This netflix series brought my curiosity to another level. All the suspense and the slow uncovering of this murder by allergic reaction to peanut oil, was quite surprising and intriguing.
The target a high school boy, was not any high school boy, but the one who uncovers and openly posts secret on his app, that everyone uses and gets notification at the same time.
These secrets are of that dimension, they can ruin someones reputation forever.
Simon is the 17 year old son of the Mayor, going to Bayview High School. He is an outsider at school, he hates everyone and is anti authority, rebellious, and anti establishment. Was this only a phase in his life, or would it last longer into adulthood?
Well, we’ll never know, because unfortunately he was murdered on the first day back in school after summer break.
He was killed, whilst on detention with four other senior High School students.
How did this happen?
So if you binged it too, you know how terrible it was to see Simon suffocate in front of everyone in detention. This group of students was really diverse and did not usually hang with each other:
Bronwyn, the straight A student,
Nate, the drug dealer,
Addy, the pretty cheerleader, and
Cooper, the champion baseball player of the school.
At the time of his deadly allergic reaction, the teacher, Ms. Avery had left the classroom, because there were college students outside doing a prank, throwing eggs on the window and running half naked. After Simon drank his water the allergic reaction started and the students could not find Simons epipen and Cooper went to the nursery and did not find any there either. Meanwhile Bronwyn had called the paramedics, who bring Simon to the hospital, but unfortunately they can’t revive him in time.
After this trauma, Addy leaves the room to run to her sweetheart, the football player Jake, and tells him what happened, that she freaked and was not able to help Simon, all the others knew how to handle the situation better then her. He comforts her and hugs her, telling her it is ok.
Bronwyn and Nate, stay and talk to each other, then Nate accompanies her home with his motorcycle. At her doorstep he noticed she is wearing the backpack of Simon. That was very unusually. She ignores his question weather this is the bag of Simon and when he asks her the day after, she is lying about it.
Between them two is a cute love and desire story, so he keeps her secret and is lying even from the police. But he tells her that if she hypothetically “had the bag”, she should bring it to the Simons parents. That is not what she does, she hides the bag in the car and cannot find it anymore a few days later.
Slowly we uncover everyones dirty little secret. The app is still running and posting as Simon had teases and exposed in previous post. Only leaving some hints, but now after his death, dropping the secrets that should have kept hidden.
A murder investigation detective is trying to find who murdered Simon, because they don’t think it was an accident.
We discover slowly all the secrets:
Nates sold a girl pills this summer, but she was already wasted drunk and ended up overdosing.
Addy cheated on her boyfriend Jake.
This happened while he was away on summer trip. Addy and Jake have their whole life and future planned together, she really doesn’t want to loose him. So she never told him and kept lying. But after this post their relationship is over and she changes completely. She is more decisive and self determined, has a new style of clothing, less sexy more feminine chic.
Bronwyn the straight A student cheated on her Physics test, she stole the questions to the exam from her professor. Even after the scandal was out she kept lying about it.
Cooper was lying about having a girlfriend, her name Keely, so he could hide the fact that he is gay. He is a very handsome baseball player and has to live up to high family expectations.
All these secrets are revealed. Which was one was the most shocking to you?
Abby cheating on the perfect boyfriend Jake, was such a cliche that I did not bare their story too much thought. My guess was that the teacher Avery had some secret no one knew about and she was lying about.
In the series the four from detention became the murder club, unofficially, because everyone else was calling them so. The detectives even thought they all worked together to kill Simon, and uncovered their secrets too. Do you think someone of them killed Simon and was lying about it?
Bronwyn is the only one getting away with her secret by denying it firmly and eventually becoming valedictorian. What do you think about Bronwyn?
Her sister, Maeve, is also part of the story, she is good in computers, and is the one following her sister and getting the computer of Simon from the car where her sister hid it. Maeve did not post the latest stories and was only tring to help her sister keep the secret.
