The mystery drama series on Hulu, Saint X, finally comes to an end with its season finale after crawling and staggering through seven episodes, many of which were there only to stretch the runtime. In episode 8, we are finally made aware of the real reason behind Alison’s death, which turns out to be quite a predictable way to solve the mystery. On the other hand, Saint X attempts to end on a warmer note, as things take a better turn in the present timeline as well.
Spoilers Alert
What Had Happened With The Thomas Family Twenty Years Ago?
Using multiple timelines, Saint X covers the story of the Thomas family and their younger daughter Emily in particular, who has not yet been able to move on past a scarring experience twenty years ago. When Emily, or Claire as she was called back then, was just eight, the Thomas family had gone on vacation at the Indigo Bay resort in the Caribbean. While it was only Claire and her parents, Bill and Mia, who returned from that trip, Claire’s elder sister Alison had also been a part of their family before a horrific incident. On the last night of their vacation on the island, Alison went missing, and her body was then found a few days later at a desolate spot known as Faraway Cay. As her body had signs of injuries and also traces of sexual intercourse, it was deemed that Alison had been raped and murdered by someone on the island. However, the police force could not make out much about the case, and the matter ended only with the chief of police resigning from his post.
The Thomas family returned home to the US, shattered and furious at their daughter’s death and the silence from the authorities that followed. But soon, Bill and Mia realized that they still had to give Claire a better childhood, and the family decided to move to a new life in San Francisco, and Young Claire decided to use her middle name, Emily, from now on.
Around twenty or so years later, Emily is now an adult woman working as a documentary film editor and living with her boyfriend, Josh, in New York. Emily is still very unsettled and rather obsessed about what actually happened to her elder sister Alison, when she coincidentally gets in a taxi driven by a man named Clive. Emily recognizes Clive to actually be Gogo, one of the workers at the Indigo Bay resort with whom Alison was quite close during their vacation. Determined to know more about the truth, Emily stalks Gogo, tries to befriend him, and eventually lands in trouble when Gogo recognizes her as Claire.
Who Were The Suspects In Alison’s Murder?
Throughout the season, Saint X has provided a list of possible suspects who could have been the perpetrators in Alison’s supposed rape and murder. But the prime suspects were undoubtedly two workers at the resort, Edwin and Gogo. Edwin, a young man around the same age as Alison, was always very charming and slightly flirtatious with the guests, and Alison instantly drew a connection with him. Perhaps knowing all too well that her parents would be shocked and disappointed if they got to know about this, Alison started a romantic affair in secret with Edwin. Edwin’s best friend, Gogo, would mostly just stick around and accompany the two whenever a group was needed, and on the night of Alison’s disappearance, she had indeed gone out of the resort with the two young men. Later that night, the local police officer arrested Edwin and Gogo for drunk driving and even noticed that they were unnaturally quiet, which to him meant that the boys had done something grave. It was for this reason that he investigated the two right after Alison’s disappearance, but nothing much could be found. Edwin had to be let go while Gogo was arrested and imprisoned for a few years for the possession of drugs in his home. However, there have been hints throughout that suggest that something else happened on that night between Edwin, Alison, and Gogo, and Emily tries to find out more about this in the present timeline.
The next suspect in the matter was a young man named Tyler, also a tourist who had come to the resort with his father. Tyler was the ideal candidate for Alison to date, according to her parents, with both belonging to the same social and economic class and also since Tyler was a Yale student while Alison was at Princeton. Naturally, the two started to hang out and soon started dating, or at least were romantically involved with each other. Alison enjoyed being with Tyler while she was also secretly getting involved with Edwin, as she did not want to keep in touch with either after her vacation ended. However, Tyler had found out about Edwin, and the two had also broken up when Tyler tried to coerce Alison into physical intimacy. Scenes from after the disappearance show Tyler breaking down while his father encourages him not to destroy his entire life and career because of some girl. The father then also tells Tyler to tell the police exactly what he would teach him to say, suggesting that Tyler could also have had something to do with Alison’s predicament.
A third suspect is also shown in the character of Ethan, another guest at the resort who had been visiting with his pregnant wife, Dana. Ethan was a vile man who was aroused by Alison’s youth, and he started a habit of stealing the young woman’s clothes from the beach and then using them to pleasure himself. After Dana’s pregnancy, the couple had lost their romantic spark, and to reignite it, even Dana started to take part in these vile fantasies for some time before she realized how wrong it was. However, Ethan remained a pervert, and he even refused to go search for Alison when she went missing, suggesting that he too might have had something to do with the death, or especially the rape.
What Had Happened Between Edwin And Gogo On That Particular Night?
Saint X episode 7 ended with Gogo finding out from Desmond that Edwin had made Sara promise that she would never get together with Gogo in her life. Although Edwin had done this because he was actually in love with Gogo, the latter is not aware of this yet, and like everyone else, he feels that Edwin has feelings for Sara. As Gogo was about to confront Edwin, whom he had always loved and protected as his best friend, Alison walked out, and the three drove off to the local restaurant. Alison had recently found out that Edwin had gotten involved with multiple white tourist girls before, and she was desperate to prove herself to be different from everyone else. She had therefore listened to Olivia’s absurd suggestion and decided to indulge in a threesome with both Edwin and Gogo. As part of her attempt, she tries to get close to Gogo at the restaurant before the three leave the place and drive to a desolate but beautiful spot on the island.
