"In The Vault" Season One Finale Recap Thoughts

A week ago today was the Season One finale of go90's "In the Vault". I had a lot of fun watching this series every Wednesday and am looking forward to more from Ben Epstein, the show's creator and writer.

Now you don't have to wait weekly like I did to watch each new episode. Here is the link to the series in its entirety. Happy binge-watching! :D

Okay so now that the season is over, I am going to go back and give my opinions about each character, considering that each of them had his or her own episode.

I'm including spoilers in this, so be careful when reading! 

I'M SERIOUS!!! DON'T READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED!

Okay! Let's go! :)

Liv

Okay so because the first episode spotlights her, the big twist at the end is that she was the one who was murdered, so then the whole series thereafter is dedicated to determining whodunnit and why. 

I actually really like her. In high school she was a mean girl, so she intended to use college as an opportunity to change for the better and genuinely makes an effort. There are times when she slips, but for the most part she is a pretty decent person. How often do we see a fictional mean blonde white girl, the classic archetype, change her ways and actually show remorse and attempt to atone for her actions? Not often.

I also love how confident she is. For example, when Jane says "I can't believe we live on Taylor Price's floor," Liv responds with "No way. Taylor Price lives on OUR floor."

I actually missed her when she died. The show somewhat lacks spice without her, so the flashbacks with her are welcome. 

Jane

I didn't want to say it originally because I didn't know what her outcome would be, but Jane was the character with whom I identified the most when the show first premiered. She is straight-edge and not very experienced, which describes me in college. The more I learned about her, however, the more horrifying this comparison came to be. lol

Okay so it turns out that Jane is the one who killed Liv, which is actually very disappointing for me because I really liked the apparent friendship between the two. Jane's motive was that Liv's cyberbullying lead to the suicide of her best friend Aminta, whom she met at summer camp. Jane pushed Liv off of the Woodlawn Mansion roof.

It's interesting because Jane was actually among my top suspect choices because of how suspicious and sketchy she acts, but I assumed her for a totally different reason. That's the beauty of this show. I thought she killed Liv just so she could be with Taylor, but that still didn't make sense because Liv was more than willing to back off to let Jane have him. And then there is the whole thing in Liv's journal where she says: "...College is just beginning, and I've got the whole year ahead of me. That is, if I make it through this semester alive. I think my roomie Jane has got some obsessive girl love happening...and just might murder me in my sleep."

I never got this obsessiveness from Jane, so I don't understand where this is coming from. It seemed like Liv was always the one taking her under her wing. This led me to then believe that maybe Jane didn't want Taylor, but wanted Liv all along, creating a possible lesbian/bisexual twist. I just chalked it up to that Liv saw something that viewers didn't offscreen.

Therefore, Jane's reasons for murdering Liv are an even better excellent twist and now her obsession over Liv makes sense. Audrey Whitby and Claudia Lee's acting is really good in the murder scene too. Whitby performs the right mixture of Jane trying to remain composed as her rage is overcoming her.

Jane purposely goes to same school as Liv and becomes roommates with her just so she could kill her to avenge her friend's death. You have to admit that she is extremely loyal to Aminta.

Now that Liv's death was determined a suicide, Jane is in the clear. For now...

Denise

I'm kind of indifferent towards her. I originally felt that I am a combination of Jane and Denise, Jane representing my straight-edge side and Denise representing my studious side. But like I discovered with Jane, I have very little in common with Denise as well.

It turns out that Denise is a drinker. So yeah, I immediately disconnected with her when I found this out. lol

The only thing that is remotely interesting about her is that a football player attempts to rape her when she is tipsy and she has to overcome the after effects of that, but it's not really treated as that significant of a plot point when compared to the others. 

Oh yeah. Now she's a lesbian (or at least bisexual) in love with Valentina. This comes out of nowhere, seemingly all because she, Valentina, and Omid had a threesome.

Evin

I don't care for him. He's the typical "injured athlete who is now addicted to painkillers and can never play sports again because of said injury and so now he goes off the deep end with the painkillers" character. I still feel kind of bad for him, but we've seen this character plenty of times, and because I am not a sports fan, I care even less about him.

He's not that bad of a guy though, for he has plenty of shining moments. He's the one who rescues Denise from the football player. He's also somewhat supportive of Chris when he finds out that he is transgender. At first he is never judgmental towards him. He supports Chris and asks him questions with legitimate interest, somewhat reminding me of how inquisitive I was about the transgender community when I was in college.

However, when he is drunk, Evin starts to insult Chris and even comes onto him a few times, thinking that he is a female, which is awful for someone in Chris's position. He even outs Chris to his Christian parents after a drunken dispute with him and then they disown Chris.

Evin can be very peculiar too. Like, he's so concerned about when Chris showers to the point where he goes to investigate it...

At the current point in the story, his potential to overdose is concerning, especially now that Chris has taken over his position on the team.

