Diksha Sundriyal
An idyllic vacation turns into a nightmare for a family when their 18-year-old daughter goes missing on the day before they are to return home. The mystery is never solved, and its effects reverberate in the lives of the people close to her decades after the incident. Hulu’s ‘Saint X’ explores this premise, highlighting the impact of grief that never found closure.
Alison Thomas died twenty years ago on the island of Saint X. The mystery of what happened to her was never solved, which turned her into fodder for the media to exploit and true-crime fans to obsess about. The lack of evidence made it impossible to figure out the truth about the events that happened on the last day she was seen alive, but it is believed that someone out there knows exactly what happened. Here’s what we think might have happened to her. SPOILERS AHEAD
Alison’s Death: An Accident Involving Clive and Edwin?
In the first three episodes, ‘Saint X’ paints a blurry picture of the events surrounding Alison’s death. A plethora of characters are introduced, each linked differently to Alison. While a motive is yet to develop, we see wisps of it floating around as we see Alison interact with different people. Could it be the man with a pregnant wife who passed an offensive comment to Alison because she didn’t back him during a volleyball game?
Could it be the young girl who is jealous of Alison because all the boys have been flocking to her, and she is flirting with all of them? Could it be the boy Alison has been fooling around with, the boy whose father advises him to pursue the other easier girl because Alison seems too uptight? Or was it the two boys who last saw her, one of whom was romantically involved with her?
For the cops of Saint X, Alison’s death was an accident. Clive and Edwin, who were last seen with Alison, were arrested for drunk driving on the night of her disappearance. The cop who had known them their entire lives felt something off about them because they were not being their usual self. He suspected that the boys had gotten involved in something terrible this time. Later, he wonders if it was the murder. Clive and Edwin are questioned, and they give a timeline that makes it impossible for them to have been at Faraway Cay, where Alison’s body is found days after she went missing, when she died.
The cop explains the situation to the media and reveals their investigation has concluded. They believe Alison must have slipped and fallen into the waterfall or something, but she was not murdered. His expressions betray his feelings, and it looks like even he is not satisfied with the answer he gave to the world. Alison’s parents believe that the island officials are trying to cover up the murder to protect the reputation of their island.
Clive and Edwin remain the primary suspects in the case, especially for Alison’s family. While they had no motive, they could have killed her by accident. Living on the island, Edwin has also dreamt of leaving it and starting his life somewhere else, where he has a lot of money and a life of luxury. He wants to make quick money to realize his dream earlier. For that, he gets involved in shady things, including cocaine.
When one of the tourists on the island asks him if he has something stronger than weed, Edwin, against Clive’s advice, secures some cocaine for them. The people he gets it from are dangerous, and even Edwin feels a little off about going forward with it. In any case, he has cocaine, and we don’t yet know what he did with it. The night of her disappearance, Alison went out with Edwin and Clive. She’d been sneaking out almost every night with them, sometimes after hanging out with Tyler. It could be that on her last night there, cocaine was involved, and things got out of hand. Clive had been unapproving of dealing drugs from the beginning, so it could be that he tried to get Edwin out of the picture, leaving Alison alone or with someone else.
This could be why Edwin and Clive were so quiet when arrested for drunk driving. They were not in their usual playful mood because they were angry at each other. It could be this guilt of having left behind Alison that night that haunts Clive. He might not have killed her with his own hands, but he feels responsible for letting the events turn out the way they did. While we are yet to receive more pieces of the story, it is possible that the cops were right. Alison’s death was an accident; no one murdered her. How that accident occurred and who was involved in it remains to be seen.
Read More: Is Saint X a Real Island? Is Indigo Bay a Real Resort?
