The last four episodes of Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures TV’s young adult horror series, ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer,’ have been released and we at Horror Facts decided to binge-watch the last four episodes.
As previously established, the series follows roughly the same format as the 1997 identically titled slasher film with some key elements slightly altered.
The new series’ central plot follows our new cast of teens who, after engaging in wild partying on their graduation night, accidentally kill someone the group knows. Returning to the same premise as the film, the group dumps the body and everyone agrees to tell no one what happened that night.
For the first three episodes, the series presents the viewer with the idea that the killer could be the person they hit that night, who somehow managed to survive the accident and is now back for revenge. That all changes with episode four and we’re left truly wondering who the killer is.
At the time, we hoped that the remainder of the ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ series would be able to keep up the pace that the first four episodes were able to generate.
Let’s see how the series managed to unfold and determine if ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ is worth finishing.
Warning: This post contains spoilers.
In the fifth episode, titled ‘Mukbang,’ we see our cast of characters brought in for police interrogation following the murders that took place in the previous episodes.
The main focus of the episode, however, is Clara (Brooke Bloom), the last surviving member of a local cult. Our gang suspects that she is the culprit behind the recent string of murders. Together, they search the cult compound that we got a brief glimpse of in the last episode. It’s here where we learn that Bruce (Bill Heck), Lennon and Allison’s father, has ties to the cult, a connection that we only briefly learned about in the previous episode.
This episode is designed to throw suspicion on Clara as well as Bruce because we learn that he was the reason the real Lennon was on the road that night and, like Clara, he is keeping secrets of his own.
The episode ends with someone gasping for air and a bloody machete laying on the ground. This little carrot is designed to make sure you come back for the next episode.
Which we did.
The next episode, titled ‘Least You Had a Spare,’ opens on the bloody machete and we’re treated to a “12 Hours Earlier” message.
The episode is designed to show how our gang escapes the compound, with emphasis on Riley (Ashley Moore), who appears to be the next target of our mysterious killer.
The unfortunate part of the episode is that we are once again transported back to the party featured in the first episode with the focus being on Riley’s account of the events of the party.
Unable to locate Riley, her friends set out to find her while her mother also goes in search of her missing daughter. The two search parties are soon led astray by someone using Riley’s phone.
While this is all going on, the police are able to trace back evidence to Clara. Convinced that they have found their killer, they raid her compound only to find another body.
The episode ends on another cliff-hanger as it attempts to establish that, like Bruce, one of the teens has a previously unknown connection to Clara.
Episode seven, titled ‘If Only Dogs Could Talk,’ looks to eliminate any suspicion we had about Bruce, as he reveals to Lennon his secrets about his connection to the cult and the real truth behind her mother’s death. The same secrets that, it turns out, the real Lennon was going to share with her sister the night of the party.
In the spirit of sharing secrets, Lennon shares with her father everything that has been going on since she returned.
Thanks to a tip from Bruce, the police find Clara’s hiding place where they find Riley’s body encased in honey, the same manner in which she prepared the real Lennon a year ago.
Along with Riley, they discover the dead body of Clara, setting up that there might be more to Dylan than we suspected. Convinced that they found their killer in Clara, the townsfolk feel like they’re finally able to mourn the loss of their loved ones.
Life appears to return to normal as Lennon and Dylan seem to be growing closer. Following a passionate night together, Lennon reveals to Dylan that she is secretly Allison.
Outraged by her deceit, Dylan goes to the police station to report what happened that night on the road, while Margot gets a visit from the still very much alive killer.
The final episode in the season, titled ‘Your Next Life Could be so Much Happier,’ reveals the dark secret that Allison had seen her sister on the road that night and intentionally hit her.
After finding no one will believe his story about Lennon really being Allison, Dylan is surprised to learn that Margot has suspected that there has been something off about her best friend lately.
Margot returns to the compound while Dylan visits Allison to inform her that she needs to confess her transgressions. At this point, the episode is attempting to set up the idea that Dylan has, in fact, been the killer the whole time.
Interrupted by a phone call from Margot, the two estranged friends go to the compound where Dylan is attacked from behind (Guess he’s not the killer).
Allison finds Margot, only to be met with the startling revelation that Margot is, in fact, the killer. She confesses to Allison that she has known this whole time that Lennon was the one killed that night and that she has been killing everyone as a means to get Allison to reveal the truth about herself.
Dylan eventually manages to escape his confinement and confront Margot before she’s able to finish Allison off. The police arrive during their standoff and, in an unexpected twist, Allison claims that Dylan is the killer in a desperate attempt to show Margot that she, in fact, does care for her.
Dylan is taken away and is locked inside a mental institution, where it’s further revealed that he has strong ties to the cult, something that the series had been starting to establish in these last four episodes.
We then see that Margot and Allison are together, insinuating that Allison may be just as crazy as her friend/lover.
Before the credits roll, we catch a glimpse of Riley, who has been locked in an evidence freezer still encased in honey, suddenly opening her eyes. Could she be “the one” the cult prophesized about?
As the credits start to roll, we are treated to a full confession from Margot about how she pulled it off, including the revelation that she had help from her bodyguard and mother. This whole confession was unneeded and served only to further illustrate how absurd the concept of Margot being the killer truly is.
With Margot’s crimes going unpunished, Dylan’s new obsession with the cult, and Riley’s apparent resurrection, could this be Amazon’s way of telling us they want another season of ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’? After all, somebody still knows what Margot did last summer.
The series started off with promise but quickly torpedoed itself into absurdity, bordering on downright stupidity at times.
The series didn’t need to be complicated: keep the audience guessing who the killer might be, throw out a couple of “red herrings,” and shock us at the end with a big reveal.
Instead, the creators of ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ had to overcomplicate the story by unnecessarily bringing in the cult aspect and having so much of the series revolve around this idea. The biggest mistake was the reveal of Margot as the killer, easily the most unbelievable choice of all the characters on the show.
With all that in mind, we at Horror Facts feel that this show should be a one and done. Some things are better left in the past and, in the case of ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer,’ the story should remain in 1997.
