Under the Bridge Season 1 Episode 6 Review: In Water They Sink as the Same

Under the Bridge Season 1 Episode 6, “In Water They Sink as the Same,” gives Rebecca a stronger arc but continues a too loose plot for the murder case. Even with a warrant out for Warren’s arrest, the cops still seem to be spinning their wheels until the last minute.

Rebecca’s relationship with Warren, clearly an attempt to ameliorate her guilt over her own brother’s death, gives Riley Keough some meaty, emotional scenes. Combined with the flashbacks of the scenes from when her brother dies, we finally better understand this flighty character.

It’s clear Rebecca was a moody teen with little sympathy for her brother, but the line between being a jerk and causing someone real harm is what this show explores. She pushed him away out of jealousy over Cam, inadvertently causing his death.

Rebecca didn’t literally kill her brother, but she sees in Warren how easy it is to make a mistake that changes your life forever.

Neither Cam nor her parents can understand why she’s willing to help a murder suspect, but the show ties together the parallels nicely. Unfortunately, the flashback doesn’t give Cam much agency other than to disagree with Rebecca’s harshness, and their roles are now reversed.

Cam accuses Rebecca of only caring about getting her story and not justice for Reena. It’s ironic then that Under the Bridge seems to be struggling with the same problem.

Under the Bridge is milking every juicy detail of the story, and embellishing, to get eight episodes of content out of the story.

Whether or not Kelly and Jo’s plot to kill Dusty is a true part of the story, it feels melodramatic and another chance to prove how evil Kelly is while making Jo sympathetic. Jo is talking Dusty into killing herself one minute and then saving her the next.

The episode overshadows the subtleties of the everyday evil of Reena’s case by trying to make the teens too overly calculated and villainous. With Warren’s partial confession to Rebecca and the information the cops get from his girlfriend Samara, we don’t need more examples of Kelly’s bad behavior.

If anything, the fact Kelly is brazen enough to leave Reena’s boots in her closet for the police to discover tells you everything you need to know about how out of touch with reality she is. Jo seems to use her gang delusion as a coping mechanism whereas Kelly thinks it’s real.

Meanwhile, Reena feels like an afterthought for much of the episode. Aside from her family and Dusty, no one seems that torn up about her death although Cam is determined to solve the case at least.

There is a heartbreaking flashback where Reena asks Raj if he thinks she won’t be resurrected because of her sins, and he comforts her saying that the best part of her life is still to come. That is the Reena I would like to see more of, with the show giving her a chance to be vulnerable and share her hopes and dreams instead of always playing the bratty teenager.

With Kelly and Warren now arrested, maybe it can focus on justice instead of juicing up the plot for a good story.

What did you think of this episode of Under the Bridge? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Under the Bridge airs Wednesdays on Hulu.

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