seeks Witch/Mara's help to erase Olya's painful marital memory. The couple accepts responsibility for an unusual apartment in exchange for the supernatural treatment.
2. The Apartment's Buried History — Andrey and Olya settle into the enormous building and encounter a locked archive and unexplained objects. Their relationship briefly seems to recover as Olya prepares for her performance.
3. Identity Unraveling — A strange visitor, an archive key, and Olya's increasingly unstable behavior destroy the couple's fragile calm. At the concert, Olya no longer recognizes Andrey.
4. The Impossible Property — Andrey reports Olya missing, but authorities reject his account of the hidden apartment. The property transfer leaves him isolated and implicated in an inexplicable situation.
5. Guilt Behind the Curse — Witch/Mara draws Andrey into hidden space and forces him toward a riddle involving Olya. Old Man and a vision of the past connect Andrey's guilt to Mara's Father's sacrifice of Little Mara.