Netflix First Kill season 1 recap guide: Episodes 1 to 8

First Kill episode 2 recap: First Blood

Picking up where we left off with that shocking twist at the end of the first episode, the party ends within moments. Police arrive and the lights go out. Cal panics and runs home, but it’s not Juliette people need to be concerned with, it’s Ashley Stanton (Sarah Stipe).

Ben finds her on the verge of death on the floor and Ashley succumbs shortly after while Juliette slinks out of the party unseen. I guess a stake to the heart isn’t enough to take down a legacy vampire the same way the Burns decimated the vamp in the graveyard. Cal also notices that Juliette’s bite mark has already vanished from her neck.

Meanwhile, at the Burns household, an ugly creature known as a “Shambler” sneaks in and starts destroying everything in its path. Apollo, Theo and Talia dispatch the monster with haste, but not before revealing the Shambler was looking for something—an artifact called a “Summoner,” which Apollo found at the cemetery and brought home. “Obviously, I didn’t know what it was.” You probably shouldn’t bring weird monster artifacts home, Apollo!

Theo and Talia are, understandably, pissed. That said, the hunters need to consider what the Summoner was doing in the ceremony in the first place and who put it there. Theo is particularly upset by the incident because the Shambler destroyed a framed photo he has of his biological mother, the only picture he has left of her.

Given what happened at the party and the fact Juliette comes home with blood on her lips, Margot assumes that Juliette had her first kill with Ashley. Juliette doesn’t bother arguing, allowing her family to think it’s true as Margot immediately starts planning her consecration ceremony.

In a parallel to the scene with Juliette, Cal tries to sneak home after the party and Talia catches her and Cal explains she staked her first vampire. But unlike Juliette, Cal is more honest. She admits she’s not sure if Juliette actually died since she staked her and she collapsed, but didn’t burst into flame or ash.

Elsewhere, Elinor goes to the morgue to look at Ashley’s body since she seems to have doubts about Juliette’s “first kill.” She’s surprised to find Ashley was decimated, with tons of wounds and a missing liver. It doesn’t look like a normal vampire kill, especially for someone as compassionate as Juliette.

Then Elinor erases the coroner’s mind with a glamouring ability similar to what we’ve seen in other vampire shows like The Vampire Diaries and True Blood. However, not all vampires can do this, it’s Elinor’s special gift, so more like Twilight in that way.

Cal has a nightmare after the attack and Talia wakes her from the night terror. She asks Cal to show her what she did to stake Juliette, realizing Cal’s form is perfect, meaning Juliette must be a different sort of vampire.

Given how Ashley died, Sebastian is concerned about Juliette. Thinking Ashley was her first kill, he doesn’t like how sloppy and vicious it was. Margot tries to reassure him that it was just sloppy because it was her first time, she’ll get better. Sebastian doesn’t like the idea of Juliette slaughtering people. He doesn’t want her to become like her estranged brother Oliver, who we’ve yet to meet.

At school, Juliette starts to get much worse since she still hasn’t actually had her first kill. Ben confronts her about how she disappeared from the party and fills her in on Ashley’s death.

Elinor makes Sebastian even more concerned when she stops by his office and gives him the file on Ashley’s death, revealing Juliette supposedly ripped Ashley apart and took her liver. He also admonishes her for using her little “gift” and demands she return the file.

Apollo and Theo meet with a Guild hunter named Clayton Cook (Joseph D. Reitman) at a local bar to discuss the Summoner incident. Cook explains that there was a time everyone knew about monsters and over time, people have forgotten as Guild members have wiped out the monsters in Savannah. Apollo gives Cook the Summoner.

At the Fairmount house, Sebastian tries to talk to Juliette about the murder, ensuring she understands they shouldn’t be vicious and to be cautious where she leaves bodies. Juliette comes close to telling him the truth, but then chickens out.

That night, at the school, the teens host a memorial service for Ashley. Cal and Talia go to scope out the vampire. Initially, Cal tries to hide Juliette’s identity from her mother.

Across town, we get to see how Elinor feeds regularly on guys at the local bar, the same place Theo and Apollo frequent. Those are her hunting grounds. Fittingly, Apollo and Elinor run into each other there and appear to flirt.

During the service, Juliette starts to freak out yet again and retreats into the school. Cal chases her onto the roof. Cal is pissed Juliette bit her and Juliette is upset that Cal staked her. They start fighting and then Cal accidentally gets Juliette’s blood on her (vampires cry blood). In this world, vampire blood paralyzes its prey, at least legacy vampire blood does. Cal is left paralyzed on the roof as Juliette runs away, apologizing to Cal and assuring her that it will wear off.

The next day at school, Cal and Juliette are called to the office after getting caught on the roof via security cameras. Juliette says it was just a misunderstanding because she was upset and Cal came to comfort her. Margot and Talia are called in, too. The tension is thick between the mothers and the daughters.

Back home, Elinor confronts Juliette about her supposed first kill. She knows Juliette didn’t do it and she also knows Juliette got staked (she found the stake), but Juliette denies it all.

Juliette admits to liking Cal and they seem to reach middle-ground, for now. Whereas Talia starts to understand they’re dealing with a powerful vampire family, a group of vamps who can walk in the sun and don’t die from staking, a.k.a. legacy vampires. When Cal gets home, her entire family has assembled, plus her friend Tess (MK xyz) and her family.

They’re all prepared to hunt and kill Juliette’s entire family. Talia explains that legacies are born vampires with their bloodline stretching back thousands of years, back to the Garden of Eden. “You led us to them, baby girl. Now each and every one of them must die.”