The new mystery drama series on Hulu, “Saint X,” begins with an interesting premise and a real touch of suspense in its three premiere episodes. Adapted from a novel of the same name by Alexis Schaitkin, “Saint X” is about Emily Thomas, still disturbed and obsessed with an incident she was never told much about—when her elder sister Alison was murdered many years ago during their vacation at a Caribbean Island resort. While the first three episodes mostly introduce us to the characters and mystery that are going to follow throughout the season, the multiple timelines also fail to provide any intended depth, despite the intrigue they build with the plot.
Spoilers Alert
What Is The “Saint X” Series About?
Emily Thomas works as an editor for environmental documentary films, looking through footage of wild bears and arranging it in some desirable manner. But there is something off about Emily from the very start, as it is soon revealed that she is obsessed with an event from when she was just eight years old. At that young age, Emily had gone on a vacation trip to a luxurious island resort in the Caribbean with her parents, Bill and Mia, and also her elder sister, Alison. Emily, or Claire, as she was called then, was very fond of her elder sister’s company and would always stick around Alison as much as possible. She also had a peculiar habit of trying to scratch words or letters onto her hand with her own nails and was the most calm around Alison. Therefore, the young girl was very worried when Alison did not return to their room at the resort one night, and what followed was nothing short of traumatic for little Emily. Alison had been found dead, and there was a lot of mystery surrounding this matter, at least for Emily, who was never told what had actually happened to her sister.
Now an independent woman, Emily still remains confused and lost about the whole matter, and she is not even sure how to find out anything about it. Along with her boyfriend Josh, who is a civil rights lawyer, Emily has recently moved into a new apartment in the Caribbean neighborhood of Flatbush. While this suggests that Emily has somehow not been able to move past her experience and trauma related to the islands, every small item that reminds her of the place also seems to scare her. Things take a strange turn when Emily seems to meet a man who was directly linked with the incident of Alison’s death all those years ago.
What Do We Get To Know About The Incident On The Caribbean Island?
From the moment that the Thomas family first stepped onto the island resort, a clear divide of opinions between Alison and her father, Bill, was established, although it was not very serious. Bill’s profession made him a hardcore capitalist with beliefs inclined toward buying every experience with money. On the other side, Alison, a student at Princeton, is introduced to ideas of social injustice and civil rights as part of her education. The girl is often worried about the fact that she is living an extremely privileged life, always being able to do whatever she wants while being ignorant about the rest of the world. Alison, therefore, always wants to change the ways of her life, or at least be open to knowing new people and having new experiences, and she is determined to make a difference in the world with her life. Perhaps this is all the more reason why Alison is more friendly towards the local workers at the resort than anyone else.
Among these workers are two young men, Edwin and Gogo, who get close to the Thomas family. Edwin is particularly friendly and even flirtatious towards Alison, and it is revealed that Edwin has a habit of getting close with similar-aged girls who visit the resort. The young man also has a tendency to look for easy solutions, be it in life or with money, and he does not mind getting involved in illegal activities in order to do so. An older timeline, from when Gogo and Edwin were young kids at a school, is also shown, in which it is revealed that a cousin of Edwin was actually involved with a local criminal gang. It is, therefore, quite evident for Edwin to take the chance of earning large sums of extra cash when a guest at the resort asks for cocaine. Although the drug is banned in the area and is therefore not easy to find, Edwin knows of a local gang that sells cocaine. The young man, therefore, intends to buy the drugs and sell them to the guest for a very high price, wanting to keep the profits for himself, and he proposes this plan to Gogo. Unlike the young man, his friend Gogo is quite reserved and shy, even from a very young age, since he used to struggle with stuttering speech as a child. Ever since Gogo was a kid, he had fallen in love with a classmate of theirs, Sara, and had even gotten physically intimate with her once as a teenager, and they two eventually had a baby from that interaction. As Gogo struggles to keep up with the monetary requirements of his disinterested partner Sara or their baby boy, he cannot really turn down Edwin’s offer, despite knowing that it involves a lot of unnecessary risks.
Meanwhile, Alison notices Edwin’s interest in her, and she, too, keeps flirting with the young man until they make out one night. On the other side, the nineteen-year-old girl also finds romantic company in Tyler, a student from Yale, around the same age as her. Her attractive looks and charming personality make Alison stand out among all the male guests at the resort, and she is not too deterred by this either. However, another girl of the same age group, Olivia, is jealous of Alison’s ability, and she believes her own life to be an absolute mess. To help Olivia out of such a belief and to be her friend, Alison tells her about her own flaws in life, and the two eventually become friends. So far, “Saint X” has tried to establish Alison as a good-natured character who is also keen on making the most fun out of her time on the island. She gets romantically involved with both Edwin and Tyler, and she is sure that none of the people she meets during this vacation are going to know her after it is over.
