Slasher - Six Feet Under

So it is five years ago and these summer camp counselors murder a member of their team for “being a bitch” (I guess there are worse reasons…). She’s buried where tennis courts are to be added so they return at present (during winter), joining [reluctantly] a spiritual retreat (“Namaste.”) just for the purposes of removing the corpse before it can be discovered. While up at this retreat, during the snowy winter chill, a killer is among them. In this episode, besides the first victim, Talvinder, an outfitter named Gene just wants to relax in the sauna, but the pesky killer splits him with a chainsaw. Sayonara.

  
She haunts me.

So the second season opener develops the ole “I Know What You Did, You Tried to Hide it, and I Will Make You Pay” slasher formula, with a few tweaks. They included the Psycho (1960) sneaky twist involving who is assumed to be the lead in the season due to clever screenplay focus and emphasis particularly on her. Then that surprise of what she was (emphasis on *was*) capable of due to jealousy and brewing rage as the screen goes black. It is a nice play on the character, making her a person we might dare empathize with (due to actress Rebecca Liddiard’s soft and tortured face, seemingly wanting to speak of what her party supposedly done but too afraid to lose her freedom if she does) only to see her being the very one who swung the boulder that crushed the pummeled face of Talvinder (Melinda Shankar). Talvinder was attracted to Peter (Lovell-Adams Gray) upon arrival to the camp, although he was involved intimately with Andi (Liddiard). Andi had been Talvinder’s guide around the camp, introducing her to her bunch of kids and the grounds (and fellow counselors). Later in the episode, Peter and Andi, in present day, have some time alone, old feelings are rekindled [momentarily] resulting in them having sex in a room with bunks. During their time together, Peter apologizes for his fuckup regarding Talvinder (it does appear in the flashback that they got cozy during a horror film when Andi leaves temporarily) but when the talk returns to going to the police Andi reasons that this is not ideal. Andi flat blames Peter’s actions as the catalyst in the whole mess. Which we later see is not correct.

What could have been an assault that would have caused some punishment for the group of Noah (Jim Watson), Andi, Peter, Susan (Kaityln Leeb), and Dawn (Paula Brancati) results in a murder and burial. The fear and anxiety, guilt and misery of concealing a crime and trying to live with it is all over the faces of this party involved in Talvinder’s death and burial. When they go to where her body should be and find nothing, the whole situation changes. Particularly when Andi goes to dig up the body (Andi and Peter must have buried Talvinder’s body elsewhere) and finds Talvinder’s body stretched on two poles, awaiting her. Then the log across the back of the head, hands and legs rope-tied to posts, and a knife gash on both sides of her neck so she’d bleed out into the snow; this killer made sure she would be the first of her party involved in the Talvinder murder to go. Gene was the outfitter with wilderness/survival skills that stood in the killer’s way.

Hugging it out to bring each other peace.

Gene didn't get to enjoy the sauna long at all.

No body.

Judith just might be slightly wrong.

Don't see that happening.

Judith (Leslie Hope) struggles with inner peace, with We Live As One her refuge from a world of uncertainty and angst. Here, with like-minded souls looking to maintain “balance” and a calm that doesn’t much exist “out there”, Judith is in the right circle. But Andi’s group show up and immediately that peace finds suspicion and introduces distrust because their motives appear questionable. Why just show up at this point? These particular folks? Antoine and Renée (Christopher Jacot and Joanne Vannicola) are the ones in charge (so to speak), with a lifestyle that seems quite Zen and focused on taking care of the mind, body, and soul. Mark (Paulino Nunes) has gunshot wounds on his back, revealed as Antoine massages his back (appears rather homoerotic in the way the scene is filmed) and later speaks to angst-ridden Andi about the weight she clearly appears to be carrying. This scene has her reflecting on all that has happened and might happen in the future, in serious contemplation, as Mark tries to encourage her to accept love with Peter and follow her heart instead of wrecking yet another relationship. Wren (Sebastian Pigott) confides in Judith that he suspects that these new arrivals are not to be trusted, with her feeling similarly. And then there’s gruff and blunt Glenn (Ty Olssen), cooking meat on a skillet and under a probationary period with the spiritual commune, still a bit resistant towards their lifestyle. He does agree that if Renée can get him to love “vegan meat”, he’d totally abandon the “moo” meat that tastes ooh sooo good.

 

After Andi’s “departure”, those still alive realize the phones are out. With Gene no longer of this earth, their primary source of gear and survival skills appears to be gone, too. Although, I can only reckon Glenn might insert himself into the equation as a substitute. He’s one of those mouthy, roughly-hewn sorts. If anything he’s not the hugging type, it seems. When Judith needs her disrupted peace reassured, her peers closed in to hug and meditate. Slasher murders might just bum Judith out.

And Die as One, too?