Who was posting the latest secrets of Nate and Addy, is actually the best friend of Simon, Janae. She is suffering deeply from the loss and she wants to live up to Simons wishes and expose these hypocrites. Trying to find out the truth about his murder she ends up collaborating with the witnesses.
Who did you think murdered Simon? Who is lying about it?
They all seem so suspicious. Sometimes Addy seems suspicious because she is so protective about her relationship with Jake and is lying about her cheating.
At times Bronwyn has her future goals so set and wants to be valedictorian. Is that enough to murder Simon, who could ruin her career? Simon was also straight A student and could have been valedictorian himself if he had the chance to finish his senior year.
Cooper is a gay man in hiding, in the world of scrutiny he tries to adapt to the stereotypical baseball player with the beautiful girlfriend, good career and the popular guy. Deep inside he is not happy, but his family expects him to be a perfect player, to make his family proud and help out family who support his career. I don’t know, was this enough motive?
In the series Cooper develops his first romantic relationship with a college boy. First only a sexual encounters, they start getting to know each other better and support each other in a way only loved ones do. Their love story is very sweet, portrayed with ups and downs, finally Cooper wants to be himself and they help each other bloom. What did you think about their relationship?
Everyone had a motive and who looked the worst was Nate! He is the handsome druggy of the school, secretly in love with Bronwyn, she reciprocates too. He has the most suspicion also from the police, he is still dealing drugs, often putting himself to danger. Eventually he will get framed, when they find the lost epipens from the infirmary in his motorcycle.
How did the epipens get there? Who is framing and stalking them?
We don’t know by now, but the culprit will be revealed when the relationship of Addy and Jake after some weeks rekindle. He seems to have forgiven her and wants to move on. She is really happy about it, but she can’t adapt going back to serve all his needs and wishes. His control issues come to show. Control issues Addy wasn’t aware before their breakup.
Jake has Simons Xbox, because he was good friends with Simon once and Simons mother thinks they still are. That is why she gave it to him. Addy grows suspicious of Jake because of this Xbox. This is evidence that ties him to the murder, did he chat with Simon? How could this be?
She is so happy to be with him, but can she stay with someone who seems to be a psychopathic controlling murder? She loves herself more. So she chooses to help her new found friends to get Simond Xbox at Jakes place.
Jake is smart and catches them while they try to flee with the Xbox. Armed with a gun he runs after Addy, who is merely fleeing with a bike, while he as a rich kid has a beautiful car and makes her go off rode. She flees until he reaches her, eye to eye he can’t pull the trigger, but warns her to give back the Xbox.
What would you have done point blank?
Fortunately, the murder club victims, who got framed by Jake, run after him and Abby. Janae manages to come from behind Jake and whip the gun with a baseball bat out of his hands. In the altercation to get the gun Jake gets killed. He has a gunshot to his stomach.
Who actually pulled the trigger on Jake?
The group, Addy, Janae, Cooper, Nate and Bronwyn decide to not tell anyone about the murder of Jake and to go to the police telling them he has fled after Addy confronted him about the conversations with Simon on the Xbox. They show the evidence on the Xbox, which is the registration of their whole conversations about the plan: Apparently Simon told Jake about Addy cheating way before it came out. Then Jake wanted to get back at Addy and therefore wants to frame her for murder. Simon wants also to get back at some people, so Jake tells him they should frame these people with the secrets for attempted murder. Jake convinces Simon and tells him he will save him.
Jake is lying he tells Simon that he will have epipens at the infirmary for him, there will be no problem. Simon believes him, poor fellow, and gives him the only epipen in his bag!
For psychopathic Jake this was all a deathly game, where all implicated have a secret and therefore a motive. He himself he thinks will not be even associated with the murder.
Simon tells him after handing him his last epipen: “We see us on the other side”.
What did you think about this series?
Who sends these encrypted messages? Was it all only Jake?
Which are the details you found most compelling?
Let me know what you thought about the show in the comment section!
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