Dead of Summer – How to Stay Alive in the Woods

By starrymag | July 29, 2016

By: Yana Grebenyuk

 

The episode starts out with a flashback to a young Joel (Eli Goree) filming his brother. Michael (Lovell Adams-Gray) and Joel talk about camp with Joel heading off soon. Michael gives him his favorite shirt to wear to camp, but then starts to hear a voice and looks out the window. Joel tries to ask him what’s wrong, but Michael just shrugs him off even though he continues to hear the voices that seem to be coming from outside.

 

Present day Joel walks into the staff cabin where everyone else is already waiting for him. They all question where he went last night with Deb, (Elizabeth Mitchell) but he won’t answer. Alex (Ronen Rubinstein) figures out that they had sex, which no one else is supportive of. Joel fires back at them by bringing up how hot and heavy Blair (Mark Indelicato) and Drew (Zelda Williams) were last night, which has everyone filing out of the cabin.

 

That night will be the first overnight in the woods, the counselors and the campers are hiking to the site while Joel films it. He stops on Deb, something that Amy (Elizabeth Lail) notices and starts to talk to him about. She asks if he likes her and then apologizes for the ambush that morning. Amy also advises him to go for it if he found someone he really connected with.

 

Meanwhile Alex is running around scaring the little kids with a scary story. One little girl named Francie (Lia Frankland) is frightened enough that she needs her inhaler, something that Joel notices and tries to cheer her up. As Joel looks back, he hallucinates that Amy is bleeding and the Tall Man (Tony Todd) appears behind her. Joel tries to film him with his camera, but sees nothing. Amy notices and asks him about, but Joel blows her off by saying there’s nothing going on.

 

Flashback to Michael’s prom, with Joel filming everyone getting ready in the living room. His brother is still upstairs so Joel goes up to find him. Instead he sees bloody water spilling from the closed bathroom. He walks in to see his brother dead in the tub after he slit his wrists and a message written on the wall with his blood saying, ”He will never leave me alone.”

 

At the campground Joel tells Amy to be careful as they head deeper into the woods. Meanwhile, at the campsite Amy and Jessie (Paulina Singer) talk about the night before. Jessie says she saw Garrett (Alberto Frezza) and Amy kissing, which Amy can’t remember.

 

Meanwhile, Deb asks Joel to help her with a tent which leads to some one sided flirting.

 

Flashback to Joel during his fitting for prom. He is having fun with his friend and with his girlfriend when he sees the Tall Man in the reflection of a mirror. He has his camera ready to film him, but he isn’t there when Joel tries.

 

Alex and Cricket (Amber Coney) are walking in the woods when Alex almost steps on a bear trap. Cricket tells him to be careful because the woods are filled with those traps and you could get hurt if you aren’t careful. She then brings about her worry about someone wearing that mask and the idea that it might not be a hallucination. Alex redirects the conversation, trying to flirt with Cricket but fails when she turns him down.

 

In the evening Joel is filming the group by the campfire when Amy finds a picture of Joel from prom with his girlfriend. It gets worse when he sees the Tall Man again, but can’t catch it on film. The Tall Man tells him to kill Amy tonight or someone else will die.

 

During the day, Alex asks Blair about Cricket even asking about her favorite song. Blair on the other hand wants another chance from Drew, who tells him there’s nothing left.

 

When someone forgets to put ice in the cooler filled with meat, Amy volunteers to go get hot dogs from camp. Joel tells her not to go because the Tall Man keeps telling him to kill her. Drew and Jessie volunteer to go instead.

 

Flashback to Joel’s prom where he sees the Tall Man outside again. He goes with his camera to film him, but instead runs into his dad (Colin Lawrence) who talks to him about his brother seeing things.

 

Deb and Joel are in a tent when he tries to make a move. Deb is confused when Joel tries to kiss her and can’t figure out what he means when he mentions last night. Joel thinks he must have imagined what happened between them in the forest since Deb thinks they talked and went back to their cabins. Joel remembers the tapes he has from when he filmed Deb.

He goes back to watch them and catches the Tall Man in a recording from that first night when he was filming Amy. The Tall Man appears and tells him he won’t go away until he kills Amy.

 

As for Cricket, Blair tells her to meet Alex and actually give him a chance. It looks like he is trying to win her over for real and Blair doesn’t want her to miss out.

 

Joel sees the Tall Man again and is told that he is running out of time. That’s where Amy finds him in the woods.

 

Flashback to Prom Night, Joel sees the Tall Man but can’t film him. His girlfriend Laura (Taylor Russell) wants him to put away his camera, which he ends up doing.

 

Jessie and Drew are walking back to the campers when Deputy Garrett shows up. Drew leaves them alone, which leads to Jessie joining Garrett in the cabin where Alex took Amy on their first date. They find some hidden stuff: an old recorder and a cufflink with the initials J.S., which Garrett says belonged to his deceased father.

 

Alex is on his way to meet Cricket when Joel sees him and tells him to be careful. Drew just tells him good luck with Cricket as he heads off.

 

At the campsite, Francie loses her inhaler and Joel goes out to find it but not before telling Amy that she can’t go with him.

 

The recording that Jessie and Garrett find talks about the Tall Man wanting to kill himself and how his followers would do anything that he asked.

 

Meanwhile Joel sees the Tall Man in the woods again. There is another flashback where he sees him near Laura during prom. He starts to yell at the Tall Man, which has everyone looking over at him. The Tall Man says he wants the same thing from him as from Michael which causes Joel to hit him. Turns out that Joel was actually brutally attacking his friend Kenny while everyone at prom watches.

 

During present time, Amy is following Joel because she is worried about him. That’s when the Tall Man shows up again and Joel takes out a knife. He realizes that either Amy or someone else will die so he is getting ready to slit his wrists like his brother had done, but Amy stops him just in time.

 

Flashback to Laura and Joel talking at the end of the prom. He doesn’t want to tell her what’s happening and instead ends their relationship.

 

Cricket is on her way to meet Alex, who is waiting for her in the woods with her favorite song playing.

 

Joel talks to Blair, Drew and Amy. He opens up about his past and explains that his camera showed him what’s real and what’s not but now it’s not working.

 

Jessie shows up and shares what she found with Garrett, one of the things she brings is a picture that Joel recognizes as the Tall Man. Anton (Allan Fisher) shows up to say that he saw him. too. He tells Joel that he should have killed Amy when he had the chance.

 

We see Alex waiting for Cricket and as she is walking to meet him, something appears behind her and pushes her. She is thrown back and dies when her head falls on top of a bear trap.