Sharp Objects episode 1 recap: What happened in Vanish?
SHARP OBJECTS episode 1 premiered this week with Amy Adams in the starring role. Here’s a recap of the opening episode, Vanish.
Sharp Objects: Trailer for season one episode two
WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Sharp Objects episode 1
Dark and foreboding, the opening episode of HBO’s Sharp Object’s was a harrowing introduction into the world of the acclaimed Gillian Flynn novel.
Played by Amy Adams, the protagonist Camile Preaker is an alcoholic news reporter sent back to her rural hometown to cover the disappearance and murder of two young girls.
The miniseries is six episodes long and airs on HBO in the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK.
It is directed by Jean-Marc Vallée who directed Big Little Lies and produced by the production company behind Get Out.
Sharp Objects episode 1 recap
The first episode of Sharp Objects set up the world of Camille Preaker.
It opens with a nostalgic flashback to a young Camille (played by Sophia Lillis) and her sister Marian (Lulu Wilson) roller skating in their hometown, Wind Gap, as children.
They sneak past their mother Adora (Patricia Clarkson) and back into the house but then the viewer is shown modern features, such as an Obama poster, and it is revealed that it is no longer a flashback but a dream as the girls enter the room of a sleeping adult Camille.
Her younger self starts to poke her with a paper clip before she jolts awake.
The transitions between the present and flashbacks are subtle and at once jarring when Camille snaps back from her memories.
Adams gives an intriguing study into the character of Camille who is a complete mess and a far cry from her carefree from her younger carefree self.
She writes for a local newspaper in St Louis and has a severe alcohol addiction.
Though high functioning, her problem is pretty drastic as she regularly chugs backs baby bottles of spirits and keeps an Evian bottled filled with vodka to swig on.
Her gruff editor Frank Curry (Miguel Sandoval) sends her back to her hometown to investigate if there is a link between a missing teenage girl and another one who was previously murdered.
The first victim is Ann Nash (Kaegan Baron), who went missing on her way to a friend's house.
Her body was found hung up on a clothesline by a group of hunters.
The second victim, Natalie Keene (Jessica Treska), has only recently vanished and there is a search party taking place.
Camille really doesn’t want to go back but reluctantly does so.
Her memories form a huge part of the episode and we learn that her sister Marian died young which has left a lasting and profound affect on Camille.
She meets local police who don’t want her getting involved, signalling early on that her presence in Wind Gap is met with hostility by most of the locals.
When she does go back to her mother’s huge, impressive home, it's clear their relationship is strained - Adora seems to not want her daughter back in the house and is obsessed with the thought that she will embarrass the family by snooping around.
On her first night back Camille has a flashback to her sister having what appears to be a seizure in her childhood bedroom.
This upsets her so she sneaks out and goes to a bar where she talks to Detective on the case Richard Willis (Chris Messina).
She gets drunk and passes out in her car and has to sneak back the next morning, like a teenager, but is caught by her mother who berates her for such behaviour.
Camille interviews the father of Ann who was murdered before heading into town where she is present when the missing girl’s boy is discovered.
As a group of young girls tamper with the memorial in the town square and Camille talks to Natalie’s brother John Keene (Taylor John Smith).
Natalie’s lifeless body is found propped up in an alley way, her teeth all missing.
Camille has to give a statement in the police station where Detective Willis brings her a bottle of whisky.
She gets back home only to realise that her other half-sister Amma (Eliza Scanlan) is actually the ringleader of the teenage girls she encountered twice already, only now she’s dressed in her Sunday best and on her best behaviour for Adora.
Amma reminds Camille that Marian’s room is left like a shrine and upon taking a look, Camille is transported back to her sister’s funeral, in which she had to be forcibly removed when she frantically tried to wipe the makeup of her dead sister’s face in the coffin.
The circumstances surrounding Marian’s death are still unclear.
The episode ends with Camille taking a bath in her childhood room, as her naked body comes into focus, it becomes clear that her body is covered in scars that spell out words.
Self-Harm scars cover her entire body and one that spells out the world Vanish is prominent just before the credits roll.
Sharp Objects airs Sky Atlantic on Monday nights at 9pm