Summary
A slow burn of an episode that has one emotionally charged ending that will leave you in tears.
This recap of the Amazon Freevee series High School season 1, episode 2, “Shock to Your System,” contains spoilers.
The pilot episode of High School set the stage for the stained relationship between sisters Tegan and Sara. The sisters struggle to adapt to the new school, relationships, and new friends. We know they were off to a party. Let’s dive into episode 2 and see what goes down.
High School season 1, episode 2 recap
The episode begins with Sara (played by Seazynn Gilliland) singing over the top of Phoebe, which leads to a little make-out session between the pair. As they are making out, Sara’s mom hits the door with a funny joke and tells Phoebe that her dad has arrived to pick her up. Next, Sara tells Tegan (played by Railey Gilliland) they still need to ask their mom to attend the party. Then we see Sara walk Phoebe to the door and see her off.
When we get back into the house, Sara is confronted by her mom, an awkward moment interrupted by Tegan, who asks Sara about the party yet. Then, of course, their mom says what party, and Tegan informs her that Maya invited them to a party, and they both want to go. Mom does what all moms do, asks heavy-hitting questions about whether parents will be there, mentions no drugs, and they both have to check in by ten, and she will pick them up at midnight. One other term was that Sara and Tegan had to go to piano lessons.
The duo had arrived at the party, and Maya was excited to see Tegan. Next, Sara heads outside and sees her new friend from school, Natalie, who asks her to partake in something (drugs) that will send them on a trip. Then we see Ally, Natalie’s friend, get a formal introduction to Sara before partaking in it herself. This follows quite a trippy moment between Ally and Sara that is interrupted by Natalie.
Sara overhears a song playing inside and founds her sister, who was the one that put the song on. However, at this point, Tegan realizes that Sara is wasted and calls her out for it. Natalie informs Tegan that Sara is tripping right now, which leads to her snapping at Sara. They have to check in with their mom, and Tegan hands the phone to Sara, who plays it off perfectly. Finally, Tegan confronts Sara for ditching her, but moments later, Sara tells her she is sorry and that she misses her.
Maya walked Tegan and Sara outside as they were leaving. Maya asks Tegan if they can hang out sometime, just them, and she is about to respond, and Sara says, “she really likes you,” embarrassing Tegan a little. When they get home, while Tegan is getting a glass of water, she sees her mom arrive home looking quite sad. After that, we get a transition of a black screen with the name “Simone” across in white letters.
We make the transition where we see Simone in the car driving, singing in the car loudly as she arrives at school. At night, it seems as if she works at the Calgary Crisis Center. While at work, someone is telling a long-winded story, and she has to pause as she is on a roll with stuff at work. Next, it’s a bit of a story time where Simone breaks down what is going on with Tegan and Sara at home. It leads to Simone telling a secret that sometimes when she gets on her street, she stops and wants to keep driving and never look back.
Back at the house, Kyle (husband/dad) gets home, and he and Simone debate what they are or aren’t going to do tonight. Both are filled with ideas that neither one of them want to do. However, Kyle says he has an excellent idea for them, and she will love it. Next, we see Simone dropping the kids off at the party (from earlier), breaking down the no drugs or grounded for life speech. As they are about to get romantic, the phone rings, and it is the kids. As she gets off the phone to return to Kyle, the phone rings again, and it is work that needs her to come in ASAP.
The ending
Simone rushes to the hospital and finds out one of the patients she spoke to on the phone decided to barricade themselves in their house and started a fire and didn’t make it. Simone quickly blames herself for what happened, but her co-worker tries to talk her down. We know this was why Tegan saw her in the car breaking down earlier. Tegan comes outside to check on her mom, who asks her if she is okay. Simone, slightly defensive, asks her if she is drunk, and Tegan says no. Simone follows by telling her she isn’t okay, and they embrace as the episode ends. What a gutwrenching montage here with some fantastic work from Cobie Smulders.
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