“First Kill” is Netflix’s latest supernatural teen drama series, which is mostly a Romeo and Juliet story set in a world with vampires and monster-hunters. At the heart of this drama, at least initially, are high school students Juliette and Calliope, who struggle to accept their real selves and settle in with their surroundings. Although “First Kill” begins with a fairly simple plotline, things soon start to unravel and fall all over, arguably a bit too much, as the city of Savannah fears a mass return of monsters after a long time.
‘First Kill’ Plot Summary: What Is The Show About?
Juliette Fairmont is a young sixteen-year-old living in a wealthy family with her parents, Sebastian and Margot, and her elder sister Elinor. The Fairmonts are out and out rich, with Sebastian being the District Attorney and also with what seems to be generational wealth, but it is not just the money that passes on in their family. They are, after all, a family of “Legacy” vampires, as in, vampires who were born with the condition and are incredibly powerful, rich, and influential. Being of the highest order of all vampires, these legacy ones are powerful enough to be fine in clear sunlight and have the ability to instantly recover from cuts and fatal wounds. Their blood can also burn and sting any non-vampire skin. Not all of the family members are of the same high-born stature, though, as the blue blood runs only on Juliette’s mother’s side. Her maternal grandmother, Davina Atwood, is a woman of very high stature, not just because of her Legacy vampire attribute but also because of her family’s esteem status as the Keepers of the Malkia. The Legacy vampires believe themselves to have ascended from the mythical Lilith, who lived in the Garden of Eden along with Adam and Eve, and while Eve had feared away from the snake, Lilith had embraced its bite, which began the lineage of vampires. These families still revere a poisonous snake with supernatural powers, named Malkia, and Davina and her family hold the duty of its safekeeping. This duty, which now resides with Davina, would pass over to her daughter Margot, and then to her daughter Elinor, and so on, as the Legacy families are all matriarchal. When Margot had first expressed her wish to marry her lover, Sebastian, Davina was extremely angry, as the man was no vampire at the time. Margot went against her mother’s wishes to marry Sebastian and turned him into a vampire through a bite, and the two still remain a happy couple. While Davina and her other daughters had declined to keep in touch with Margot in the initial years, the mother had finally made efforts to get back with her daughter only for social reasons, to avoid any slander in the family’s name. A similar fallout had also happened in the Fairmont family too, as their son Oliver had moved away from home and had not been in touch with them because of his evil nature.
Calliope Burns is another sixteen-year-old whose family recently moved to Savannah, and she starts to attend the same school as Juliette. In sharp contrast to the Fairmont family, the Burns are trained monster-hunters working as part of an organization called the Guild, whose job it is to ward off evil spirits, kill dangerous monsters, and the like. The Burns have been sent to Savannah for a related reason, too, in order to investigate occurrences suspected to be supernatural that have cropped up in the city some twenty-five years later. Calliope, also known as Cal’s family, includes her loving but stern parents, Jack and Talia, and her elder brothers, Theo and Apollo. It was Jack’s own personal history that had possibly made him take up such a profession, as his first wife, the mother of Theo, had been killed by a monster. Now the family operates together, along with the Guild’s guidance, to get rid of all supernatural creatures. Cal, though, is very distraught and frustrated at the fact that her family has not allowed her to make her first kill yet, after she had failed to do it a year ago. While Cal tries to find a way to get that coveted first kill, remembered by monster-hunters with a tattoo that keeps increasing with every kill, Juliette wants to avoid and run away from the first kill that she needs to make. Having turned almost an adult physically, the small pills of blood no longer keep her body in control, as the vampire’s physicality craves blood in large quantities. Despite her family’s egging her towards making the first kill, Juliette is grossed out by the proposition and also does not want to take anyone’s life.
It is when these two girls, both having an impending first kill in their immediate future, meet and fall in love that the situation surrounding them starts to spiral out of control and leads to conflict, first among families and then among their kinds.
Spoilers Ahead
What Are The Troubles That Keep Coming In The Way Of Calliope And Juliette’s Love Story?
From the very first meeting that Cal has with Juliette, she understands, or guesses, that the girl is no ordinary human but some monster. Juliette, though, was always very mesmerized and attracted to Cal, and the two get intimate at the very first opportunity that they get, at a friend’s party. However, things get complicated from this very party itself, as in a moment of extreme passion and because of her bodily blood-craving, Juliette bites Cal’s neck with her sharp vampire fangs. Cal, who was always cautious of Juliette being a monster, finds herself ready as she immediately stabs the girl she has been kissing with a stake. Both survive the incident without much effect, as Juliette wakes up to find her wound has quickly healed up, and Cal sees that the bite mark on her neck has vanished. Cal realizes that her new lover is a Legacy vampire, one who cannot be killed by ordinary measures, and informs her family about this. The Burns quickly verify the fact and prepare for a large-scale attack on the Fairmonts.