Here, Alison makes her first move on the men by kissing them both and then teasingly says that Edwin and Gogo should now kiss each other. This inadvertently gives rise to all the tension and romance between the two best friends, and when Edwin first kisses Gogo, he quickly pulls in for another kiss. As Alison lies down to take a breather from all the alcohol and drugs that she has been consuming, Edwin and Gogo make love with each other only some distance away from her. While Edwin had always loved Gogo and also knew about his sexuality, Gogo admits to Emily in the present timeline that being kissed and touched by Edwin did make him feel different and good. However, the two were soon intruded upon by Alison, who saw them making love and appeared quite shocked and frustrated. Both Gogo and Edwin were scared that Alison would tell everyone about them, which would have a terrible effect since the island forbade homosexuality, but they also wanted to spend some more loving time with each other. As Alison ran away from the place, Edwin convinced Gogo that she would surely run back to the resort, which was close by, and they would not get into trouble for taking Alison out of the resort.
Did Alison Return To The Resort That Night?
Seeing Edwin and Gogo make love had actually made Alison jealous, for she had never felt such passion in any of her prior relationships as the two best friends evidently had. She was also rather disturbed at the realization that she was not the center of attraction or the star of the show but was rather just a side note in the romance of Edwin and Gogo. With all these things in her mind, Alison indeed ran back to the Indigo Bay resort. Making use of Tyler’s single status now, Olivia tried her luck with him, but it did not work out as Tyler seemed quite interested in Alison still. On this particular night, when Alison returned to the resort, she found Tyler sitting alone and invited him to one last night of fun. The young woman then proceeded to have sex with Tyler but then also suddenly left in the middle of it. Alison’s mind was clearly not with Tyler or their intimate act, and she was only doing it to feel some passion or love, perhaps. But as physical intimacy could not take over her mental and emotional turmoil, Alison left Tyler and walked out of the scene.
Who Actually Killed Alison?
After her time with Tyler, Alison returned to her room at the resort, where she had an argument with young Claire. The younger sister had been waiting for her the entire night, as Alison had earlier promised to spend time with her. Alison was now clearly agitated by the events of the evening, and she just kept expressing her frustration to Claire, who did not even understand most of what she was saying. It was then that Alison decided that she needed to do something extreme to get over her emotional dismay, and she already had a plan in mind. Even earlier that night, she had asked Edwin and Gogo to take her to Faraway Cay, and she had even said that she would swim to the place if there were no boats available.
Alison went ahead with this very plan, but all by herself. She left her clothes on the beach and swam the entire distance to Faraway Cay. Upon reaching the spot, she was very excited and rather satisfied too, and she climbed up on a big rock to celebrate her triumph. However, while getting down from this rock, she slipped and fell, getting grave injuries and soon dying from them. Alison had actually not been murdered by anyone, but she had accidentally fallen to her death. The evidence of sexual intercourse was not from any rape but from her time with Tyler. The reason her body was found naked was, once again, not because of any assault but because she herself had taken them off and left them at the beach.
But the young woman’s disappearance triggered a chain of fear among the people at the resort, which resulted in more trouble. Tyler was afraid that he would be charged with murder, as he was one of the last few people to have been with Alison. He had told his father about all of this, and the father had therefore asked Tyler not to tell the police or anyone else about what had happened between him and the girl. Instead, Tyler diverted the suspicion toward Edwin and Gogo, telling Alison’s family that she had gone away with the two workers the previous night.
On the other side, Edwin and Gogo were already scared because of their sexuality, as they knew the level of persecution they would face if anybody knew about their love for each other. When the police chief arrested the two for drunk driving that night, they were very quiet because they were deeply moved and also scared by the romantic passion they had just expressed to each other. Later, after Alison went missing and her body was eventually found, Gogo took it as a sign from God, punishing their homosexuality. It was for this reason that he told Edwin never to talk to him again, and fearing that he had committed a grave sin, Gogo had kept himself away from his best friend and lover forever since then.
What Do Emily And Gogo Do In The Present Timeline?
After Gogo had asked Emily to get into his taxi at the end of episode 7, he drove the woman to another favorite spot of his in New York. At this place, Gogo tells Emily about everything that had happened twenty years ago. He and Edwin could not presumably tell everyone this whole truth before, as their homosexuality would then also be revealed, and their hiding the truth made them even more suspicious. Emily listens to all of it and, surprisingly, is content with the knowledge, which is arguably not in line with the obsessive character that she has been shown to be. Emily goes over to meet with Tyler, and he now confesses that he had indeed hidden the truth from the police. After all of this, Emily finally returns home to Josh and Sunita, who are very distressed now.
Three months later, Emily moves out of her New York apartment, and she has also ended her relationship with Josh. She then returns to San Francisco, to her parent’s house, and has a serious word with them. She admits to Mia that when she returned from her trip to Paris, Emily felt her parents had changed themselves forcefully, and she too started to pretend like Alison never existed in their lives. But this very pretension had made Emily all the more desperate and obsessed to know about her sister later on in her adult life. Now that she has all the answers, which were perhaps not in line with what she had been expecting, Emily mends her relationship with her parents and then asks to be called Claire once again from now on.
On the other side, Gogo meets with Bery after his night with Emily and confesses everything to her. He admits that his sheer loneliness in life makes him want to meet with Edwin again, perhaps not as lovers but at least as friends. As it turns out, the letter that Edwin had sent to Gogo actually spoke of Edwin’s sickness, for the man was now suffering from cancer. Three months later, around the same time as Emily returns to San Francisco, Gogo returns to his home in the Caribbean islands. By now, Bery had made him understand that Edwin had perhaps married Sara only so that he could hold on to the last memories of Gogo, and he had forgiven his friend as well. Gogo now meets up with Sara and goes to her house, where Edwin lies sick, perhaps on his deathbed. Together, the two friends spend a loving time joking and remembering their childhood days, and Saint X ends on this very warm note.
