Falls
What happened in the past with Victor?
Episode 7 of Echoes starts with Leni and Gina realizing they’re alone in the fiery house. Leni wants them to stick together but instead, Gina runs upstairs because I guess that’s a good idea when the place is burning? Anyway, Leni follows with an axe, stalking her sister. Heading into the bathroom, Leni experiences flashes of the past and now it becomes clear. Their mum was sick and it was Leni, not Gina, that saw their father drown Marie in the tub. This is why Gina was confused over Victor’s final words in the previous episode. This also explains why Leni has been so unstable all this time and needing to control everything, typified by her nonchalance at Robert being in the church as it burned down. Leni and Gina both make it out the house though before they’re consumed by flames, where they end up playing a game of cat and mouse through the woods. Leni’s façade is gone and she presents herself as the bad twin. Gina twists her ankle and hobbles through the woods while Leni gives chase. Eventually the girls fight in the water, atop a monstrous waterfall.
Does Gina or Leni survive?
Gina points out that Victor didn’t kill Marie, not really. The apple blossom petals in the bath means the whole thing was planned. Their father wasn’t a monster after all. Gina backs up though and decides to throw herself off the waterfall, sacrificing herself to give Leni another chance at redemption. In the aftermath of this, and in the remains of the fire, Floss finds a lion charm on the floor. She shows Jack, who points out that it belongs to the twins. Leni eventually heads back to the house, where she spins the story to Floss that it was Gina who killed Dylan. Given she’s not around to defend herself, Floss eyeballs her and points out how awfully convenient this whole thing is. Off the back of this, Charlie shows up to see Leni, pointing out that he loved both her and Gina. But as we know, he loved Leni a little more given his journals and the fact she smelled better, apparently.
Does Floss’ plan work? Or does Leni slip away?
Over at the station, Floss decides she needs to pore through the evidence and try to find something that shows Leni is a liar and that she did start the fire after all. Conveniently, Paula looks through the evidence box and finds one of the burned lion charms – the same one from the current fire. Aha, we’re in business! Paula meets Leni over at a diner and shows her the lion charm. The initial idea here is to make it seem like Paula is trying to help Leni and slow Floss down. In reality, this is all a ruse to bait her into a confession and bring her in. Unfortunately, Leni slips out the back and manages to avoid all the police and make it to the airport without incident. Leni tries to leave the country, showing off her passport and passing herself off as Kira, the name of the alias on one of the fake passports seen earlier in the series. Of course, that’s a pretty dumb move given Gina is actually dead and surely the police would have already put her picture through the system? Not only that but surely Floss would have alerted local law enforcement that they have a potential murder suspect on the run. Well, clearly not. In fact, the clerk Leni speaks to at the airport points out that someone who looks identical to her passed through yesterday heading off to Kansas. I’m guessing if it is Gina then she did so with Leni’s passport? Anyway, it’s not really explained and in the middle of all this, Floss receives an anonymous letter with a USB stick inside.
How does Echoes season 1 end?
Charlie gives a speech in the bookstore for his new book “Leni and Gina.” It would seem that Gina is actually still alive too. She’s waiting at Charlie’s apartment with him while he makes up appearance. However, someone shows up in a hat and glasses, asking about Gina’s missing body, seemingly hinting that this is Leni. As the episode closes out, Charlie vows to find the truth over which twin is which, with Gina revealing that she’s back with Charlie because she has some scores to settle.
The Episode Review
So Echoes goes completely off the rails for this final episode, with a nonsensical and silly twist at the end along with some pretty big contrivances involving the police. Not only that, but the idea that Floss just backs off to build a bigger investigation, while simultaneously not bothering to alert the airport and other regions that they have a runaway on the loose just feels really sloppy and contrived. There are also a few loose ends that aren’t wrapped up either, like why Leni is so confused over a nanny being in her house, Jack’s debt subplot still not really wrapped up along with a very obvious twist at the end involving Victor’s assisted suicide for Marie. In the end we go the cliched “good twin/bad twin” route and it culminates in that over the top and rather cheesy showdown in the water. However, there’s also not really enough here to warrant a second season either, especially as the show bills itself as a miniseries despite baiting for another run of eps. I’m not sure about you guys but that feels a bit misleading to be honest. Ultimately, this has been one of those thrillers that thinks it’s cleverer than it actually is. Some of the twists have been well implemented but others have really fallen flat, taking serious liberties with logic and pacing. It’s a shame really because there’s definitely potential here and little glimmers of enjoyment – especially in episode 5 as the pieces slot together. In the end though, this one falls short of expectations.
