Escape from the Reality

Harry walking around dazed in a blood-stained prep school uniform. His cheek is also smeared with blood. Cut to a police interrogation room: Harry, now cleaned up and wearing sweats, is being questioned by a detective. But she assures him, “It’s going to be alright.” Officer: Harry, I have to ask you some questions. You have not been at this school for long, right? Harry: No, almost four months. [Breathing heavily] Officer: Calm down. It’s going to be all right. [Harry breathing heavily and remember the days] [Glass squeaks] [Sniffles] [Breathing goes louder] [Door opens] Another woman after your husband. Have you noticed anything off lately? Like Big Little Lies, Escape from the Reality jumps between flashbacks prior to the murder and present day of characters being interrogated about the murder. Flashback to four months earlier: its Harry’s first day at Caxton College, an Escape from the Reality bilingual prep school. After the roof of his old public school Hablamos collapsed, the construction company paid for three students to transfer to Caxton College as a PR stunt. Harry is joined at Caxton College by fellow newcomers Richard, an irreverent class clown, and Maryam, a high achiever who faces discrimination not only from classmates but also from the principal for being Muslim. Under penalty of being expelled, Maryam is forced to not wear her hijab at school. Christian is looking to get in with the cool crowd, while Maryam and Harry just want to be left alone. But reigning queen king and queen bee Jack and Faaha aren’t making any of their lives easy. One person does go out of their way to try to make the new kids, especially Harry, feel welcome — Elizabeth. She readily stands up for Harry to Jack, her brother. Harry has a brother of his own, Nina, who has just been released from prison on parole. It’s unclear what he went away for, but he thinks his sentence was unfair. He’s also angry about Hablamos’s roof collapsing and out for revenge. He takes his unwitting younger brother on a motorcycle ride to the construction company owner’s house and tags an outer wall, despite Harry’s protests. Back at school, Elizabeth invites both Harry and Maryam to her coming-out-to-society party, to the chagrin of their classmates. Elizabeth finds the extravagant rite of passage ridiculous and embarrassing. However, since her parents Alice and Emma are really throwing the bash for themselves, she can’t put the kibosh on it. Alice had encouraged her to invite one of the new kids, but he has an ulterior motive Elizabeth is unaware of. Christian scores an invite thanks to his new friend Thomas. Thomas saved Christian from getting caught with weed at school in exchange for Christian subsequently hooking him up with his dealer. However, they soon start bonding. Thomas feels like an outsider, too, because he’s not actually rich. He got into Caxton College because he’s the principal’s son. Thomas also happens to be gay and is seemingly in the closet. He leaves Elizabeth’s party after getting an offer on Grindr. But when he gets to the meet-up, he sees a familiar face. It’s the same guy who sold him the weed. Thomas doesn’t seem spooked, but his would be hook up partner runs. While Thomas never learns his name, Harry’s friend from Hablamos and Maryam’s brother. At the party, Harry finds himself in a bind. As it turns out, Alice is the head of the construction company and knows what Nina did because they’re so rich they have security cameras. Alice blackmails Harry into taking a picture with him as another PR stunt. While Elizabeth is furious with her father, she’s also disappointed with Harry for giving in to his demands, though she doesn’t know he’s covering for Nina. The story reaches its c****x during a subsequent fight between Elizabeth, Jack and their parents concerning Harry. Thomas had earlier told Christian that Caxton College’ scholarship program had been suspended for a year after “something happened… with the son of one of the cooks.” What happened was Elizabeth dated that student, Joseph, and contracted HIV. Elizabeth insists that Joseph “did not mean to hurt” her, suggesting he was unaware of his positive status. Jack blames Joseph, though; and Emma refuses to speak about the matter altogether, which frustrates and devastates Elizabeth. As the party winds down, Nina arrives and gets into a fight with the equally hot-headed Jack. In retaliation, Jack threatens to tell everyone at school that Harry is a “delinquent” and get him expelled. Harry is actually angrier with Nina, though. When they get home, he yells at Nina for making things worse for him. Nina fires back that he was trying to protect him. Fortunately, Maryam comes to Harry’s aid by blackmailing Jack. Maryam