Freeridge — Season 1 Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

 Turning Points

A montage shows Gloria living her best life — playing board games and hide and seek with Mariluna in her mansion and spending time with Rusty, usually kissing. Mariluna says Gloria is like the daughter she wishes she wanted. Gloria suggests Mariluna host thanksgiving and use it as a reason to reconnect with her sister’s family.

At home, Gloria is mad about Lucia organising their thanksgiving at a restaurant instead of home. But on seeing Javier’s ill health, she doesn’t argue. Ines tries to console Gloria but she walks away.

Ines asks Demi about Tonio hiring Rusty. She thought Gloria and Rusty would fizzle out but they haven’t. Demi says she needs to see proof.

She, Cam and Ines read the ad on Tonio’s laptop. The ad looks for an attractive teenage boy to “flirt with nieces to distract from dad’s cancer and do light housekeeping too”. They argue about who should tell Gloria but no one wants to be punched in the face and they decide to let Gloria see it on the laptop. But when they get Gloria to see it, the ad is gone. After she leaves, Tonio reveals he deleted it in the few minutes they left the laptop by itself. Gloria comes back into the room to get her jacket and catches them talking about Thanksgiving. She tells them they should all spend it at Mariluna’s.

What happens to Cam and Demi?

Cam and Demi are kissing but he notices that she’s keeping her eyes open while doing so. She explains that she was checking if he was enjoying it since he has a tendency for his feelings to change quickly. He says he’s been working on it by reading a book but Demi wonders when it got so hard that he had to do so. They both admit that they miss the drama and the will-they-won’t-they aspect of their relationship. They mutually decide that maybe they were always meant to be friends.

Demi realises that another of Cinnamon’s premonitions was right as the correct choice for Cam was to make no choice at all, a.k.a, remain single. Andre suddenly barges in. He’s anxious about Benji introducing him to his parents because he actually wants to break up. He says Benji is clingy and nice to him all the time. Cam notes that Andre was exactly like this in their relationship. Andre faints.

How does Mariluna’s Thanksgiving go?

Ruben and Geny arrive at Mariluna’s house. The introductions are a bit awkward but she welcomes them inside. Gloria fusses over the food as she wants this thanksgiving to be perfect for Mariluna and her family. Plus, they can’t use the oven as it got spoilt during one of Gloria and Marisol’s games and Tonio didn’t get the right roasted turkey.

Ines calls her father from Mariluna’s house. He’s nauseous but Lucia’s with him and he tells her to have fun.

Rusty talks to his grandmother on the phone. Afterwards, he tells Gloria he misses her but maybe he and Gloria can spend the next Thanksgiving with her. Gloria feels happy to hear that he plans on being with her that long.

Demi orders Davina and Cam around in the kitchen, trying to salvage dinner. When she finds herself alone, she sees the bowl from the mystic’s place; the one that was the mystic’s uncle Emilio. But she turns and it disappears. Andrea enters and asks if she’s okay. She reveals she and Cam broke up. He’s surprised at her calm demeanour but Demi explains that she’s calm because of her faith. Her Lola once predicted that Demi would have a lot of hi’s and bye’s but her ‘forever penis’ will be a man with a wonky wink.

Does Gloria find out about Tonio hiring Rusty?

Ines calls Demi and Cam inside a room and tells them they have to talk to Gloria. Cam and Demi think they should let itself play out but Ines insists Gloria should know the truth. Gloria overhears and enters the room, thinking they’re talking about Mariluna killing her husband. Ines tells Gloria that Tonio hired Rusty. They explain everything but Gloria thinks Ines must have made up the file that Demi and Cam saw on the laptop. She tells Ines that what she wrote in Gloria’s bullet journal was right, Ines is the real curse. She was the reason their mom died since she got cancer while pregnant with Ines.

The entire group has a sloppy dinner of potatoes but Mariluna gives a speech. She talks about the regret she has and how she doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life in regret. She wants to go on holidays and wear matching pyjamas and share a dog with her family. Rusty then stands up to speak about how a job gave him this beautiful family. Gloria can’t help herself and suddenly asks him about Tonio hiring him to flirt with and distract her. She assumes he’s going to dismiss it and so is taken aback when he says he’s sorry. He says he stopped taking the money as soon as he knew he liked her. Gloria gets mad and storms away after saying that he couldn’t know how to love when his own mother never loved him. Mariluna follows her. Rusty leaves and Ines soon follows too.

