Vrinda Bachchan
‘Dash & Lily’ is a Netflix Original series about two teenagers falling in love during Christmas time in New York City, by only exchanging notes and dares in a notebook, without actually meeting face to face. The show is based on the novel ‘Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares’ by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn and stars Austin Abrams and Midori Francis in the lead roles. In the article ahead is a short summary of the third episode of ‘Dash & Lily’ season 1 and what we thought about it. A fair warning before you continue reading, there are SPOILERS AHEAD!
Dash & Lily Season 1 Episode 3 Recap
The third episode of the so-far delightful young adult romance show sees Dash and Lily exchange more of their thoughts, along with dares, with one another using the red notebook. Episode 2 ends with Dash establishing the rules of their game – no last names, no social media stalking, no pressure to meet, personal questions to be accompanied by dares – and asking Lily what she wants for Christmas.
As Episode 3 opens, Lily responds that she wants to get to know him better and asks him which place in the city feels most like him. Dash sends her to the Grand Central Station at the crack of dawn, before the first train arrives, when everything is still and peaceful. Lily completes the dare and responds with a task of her own, which sends Dash to Central Park.
After passing the red notebook back and forth between them a few times, Lily asks Dash to tell her about his best Christmas. She believes that even he, who hates Christmas, must have at least one good memory of Christmas. Dash shares that his last happy memory of Christmas was from when he was ten, and his parents told him he was going to have two Christmases that year. As a kid, he had gotten excited at the prospect of double Christmas until he found out about his parents’ divorce. In exchange for this information, Dash asks Lily about her worst Christmas.
She opens up about a childhood trauma when a mean boy in middle school had called her weird at the winter dance, shattering her belief that she fit in. Trying to make a point that “weird is cool,” Dash dares Lily to go to an underground Jewish punk show. She goes, extremely nervous at first, because she’s never been to a club before, but after reading Dash’s encouraging words on the bathroom mirror (that he specifically left for her), Lily finds her courage and busts out some sweet moves, completely dominating the dance floor.
Dash & Lily Season 1 Episode 3 Ending
The Jewish punk band singers are acquaintances of Dash’s, and they spot Lily with the red notebook but wait to finish performing their set to take the notebook from her. Before Lily can leave the notebook with the singers, however, the mean boy from Lily’s middle school shows up randomly, causing Lily to run away in embarrassment. She reaches home at 4 in the morning, only to find that her Grandpa has returned from Florida.
He grounds her for life for staying out till 4 am. While the entire Episode 3 was sweet and heartfelt, the way it ends opened up a whole new world of possibilities. The lifetime grounding from Grandpa was not surprising (Lily is 17 after all; she had no business being out of the house till 4 am. What was pleasantly surprising was that the mean boy from Lily’s middle school did not turn out to be Dash himself but a completely new guy named Edgar Thibaud.
And the way Edgar saw Lily with the notebook and called her weird for bringing a notebook to a club did not seem mean-spirited like he meant it as an insult, though it did send Lily running away due to PTSD. What is Edgar’s deal, we’re really curious to know? And an even bigger question is how Lily will manage to get the notebook to Dash, now that she forgot to leave it at the club. He has no way of contacting her without the notebook, and she cannot even go out to the pizza place or the bookstore on account of being grounded. Does this mean this is an end to their game? We sure hope not!
Dash & Lily Season 1 Episode 3 Review
Episode 3 of ‘Dash & Lily’ hits hard and strikes an emotional chord with most types of audiences because almost everyone at some point in their lives has felt that they are a “loser” and they don’t fit in, just like how Lily feels. Lily’s profound pronouncement that “for people to like you, don’t be yourself” is so heart-wrenchingly resonant with most youth today. We live in a world of fake online personas and false social media bios, where no one is as they seem on the outside.
But as viewers, what we need is for Lily to own her individuality and emerge victorious against self-doubt and self-hate. Even for Dash to be more forthcoming about his parents’ divorce is huge character development from the previously emotionally closed-off boy we have seen since episode 1. This sweet show about teen love and self-acceptance has us really invested in the stories of its protagonists.