had accidentally walked in on him and Amy having s*x in a school locker room. The pair had tried to suck up to and (on Jack’s part “seduce”) Maryam in order to keep her quiet, but she sees right through them and plays her ace at the perfect moment. Jack agrees to keep quiet about Harry. The next day, Elizabeth goes to Harry’s house to let him know that Jack won’t be an issue. It’s Nina who answers the door, though, and sparks start flying as the two banter. After Elizabeth leaves, Nina relays her message, and Harry returns to school, which thrills Elizabeth. At least one of the brothers seems set to be Elizabeth’s love interest, but maybe it’ll be both. On the other hand, a school project brings Harry and Elizabeth as well as Maryam and Jack closer together. Thomas and Omar question what they want from one another. That is how much Nina owes from having protection in prison and the people he owes wants him to pay immediately. So, they decide to harass him at the restaurant where Harry got a job. They break into his home, destroy the living room, and leave Nina a bit unsure what to do. That is, only if Harry won’t use some information Hazel told him to help. As for Thomas and Omar, despite some hesitation, at first, Omar gives into his feelings and kissing Thomas, they make out and Omar even tugs a bit at Thomas’s member. However, with moving Thomas’s wallet from his pants to the car seat they are making out on, Thomas stops what they’re doing, says he is uncomfortable. This last for a few days but when Jack snitches on Thomas about getting drugs from Omar, it pushes Thomas to reconsider. Not because he wants more drugs, mind you. More so, it seems losing the drugs pushes him to want to see Omar without that condition. Which excites Omar a bit. Thomas never shared his homosexual feelings with Jack which is the problem. For what he know, Jack could be bi and is upset the one person he could trust with his feelings doesn’t consider him trustworthy. Much less attractive enough to experiment with. Switching to Nina’s situation, I must admit I was hoping and expecting more. He owing some thugs makes sense. That is, unless they do something violent that really leaves a mark on a character. The games Amy and Jack are playing are beginning to leave their significant other left out. This is especially true for Daniel since Christian is very boisterous and open about his feelings for Amy. To the point, Jack catches on and questions what is Daniel that leads to some feeble attempt at explaining how he is in control, trying to make it sound like a p**n he arranged, but Jack isn’t buying it. So, embarrassed, Daniel tries to end things in conversation. Leading to us learning Daniel and Amy are step-siblings since their moms are in love with one another. Thus perhaps explaining why Amy wants to explore other people. For while their fates seem kind of sealed, she wants to see if there is some escape. However, Daniel doesn’t let his insecurities be calmed by Amy’s having s*x with him, because she still desires, and tries to have s*x with, Christian. So, he blows their cover and that leads to Christian leaving this game of theirs. Unfortunately for Faaha, her game doesn’t seem like it may end that easily. Jack pushes Maryam to be his partner in this social media project Mr. David makes. In the process of this, as much as Maryam knows something is up, as do we, there are signs and possibilities that maybe this isn’t just a game. To the point when Faaha sees them being flirtatious, she isn’t sure what is real and what is them supposedly taking Maryam down a notch. It should be considered creepy that Daniel and Amy are step-siblings, assuming their parents adopted each other’s kid, and yet are acting like they are destined for marriage. Having s*x even… I’m starting to think Amy recognizes it is weird and that’s why she is trying to find alternatives to Daniel. Plus, low-key, he kind of seems like the crazy jealous type. You know, the one who seems all nice and normal at first but then there are a bunch of red flags. Most of which you think are just you being paranoid but then you realize they are psychotic. Perhaps explaining how and why Daniel liked to watch. It wasn’t all about him convincing himself he had control over Amy’s sexuality. No, it was also because he wanted to compare and see if he could really lose her. For if someone like Christian could take her away that means the Jacks of their world would have no issue. So, in a way, this was a test. As for Faaha, she is convinced Jack only chose to be with her out of convenience. Granted, he could just be playing the long game and that is why he seems so smitten with Maryam. Yet, there is also this idea that, like Hazel, he wants something different.