After dinner, Demi can’t find a lot of the potatoes she made. She thinks Davina ate them but the latter says she didn’t. Cam is drunk but insists that he’s not, winking at Demi. The wonky wink makes her think that he is her ‘forever penis’. She suddenly sees the Uncle Emilio Bowl filled with potato chips but it disappears when she looks away for a second.

Does Gloria forgive Rusty or break up with him?

Ines tells Rusty that Gloria’s never going to forgive him. He says he took a job and stopped it when it felt wrong. Mariluna makes Gloria realise that Rusty loves her. In fact, his not taking the money and admitting what he did proves how much she cares. She realises she needs to be less judgy and controlling and more vulnerable. Mariluna gives her a drink and tells her to go get her man and then come back with her friends for a surprise.

Ines muses about why it’s so hard for her to admit her own mistakes. Rusty says she’s human and everybody gets jealous. She claims not to be jealous but Rusty says she’s here talking to him because she still has feelings for him. She refutes it but he tells her to kiss him and get it out of her system. She says she doesn’t want to but then suddenly gives him a quick kiss. After a beat, they both kiss each other some more and break apart when they hear Gloria coming. Gloria apologises for the hurtful things she said and then tells them to come inside for Mariluna’s surprise.

How does Freeridge season 1 end?

Mariluna gets a giant cheque and says it’s for Gloria and her friends. She gives them two options. One, she’ll give them a million dollars no strings attached. Two, she’ll give them a million dollars which they need to spend in three months with nothing to show for it, meaning they can’t buy anything they can keep but they can’t waste it either. If they do spend it all, she will give them ten million dollars. She tells Gloria to make the decision.

Meanwhile, Joker and his friend sit in a car right outside Mariluna’s house. When they see her they think it’s Marisol, who took the RollerWorld money and then faked her death.

Gloria and the others discuss what to do. Demi remembers Cinnamon told Gloria that fortune favours the bold. But Gloria says that not all the premonitions came true, Cinnamon said someone would die but no one has yet.

As Mariluna goes to her car to get some flowers out, Joker and his friend come up to her and demand she give them the money. She tries to explain the difference in identity but they don’t believe her.

The group remember that Cinnamon said one sister will be the downfall of another. Gloria talks about how she was the problem in her own life, and how she manifested a lot of the bad things. She bet on herself to be safe but from now onwards she is going to bet on all of them.

Mariluna pulls out her own gun as Joker and his friend do the same. Gloria tells her friends that they are not cursed, and as she does, they suddenly hear a gunshot.

The Episode Review

An average episode that marks the season’s overall downturn in the second half. What started as a fresh and quirky tale turned into a typical teen drama towards the end. The originality that marked this show as unique sort of faded into the background, overshadowed by well-worn tropes.

Cam and Demi had one of the most interesting dynamics in the beginning and seeing them get together was great. But their quick and easy break (while intriguing!) just didn’t make sense considering the energy that went into them becoming a couple. And then they go one step further and hint at him being the ultimate love of her life anyway? What is this?

Rusty and Gloria were a genuinely perfect and very endearing couple. It would have been nice to see them deal with other issues and adolescent troubles as a couple. Instead, we get the typical love triangle with the woman’s sister. One minute he talks about spending the following thanksgiving with Gloria with his family and the next his hands are all over her sister? It’s a shame because I think Rusty is an unconventional male lead and could have been great if they didn’t reduce him to this pawn in a love triangle.

Also can they stop pitting the sisters against each other? It’s just melodrama and not very thoughtful or insightful or even entertaining. What’s worse is that Mariluna — one of the most wonderful and quirky characters of the show — got killed just as we were getting to know her. That said, the acting, direction, dialogues and humour (shout out to the Uncle Emilio bowl) were brilliant. I can’t deny that it’s well made, I just don’t enjoy where the story is going.