I Know What You Did Last Summer establishes itself to be a solid remake that keeps the soul and general beats of the original while becoming something all on its own. But more importantly, it manages to write the adolescent characters in a way that other teen drama shows like Riverdale could only dream of; they made them feel real.
Similar to the original movie, there’s an exorbitant amount of partying, sexual activity, and underage drinking and drug use, along with a virtually non-existent paternal and/or authority presence, all with a cast of adults playing teens which makes the legality of this content much more straightforward.
While describing both the original film and its current television remake, this can also describe the majority of American teen dramas throughout the years, and especially now, with the main characters seemingly trapped in a limbo of being in high school, and thus young, but with the sexual liberation and expression of fully grown adults, neither description anywhere near what they actually present themselves as; while the shows may be trying to include the reality of teen sexuality and exploration, they more often than not result in overly sexualized content made for the audience’s enjoyment rather than character development.
In the premiere of I Know What You Did Last Summer, sex and sexuality are constantly present, as the majority of the episode takes place during a wild high school graduation party that is chaperoned by parents only on paper, not in practice, yet despite the prolonged sexual dancing between Margot (Brianne Tju, Light As a Feather) and Lennon (Madison Iseman, Annabelle Comes Home), it doesn’t feel targeted towards the audience in any way, but rather feels like the actions of two adolescent girls that, while arguably more than the actions of most, are solely their own and not a means to capitalize on the freedom of adult actors being able to be filmed in these hyper sexual situations without any legal issues arising.
While still against the backdrop of an intense party with multicolored strobe lighting and characters who kiss and feel up each other on a regular basis, there aren’t any gratuitous scenes of the girls pole dancing or being in any way overtly sexualized for the audience’s gaze; Margot and Lennon kiss in the episode, but it’s not for the audience’s pleasure, but rather as a way to establish the dynamic the two girls have, as Lennon refers to Margot as a “cunt” not even two minutes later.
This general theme of character-driven actions informs all aspects of the episode which makes not only for good storytelling, but for a teen drama that depicts the reality of teen life without being predatory. There’s no glorification of underage drinking or drug use, but just a statement of its existence as part of the greater narrative.
This episode sets up the conflict and exposition that drive the rest of the season. It starts out with Lennon—or whom we’re meant to believe is Lennon—returning home for summer break only to find a note in her closet mirror that taunts her about what she had done the previous summer. That naturally leads into exactly what the note discusses, revealing Lennon’s twin sister Allison, also played by Iseman, and the rest of their friends as they celebrate their graduation.
The party sequence follows three general plots, the most crucial being Allison and Lennon’s scheme to get their longtime friend Dylan (Ezekiel Goodman, Rat Bastard) to have sex with Allison. The most important aspect being that Allison and Lennon change clothes to look exactly the same, which becomes important later.
The other plot threads follow the rest of the friend group. Margot and Johnny (Sebastian Amoruso, Solve) are best friends who are supposedly going to USC together, though it’s later revealed that Johnny will be attending Juilliard but doesn’t know how to break the news to Margot, as they seem to have a history and he owes her a lot of his good fortune. The most notable part of their thread is that Margot’s family is rich and the ones who hosted this party, which set up the entire situation. It was actually really interesting to see Margot’s mother, Mel (Sonya Balmores, Inhumans), who was very much “the cool mom,” complete with hosting a party that provided teens with alcohol with the intentions of keeping them in a safe environment; seeing how she interacted with Margot and Johnny set up an interesting dynamic that will hopefully be explored later, as she, too, felt like a genuine character, albeit heavily based on a caricature.
When Dylan wasn’t part of the twins’ plot line, he was making rounds with Riley (Ashley Moore, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping) who was dealing drugs to the various party goers. It was Riley who gave ketamine to Lennon—which Lennon then used to get Dylan alone to have sex—and was also the one to spot the police officer and cause the group to leave the party, for obvious reasons.
Every aspect and dialogue line within these three main plot threads was integral to the main conflict of the episode and, subsequently, the series, and the show did a great job of revealing more information in small doses in order to allow the audience to put the pieces together without needing to wait too long for confirmation. It was fascinating that Lennon’s casual misquote of Clueless about Allison not knowing how to drive was key to the clue that it was Allison behind the wheel, not Lennon, because of how poorly she drove. Even the quick scenes of the twins just putting down their jackets was key to the narrative; everything is so well thought yet subtle enough that it truly makes the audience feel the need to rewatch and catch all that they had missed the first time around.
This attention to detail and consideration on all the words and choices also revealed more and more about the characters themselves, which was crucial to the episode’s success, as it made sure to establish them as being far more complex than initially shown.
Margot said it herself, she’s a complicated person, and all the characters had more substance to them than just being the archetypes that they were generally assigned. Margot proved herself to be far more than just a rich party girl, and is far less vapid than she was initially set up to be, and Riley didn’t fit the archetype of the high school drug dealer in the slightest, just to name a few examples. There were hints to even more that will probably be revealed later, specifically with Lennon, as Allison had hinted to her having razor blades, and towards the end of the episode she revealed herself to be far more than just the more popular, rude twin sister, but having far more unknown depth to her.
In general, these characters are what elevate this from being a mediocre remake, and they will be carrying the majority of the series, as the narrative, while interesting, may become predictable at times, and it’s up to the characters to keep it interesting enough to sit through even if the viewer can see the twist from a mile away, which is what happened with the twist in this episode.
The late runtime plot twist, as stated, wasn’t a complete shock. It had been somewhat expected considering that the same actress played both twins, it’s almost required, but it was well foreshadowed and set up that it didn’t come out of nowhere, which was a point in its favor. Not only that, but the way the episode went about revealing more of the twins’ personalities and dynamic, as well as the way they went about revealing the specifics of the information, as well as verifying the various puzzle pieces the viewer may have picked up on, all worked to keep the interest alive and still result in a satisfying ending despite some viewers already knowing what to expect.
Overall, this was a solid first episode and lead-in for the rest of the season, and it will be interesting to see what’s in store for the group in the present when their past finally catches up to them, as the first episode set up the foundation for the rest of the season and proved itself to be far more clever than first impressions would suggest.
Rating: 8.5/10