Totally Completely Fine (Season 1), Episode 1: The Stan Original Australian series, Totally Completely Fine, which Sundance Now now picks for an AMC+ premiere, stars Thomas Mckenzie as Vivian, a young suicidal teenager who inherits a huge house from her grandpa, only to discover that that beach facing cliff that the house is adjacent from, is a hot-spot for people trying to kill themselves.
Created by Gretel Vella, the show deals with themes of anxiety, depression, and sibling relationships while also showing the repercussions of loss and the trauma that keeps you in flux.
Totally Completely Fine (Season 1), Episode 1 Recap:
Episode 1: Welcome to the Crevice
The first episode opens with Vivan Cunnigham (Thomas Mckenzie) contemplating suicide in a bathtub. She is about to put a plugged-in hairdryer in, electrocuting herself, when she receives a call from her brother Hendrix (Brandon McClellan), who tells her that their grandpa has died.
She rushes out of the apartment of this TV actor she has been sleeping with to meet Hendrix. His brother asks her if she has been in contact with their eldest, John (Rowan Witt), after she burnt down his food truck. She dodges the question and comes off as a personality who hides around for her problems to go away on their own. But they don’t, and they just pile up into her mental health issues that feel deep-seated.
The opening also showed us flashes of a car accident with a younger Vivan, along with her parents. We know that the siblings have been without parents, and one can assume that Vivian’s anxiety and depression steam from feeling responsible for ruining all their lives when their parents died – possibly because of her mistake.
Anyway, as Vivan and Hendrix are having a little catch-up, eating their childhood favorite food, their eldest, John, comes in and tells them that all of them have been summoned by Wilkinson (John Noble), their Grandpa’s attorney, for the disclosure of his will. He is also mad at Vivian for not taking his calls or talking to him after she ruined his business.
Next, we see the three siblings in front of Mr. Wilkinso, who takes out Walt’s will and reads it to them. In his will, Walt, the sibling’s grandpa, has given his golf clubs to Hendrix, his massage chair to John, and his house – the most prized possession to Vivian. Everyone is surprised, but John, who is the more sorted out of the three siblings, is angry at Walt’s decision. He calls out his decision unfair, saying that Vivian is not just unfit for possessing something so valuable but also completely broke to take care of it. They disagree and have a fight for a while.
We then see Vivian taking her possessions (a mere hiking bag) to her newly inherited house. Wilkinson is there in his wheelchair to give Vivian her final note from her grandpa, which feels pretty straightforward at first, praising Vivian for being herself and all. The old man hands her the note and then hugs her goodbye, leaving her all by herself.
Vivian looks around the house where she grew up with her brothers after her mom and dad died. For a while, it feels alright, but she soon gets bored and feels lonely. She randomly starts calling people in her contact list while digging into her grandpa’s alcohol. Before she knows it, she is having a panic attack where she hyperventilates and passes out.
When she wakes up, still pretty hazy from all the alcohol she has consumed, Vivian notices a woman dressed in a wedding gown rushing towards the cliff. She follows her and reaches the edge where the woman is contemplating suicide. Apparently, she had jumped off from her limo on the way to her wedding and is now sad that her perfect finance would have a sad life.
Vivian, who just wants to get out of this sticky situation, tries to calm her down and forces her off the cliff, sort of saving her from killing herself. She then takes the woman along to the house, and both of them pass out.
The next day, the neighbors – Ana (Brigid Zengeni) and her son Dane (Devon Terrell) come to Welcome Vivian to the Crevice. They introduce themselves and offer her breakfast before eventually telling her that her grandpa had actually taken up a huge responsibility in his late life, and now that Vivian has taken up the house, it’s her responsibility to save the people too.
At first, Vivian is shocked to hear everything. She is definitely not up for the responsibility, but when Amy (Contessa Treffone) wakes up and introduces herself as being Vivian’s first save, she realizes that she has unknowingly gotten herself into a mess of a responsibility that she is not ready for.
Ana tells her that her son Dane, who is a practicing psychologist, will help her through the process just like he has been doing for her grandpa, but Vivian, who is presently angry at her grandfather, is dismissive and rude, making them go away.
Vivan, who now has to get ready for her grandpa’s funeral, is also irritated that Amy, who claims to have been guided to the house by a Brolga, is really intrusive. She leaves anyway, failing to lead her off herself, and reaches the church for the ceremony.
At the church, John begs Vivian and Hendrix not to ruin things at the funeral before introducing them to his boyfriend, Alejandro (Édgar Vittorino). Both of them are shocked to see Alejandro, who looks extremely handsome and welcoming in comparison to their brother. When Vivian enters the church, she meets her current fling, Richie (the TV actor we saw in the opening), who carefully slips a bag of cocaine into her coat pocket, possibly to lure her to him later.
Once it’s time for everyone to say a last few words about Walt, Vivan gets to the podium and flips the fuck out. Simultaneously facing a panic attack and furious about the weight that has been put upon her shoulders, and swears in front of everyone, getting angry at her grandfather – possibly because she is unable to comprehend how to follow his legacy through.
When she completes her speech, she realizes that she has messed up everything again. John is also extremely angry because now and again, Vivan has always caused him shame and disappointment. So, when the three siblings come out of the church to argue, Vivan, who is sorry for her behavior, accidentally drops the bag of cocaine out of her pocket, and John feels that she has been high the whole time and did not allow this one moment of grief to be true to what it is.
Vivan, vaping and depressed, returns to the property and starts packing her things. Amy, who has been there all this while, is happy to tell her something. She is excited to be there with her and tells her that her grandpa was trying to make some kind of ‘tea room’ for all the people who come there to off themselves. His aim was to calm the people in distress by talking them down. She proposes that both of them – Amy and Vivian take this opportunity and build what he has been meaning to do before his untimely death.
Vivian, who is the least bit interested in this ordeal, is frantic about her idea and tells her that she wants to sell the property and go away somewhere because this is too much for her to handle.
Totally Completely Fine (Season 1), Episode 1 Ending, Explained:
The ending of Episode 1 of Totally Complete Fine finds Amy noticing that someone is heading to the ledge and tells Vivian to go help them. Vivian tries to run away, but Amy tries to calm her down and asks her why she is always trying to escape things. Vivian, who has no other way out, confesses that she has always ruined things and she can’t be the ‘angel’ who saves everyone.
Amy tells her that she did not jump last night because Vivian was calm about things and was an ‘angel’ in any way. In fact, she stopped because in Vivan’s messiness, she saw that there were other people who had similar insecurities, and her messiness gave her hope.
Amy temporarily convinces her that she can complete the tea room and see how things go for a while, and if she doesn’t like it, she can anyway sell the property for more than what it’s worth.
So Vivan goes to the ledge and tries to calm down the fireman who is about to jump off too. She helps him by telling him her garbage box trick, a trick that helps her with anxiety.
Why does Ana finally go to Dane for help?
The next day, Vivan wakes up with a smile. She realizes that she did something truly good last night – i.e., saving the fireman from killing himself. However, she also realizes that she doesn’t have the necessary tools to help every single person who would come there to take their life.
So, she heads to Dane’s home and asks her if he will come by and help her in helping people. Dan agrees and promises to come by next Tuesday.
