Many shows and films have explored the themes of sexual predators, abuse, and violence against women. If you’ve watched Promising Young Woman, which tells the story of a friend seeking revenge for the assault on her friend, then watching the series Exposure will give you a similar feeling, especially in the beginning. Exposure, directed by Lucy Coleman, starts off as a mystery drama but turns into something much deeper and darker by the end. The story is about a young woman named Jacs Gould (played by Alice Englert). Jacs is heartbroken when her best friend, Kel (played by Mia Artemis), suddenly and tragically takes her own life. Jacs goes back to her hometown for Kel’s funeral, desperate to understand why her friend did this. Even though they were close all their lives, Jacs never knew what Kel was hiding or what the reason behind her death was. Jacs begins a journey to uncover the truth behind Kel’s death. She suspects that some men in their town might have driven Kel to this tragedy. Little did Jacs know that she herself had become the prey of these men and faced their torment and abuse in the past. So, will Jacs discover who was behind her best friend’s death? What will she learn about herself along the way? We will uncover it all in the series, Exposure.
Spoilers Ahead
Why did Jacs start to search for the reason behind Kel’s death?
Jacs and Kel had been friends their entire lives. They were the epitome of a typical best friendship—wild, always partying together, exploring romantic interests with men, and being incredibly caring and supportive of each other. Both were their best selves when together. They knew that even if the world turned against them, they would always be there for each other. One night, Jacs and Kel went to a club to party. Jacs ended up going home with a man, and Kel, being the caring friend she was, told her to take care of herself. That was the last conversation they had. When Jacs woke up the next morning, she couldn’t find Kel anywhere. Then she noticed water overflowing from the bathroom. When she went in, she found Kel had drowned herself in the bathtub. Jacs was shocked and hurt. Her mind was not working. In that first moment of despair, being a photographer, Jacs grabbed her camera. With trembling hands, she clicked a picture of her friend’s lifeless face in the water. She wanted to capture the raw, unfiltered emotion of someone who felt they couldn’t go on living, an emotion often hidden from the world. But after Kel’s death, Jacs was never the same goofy, funny, wild person again. Even when she pretended to be, it wasn’t real. The haunting image of her best friend’s dead body had lodged in her mind forever. The saddest part was that she didn’t even know what had happened to Kel. If only Kel had talked to her, she would have been there. That’s what best friends are for, right?
Jacs naturally started to blame herself. She took the picture to her self-exhibition, where it received a lot of praise, though some people were horrified. But while Jacs tried to enjoy the attention, she really couldn’t. At her own exhibition, she got drunk, as she thought how ironic and pathetic the situation was—people were praising a picture of someone dead in a bathtub, and Jacs had actually taken it. She laughed to herself and others, but she knew she had to find answers. She couldn’t just let this go. For the funeral, Jacs went to her hometown. On the way, she took Kel’s belongings with her. Hoping to find some answers, she decided to snoop through Kel’s phone. There was nothing mysterious until she found a contact saved as “Do Not Answer,” and all their chat history had been deleted. Maybe this person was the reason. Maybe he had done something to Kel that she couldn’t handle. There was even a message that said he hadn’t meant to hurt Kel. What exactly had he done? Jacs was determined to find out. She knew she had to get to the bottom of this, no matter what, because she couldn’t find peace otherwise.
Did Jacs find the answer?
