Switch and Bait
Episode 1 of I Know What You Did Last Summer begins in the sunny town of Wai Huna. Lennon arrives home and greets her father. It’s been a year since she’s been back and it’s clear there’s something hidden we’re not being told. Alas, dear readers, we’re about to find out. When Lennon heads upstairs and looks in the closet, lipstick is scrawled across the mirror reading “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, with an accompanying bloody ram head for good measure. Screams pierce the time tunnel as we tumble into the past to a party that we’re going to see a lot of across the season. Here, twin sisters Lennon and Allison both attend a party. And boy, they could not be more different. While Lennon is a bratty party girl who doesn’t cvare about anyone, Allison plays up the “nervous virgin” stereotype seen so often in slashers of old. The party is your typical cliche-ridden affair, complete with flashy lights, lots of drinking and drug taking. Lennon and Allison fall out though, with the latter unwilling to do drugs or sink to Lennon’s level. Instead, Lennon turns to Dylan, the guy who Alison has a soft spot for, encouraging him to do drugs and sleep with her. When Alison finds out her sister has been getting cozy with Dylan, she’s completely crushed. It’s the final straw for Allison who curses out her sister and walks away. Drunk and intoxicated, Johnny, Riley and Margot head out with Dylan while Lennon chills in her car. As they drive up the road, swerving all over the place, Lennon hits something in the road. Just like in the movie adaptation, the gang hit a body. Instead of a fisherman though they happen to have hit Allison. Dylan believes they should phone the police but the others are adamant this is a bad idea and decide not to. Instead, they choose to move Allison’s dead body across to a cave, hiding her from view and concocting an elaborate story about her being a runaway. Given Allison had no friends and a fractured relationship with her family, they all agree to this lie. So off they go, the kids take Allison’s body down to the caves where they say a prayer to see her off. Lennon is torn up though, and further flashbacks confirm she has a history of self-harm, so she’s not the complete package of confidence we’ve been led to believe. Still, that doesn’t excuse her behaviour toward Allison. The kids worry that someone’s watching them as they, although it just turns out to be bats. Or does it? The sound of breathing and gasps continues to distract the kids as they head out the cave. Interestingly though, someone happens to be watching from afar. And then we get the big, shocking twist of the episode. It turns out Allison isn’t actually the one who died that night – it’s Lennon! Allison switched places with her and decided to adopt Lennon’s persona, hence her slightly different behaviour. After stealing her sister’s identity, could it be that Lennon is out for revenge?
The Episode Review
Thee decision to have Alison adopt Lennon’s identity for herself, and potentially see the real Lennon as the killer is a lovely little deviation from the movie where a random fisherman happens to be the killer. Now, there could be further twists to come here but so far the source material appears to have been a springboard for something very different. For now, the first episode delivers a pretty enjoyable teen drama, but it remains to be seen if this one can pull it out the bag and double down on its original twists or not.
