Summary
The Lake ends its freshman season with a humorous but uneven episode. The one saving grace is Gavaris, and we begin to grow tired of Stiles’s character, Maisy.
This recap of the Amazon original series The Lake season 1, episode 8 — the ending explained — contains spoilers.
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The Lake season 1, episode 8 recap – the ending explained
I have my issues with The Lake, but the character that is consistently entertaining and strong is Opal. She writes “sorry” to Killian with rocks as she approaches Billie. Opal begs her to stop because she once stepped away from showing up at the house with a boombox. Her small step-cousin also admits Billie is one of the few people she can stand on the island, and Killian will come around eventually.
Meanwhile, Billie’s parents visit her at the “murder” cabin. Justin convinces them to stay for the “Tiltapalooza” activities. There are your usual camp activities. The tug-o-war, three-legged race, bingo, gigantic Connect 4, corn-hole, and of course, jousting while standing on canoes (I guess they call it “tilting”). And while Wayne’s cooking food for the guests, we find out Jayne is leaving him. Why? Because he drinks too much and is a terrible listener, per Vincent. But of course, we have seen and heard Jayne pine for Maisy all series and held a torch for her since high school.
As Vincent continues to quote Bernie Brown, Maisy snaps at him and unveils that she put extra weight in Justin’s paddle and also the cottage is on the line. Then, Maisy has one of her bad ideas. Even if Justin wins, she will put an offer on the “murder” cabin with the leftover money from the reservation. They will rent it out, double their money, and force Justin off the lake while making their money back. She uses her hold over Jayne to help put down payment on the cottage.
When the tilting competition begins, Vincent is supposed to let Wayne win to impress Jayne. Unfortunately for him, Jayne is holding a sign that supports Victor, and one of Wayne’s devil children yells into the megaphone while holding it upside down. Also, Billie wins her tilt because Killian refuses to fight her, and he turns into a whiney, mean guy by mocking her for being a victim of being given up for adoption (yikes).
Then, Justin and Maisy’s tilt for the cabin goes past the thirty-minute mark, while Riley and Jayne ref in nearby canoes. That’s when our favorite new realtor, Jayne, gets a call from Maureen. She accepts… Riley’s offer! To the shock of Justin and Maisy, Riley now has the cabin, which causes Maisy to fall backward when she slams down her paddle. Justin celebrates his victory because he won because of gravity.
The ending
Justin and Billie say goodbye, and since they do not have the rental or the family cabin anymore, they choose to travel to Greece next summer. She leaves, and as he gorges himself with potato chips, Riley shows up. Justin, though, is happy for him. Riley suggests he can rent the cabin from him next year, now that he has the money from Maisy. However, Justin (rather stupidly) says he will give back the money. Why? Because this thing between them will never end if it keeps going on. As I scream at the screen and beg Justin to stop being a pushover, Maisy slaps him in the face, and Justin does it right back.
What exactly is going on? Justin called the lawyer to take his name off the trust. The cabin goes back to Justin’s father’s trust, which means the house goes right to Maisy’s mother, Mimsy. The episode ends with Justin giving the money back to Maisy, and Justin, seeing how upset Maisy is that he is leaving her alone to deal with her mother, helps her take the straw out of the giant box of wine she is guzzling down. They approach the house together.
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