Jac’s journey to uncover the reason behind her friend’s death was horrifying, as it revealed the darkest sides of men that would make anyone’s skin crawl. She went on a mission, hunting down men and questioning people, including Kel’s friends and acquaintances at the funeral, to find out what happened to Kel. She realized that getting answers from men wouldn’t be easy; she had to lure them and trap them because they wouldn’t reveal anything otherwise. While pretending to enjoy being with these men, even sleeping with them, Jacs was constantly imagining scenarios in her mind where she would hurt or kill them to give them a taste of their own medicine. It made you wonder what had happened to Jacs. Was she okay? Or was it the revenge-driven side of her that she couldn’t show, knowing that if she did, she wouldn’t find any answers? Someone told her that Kel used to spend time with a bearded surfer guy at the beach. Jacs had no idea about this. She thought she knew everything about Kel, but Kel’s mother revealed they hadn’t met in three months, and Kel had been coming home more often than Jacs realized. Jacs started taking photographs of bearded, rugged-looking men with surfboards by the beach. Eventually, she found out that Kel had been talking to a man named Benny, whom she often saw at the beach. Jacs knew she had to talk to him and lure him in, thinking he might be the “Do Not Answer” guy. She started talking to him over the phone, and one night she mustered the courage to go to his house. She knew it was a risk, but she was willing to take it.
As they started making out, Jacs imagined hurting him, even thinking of stabbing him. She asked Benny about his deepest secrets, and he admitted to hitting his ex-girlfriend when drunk. Jacs thought maybe he was the guy. Then Benny took a picture of Jacs’, and after opening his gallery, Jacs saw a naked picture of Kel on his phone. Benny claimed not to know Kel, which horrified Jacs even more. She discovered that Benny was part of a group chat where men shared pictures of naked women that they slept with without their consent. The man who sent Kel’s picture was named Bronson, a journalist. Disturbed, Jacs left as soon as possible. When she confronted Bronson, he denied any responsibility for Kel’s death and instead showed her the picture Benny had taken of Jacs the previous night. Horrified, Jacs didn’t know how to deal with these men. I mean, think about teaching these grown men about consent. Jacs knew it was a lost cause because they knew the words but didn’t choose to understand the meaning. But Jacs still didn’t know who the “Do Not Answer” guy was. She gathered the courage to message him, and he finally replied and agreed to meet her. She found out his name was Jim, a man with a wife and kids who had been having an affair with Kel. He wanted to keep it a secret and live in peace with his family, so he refused to talk to Kel anymore. He denied being the reason for her death. But was he really innocent? Or all those other men? They claimed they didn’t cause Kel’s death, but directly or indirectly, they all used her, both physically and emotionally. Maybe Kel couldn’t take it anymore. Maybe that’s why she chose to die—living through this trauma was becoming too much for her.
What happened to Jacs?
But Jacs herself didn’t know what had happened to her. She thought something was wrong with her because she not only blamed those men but also herself for Kel’s death. Why? Because she had slept with Kel’s boyfriend, Angus, during a weekend getaway, and Kel knew about it but never confronted Jacs. Kel loved Jacs so much that she didn’t want to ruin their friendship over a boy. This guilt ate away at Jacs and made it hard for her to be at peace with herself. But, all this time, we saw Jacs going from one man to another, never fully being herself, and always wanting to punish these men without really understanding why. Then, Jacs’ mother found a video made by a man named Ruffa on Jacs camera. The video showed him forcing himself on Jacs without her consent while she was high and drunk. Jacs didn’t want to sleep with him, but he hit her, and she was too weak to defend herself. Seeing this video, Jacs didn’t know how to respond. Her mother was heartbroken to watch her daughter suffer and blame herself for being too drunk and careless. Jacs even said that if she had agreed to sleep with him in the first place, it wouldn’t have happened. It was a horrifying thought for her to have.
Exposure is heartbreaking and eye-opening, as it reveals the constant trauma women face. At first, Jacs didn’t want to do anything about her situation, but she couldn’t let that man go unpunished. She knew that if she went to the police, she would be blamed for her revealing clothes, for being drunk, and for being careless. Instead, Jacs made a copy of the video and sent it to Ruffa, the man who assaulted her, who is actually a school teacher. Imagine! She wanted him to live with the shame of what he had done to let him know that he was a monster. That was her way of punishing him. In the end, Jacs celebrated her trauma through her next exhibition, showcasing a photograph of herself after the assault with her red, teary eyes. She wanted to show society her raw, unfiltered self, hoping this horrifying image would stay in their minds. She wanted others who have been abused to relate to this pain and suffering, the pain that is often hidden away from the world.
