Summary
Based on this episode, Sam Esmail has made yet another hit! Although it’s nothing like Mr Robot, The Resort has brilliantly written characters, a class location, and an intriguing mystery. This is well worth watching!
This recap of the Peacock series The Resort season 1, episode 1, contains spoilers.
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The Resort season 1, episode 1 recap
“The pursuit to recapture your past is a waste of time. The past lives in the past and is therefore non-existent in the present. Time travel has not been invented”. Luna, a resort concierge, greets Noah and Emma, who arrive at the Mayan Riviera in the Oceana Vista Resort for their 10th anniversary.
Due to Noah’s jetlag, he is unable to stay awake for dinner. So with Noah asleep, Emma spends the night alone. And judging by her attitude, it seems this may be a recurring thing in their marriage. But the next morning, it’s Emma asleep whilst Noah is full of life and chatting with another married couple, both of whom are called Ted. Then, later that night, whilst out riding on moped bikes, Emma crashes and falls into a ditch. In that very ditch, Emma finds an old mobile. As Noah comes to her aid, she puts the mobile phone into her pocket.
Afterwards, Emma is on medication due to the accident, and Noah tells her not to drink alcohol. Clearly bored and more interested in the phone that she found, Emma leaves the bar and buys a battery for the phone. Once the phone is fully charged, she searches through the photos before reading the texts. Many of the texts are full of concern for the male, Sam, to whom the phone presumably belongs. Very curious about the case, Emma goes to visit the abandoned and ruined Oceana Vista Resort. But the taxi driver warns her not to go inside as “people have died there”.
After a quick Google search, Emma learns that in 2007, two tourists, Sam and Violet, were reported missing, and a different man’s mutilated body washed up at the resort, whilst a rogue hurricane destroyed all evidence, maybe except the mobile phone that Emma has found. Then, in a flashback, Sam is on an aeroplane with his girlfriend, Hanna. Meanwhile, on the same flight to Cancun are his parents, Carl and Jan, and Carl speculates to Jan whether Sam is actually gay. When Hanna sleeps on the plane, Sam goes through her phone and finds several flirtatious texts from Professor Bryan. And just as Sam opens up a di*k pic from Professor Bryan, his father spots him looking at it.
The ending
Meanwhile, back in the present day, Emma can’t stop thinking about the missing tourists. Whilst Emma showers, Noah has to prevent himself from going through Emma’s phone. However, he does find Sam’s tattered mobile. Later that day, he asks Emma to make sense of the mobile, nearly going as far as to accuse her of having an affair. Naturally, Emma corrects him and reveals all about Sam and Violet’s seemingly separate disappearances. Does Noah call her crazy? No, The Resort doesn’t seem like that kind of show. Instead, he offers to help her.
When Noah checks through the phone’s deleted messages, he finds a photo message which proves that Sam and Violet did know each other! Back in 2007, Sam is quiet as he, Hanna, and his parents arrive at the resort. Sam just misses Violet, who he likely doesn’t know yet, as she chats with her father. Baltasar Frías, the head of security, shouts at Sam as he rides on her skateboard within the resort. Oblivious of Baltasar, Sam continues to skate throughout the resort. That is until he nearly rides into Violet and, subsequently, crashes into a tree.
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