“Dead of Summer,” Episode 1.03 – Mix Tape
[Warning: All major episode spoilers ahead!]
Intro: Cricket comes out of the shower, alone, in the women’s bathroom at camp. It’s night time and she hears someone enter the bathroom, but never actually sees them, prompting her to break the horror movie code of conduct and call out, “Hello?,” several times. When she realizes no one is there, she heads back to her cabin, completely unaware that she’s being followed by a group of people wearing black robes and rams’ heads. The next morning, Cricket is adding graffiti around campus that would make her seem cooler or sluttier and Blaire wants her to stop being so desperate, she doesn’t want sex, she wants a good man. Outside, the core group of characters are talking about how half of them have the night off and half of them have to run the movie night event. Amy, Alex and Cricket are given the night off while Joel, Blaire, Jessie and Drew are assigned to movie night. Cricket goes inside to check on the graffiti and sees that someone left her a message – meet them on the dock at noon.
Something Fishy: Deputy Towny meets the Sheriff at his mom’s restaurant to tell him some of the weird things he’s discovered since the camp reopened. He’s really concerned about the safety of everyone there, but the sheriff brushes him off. He eventually returns to the camp, discovering a cabin that was supposed to be burned to the ground and goes inside. He examines the piano that Tony Todd aka The Tall Man played during the intro of the very first episode and finds a devil symbol etched into one of the keys. The whole time he’s being watched by one of the cult members. Cricket goes to the dock at noon and instead of Alex, she finds the cult members. They attack her, but she manages to flee, although she does fall during the chase. They’re about to grab her, but it’s discovered that she took a nap and it was just a nightmare; though Amy notices that Cricket is off for the rest of the morning.
Things Get Fishier: Towny makes his way through camp, always on the look out for answers. Amy sees him and they hold a friendly conversation much to the anguish of Jessie, who really wants to get with him. Inside Cricket’s cabin, she discovers that someone carved a peep hole into the wall. She dismisses it for now and goes to the dock, but, just like her nightmare, she finds the biker gang instead of Alex. They’re very aggressive, but Towny is still around and makes the save before anything gets worse. Cricket is sad that she can’t get anyone she wants, and Jessie decides to help her in her pursuit of Alex. We finally see Joel and Deb, who go over the movie list for the evening, especially one title that deals with relationships between an older woman and younger male. You see where this is going, right? Joel says that Deb is the only one who gets here and we move on, quickly, to one of the devil worshipers watching Cricket through the peep hole in her cabin.
Can We Speed This Up?: As the groups are about to split up for the night, Jessie tells Deb that she got news that her grandmother has passed away. Respecting her grief, Deb has Amy take over Jessie’s shift at movie night and lets Jessie go out with Alex and Cricket. This is all a plot that girls devised and so far it’s working. They end up, you guessed it, at Towny’s mom’s restaurant and the biker’s just happen to be there, too. Cricket makes her first attempt to get with Alex, but she’s shot down. Jessie tells Cricket to get with one of the biker’s to make Alex jealous and she actually leaves the bar with one of them. Back at the movie night screening, Amy reveals to Joel that she knows Jessie and Cricket are working together to steal Alex, but she doesn’t want to make any enemies. Blaire and Drew kiss, with everyone apparently still unaware that Drew is a girl in disguise. On the road, the biker is speeding and it starts to freak out Cricket. They hit a dead deer in the middle of the road, which causes the glove box to pop open revealing a marker and a knife. Cricket realizes that the peep hole and the note on the wall were from the biker and he’s been stalking her. They get in a tussle as she tries to flee the car and they crash, but Towny, Jessie and Alex are right behind them. When the biker calls Cricket a whore, Alex jumps to her defense and beats the hell out of him.
Flashback: Six months before heading to camp, Cricket is a binge eater and has packed on quite a few pounds. The neighbor comes over to deliver their mail, it having been placed in the wrong mailbox, and makes a jab at Cricket about her weight issues. When she leaves, Cricket’s dad says any guy would be lucky to have her as long as he’s a quality guy. Later, in the high school bathrooms, she leaves graffiti that makes her sound easy. Blaire cautions her that she’ll just end up getting hurt if she continues on this path to find “love.” A few days later, Cricket and Blaire go to a high school party and a douchbag looking guy picks her up at the party and they have sex. Cricket thinks they’re in love, but the next day at school he ignores her and makes fun of her in front of his friends. Blaire walks her home because she’s so upset and her unexpected arrival reveals that her father is cheating on her mother with the neighbor who delivered the mail. Eventually Cricket tells her mother the truth, and the mother reveals that she’s known the truth all along. Her mother has no self worth and says that “women like us need to settle for what we get.”
Aftermath: Back at the camp, Alex and Cricket are finally alone together and Cricket is rather pleased that Alex fought for her. Alex makes fun of Blotter, which angers Cricket. They make out and fall on the floor and Cricket discovers a mix tape, thinking that Alex made it for her. Alex says no, that Blotter made it for her and they start making out again. When Cricket comes to the realization that she’s settling, and she really should have been with Blotter, she runs off. Jessie tries to get with Towny and gets denied, too, so no one is getting laid tonight. That night at the lake, the cult members are gathering people’s belongings and throwing them in the lake, including Blotter’s severed hand, which I guess means he’s dead. Amy brings Jessie cookies as a condolence gift about her grandma’s passing, showing that Amy is good at playing games of her own, too.
End: At the restaurant, the Sheriff says that they let the biker go because they can’t prove he did anything wrong. Towny tells him about the cabin that supposedly burned down in the 1800’s, but the Sheriff still brushes him off. I’m guessing he’s evil at this point. Joel and Deb are together again and continue to bond, even though she has a rams’ head mask of her own in the closet. Guessing she’s evil as well. Cricket listens to Blotter’s mix tape and finally overcomes her body issues and goes outside to play volleyball in a bikini. Meanwhile, the cult are doing a rituatiol with skulls and deer hearts and state that “they found her.” Cricket accidentally hits the volleyball into the lake and Amy goes to get it. When the cultists finish the ritual, the lake starts to bubble with blood and a violent storm rolls into camp, sending everyone inside for cover. Before Amy can get out of the lake, she’s struck by lightening and it looks like she drowns. The biker’s are watching from shore and say they were wrong about her.