However, on that fateful night when Alison disappeared, nobody knew that the girl had gone missing or that something had happened to her. Her parents had thought that Alison must be spending time with Tyler on the resort premises and would return late at night, but much to Emily’s dismay, the girl never returned to their room. On that very night, the police officer in charge of that part of the island, Roy, had been driving home when he caught Edwin and Gogo driving under the influence of alcohol. Roy arrested the young men and drove them to the police station, but something seemed off to him right away. Edwin and Gogo were known miscreants in their personal lives on the island, and Roy had therefore arrested them multiple times before. But unlike every other time, the two young men remained extremely silent on this occasion, suggesting that they might have done something extremely wrong. It is later revealed that the cocaine Edwin had bought from the gangster was found with Gogo, for Edwin had promised to pay Gogo part of the profits if the latter agreed to keep the drugs with him. After some days, Alison’s dead body is also found in the waters of a tourist spot known as Faraway Cay, and the local police now get fully involved in the matter. However, since the murder of an American tourist would tremendously harm the business on the island, the mayor of the place instructs Roy to state that Alison’s death was only an accident. Even though Roy did not believe this at all, he did go on to say this, much to the anger and frustration of Bill and Mia Thomas, who eventually had to leave the island without any clue about how their daughter had died.
How Does Emily Try To Learn More About Her Sister’s Death?
At present, Emily Thomas continues to live her life with half her attention seemingly still on the matter of her sister’s mysterious death. Bill and Mia are also shown at present, still understandably a bit lost and dejected from the events of the past, but Emily has chosen to stay away from her parents. Going by the conversation that she has with her best friend and colleague Sunita, Emily does not trust her parents much about this matter, especially since she believes that they have kept details about Alison’s death secret from her. Emily even looked up the incident one day at her office and seemed to read through the numerous news articles about the mysterious death, but she was still not satisfied with the reports. Then one day, Emily’s life takes a sudden turn when she takes a taxi and realizes that the driver is Gogo himself, based on the man’s accent and certain phrases that he uses. The taxi driver’s name, Clive Richardson, also matches Gogo’s real name, and Emily is certain that this is the same man. She tactfully leaves her phone behind in the car, intending to call up the number later and talk to Gogo. Emily does not tell the man who she is and only asks whether they can meet to take her phone back. Even though Gogo does not talk much, he is pleased with the fact that the woman had not reported him to the police and had directly contacted him. They agreed on a meeting place in public at a local restaurant the next day.
Emily intends to find out more about what happened all those years ago in the Caribbean resort, but she also fears asking any direct questions about it. Instead, she tries to befriend Gogo, especially since the man only returns her phone and leaves during their first meeting. Emily then starts stalking the man and pretends to run into him at the same restaurant for a second meeting. Now she pays for Gogo’s meal as well, but he still does not show any intention to open up. Emily keeps all of this a secret from Josh, who does realize that she is preoccupied with some thoughts but then does not pester her about it. Emily eventually tells him about all that has been happening, and Josh then calls up his friend Sunita to inquire about Emily’s situation. This obviously angers Sunita, too, for she cannot stand by her friend’s decision to stalk the taxi driver, who had apparently raped and murdered Alison all those years ago. But Emily remains determined to learn more from Gogo, admitting that although the man is a dangerous criminal, he is the only one who can tell her what exactly happened with Alison. At the end of “Saint X” episode 3, Emily steps out to give an ultimate test to Sunita in order to show her that the taxi driver is the exact same man she thought him to be. The two women park their cars in front of Gogo’s building and wait for the man to return. They then call out to him using the name Gogo, as he was now known as Clive after coming to the United States, and the man’s startled reaction makes it evident that he is the same man. Gogo shouts out as if traumatized, runs into his apartment, and locks himself up, continuing to have nightmares about being consumed by his horrible past.
What Can We Expect From ‘Saint X’ Episode 4?
Based on the structure that “Saint X” has used in its first three episodes, it is very clear that the show is going to take a long time to ultimately show what actually happened on the island resort. Before the final revelation, though, more depth about the characters can be expected or hoped for. In a short glimpse of the season to come, provided at the end of episode 3, we are shown Emily’s obsession with uncovering the past, as the woman refuses to listen to her friend’s or lover’s advice and continues to stalk Gogo. Emily is even going to try and enter the man’s apartment in order to find out more about the incident, and on the other side, we will keep watching the development of relations and bonds between Alison and her new friend and lovers on the island. The matter of how Gogo actually left the island and came to the United States can also be expected in the upcoming episodes, along with any information about Edwin at present.
