Echoes – Season 1 Episode 2 “Birthday” Recap & Review

Birthday

Episode 2 of Echoes starts with us in the past, as Gina and Leni switch places with each other. This seems to be a regular tradition on their birthday. Only, it would seem that Gina is hiding something… but refuses to reveal what.

It’s been a year since Leni put on her southern drawl and she’s struggling to get back in the swing of things.

When Floss heads over to question what happened, Leni makes up an elaborate story about four thieves in ski masks (in summer? hm!) along with wild horses being released for… reasons. Leni points out that Prince (the horse) got spooked but had no idea why and didn’t even hear the search party either.

It’s all incredibly sketchy, especially when Floss points out Leni has cut herself on the wrong side of the head. “The police know something!” She thinks to herself incredulously. Yes Leni, they do. Because your story is not very convincing!

Jack believes that Leni was trying to run away, hence why she stole the horse. It would seem that Gina (the real one) stole from Jack but why? What actually happened between them?

In the glovebox, Leni realizes that the flip-phone she usually has is gone. Even worse, her relationship with Megan has broken down at school too. “You’ve ruined his life for a second time.” She bitterly rasps at Leni before walking away.

Speaking to Callum, the local computer whizz, he manages to sort out a hard copy of this month’s billing reports from the flip-phone mentioned earlier. It would seem that no one has used the phone for 3 days either, with no incoming or outgoing calls.

Outside, Deputy Paula, speaks to Leni about an old cold case about a church fire. It would seem that Gina was looking into this for some reason. Not noly that, but it would appear that Gina (while playing as Leni) was actually selling Ketamine.

In the middle of rustling up the drugs at the stable, Leni’s father gives an impassioned plea, wanting the two sisters to be together for dinner that night. Eventually she shows up at the meet, where she finds Natasha and a shady guy doing the deal. Although Leni asks some questions about the deal, the only thing she learns is that there’s a guy in a red truck.

That guy happens to be a shady fella from the past called Dylan James. “I thought you changed your mind about everything,” He says, as the pair eventually drive together. These ties go way back to when they were kids, although it appears that Gina had some sort of plan worked out with him the night she went missing. It turns out they were romantically involved with one another, as it seems like Gina was having an affair with him. As he touches the crook of her back, Dylan figures out exactly who she is and the jig is up.

With a knife to Leni’s throat, our protagonist admits that Gina is gone. Dylan brings up how she’s the one who’s been forced into this double life by Leni, keeping this “sick game” up. Leni admits that Gina has had a troubled life. She’s not only had a miscarriage but she also had a psychotic break in college too.

Dylan is convinced that Gina won’t run away from him, as they had a plan together. Dylan is silent through all of this, but eventually agrees to take her home. However, it turns out Dylan actually has Gina’s passport and a stack of cash too. So naturally, Leni stuffs that in her purse and takes off.

Floss heads to the hotel room to check up on Gina. But Leni is there of course, pretending to speak to Gina in the bathroom before emerging as Lina again. This appears to quell Floss’ suspicions. Whether that actually works or not is left up for debate but when Floss leaves, she rings Charlie as Gina and breaks her persona immediately. Despite doing this constantly since kids, apparently Leni is really terrible at switching back and forth now… for some reason.

This continues to cause cracks to form in various different relationships. Not only does her relationship with Jack break down, Floss continues to be suspicious while Leni (as Gina) learns her father actually has congestive heart failure. Leni doesn’t actually know about this, but Victor pleads with Gina (who’s actually Leni) to stay and to be together as a family so they can try and work through this.

Leni heads back to the motel, flustered over what’s taken place. Believing that Gina has destroyed Leni’s life completely, she takes a detour by the old burned church, before returning to the room. Once there, she receives a litany of images of the burned church on her computer. This is then followed by some messages that bleed through: “You killed him. You lied to me, I know everything. Let me go.”

The Episode Review

For someone who has apparently put on a double life since she was a kid, Leni is actually atrocious at convincing people of her double-life. Leni’s sudden shift between the two personas is really poorly written and massively suspicious.

There’s absolutely no wonder why Floss is suspicious and it seems really contrived and odd that Leni is struggling to  settle into these twin lives so badly. I mean, it would make sense if it was just being rusty at playing Leni but when she rings Charlie, she can’t even put on the Gina persona properly either. I guess you could argue that stress plays a part in this but it seems an awfully convenient way to shake off this manufactured tension.

However, the ending does hint that we’ve got a killer on the loose, or at least someone who knows what the girls have done back at the church. Stabbing a guess, I’d imagine the man in the church was hurting the girls or could have been abusing them so they started a fire and he perished inside. The blackmailer online could well be Gina…but those are just theories at this point.

Echoes is starting to show some serious cracks and if this show isn’t careful, those could grow into large chasms for which there’s no escape. We’ll have to wait and see what’s next though.