On the other hand, Juliette lies to her parents that she has taken her first kill, and the family starts to prepare for an initiation ceremony for her. Vampires of elite stature from all over the world gather at the Fairmonts’ backyard for this event, and as Juliette finally comes clean to her mother, the Burns and their monster-hunter companions break into the house and start attacking their enemies. This assault does not have much effect on the vampires, though, as they all rise from the dead, as if protected by some sort of charm carried by Davina. The hunters are bewildered by this strangeness, as they had used special silver weapons meant to kill Legacy vampires, and two of the Burns’ friends were killed by the creatures. Juliette’s absent brother, Oliver, had also made an appearance just before her initiation ceremony, and the young man is now kidnapped by the Burns. While Cal had been ordered to stay home that evening by her parents, she had managed to turn up at the Fairmonts’, and she was soon saved from an attacker (a Guild member who was supposed to protect her but had now turned aggressive because she had left home) by Juliette. She now realizes that not all monsters are essentially bad, especially when the monster is also her newfound lover, and the two make their way together towards dumping the attacker’s body somewhere (since Juliette had killed him and sucked his blood).
The attack by the hunters had left Sebastian in very bad health, as he was not able to recover as quickly as his Legacy relatives. As the man was swiftly moving towards his death, Elinor asked her grandmother to help her son-in-law with her powers, in exchange for Elinor marrying into a rich and esteemed Legacy vampire family. By now, Davina was fearing slander and mistrust against the Atwood family among the council of Legacy vampires, and knowing that Elinor’s marriage would greatly help the issue, she agreed. The woman quickly heals Sebastian back to good health with the help of the magical snake, also turning the man into a Legacy vampire. The Burns soon call up the Fairmonts, thinking that Cal was taken hostage by them, and make an arrangement to return Oliver in exchange for their daughter. A healed Sebastian tracks down Juliette and Cal and drives them towards the meeting point, where Margot and the Burns already wait, but their car is stopped mid-way by a witch’s magic. Oliver, too, escapes from captivity with the help of magic, as the witch is his own girlfriend, Tess. Juliette and Cal manage to escape their families and spend the night together at their school, romancing each other. As talks of Elinor’s marriage are almost finalized, the two feuding mothers, Margot and Talia, call a temporary truce. While Elinor initially agrees to all the terms and conditions that her high-society marriage would involve, she ultimately fails to continue and asks her father to help her escape such a trap of a marriage before it is too late. Fearing more tarnish on the family name, Davina tries to forcefully get Elinor married, and when Sebastian steps in her way, she insults him and even slaps the man. In response, Sebastian, who complained of a tremendously increased appetite after his revival, simply gobbles up his mother-in-law out of existence.
Meanwhile, a zombie attack at the school confirms the fears of every Savannah resident that monsters have once again returned to their hometown. Some of them also start verbally attacking the District Attorney, Sebastian Fairmont, calling him a monster-sympathizer, unaware that he himself is not human. Soon, a group of normal, concerned citizens, called the “Mothers Against All Monsters” (MAAM), is formed, with half knowledge and understanding of the situation and full hatred for any and every monster. Oliver and his witch girlfriend Tess now have a private meeting with his younger sister, Juliette, and give her an offer to help her out of the whole situation, even promising a witch potion that can turn Juliette back to a normal human being from a vampire. But, in return, Oliver wants Juliette to betray Elinor and lead her to some grave trouble, as it was Elinor’s advice and words that young Oliver would always follow in his childhood, which then made his family believe him to be pure evil. As much as Juliette likes the idea of becoming a normal human being and settling down with her girlfriend, the idea of betraying Elinor, her beloved elder sister, makes her decline the offer.
