REVIEW: Dead of Summer, Episode 107
Dead of Summer continues the season with episode 7 entitled “Townie” and it was definitely an episode of answers.
We saw flashbacks to Garrett’s past, and the opening scene was really great. In it we saw two kids with a bat, right in front of a teacher’s car, ready to smash it. While one was very reluctant to doing this, the other kept pushing him to. It would be to expect that the mean kid was Damon and the one who seemed to be well behaved was Garrett, but things took a surprising turn when we found out that it was actually the other way around. Ironically, it seems that Garrett was the one who pushed Damon to the dark side. But of course they were still kids and a lot could change (and it did) and the thing that changed Garrett was going to Camp Stillwater. Well, it is probably more correct to say that Garrett wasn’t changed by something, but by someone: Jessie, also known as Braces. Jessie was definitely into the camp spirit and quickly decided to approach the misfit, and she never gave up on him, not even when he seemed to always recur to anger and beating when things got a little tough. In the end, Garrett put all that anger into good use, by making Team Red win the Color War.
We also even realized why and how Michael, Joel’s brother, started seeing Holyoke. He was a monitor at the camp during Garett’s first and only summer adventure there. Apparently Holyoke approached him the same way he did Joel and Anton. I am really glad this was explained, because, even though it was a minor storyline, it really didn’t make sense that Holyoke, who was linked to the camp, would just start hunting some random someone outside of it. After Michael killed himself, and with the camp being closed, Holyoke moved on to hunting his brother, which actually makes sense (or at least as much sense as it can make).
In present day, Garrett decides that he is tired of Satanists, so he wants to bring them down once and for all. With the Sheriff’s help, they set up a plan and use Amy as bait. Even though the plan didn’t have much space for failure, it definitely failed terribly: both Amy and the Sheriff (who was watching her) disappeared without a trace. Desperate to find them, Garrett followed Anton’s lead and searched for a cave where he found Amy tied above a lake and the Satanists around her. In an unexpected twist, Damon and his crew killed themselves shortly after his arrival, saying that would make the demon rise. And in fact Garrett did see something when he was pulling Amy out of the water. He saw a hand (it was hardly a hand, but I don’t know what else to call it) grabbing her leg. With Jessie’s help he was able to save Amy, believing that it was all finally finished, little did he know that it is just getting started.
Meanwhile, Drew and Blair started connecting again while they were on the woods making sure everything was OK. They talked about things and finally accepted their relationship, ending up sharing their second kiss. I am definitely glad they finally decided to make amends because it is no fun seeing them apart.
But the episode still had one more final twist to show, and in the last scene we found out that the Sheriff was the person Damon used to refer to as “The Teacher”. This was a cool twist. It wasn’t really super unpredictable but I don’t think anyone can say it was obvious either. This is why he never helped Garrett investigate, but he never stopped him either since that would have been extremely suspicious. Garrett finds out he was the one who killed his dad so right in the last second, Garrett shoots the Sheriff. But as I said, this is far from being finished, and we saw there was someone wearing a mask and watching all this, meaning that more trouble is still coming.
This was really a great episode. We finally got some answers and it is so much relaxing that the Satanists are now out of the way (most of them, anyway). I also really liked the flashback scenes too. I am giving this episode a 9.0/10.
Next episode, entitled “The Devil Inside”, also provides some much needed answers, especially when it comes to Jessie’s past, since this is finally her centric episode, so don’t miss my review.