First Impressions (With Spoilers): I Know What You Did Last Summer

We all wear masks. We all hide our true selves. We pretend to be someone else so we can be accepted. 

But do we reveal our true selves to ourselves when we are alone? What do you think about when you look in the mirror? 

Pretty deep, huh? 

Or is it pretty clichéd? How many movies and TV shows have more or less used the same monologue so that the premise can appear "deep"?

I Know What You Did Last Summer, the TV series, was released recently and here's what I thought about the first episode.

We met Lennon returning to her town after a year. She talks about masks and whatnot while driving and looks around at the town to probably find that nothing has changed.

When she finally arrives home, she makes a face when her dad greets her. He tells her to come to the restaurant after she's done putting her things away. He also asks why she didn't let him pick her up from the airport. 

Well, then how would she have made deep observations about people wearing masks and giving a major hint as to where this story is headed. Also, whose car is that? Was it parked at the airport? Did she then take a ferry to come into town? Just how did she get the car? Unless it's a rental. 

Her dad, Bruce, says hi and then goes away. Who cares if his daughter came home after a year. He doesn't want to wait around the house for her to make a quick change and bring her to the restaurant.  Nope. He let's her find her own way and just leaves.

Lennon looks at the hundreds of pictures she has on the wall of her friends and her sister. Yes, she had a twin, Allison.

The door opens and a woman walks in. She promptly puts her cleaning supplies on the bed. A bit of chemical splash on the bedsheets won't matter. If anything, it would disinfect the millions of germs. 

Lennon despises cleanliness so tells the cleaning lady to go away. She does but not before voicing her concern about payment as she has to clean this room every Thursday.

Lennon makes a face. She's sullen and frowning all the time. She hears something in her closet and opens it to find blood dripping and a message in what looks like pink lipstick, not blood. The message: I know what you did last summer.

Lennon shrieks as she remembered what she was upto last summer.

A year ago, Lennon and her friends were enjoying themselves at their graduation party.

There's a guy peeing openly in the pool. Pretty much everyone is into.iloegal substances. The teens are all drinking and smoking. And yes, all the girls are into putting glitter on their faces.

The youth are portrayed as desperate people doing whatever it takes to appear cool and relevant. Yes, there is a girl in there who is obsessed with social media.

Despite all the partying and the bad habits all of these students somehow made it to ivy league colleges. 

Allison is dropped to the party by her father and the first thing she does is complain to Lennon about not waiting for her to come to the party. What could Allison be doing that got her late? At least Lennon put on some glitter and stars on her face. Allison just tied her hair in a ponytail.

Allison is shown to be jealous of her sister to the point that she hates her. Yet, she has the same haircut and hairstyle as her and wears exactly the same clothes as her. She emulates Lennon in every probably because she secretly wants her life. 

Lennon decides to get Allison dressy for the party and that means tossing away her gray jacket and putting blue eyeliner on her. There's a lot of talk about going all the way and Allison's feelings for their common friend Dylan. Lennon wants her sister to do it but Allison is reserved.

Insults are thrown around and eventually Lennon gets pissed off at her sister enough to make a move on Dylan.

Allison stands at the edge of the cliff when her friend Johnny comes over and makes a comment about taking the easy way out. Considering the twins' mother committed suicide maybe that remark was a bit cruel? 

Anyway, Allison is given encouragement to go after what she wants and so she goes to Dylan who is drinking. He pours her a drink but Lennon takes it and makes it as if she and Dylan have something going on. Allison gets pissed and leaves in a huff.

Dylan doesn't bother following her.

Allison and Lennon get into a full blown fight which is shown in bits and pieces.

While that is going on, Margot and Riley get nervous when the cop shows up. Since they have illegal substances in their possession,  they run outside and see Lennon already in her car.

Now it was established that Allison cannot drive so when the jeep reverses we see it bump into the fence. Also, we can all see where there is going from the start. It's no coincidence that both sisters are wearing similar white tank tops and shorts and blue eye liner. But apparently it's supposed to be this big surprise. 

Lennon is supposedly under the influence which is why she hits something. Everyone thinks it's a goat because there are goats roaming around in the middle of the night on secluded roads. 

Lennon doesn't think so. Perhaps she knows exactly what she hit. Perhaps she always wanted to do it.

Riley is the one who discovers what was hit. She tries to stop Lennon from seeing it who does anyway and goes into shock. Her expressions however are mysterious. Either the actor is bad at emoting or it was all on purpose. It does feel like Lennon knew what she had hit.

It's Allison. 

She's dead.

The friends don't pin everything on Lennon and run away. They are amazing friends and are ready to share the burden of this secret. It's no longer what Lennon did this summer. It's become their crime and secret too. 

The girls come up with a plan to throw Allison into the cave and let the tide take her. The boys have second thoughts but have all been accepted into prestigious colleges. 

Still, majority wins and Allison is dumped in the cave. A woman watches it all from a distance. Scenes intercut to show Lennon explaining to Allison that she needs to move on with her life after the family tragedy. Allison wears her mother's necklace and tosses it to her sister, accusing her of wanting everyone to hate her.

Lennon pretends she's doing the right thing by her sister by being cruel so that she can move on. As soon as Allison leaves, Lennon doesn't pocket her mother's necklace. Rather she wears it. 

So that's how Lennon ended up being the one hit. And all of her friends end up thinking Allison is Lennon because they've been friends since kindergarten and know so much about each other except which twin is which.

Back in the present, Allison sees the goat's head hanging from her closet and wonders who knows their secret.

The first episode was dull with too much time spent on strobing lights and uninspiring music. The build up could have been better and perhaps the twins could have been styled differently.

But this show is based on a cult movie series so of course there is the curiosity to see where it will head. 

Chances are the person sending the threatening notes is going to be some random character. If this show gets another season, somewhere along the way it will be revealed that the real Lennon was alive all this time. 

Hopefully the series picks up in the coming episodes.

Continue watching? 2/5