If there’s one thing this show does well, it’s making their plot twists constant but realistic. They constantly reveal more information about the events of that graduation party that upends all the preconceptions the viewers had developed in the previous episode, and every time it seems there’s an answer it’s also countered with another twist, but it’s never out of left field, there’s always enough foundation and backstory to make it plausible and keep from being annoying; if the audience doesn’t buy the twists, they feel cheated, and I Know What You Did Last Summer manages to keep viewers engaged and continue watching to the end, rather than giving up on the show entirely and feeling as though it’s not worth the time and energy.
When it comes to thrillers, the most important aspect is that the audience cares what happens to the characters. If they don’t care, all the deaths and high stake scenes wind up being underwhelming because no matter how imaginative the murder scene may be, if there’s no foundation then there’s no point to care whether or not the killer succeeds or not.
This show takes this to heart and is where the bulk of its success truly lies. All the twists and turns of the episodes are made impactful by the characters. The layered relationships and individual depths within all of them are incredibly detailed and succeed in their task of emotionally investing the viewers in their stories and lives, to care enough about them to find out what comes next. It’s truly impressive, and they manage to do that with even the most minor of support characters, making sure that everything that happens means something and leaves the viewer caring, even for the characters that won’t necessarily be missed, such as Dale (Spencer Sutherland, Afterlife of the Party) and Doug (Eric William Morris, Golden Boy); for characters like Coach Eric Craft (Duncan Kamakana, Hawaii Five-0) and Harold (Dann Seki, Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.) their relationships with the other characters established them enough that, while they didn’t have any individual scenes, their deaths meant something.
They even made a point in this episode to develop Doug from being more than just the casually racist cop who bothered Riley (Ashley Moore, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping) and talks like a robot. It wasn’t even that they revealed a tragic backstory that makes him sympathetic and absolves him of all prior sins or makes him out to be this amazing hero—the man excitedly revealed that he still lives with his mother, monologued about the importance of his job and BitCoin to a toddler, and called three justifiably upset people shouting for justice an “angry mob”—but in the end he felt real enough that, when he was found dead, it felt as though an actual person died rather than just another body to add to the kill count.
Their ability to reveal more information as they go is also key to keeping the viewers invested, as the characters they already care for are never truly what they seem to be, and it’s hard to pin down whether to love or hate them because there always seems to be something else to them that wasn’t seen or known before.
Margot (Brianne Tju, Light As a Feather) is the best example of this, as she was the focus of the flashbacks in this episode. Her TikTok before the funeral could have easily put her in the loathe list and kept her there, but a second later revealed her mother Mei (Sonya Balmores, Inhumans) who had made her reshoot the video multiple times until she felt it was just right, focused more on the absence of flashback than comforting her daughter who was on the brink of tears the entire time.
She had been integral to the revelation that Lennon used her twin sister’s name to make her porn account—which, depending on when she first started filming and uploading, may have illegal content since Lennon was still in high school and could have very well been a minor—as well as how Lennon managed to get a video of her and Dylan (Ezekiel Goodman, Rat Bastard) having sex in the first place, and while that was striking enough, what with all the implications it has for Allison†(Madison Iseman, Annabelle Comes Home) who is pretending to be Lennon (Madison Iseman, Annabelle Comes Home), the reveal that Margot was actually in love with Lennon blew the porn account out of the water.
The flashback confrontation scene between Margot and Lennon after Dylan left the room was wonderfully tragic. It showed that Allison wasn’t the only one with a complicated, toxic relationship with her sister, and raised many questions about how Margot actually feels about Lennon, as the scene where she tried to convince Lennon to admit that she loved her could have been easily construed as her being too pushy and falling to the “crazed stalker” type of character, though that’s unlikely in this scenario. Either way, it leaves Margot in a tough situation as she’s
It only heightened the drama, what with Allison† pretending to be Lennon and Margot none the wiser, which causes her to second guess and question all the things Allison† does, as her character is neither Allison nor Lennon but is instead caught in a limbo between the two.
It’s not just enough for Allison† to have to hear about what her twin sister and her friends said and thought about her when she wasn’t around, but she also has to deal with the consequences of her sister’s actions, most of which she had absolutely no idea about, jeopardizing her lie and her safety by being forced to fly blind. In the case of Margot, it’s not life or death, nor is it anything nefarious, but it still has to be mentally jarring to be even remotely intimate with someone who thinks you’re someone else—not to mention morally dubious in terms of consent—especially when the relationship is as volatile as the group’s.
But out of everything, Margot is the least of Allison’s† worries. If things weren’t hard enough, Allison† has to stay quiet as Dylan admits to being in love with her the entire time and scorns her for what Lennon had done to the both of them, facing his ire while knowing he loves her. She made a great point in this episode that he needed to stop being a dick and taking his hurt out on other people, and it stands to point out that, hopefully, Allison† moves on because Dylan really isn’t that great, which has been once again exemplified in this episode.
