Eva Lasting – Season 1 Episode 1 “Lysistrata” Recap & Review

Lysistrata

Eva Lasting is set in the year 1976 in Bogota, Colombia. Episode 1 introduces us to our narrator, Camilo, who recounts his days at his high school, Rose Maria Root, and the introduction of Eva Samper into his life. He explains how education felt like punishment to him and his friends. Gender roles were pretty much defined back then and women had minimal participation outside a family role.

The boys were sexually repressed and fancied the “provocatively dressed” home class teacher of Class 10B, Professor Estela. Camilo and his friends have a strange encounter in the boys’ washroom. All of a sudden, they find that a girl walks in and says she could not find a female washroom. Her name is Eva Samper.  She is the first female student at the high school. She sits alone in the student square and boys surround her.

Camilo’s gang includes Rodrigo, Alvaro, Gustavo, and Martin. Eva is well-read and mentions “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde to describe their situation. She sits beside Camilo in trigonometry class. He narrates that he was falling in love with her from the first moment. When school sets the students free, Camilo and Eva are stuck together again. She takes the bus and walks with him as he lives nearby. She is very open and outgoing but Camilo is still shy and cannot talk to her. Eva is never short of interesting factual information and can always come up with a historical anecdote. Ana, Camilo’s mother, and his father, Jose, see them through the window.

They discuss Eva at the dinner table. While Ana thinks it is great that the school is letting girls in, his father is sceptical.
They squarely think Camilo is in love. He skips breakfast and changes his hairstyle for school. Eva’s second day at school goes like the first one. She seems bored and everyone else in the class keeps staring at her. Even Estela cannot take their attention off her. The boys play football to show off in front of Eva. Camilo introduces his friends and their families during the game, including Octavio, who is the most feared boy in the school and certainly not a friend. He and Camilo get into a fight and the bully demands to see Camilo after school the next day to settle matters.

After school, Eva convinces the boys to ditch a cheesy porno movie to go see Saturday Night Fever, starring John Travolta. But not Martin. And Camilo cannot say no to him, meaning all the other boys go with Eva, while these two are stuck watching the porno movie. Martin says their real problem is Eva, not Octavio. They meet at Club 68, a place the group often frequents. Camilo runs into Octavio but Eva calls him out. She stops the fight by comparing Octavio with Jim Stark from Rebel without a Cause. Eva introduces a different sort of culture in the group by talking about movies and books.

She also mentions “Lysistrata”, a book where women in Greece stopped away by crossing their legs. But Martin takes offence. But the boys listen to Eva this time. The next thing she makes the boys do is dance! Once they get a hang of it, everyone enjoys it, except Martin. Next, she teaches the boys how to kiss. Only Martin is deemed a good kisser by her. But the next morning, when they talk to school together, Eva admits to Camilo that he was her favourite kiss as it was special. Estela informs them that the school will have more girls now and that they’re starting a knitting class for Eva. But many boys sign up too.

Martin admonishes them. He thinks there’s something fishy about Eva. Camilo cannot find Eva after school and is cornered by Octavio and his friends. Eva shows up in a car and offers to pick him up. But Camilo thinks it’d be cowardice if he goes in. She is angry with him for indulging in the fight as she is a pacifist.

Camilo thinks he has blown his chance with Eva and since it is the weekend, cannot make amends. His father takes him to a brothel to get him laid as he worries Camilo is losing his masculine side. But Camilo isn’t able to go through with it as he wants his first time to be special. In the knitting class, Eva stands up to the teacher who says she should know how to knit because she’s a girl. Martin calls her a whore in the bathroom for putting herself out there. But he doesn’t realise that Eva is right inside one of the stalls. The episode ends before we can see how Eva reacts to it.

The Episode Review

It is difficult to expect someone your own age to introduce you to mature things, but we definitely should get our hopes up for Eva. Her truly transformational role in Camilo and the other boys’ lives had a healthy beginning. Eva Lasting professes to bring something different to the Netflix audience. There are more elements to call it a teen comedy than anything serious; for now at least.

A girl in an all-boys school is an exciting setting and looking at Eva’s character, she is not one to take anyone’s nonsense. Her bold, feminist ideas will surely tackle the conventional outlook the boys have of the world. For now, her task is to become one of the group’s members and win their hearts. She has already taken the first step with beer and dancing!