Looking Glass – As the opening episode of Under the Bridge begins, Rebecca Godfrey (Riley Keough) begins talking about what happened in November of 1997. Rebecca says the story would haunt the island for years to come. Young girls in Victoria were the ones they were supposed to protect and not be protected from. On November 14, 1997, Raj (Anoop Desai) picks up Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta) from school. Reena admits she only attended half of class. Raj reveals he got her present. Reena begins listening to the CD before asking if they can drive through View Royal. When she sees Connor Fields (Jared Ager-Foster), she mentions that Josephine likes him. Raj thought she was done with the Seven Oaks girls, but Reena is still cool with Dusty.

Raj notices CMC written on her hand. He thinks she should focus on her family for a little while. Reena nearly jumps out of the vehicle while it’s moving. Once Raj stops, Reena leaves with her CD. She catches up with Dusty (Aiyana Goodfellow) at the Seven Oaks Youth Home and learns Jo is in her room. Josephine Bell (Chloe Guidry) tells them about bumming a cigarette from a guy at Rudd’s Park today. Jo and a friend crashed a party and a girl kept ticking them off. Jo tells them how she got the girl’s respect and got invited to the next party. Reena tells them about getting the new Biggie CD so Jo plays it for them. Kelly Ellard (Izzy G.) and the others dance to the music until Jo yells at Reena to get off her bed and calls her fat. Jo questions why she’s there. They decide to go to Connor’s place to get drugs, but Jo makes it clear that Reena is not invited.

Reena decides to take Josephine’s book. Rebecca arrives in Victoria with the draft of her book, Victoria Girls, in her lap. Her dad, Charles (Paul Jarrett), greets her outside and says her mom has been cooking. Her mom, Elizabeth (Glynis Davies), offers to take her out for tea. Rebecca admits she only returned home because she’s writing a book there. She can’t seem to think about anything else other than Victoria. Reena calls the people in Jo’s book and tells them she’s not even pretty anymore. She does this for a while. Reena ends up calling Connor and tells him that Jo got AIDS. She also asks if he wants to go out with her. Connor tells Josephine he heard she got AIDS. Jo isn’t happy to learn that Reena said that about her. Reena’s family prays before dinner. Her mom, Suman (Archie Panjabi), wants to know who she was talking to in the bathroom.

They argue about Reena wearing makeup. Josephine calls Reena and invites her to party with them at Shoreline tonight. Reena storms out of the house. Suman tells Manjit (Ezra Faroque Khan) that she wants to go so they should let her go. Once Reena arrives, Jo tells her she knows she took her stuff. Reena suggests it’s street rules like what she did to that girl from Esquimalt. Soon, Reena learns there’s going to be a fight so she tries to flee. She makes it to the bus stop and calls home to tell her mom where she is. Jo, Dusty, and others catch up with her. They decide to take her under the bridge. Reena sees lights in the sky. A news report suggests the lights might be an exploded satellite. Cam and Scott finish training. She asks her dad if he has heard back from Major Crimes yet. Roy Bentland (Matt Craven) it’d be best to earn this transfer on her own.

He tells Cam she’ll have an edge anyway with this affirmative action talk. Later, Raj and Majit go to the police station to report Reena missing. Scott Bentland (Daniel Diemer) reminds them that teenagers often lie. They look at Cam Bentland (Lily Gladstone). Raj and Majit tell the police what they know and mention Josephine’s notebook they found. Majit says Reena was speaking to a boy named Connor. Scott questions why Reena was hanging around a foster home. Raj accuses them of being racist but admits he wouldn’t expect that from Cam. Once they leave, Scott complains about a “bic” girl. Cam follows Majit and Raj. She explains they get a lot of missing kids and they’re not trying to be unhelpful. Raj says she did this before but she always tells him where she goes. Cam learns about Connor. Rebecca records audio about Victoria for her book.

Her dad offers to walk out there with her. He thinks it’s normal to honor someone at an accident site. Rebecca borrows his car so she can go to Seven Oaks and speak to some of the girls there. She tries to speak to Josephine and her friends, but a worker, Martha, tells her she needs to leave. Josephine wants to look at the newspaper to see if it says anything about Reena. Rebecca tells Dusty and Jo that she’s writing a book about the misunderstood girls of Victoria. Jo agrees to speak to her when she learns she lives in New York. She starts by talking to her about John Gotti. In the girls’ room, they talk about partying. Jo mentions Connor Fields. Jo doesn’t know what happened to Reena. She explains they make a police report every time she misses curfew but nothing ever happens.