Back in the Burns household, their relationship with the monster-hunter Guild turns sour with each passing day, mainly because of their daughter’s being romantically involved with a vampire. The Burns suspect that Cal is so obsessed with her new lover because the vampire has managed to magically take over her head after the bite, as is usually the case with Legacy vampires. In order to stop this magical connection, they have a special ritual performed on their daughter. However, as Theo performs this ritual, he himself is visited by suppressed memories from his childhood, from which he suspects that his mother had been killed by a Legacy vampire in Savannah, most probably someone related to the Fairmonts. He starts researching the matter, and at one point, opens up to his brother Apollo about it. Young, handsome, and charming, Apollo has, by now, established a bitter-sweet sexually-charged connection with Elinor, and he meets up with her to find out more about the subject. But Theo walks in on them in a moment of intimacy and is enraged by the whole act. He tries to attack Elinor, who fights back, and Apollo turns to his brother’s side, and together they are about to kill the vampire. Elinor’s quick reflex saves her, as Apollo’s silver stake plunges into his brother’s chest instead of her, and she swiftly escapes the scene after removing the memory of the entire evening from Apollo’s mind (a power that only Elinor possesses). Theo seems to be dead, and when Apollo tearfully calls for Cal, Juliette too turns up at the scene. Investigating on her own, she finds evidence of her sister’s presence and confronts Elinor back at home. The sister denies saying anything and quite rudely insults Juliette’s humanity and sensitivity while she was actually a vampire. Juliette is terribly angered by this episode, and decides to bring Elinor down with the help of Oliver. Elinor used to keep a physical record of every man she had killed by sucking blood, and Juliette now leads Oliver to this record, who then leads the police to it. Elinor is immediately arrested at the Fairmont house, as Juliette looks on with visible joy.
‘First Kill’ Season 1: Ending Explained – What Is Oliver’s Real Truth?
The whole of Savannah is now divided, with many humans (including members of the police) part of the insensitive MAAM group, who suspect that it is Cal who is the vampire. As Cal and Apollo return home, they are shocked to see Theo there with their parents, and at first suspect whether it is some monster in his appearance. Theo also starts to act strangely, especially after having dinner, and the man is soon struck down by a terrible stomach and heartache. Gradually, it becomes clear that he is turning into a vampire himself, with fangs replacing his incisors. Despite Talia’s admonishments, Jack is convinced that their son now needs to be killed, and he prepares for the act. Now as strong as a vampire, Theo manages to escape the confinement, and runs into the front lawn, with his family chasing behind him. Juliette now appears on the scene and reveals something very shocking—while cleaning up the mess after Cal and Apollo had left her with Theo’s body, she discovered the man was alive when he suddenly woke up from unconsciousness. He painfully asked the girl to help him, and thinking that biting him to death would relieve him of his pains, Juliette had started sucking his blood. However, probably because of her inexperience with it, she was unable to kill him, and had instead turned him into a monster, a vampire, hungry for blood. Hearing all this hurts and angers Cal beyond any limit, as she blames her lover for turning her brother into something that he had always hated. Although Juliette tries to present her heartfelt apology but denies any wish to have caused harm, Cal disrespectfully asks her to leave, saying that any love and affection between them is now over.
As Juliette had let Theo drink some blood from her arm, the man had calmed down, and Jack used this opportunity to capture him again. The Burns again take him down to the basement, this time tying him down even stronger, but now Talia manages to free her son and run away with him from the house. Still seeing her own son in Theo and not any monster or vampire, the woman refused to let him die only because he was in a helpless state. She drives up to a house and leaves Theo with someone she seems to trust, and this person is soon revealed to be the devilishly cunning Oliver Fairmont. Oliver and Tess walk Theo towards an open courtyard inside their house, saying that they had returned to Savannah only to stir up some trouble. They then introduce Theo to everyone standing in their yard, as the place is seen to be filled with monsters small and large of all kinds, including vampires, zombies, werewolves, and all kinds of such creatures. This last scene clearly establishes who the antagonist has always been, i.e., Oliver and Tess. It seems that Oliver has always been pure evil, and his ability to convince Juliette of Elinor’s evil past is also part of his special power. The most intelligent and shrewd of all the other characters, and with characteristics similar to the Devil himself, Oliver has now gathered an army of monsters to wage war against humans in the city of Savannah.
What To Expect From ‘First Kill’ Season 2?
Season 1 of “First Kill” definitely ends off with numerous questions unanswered, as they might be delved into in a possible season 2. The most immediate question that comes to mind is what is Oliver really up to? More about Oliver’s history, between the time he left and returned to Savannah should also be explored. Season 1 also ends off with nothing certain known about what happens with the Fairmont family, as the last we see of them is when Elinor is arrested by the police after her murders are exposed. However, she is arrested on the suspicion of murders, and her exact character about being a powerful Legacy vampire is not yet known. Such is the same in case of the whole Fairmont family as well, and how the Savannah citizens react to knowing that their DA is a monster is something to look forward to. Despite Juliette and Cal’s love story coming to an abrupt end, this seems more like a short pause and it might (almost certainly) continue in “First Kill” Season 2.
“First Kill” is a 2022 Drama Fantasy Series streaming on Netflix.