The man thinks Allison brutally killed three people yet gets all excited about the idea that she’s reaching out to try and connect with him by leaving her jacket. The little excited smile he got when he was talking with Riley and telling her that she just didn’t get it only solidified how unnatural and uncomfortable his behavior and reactions the past two episodes really were. The man showed no emotion at all to Johnny’s death and showed no empathy to anyone else, and he’s probably at least in cahoots with the killer, if not the killer himself.
Not only that, but after Lennon’s dead body was found and the group are in Allison’s† room to discuss and mourn, he takes out his hurt on a still clearly grieving Allison†—who he thinks is Lennon—and talks to her with such disdain, along with saying that he loved Allison more than she did which, while he does have evidence for that, that’s still not something he should be saying to a dead girl’s twin sister. Like Allison† said, he has no idea what she felt or feels and he honestly has no right to act like the most self-righteous and victimized one of the group when it’s also been shown that Lennon definitely screwed Margot over more than him, and with Riley’s hard life and Allison having been constantly in her sister’s shadow, he really needs to calm down.
Additionally, as Riley pointed out, while he was off being emo and dramatic, a killer is still loose with intimate knowledge of all their lives, including Lennon’s, and has no sympathy for any of them, Dylan included; granting that he’s not on the killer’s side. While it’s cold, Riley makes a good point about their priorities; after all, Allison is dead, and after a full year, Dylan needs to at least reach the depression stage, he’s stuck oscillating between grief and anger and isn’t handling it well or taking responsibility for his actions.
But as if this wasn’t even hard enough, one of the most difficult moments of this twisted disconnect between her and Dylan—the same scene where she tells him to stop being such a dick—is when she has to stand to the side as he apologies and tearfully professes his love to her over Lennon’s dead body because she and her father had to host her funeral.
She makes the point herself when Bruce (Bill Heck, Locke & Key) asks how she’s holding up, she has to plan for her funeral and stand there as people talk about how she’s in a better place and no longer hurting while she stands there, alive and in pain, the entire time. It’s mentally exhausting even as just the viewer, and the episode did a great job depicting Bruce and Allison’s† reactions, with the heartbreaking yet brilliant scene of him breaking down in his car, and her still on the verge of breaking down any chance she gets; how neither of them have broken and admitted the truth in a fit of despair—especially Allison† with Dylan’s behavior—is astounding.
Not to mention the traumatizing experience of bumping into her dead sister’s body in the ocean and knowing what both she and Lennon look like after death, it’s a wonder she’s still able to stand, it’d be perfectly reasonable for her to go into shock or crisis mode and shut down completely.
The same could truly be said for Bruce considering Lennon was his favorite and he can’t even truly mourn her properly, as well as having to comfort his other daughter and keep up the twisted pretenses of their lie, but it seems that Bruce may have more reason to hide than initially believed.
It had been clarified the previous episode that the person who had witnessed the group dump Lennon’s body, as well as plant the goat head in Allison’s† closet—or at least have a bloodied goat in her possession at the cave for some reason—was Clara (Brooke Bloom, The Sinner), though little was known about her beyond her name and the fact she drove a black truck suspiciously similar to the one stalking Allison†.
From what was shown in this episode, it seems she may have been related in some way to the cult that the twins’ mother was part of, what with how she’s a white woman living in a really nice house in a secluded area near to the town, surrounded by trees and discussing the dumping of Lennon’s dead body as some kind of spiritual experience. Not to mention she admitted to being the one who left the necklace for Bruce in the previous episode.
Their relationship isn’t fully clear, though she doesn’t seem to know that the twin who died was actually Lennon, and Bruce seems to have only just suspected her now. He said he had protected her, probably from persecution in relation to the cult, and she seems to be covering up another secret for him, probably about his wife’s death; with the way they were interacting, it seems she may not be the killer, or at least not the only one, and it will be interesting to see what unfolds now that new secrets and layers have been revealed.
That sentiment can be applied to the entire episode, as well as the entire season in general, as more and more information is given that forces viewers to think and consider what will happen next.
Before his death, Doug had said the BitCoin transactions Dale had prior to his death were with an OnlyFans account he believes to belong to the “dead girl” who washed up. While to the viewers it’s straightforward since Lennon has a porn account so OnlyFans is a logical additional revenue stream, but the town believes that Allison is dead, so either they all think Lennon’s porn account is actually Allison’s—since the username was AllyWally—or it’ll be revealed it’s Lennon’s, which will cause issues for Allison† who doesn’t actually know how to pretend to be her sister at all, especially when it comes to her sex life, which could cause more issues for her and Bruce as they try to keep their secret while navigating the deaths and trying to stay alive, all while grieving over both Lennon and Allison, as they have both, in one way or another, passed on.
Overall, this was a great episode—with a great twist for the midseason finale—with great reveals and quick scares, and with four more weekly releases until the finale, the tension can only build from here.
Rating: 9/10