FIRST KILL REVIEW S1 E2
FIRST KILL REVIEW S1 E2: FIRST BLOOD
Unlike the first episode of First Kill, the second episode is NOT based on the short story written by V.E Schwab. This episode, and all of the ones after, are continuations of the short story. These episodes essentially answer the questions of what happens after… Keep reading to see First Kill Review S1 E2.
RECAP OF EPISODE 1
The first episode introduces Juliette and Calliope. We know that Juliette is a vampire and Cal is a monster hunter. Juliette wants to be the total opposite of her everyone in her family – she doesn’t want to kill anyone and she certainly doesn’t act like a girl from a powerful line of vampires. Cal wants to be the best one in her family of monster hunters – she craves their approval and admiration. Despite wanting to be a badass monster hunter, she hasn’t actually killed any monsters.
Juliette has a huge crush on Cal, and Cal also seems to be attracted to Juliette, despite her being a bloodthirsty monster. However, their desire for each other gets overshadowed by their base instincts.
While in a closet, fulfilling the dare set forth from playing “spin the bottle”, Juliette and Cals make-out session turns into a bloody murder scene. Juliette, being a hormone-driven vampire, bites Cal. Cal, as a trained and highly skilled monster hunter, reacts by plunging a stake into Juliette’s heart and then running away as fast as she can.
QUESTIONS
Is Juliette dead? Did Calliope actually make her First kill?
Let’s be honest, we know she’s not dead, otherwise, there wouldn’t be a second episode.
SUMMARY of Episode 2: First Blood
The shocking aftermath of Noah’s party sparks more questions than answers. Juliette’s mother jumps to conclusions. A monster zeroes in on Cal’s family.
WHAT HAPPENS... SPOILER ALERT!
FIRST KILL REVIEW S1 E2
THE BEGINNING
The episode opens up where we left off, with Juliette biting Cal, and Cal stabbing Juliette. This is where I question Cal’s monster training because instead of checking to see if Juliette is actually dead, or finishing her kill by burning the body (which every vampire lover, hater, and hunter knows you should do), she runs away.
Juliette getting stabbed isn’t the only bloody thing to happen at the party. Another girl is found mysteriously dead in the middle of the living room floor. A quick camera shot at a new (and gorgeous) character shows that there is another hunter/ killer in New Orleans – one that apparently kills humans.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?
You all saw the scene where Juliette bit Cal, right? Well, something sketchy is going on, because when Cal checks her neck, that bite suddenly doesn’t exist.
A monster has broken into the house of the hunters (Cal’s family). A shambler – a very ugly snot-covered monster with four eyes and a big mouth with four pincers around it. The mom and two brothers, Theo and Apollo, take it down before it completely ruins their new kitchen. It seems like an object that Apollo found in the graveyard in the previous episode is what allowed it to get past the wards around the house.
Juliette wakes up from her temporary death with a steak in her heart and quickly heals after painfully removing it. She walks out to see that the police have raided that party, and now she has to quickly and quietly sneak out. Normal high school party stuff.
BUSTED
She then gets caught by her mom but instead of being punished, her mom is happy and proud. Juliette still has a little blood around her mouth, so her mom assumes that she finally made her first kill. Of course, everyone is very happy about the news, and Juliette’s mom sends her to bed so she can get her “beauty rest”.
Cal finally makes it home, but immediately gets caught by her mom as she is taking out the trash of monster pieces. Her mom is obviously very upset, as most moms would be, but she calms down when Cal tells her about her first kill. This scene mirrors what happened when Juliette got caught sneaking in but then told her family about her own first kill. Cal’s mom is not convinced she actually killed a vampire because Juliette didn’t burst into flames and ash.
SNOOPING
We finally get a full scene with the stunning older Fairmont sister, Elinor. She is in a morgue, asking questions about a dead body that recently popped up. She sees the “Stanton girl” – the girl that was found dead at the party. We get a little hint of the history of the town when Matthew tells Elinor that he feels a bit of deva-vu – when he first started working in the morgue, bodies would come in with organs missing, just like Ashley Stanton. Bodies… plural. Is this history reveal also a bit of foreshadowing?