Dusty tells Rebecca that the cops call them “bic” girls. Jo thinks they call them that because they’re disposable like the lighters. Manjit finds Suman packing Reena. Suman says she doesn’t have to live there if she doesn’t want to. They gave her another chance after what she did and she did this. Manjit argues they should not give up on her. Someone calls their house asking about Reena before hanging up. Cam visits Connor Fields who says he was talking to his iguana named Steve. He knows it’s not legal to have him. Cam is only interested in Reena. Connor says Reena isn’t his type. He believes she called him as a dare or something. He ends up telling Cam about the fight under the bridge. Connor claims Josephine called him and said CMC was going to make sure he doesn’t hear from Reena again.

People are saying Reena might be floating around somewhere. At the station, Scott dismisses the idea that someone killed Reena. Cam reveals CMC stands for Crip Mafia Cartel. Scott questions whether his dad really thinks a bunch of 14-year-old girls are Crips. Cam argues they should search the Gorge. Her dad eventually lets her take it to the dive team although her reputation will be on the line. While they search the water, Suman speaks to Jehovah. Josephine and the others watch the search team through the window. Something is found in the water. Later, Cam tells Reena’s parents that underwear was found in the Gorge. Suman believes they belong to her daughter. She questions why her underwear was taken off. Cam doesn’t have any answers for them. Manjit thinks it’s good that the police are involved now.

Suman believes their daughter is gone. Cam looks at a list of CMC members, including Josephine Bell, Kelley Ellard, Laila Zahrani, Maya Longette, Warren Glowatski, and Dusty Pace. The police approach them. They’re detained and brought to the police station for questioning. Darren calls his dad and asks him to come back to Victoria. Cam asks Josephine if she has anyone else to call. Rebecca gets a call from Saanich Police. She goes to the station to pick up Josephine. She learns Josephine is still waiting to be questioned for a potential homicide. Rebecca claims she is Jo’s guardian. Rebecca seems to remember Cam. She uses that to get to speak to Josephine. Scott tells Cam they got CCTV footage from the bus stop. It shows Reena fleeing from a group. Cam says it’s more kids than they thought. Scott tells her to just wait.

Josephine asks Rebecca if she can keep a secret. Cam sees Reena return from under the bridge. She begins walking across the bridge.

 

Under The Bridge Review

Under The Bridge likely tells an important story and a tragic one at that, but certain decisions may reduce the effectiveness of the series. For starters, it’s questionable whether the series really needed to include the author as a central character. Doing that took away from the actual crime, the victim, and others impacted by the crime.

Furthermore, the addition of Rebecca Godfrey created some scenes that seemed very fabricated or loosely based on the truth. If these scenes are based on the truth, they make the author look unethical and unlikable. It is already a known fact that the book contained multiple errors after all. The story could’ve been covered without the author.

Another issue is the fact that this feels like overkill at this point. It is easy to see why this specific story was adapted because it’s exactly like everything else or at least the source material is. Why are there eight episodes with little to no backstory for the central characters? At the very least, give viewers anything to genuinely connect to and care about the characters, especially the murder victim.

Based on the first episode, we barely even know who she is. We know very little about her family and what problems she’s going through. These topics may be covered later, but that might be too late. The eight-episode count is concerning since this episode was already a little slow at times. This was an okay episode, but it’s questionable whether it can do the story as much justice as a documentary could.

At the very least, a documentary would attempt to adhere to the facts of the case without an outsider’s interpretation and injection into the story. It’s also odd that the local police station is pretty much a family-run organization. If these networks are going to make a show based on true stories, they should be as accurate as possible. Cam Bentland wasn’t real and shouldn’t be in here to press today’s moral issues. Again, the subject should be the victim as always.

When these facts are twisted, it only leaves viewers questioning what other facts were twisted and that doesn’t do the victim or the story justice. The opening episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Under the Bridge can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Discuss this show and others at the Reel Mockery Forum.