Alison slipped? Really? This is ludicrous!! So many lives ruined because she slipped! These were the words that literally came to my mind when I witnessed what happened in the finale episode. Well, that’s how life is after all, and Saint X is just upsetting in a real way. Alison felt like an outcast and she was tired of pretending and never cared what anyone else thought about her. Ultimately, she took everyone along with her, not physically but emotionally.
Spoilers Ahead
Edwin’s Truth
Emily is scared because she has no idea where Clive is taking her. He has recognized that Emily is just Claire, especially after seeing her scribbling on her arm at the pub, like she used to as a kid at the resort. Emily apologizes and weeps for lying to him, but we know that Clive has no intention of hurting her. And we are right. He takes her to a children’s ride where he wished to bring Clive Jr. and tells her the truth about the fateful night that ruined his life. It is high time that Clive confronts his past and Alison finds out what happened to her sister. But what she doesn’t know is that her sister, unknowingly, ruined Clive’s life as well. We cannot really blame Alison for what happened with Clive, but it wouldn’t have happened had she not been involved. Here’s how.
Edwin brings Alison to his local party. Clive is also with them. While Alison gets busy getting drunk and dancing, Edwin tries to make Clive understand why he did what he did. But even then he isn’t able to tell him the truth and tries to pin it on Sara. Before they could continue, Alison brings them to the floor, and all three move to a different spot where there is water. At this point, it seems that whatever happened to Alison is going to happen here. But we are wrong. Olivia had suggested to Alison how she should have slept with the two guys. That’s why she is here. She kisses Clive and Edwin and then wants them to kiss each other. Clive finds it funny, but Edwin doesn’t. He knows he wants it but then he also knows that he shouldn’t. Then without thinking too much, he plants a kiss on Clive’s lips and moves away. Well, that does it for Alison and she takes some time off, lying down. But that’s when things fail to go as planned with Clive or Edwin, or maybe they go exactly as fate wanted them to. Edwin kisses Clive and he kisses Edwin back. Alison returns and finds them in a compromising posture and leaves the spot. That’s the last time they saw her. Neither of them had to do anything with Alison’s death.
Olivia is making out with Tyler, but she isn’t able to stop herself from asking him if it is Alison’s absence that is keeping him with her. It is true. But maybe Olivia shouldn’t have said it out loud because it makes Tyler leave and apologize to her which means that she is indeed right. Tyler is with her because Alison isn’t with him. Even Olivia already knew that what she suspected is true. In any case, Tyler comes across a somewhat drunk Alison, and they end up sleeping together. But it’s not the way anyone would expect, especially not Tyler. At one point, she wants him to choke her. But Tyler can’t hurt her. So, Alison gets up and leaves. There is this underlying feeling of self-harm that is visible in Alison. We can understand that her anxiety, and her inability to express herself which is also a result of people failing to understand her, is slowly pushing her to the point where she wants to hurt herself. Even on a vacation, she is suffocating and suffering.
Alison’s Truth
Emily arrives at Tyler’s place early the next morning and confronts him. I do not know how she came to know that he slept with Alison on that last night. However, since he is the last one to have seen Alison, he must have had something to do with her death. But that’s not true either. Tyler reveals he was told to keep his mouth shut by his father. Although he didn’t have anything to do with it, being associated with her would bring harm to his family’s reputation, something his father couldn’t afford, and neither could he. So, he kept quiet. And this ultimately led to Edwin and Clive being held responsible of Alison’s murder. But apparently, he didn’t say anything because he didn’t know for sure if they didn’t kill her. Be that as it may, Clive wasn’t the last person who had seen Alison. It was Emily who saw her sister before she was found dead in Faraway Cay. Emily returns to her home and opens up to Josh and Sunita, who have been worried sick all this while. She remembers now that Alison left, and she didn’t stop her. If she had, Alison would still be alive.
Alison returns to her room and finds Claire (Emily) awake. She was supposed to spend the last night with Claire, watching TV and eating chocolates. Claire is sad and it only adds to Alison’s frustration. She snaps in front of Claire about how she isn’t the star she thought she was. She was made to feel that way by Edwin and even Tyler. I don’t know who she addresses as “he” so I’m guessing either of the two. She wanted to be different, but she failed. What she doesn’t seem to understand is that it’s not her fault. It’s the people around her who she failed to comprehend. She has been like this from the beginning (of the show) and I do not really understand what she wants. Does she want acceptance? Is this because she was always subject to expectations? She probably thought that this place would help her release some of that pressure, but it didn’t. She probably feels like she has been used. But no more. She leaves her room and heads to Faraway Cay. She swims to the place, walks up to the waterfall on a slippery rock, slips on her way down, her head hits the rock, and she collapses into the plunge pool. The hit to the head is what kills her because she couldn’t have drowned. She was an excellent swimmer after all.
Clive’s Truth
Meanwhile, Clive opens up to Bery about what happened between him and Edwin. Edwin tried to keep him away from Sara not because Edwin loved her but because he loved Clive. And even though Clive tells Bery that he doesn’t know how he feels about Edwin, we can tell that he is just trying to lie to himself about his feelings for Edwin. This is proved when he tells Bery how he wouldn’t have said no to Edwin’s friendship when they were kids even if he knew what Edwin was going to do to him later on.
On the night Alison dies, Clive and Edwin get arrested for DUI. They return to the resort the next day after being released and find out that Alison is missing. Clive thinks that what’s happened and how everyone thinks that they are responsible for it, is because of their act in the woods; a punishment from God. After Alison’s body is recovered from Faraway Cay, an investigation is carried out. Clive is arrested for possession of drugs that Edwin had asked him to keep. Edwin is fired. We have seen all that occurred in the first few episodes. Everything falls into place at the end.
Does Clive Meet Edwin?
Emily shifts back home to her parents. They ask her about this desire to find out what happened to her sister, but she doesn’t think that they are ready to know. Maybe she wants to spare them the pain of finding out how Alison died and what led to her death. No one killed her and yet everyone was responsible for her death. But now that Emily found out the truth, she accepts her past and asks her mother to call her Claire again. The reason she had changed her name is because she didn’t want to be associated with that part of her life. Now that she has made peace with her past, she is ready to accept “Claire” with open arms.
Clive returns to the Caribbean Islands. He too has accepted his past and has come to meet Edwin after so many years. Edwin doesn’t have much time. The meeting of these two friends ends Saint X on the perfect sweet but sad note. Bery was perhaps right to say that Edwin married Sara because she was Edwin’s only way to keep his memories with Clive alive. Edwin never got to confess how he felt for Clive. But Edwin is glad to see his friend and Clive too is ready to forgive what happened between them and cherish their days of friendship together. The irony is that it is Claire, the sister of the very woman who Clive blamed for ruining his life and even his friendship with Edwin, who brought Clive and Edwin back together. Saint X offers an apt ending, as somewhere deep down, we too hoped that Clive would meet Edwin at the end. All’s well that ends well.