SUPERNATURAL
The best part of this scene is when Elinor reveals her powers. Her eyes glow green and yellow and she convinces Matthew that nothing usual happened to Ashley Stanton’s body. She also calls him out for drinking bourbon while on the job. She then leaves and takes the girls case file Love it!
Cal and her mom go over the events at the party. Cal has to basically admit that she was entangled with Juliette, which her mom did not seem pleased about. About they are in monster hunter mode, so ignoring her daughter’s activities with a vampire, Cal’s mom makes her run through every detail. It is confirmed, Cal stacked a vampire correctly and it is very strange that Juliette didn’t burst into flames. Cal also lied a little bit… she didn’t SEE Juliette’s fangs, she FELT them. But that might be TMI for mom to handle.
A PARENTS CONCERN
Margot, Juliette’s mom, is so proud of her daughter’s first kill that she doesn’t care that it was sloppy. Juliette’s dad, however, is taking the situation very seriously. It’s clear that the Fairmont family thinks that Juliette killed Ashley Stanton is a brutal and bloody way, which is not normal vampiric behavior.
If you need a recap of the events up until now, best friend Ben startles Juliette in the hallway at school and shares a quick version of what happened. Juliette discovers that Ashley is dead and quickly puts two-and-two together. She now knows that her family thinks that she killed Ashley.
NOT THE CENTER-OF-ATTENTION
Ben has trouble staying on track with the drama when he assumes that Juliette was in the closet with Cal the entire time that Ashley’s body was found and the police came in. Juliette is not comfortable to this new topic so she steers the conversation back to Ashley. We learn that Ben, being the one that discovered her body first, saw A LOT of blood, so he doesn’t believe the public story that she “fell and hit her head”.
Elinor and her dad have a serious conversation about how wrong it is for her to use her powers, even when she thinks she is helping. Her powers are an oddity in the vampire community. We also learn that she has a twin named Oliver who does not share her strange powers. Where is this mysterious twin?
A new character comes into the story – Mr. Cook. He is a guild member (the group of monster hunters). Apollo and Theo have to have a little meeting with him because of the incident with the Shambler.
HEART-TO-HEART
Juliette and her dad have a little heart-to-heart. He says that he is proud of her, for making her first kill and for growing up, but he is clearly very concerned. He gently reminds her that she is compassionate, and that compassion should extend to her kills. Juliette’s parents seem to be mirror opposites. Her dad is sweet, caring, and empathetic, while her mom is colder and does not have the same love for humanity.
The memorial service at school is… awkward. Ben seems to be loving the attention that he is getting as the one who found her body. He even plays up the story and makes himself into the last person that she saw before she passed. Cal and her mom attend, but not to pay their respects. They are looking for the vampire. Cal outright lies to her mom – for some reason, she doesn’t want her mom to know about Juliette.
BAD DECISIONS
Juliette, overcome with grief, leaves the ceremony and Cal follows her. Cal wants to talk but Juliette wants space, so naturally, they end up fighting on the school’s rooftop. Juliette’s eyes start bleeding. She tells Cal that she is a born vampire before accidentally getting her blood on her. Apparently, a born vampire’s blood can paralyze.
Elion is on the loose. She is in the bathroom with a man and bites his neck. She then runs into Apollo at the bar and they flirt. Hard.
ENEMIES-TO-FRIENDS
Cal and Juliette got caught being on the roof of the school, and the principle calls their parents for a meeting. Two vampires and two monster hunters are all sitting next to each other, pretending like nothing is wrong. Talia now knows that Juliette is the vampire. After the meeting, Margot is very friendly and welcoming to Cal’s mom… she doesn’t know that Talia is a monster hunter.
Juliette and Cal leave the meeting and start talking, not quite like friends, but there is no animosity and no fighting. There is even a little bit of sexual tension, and they finally acknowledge their feelings.
BIG SIS
Juliette makes it home and stumbles through the hall, clearly having a craving. Elinor is in her room, and, in typical big-sister fashion, demands all of the details of her little sister’s first kill. Except, Elinor is not a typical big sister. She interrogates and manipulates Juliette.
