Saint X (Season 1 Finale) Episode 8: I have to give it to ‘Saint X’ for delivering a finale that ties up every loose thread. It does not leave you with any burning questions to ponder over. Honestly, that is kind of a relief considering how underwhelming the whole thing has been up until now. The finale yet again proves that the source material they had was something genuinely intriguing and could have made for an interesting show, if only it was handled better.
Saint X (Season 1 Finale) Episode 8 Recap:
Instead of keeping it under wraps till the end, ‘Saint X’ decides to answer its central mystery pretty early on in the episode. I am not sure whether that is a good creative decision or not because once the main reveal was done, the rest was a montage of what everyone is up to. The highlight of that has to be Clive finally meeting Edwin after getting back to the Island.
Now the thing is that it would have worked if I cared for these characters but most of them were so underdeveloped that I barely felt anything. The show made it clear in the end that it was never really about the mystery, but about the people associated with it. To make that work, all they needed was better writing – something matching the standard of a certain ‘Mare of Easttown’. Anyway, we are going to start with the incidents of the fateful night.
In the past, the last we saw Alison was when she was leaving the resort with Clive and Edwin. In the present, Clive picks up Emily in his taxi, confronts her about her real identity, and reveals that he already knows. Seeing no other choice, Emily directly asks about that fateful night. Clive, understandably mad at her, decides to tell her the whole thing only if she promises never to see him again.
After Hours
Alison, Edwin, and Clive hit the local bar. Clive is still angry with Edwin, and the tension between the two is quite visible, but Alison is oblivious to it. After the bar, Alison proposes to go to Faraway-Kay, but Edwin was only joking about it, so he takes her to a different place instead – a beautiful lake in the middle of the jungle. Upon Alison’s insistence, Clive also tags along. The three smoke up and relax around the lake until things heat up, and Alison ends up kissing both Clive and Edwin.
Then she demands the two men should make out as well. After a bit of hesitation, Edwin initiates it and quickly gets it over with. But in the span of a second or two, both of them feel things on a deeper level. When Alison lies down for a bit, Edwin finally gets the opportunity to pour his heart out. His romantic feelings towards Clive do get reciprocated, which I didn’t find surprising. The two soon get physical, but Alison sees them, and a cloud of awkwardness hovers over them. The two men freak out while Alison runs away.
A still from Saint X Season 1 Episode 8 (Series finale)Back at the resort, Tyler and Olivia are about to take it past second base but a mention of Alison makes Tyler pull himself away. A rather frustrated Tyler meets a dazed Alison, and the two end up having sex. Things are good until Alison asks Tyler to be rough with her, and he fails to comply. Alison runs away to her room, and Tyler follows. A still awake Claire gets mad at her sister for neglecting her and continuously getting away. But Alison is too far gone by then. There is something she needs to do. So she leaves, leaving her little sister behind. That’s the last time anyone ever saw her.
Saint X (Season 1 Finale) Episode 8 Ending, Explained
What really happened to Alison?
With every single piece of information on the table, it was not really difficult to figure it out. Well, we didn’t have to go through any ambiguity regarding what happened, as we clearly got to see what transpired. Alison skinny-dips and swims to Faraway-Kay, and then she slips and dies. Yes, exactly, that’s exactly what happened. What follows is mostly what we already know. Edwin and Clive are caught by the local police in a cooked-up state. When they get out of jail the next morning, they become the prime suspects. Clive is put in jail by the then police chief, with the “drug allegation”, for supposedly covering up the actual crime.
In the present, Emily finally reaches the point where she accepts what has happened. After breaking up with Josh, she returns to her parents but doesn’t tell them what happened to Alison. Instead, she thanks them for trying to protect her for all these years and how she desires a future where they all get to be real. She also asks her mother to start calling her Claire from then on.
Clive returns to the Island and meets Sara. After all these years, Sara seems really happy to see him. When Clive asks about Edwin, Sara takes him to see his former best friend. I kind of expected to find Edwin in a dire state, and I was right after all. The charming young man from the past has surrendered to cancer, thanks to all the smoking. As we see Clive and Edwin talking about New York and reminiscing about the past, things fade away. Saint X ends on a rather satisfying note, giving us all the closure.
But the show is going to fade away from our minds pretty soon. It really needed a different treatment and a far better script to work out properly with the kind of content it had. Unfortunately, the makers failed to hit the right note with this one, no offense. However, in the middle of everything, Alycia Debnam-Carey was a revelation, and so were Josh Bonzie and West Duchovny. I hope all these talented actors manage to find better movies and shows in the future.
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Saint X (Season 1 Finale), Episodes 8 Links – IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes
Saint X (Season 1 Finale), Episode 8 Cast – Alycia Debnam-Carey, Kenlee Townsend, Jayden Elijah
Where to watch Saint X
