Under the Bridge episode 7 becomes a debate for humanity as the Shoreline Six stand trial and everyone is forced to question where their allegiance truly lies.
Creator: Quinn Shephard
Genre: True crime, Drama
Number of episodes: 8
Episode 7 Release Date: May 22, 2024
Where to watch: Hulu
When I started watching Under the Bridge, I thought I knew right where it was going in terms of who murdered Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta, of Launchpad) and why; however, by the end of the series premiere, it was clear I had pegged the wrong person—er, people. With the Shoreline Six now arrested, episode 7 becomes a debate for humanity as the teens stand trial and our case unfolds, forcing everyone to question where their allegiance truly lies.
In episode 6, as everything came to a head for the teens the night of the school dance, police closed in on and arrested Dusty (Aiyana Goodfellow, of Invasion), Laila (Arta Negahban), Maya (Maya Da Costa, of The Healing Powers of Dude), and Jo (Chloe Guidry, of The Park) and charged them all with assault. They were each sentenced to one year at the Youth Detention Centre of Victoria. Kelly (Izzy G., of The Highwaymen) and Warren (Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton, of The Umbrella Academy) were also arrested but were charged with second-degree murder. They, too, are being held at the detention centre as they await their separate murder trials.
Episode 7 is a tough one to sit through, because the full details of what happened to Reena the night she was beaten and killed emerge. Jo and Kelly seem completely unphased and unaffected both by what they did and what they’re facing. Kelly shows just how cold that ice water in her veins runs as she turns the tables and stations herself as a victim in the events, going so far as to blame everything on Jo the night she was arrested. She spends her time in juvie acting as though she doesn’t have a care in the world and is completely inconvenienced by the fact she is locked up with “these people”. She genuinely believes she doesn’t belong there and is untouchable because her parents are rich and powerful. Again, biases.
In fact, her callousness shines through when, during a visit with her parents and lawyer, all Kelly wants to know is if they can get her out of the detention center: “Why can’t you just pay them?” she asks. They remind her she’s been charged with second-degree murder and is being held without bail, that the court is considering trying her as an adult. Kelly’s tune changes immediately and now, all of a sudden, she’s just a little, helpless, innocent girl. She hatches a scheme to get out of juvie so she can await trial at home by telling her lawyer the detention staff is isolating her from the others and she feels unsafe there, like her life could be in danger.
It works, and she’s released to her parents, but not before assuring Jo she has a plan to get them both out. On the day Kelly leaves the youth facility, she stops to tell Jo bye, and it’s in this moment Jo realizes Kelly is a liar and only cares about herself. Kelly is devoid of empathy and humanity as she skips right out the door, leaving Jo standing behind, questioning where her allegiance now lies.
Warren, like Dusty, is plagued with nightmares about Reena and what he did. He’s clearly remorseful as he takes the stand, determined to protect himself; however, his guilt becomes too much, and he winds up confessing not only to being under the bridge the night Reena was savagely beaten but also to contributing by kicking her in the head. His testimony is hard to listen to, as he admits he joined in the beating for no reason other than the fact he was drunk and angry. See, earlier in the day, his father called to tell him they were being evicted from their trailer, and he was now on his own. Feeling abandoned and helpless, Warren chose to drown his sorrows in liquor. That night, when he saw Kelly and the others attacking Reena under the bridge out of anger, he lost control of his demon and let it loose for five seconds, all to deliver a brutal blow to a girl he didn’t even know, just because he was mad.
He goes on to say that after he kicked Reena, his friends dragged him away from the situation, but Kelly later came and found him, wanting him to go with her to check on Reena, “to make sure she’s okay and to see if she’s sorry”. My guess as to why she chose Warren to go with her to track Reena down is because she saw the anger and pleasure in his face as he kicked Reena. She saw what he was capable of, and it matched her capability. She knew in him she had someone who—pardon my French—had the balls to do whatever was necessary.
When Warren and Kelly got to the other side of the bridge and found Reena, Warren says Kelly beat Reena up even more, then “put her in the water and drowned her”. Though he told Kelly to stop what she was doing multiple times, he never physically tried to stop her and allowed himself to be goaded into helping her drag Reena’s body into the water. When the prosecution asks Warren how he saw Reena, he froze as he listened to Samara’s (Isabella Leon, Love XO) statement to the police confessing that Warren told her that as he watched Kelly beat Reena, he noticed Reena had “a really hairy back,” prompting the prosecution to point out that all Warren saw in Reena was an animal to be beaten.
It’s heartbreaking for Reena’s family, who sit listening to his testimony. Outside the courtroom, Reena’s mother tells Becca Warren is not innocent in this. “If Reena looked like you, he wouldn’t have done that. He was angry and Reena was there. She was someone who was weaker and who didn’t matter to him, someone he could sacrifice.” Understanding that is the only way to write about Reena’s life, she tells Becca before walking off.
Becca (Riley Keough, of Daisy Jones and the Six) is present for every second of Warren’s trial and evens defends him in the media, pointing out the lack of evidence against him and making it clear that while Warren might not be innocent in partaking in some of the events that night, he also is not guilty of actually killing Reena: “If we’re not measuring someone’s guilt based off of evidence, then what are we measuring?” She further points out Warren is a kid with no resources, and Kelly comes from a powerful family: “If no one’s recognizing that imbalance, then we’re not getting justice for Reena Virk. We can’t trust the information we’re being given, and this will become a debate of Warren’s humanity.”
Becca really wrestles with her allegiance here and where it lies: with Warren or Reena. Yes, Reena is the victim, but Becca feels Warren is, too. He’s a victim of parents who failed to love, raise, protect, and teach him anything. She feels he is a sweet kid with a good heart, and her intention with the book is to make sure people know he isn’t a reflection of this one horrible mistake he made. But her support of Warren and her need to protect him, she realizes, all stems from the guilt she feels over her brother’s death. She saw in Warren a kid who needed help—her help—and that made her feel like she had a second chance at being a big sister if not to her brother, then to someone else.
So, as Jo wrestles with her allegiance to Kelly, Warren wrestles with his allegiance to the truth, and Becca wrestles with whether her allegiance lies with Warren or Reena, Cam also struggles with her allegiance to the justice system. She wants the truth to come out, but she doesn’t want any of the girls to have to experience more than they already have. She knows they need Dusty’s testimony about the witness statement she signed, and about what Kelly told her about killing Reena, but Cam, after seeing the effects of the justice system, just doesn’t have it in her to put anyone else’s life at risk.
By the end of episode 7, we find out Warren’s fate as we wait on Kelly’s.
Episode 7 of Under the Bridge is now available to watch on Hulu. Future episodes of the series will be released weekly, every Wednesday, for a total of 8 episodes with the finale airing on May 29. Start your free Hulu trial and come back next Wednesday for our review and recap of episode 8!
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