LETS HUNT
Cal arrives home to find a bunch of monster hunters gearing up in her living room, including some old friends and her dad. They are going after the Fairmont family, who are Legacy vampires. Rumor has it that their lineage extends all the way back to the Garden of Eden times, and they aren’t controlled or killed like a regular vampire.
FIRST KILL REVIEW S1 E2: FIRST BLOOD
BEST QUOTES
JULIETTE
AS EXPLAINED BY MY PHYSICS TEACHER, MR. MYRICK, IN EXCRUCIATING DETAIL, NEWTONS THIRD LAW STATES THAT EVERY ACTION HAS AN EQUAL AND OPPOSITE REACTION. ONCE AN ACTION IS TAKEN… YOU MUST LIVE WITH THE CONSEQUENCES.
TALIA
YOU GET THAT DAMN HEAD OFF MY RUG.
TALIA
THE WORST MONSTERS ARE THE ONES WHO APPEAR TO BE HUMAN.
MR. COOK
TIME EATS AWAY AT MEMORY. AND VIGILENCE.
APOLLO
HE WANTS TO ASK ME A DUMB QUESTION, HE GETS A DUMB ANSWER.
MR. FAIRMONT
COMPASSION IS NOT A WEAKNESS. IT IS A GIFT. TO BE EMBRACED.
CALLIOPE
LIKE I SAID, EVERYBODY HAS TELLS IF YOU LOOK HARD ENOUGH. AND I COULDN’T KEEP MY EYES OFF YOU.
CALLIOPE
ACTIONS ALWAYS HAVE AN EQUAL AND OPPOSITE REACTION. NEWTON’S THIRD LAW. ONCE AN ACTION IS TAKEN, YOU HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE CONSEQUENCES.
LIST IF KNOWN MONSTERS
- SHAMBLER
- GHOULS
- VAMPIRES
CRITIQUES
This seems to be a lower-budget TV Show, based on the quality of the monsters. The summoner, which appears within the first 5 minutes of the show, looks RIDICULOUS. Although the concept for the monster’s physical appearance is good, it looks very CGI. If The Witcher and Sandman can have cool graphics and realistic monsters then so can First Kill.
I won’t put too many critiques into this First Kill Review S1 E2 article because I think you should actually watch this great show.
HIGHLIGHTS
FIRST KILL REVIEW S1 E2
The sheer reliability of the characters is one of the best parts of this show. Teenagers at a house party that is broken up by the police. Playing spin-the-bottle. Sneaky back into the house in the middle of the night. Moms catching their daughters sneaking in and scolding them.
I would be remiss not to bring up the very distinct opposing family dynamics. More specifically, how similar and different Juliette and Cal’s moms are. This TV Show clearly displays two families of two races – black and white. Both have money, strong values when it comes to family, legacies and traditions, and goals. Although the moms are similar in a lot of ways, they both react to similar situations differently.
EXAMPLE:
Where Juliette’s mom caught her sneaky in and had a tone of shock and a stern attitude, she completely changed her tone when she found out that her daughter made her first kill. Suddenly, she is no longer in trouble but praised and pampered. Juliette’s mom even sends her to bed so she can get her “beauty rest”. Cal’s mom’s reaction to her sneaking in was a little different. She sternly orders Cal inside and begins to interrogate her. When Cal tells her about her first kill, she relaxes a little bit, but obviously does not for a second forget that she just caught her daughter trying to sneak into the house.
The moments when Juliette gets a “migraine” and needs her blood pills are incredible! She always looks a little bit like a drug addict, but those moments are a visual representation of what having a migraine really feels like. Every little sound is painful, and there is a growing beating noise in your head, and everything from colors to the slightest movement is uncomfortable.
The girls of the story aren’t the only opposites that weirdly fit together. There are a few other juxtapositions throughout this show.
Visually, blue and red are often at odds. Juliette is always wearing something blue. Even her entire bedroom is blue. But, when she gets cravings, the scenes turn red.