By the way, I never suspected Evin or Denise. The both of them have absolutely no connection to Liv and hardly interact with her. They have their own subplots and even share an episode, but aren't much involved in the main case. The only motive Denise would have to murder Liv is that Liv and Jane talked trash about her at the party.

...

Yeah okay. The series could probably have been complete without them, if not for the "pills in drink" component, which brings me to...

Omid

I might be a little biased considering that he is played by Paul Karmiryan, but Omid is one of my favorite characters. He's perverted, and because of this, he is hilarious. However, what's awesome about him is that even though he is perverted, he is also very respectful of women. For example, when Denise is vomiting, he rushes to comfort her. When Karlis grabs Jane's arm to keep her from leaving the room because he is questioning her involvement in Liv's death, Omid shows up out literally of nowhere to her aid, saying, "You know, I've had my less than gallant moments, but I don't manhandle protesting ladies. Jane, is this unsavory shitbasket bothering you?"

I really loved him in that moment. And like that line, he constantly has a colorful way of words.

Of course, he's also very sweet with Valentina. In fact, this is what disappoints me the most about the season finale. We see Omid pursue Valentina the entire season, and then when they finally get together, their relationship lasts for only like a scene before they split up again. It's like watching Barney and Robin prepare for their wedding all season and then in the series finale get divorced, for all you "How I Met Your Mother" fans out there. 

But when it comes to women, he's just as stupid as he is caring. Here is what I don't understand about him. He enlists Taylor as his wingman because he doesn't want to get tied down and desires to sow as much of his oats as possible, but yet the only person we see him sleep with other than Valentina and that one time with Denise is his hot professor's blind underage teenage daughter!

Of all the women on campus, he chooses to hook up with the kid?? More than once?? Why??? This turns into a controversy too!

Omid was actually up there in my suspects list for awhile, all because he looks disgusted every time Liv speaks to him. But then I was like, would he really kill her for the things she says? Unlikely.

By the way, the big twist regarding his true identity is pretty comical.

Taylor

For some reason, he annoys me a little. He's just this annoying dumb pretty boy. On the other hand, I will acknowledge that he's not that arrogant or mean and harbors good qualities, but I still just want to smack him sometimes. Him treating a remorseful Karlis like a criminal in the season finale justifies my dislike for him, even though I do understand his point of view too. Plus, I just don't really see the attraction to him that much. lol

I will give him this though. His episode is one of my favorites. It's interesting to see a story from the point of view of a celebrity trying to lead a normal life. But even his own episode is irritating because throughout the whole thing he and Jane are trying to find privacy to finally smush. The two are so thirsty in his episode. 

He also delivers my favorite line of the entire season (and in the first episode too) simply because of how lame it is. It's so strange that I love it. After he and Liv have sex for the first time, we see them laying in bed together and he goes: "Wow. I think every last sperm in my body is gone."

...

WT*???? Who says that after sex? Do guys really say stuff like this? Is Liv really that good in bed? Who wrote this line??? LOL!

Also, what makes this line even cornier is that later on when Liv and Jane are discussing Jane's chances with him, Liv goes: "He doesn't come rainbows or anything. You'd figure it out."

What is this??? Stop discussing his semen!!

(Added 12/6/17 2:47 AM) Also! I forgot to mention! I love that when Liv briefly hesitates before they have sex, making sure he has her consent is a priority for him. He says: "Sorry! I thought I heard consent." It's nice to see that verbally acknowledged, so I appreciate the show for doing that. (End addition.)

Anyway, I was actually really convinced that Taylor was the culprit all things considered (You'll have to watch to see all of the clues. Plenty point to him.), but as it turns out in the finale, he is the one with the least to hide, even though the entire season he wants to keep secrets from the paparazzi. Go figure.

He's the type of character that I love to hate. Even though he aggravates me at times, I still find him entertaining. I guess he is all around okay and likable.

Chris

So, interestingly enough, Chris was so insignificant to me when the show began. I just thought he was a side character at first, but he eventually developed into one of my favorites.

He is clearly the nicest one there and I love the fact that a Christian character is being represented positively. I was actually terrified that Chris would turn out to be the killer, thereby justifying Christian critics and fundamental stereotypes.

He's a good friend and I love his detective partnership with Karlis towards the end of the season. His own episode is one of my favorites too. He comes out as transgender, previously known as "Christine" to his parents, because Evin purposely discovers him naked in the shower.

...

Seriously! For real! Evin is bizarre like this.

But here's where things are pretty awesome. Normally in this part of every coming out story, we see the person coming out either bullied, beaten, or both. None of that takes place here, aside from the occasional brief whispers. Many of the men on the football team fully accept Chris's identity and even relate his story to their own family members, except the one guy who writes "Christine" on his door, who happens to be the same guy who tries to rape Denise (I think), so he's altogether a jerk anyway.

Chris steals Liv's cell phone off of her corpse because she found him in the bathroom without a manhood and so in shock she takes a photo of him (Seriously, who does that? Isn't this considered a criminal act or something?) and runs off.

Anyway, this makes Chris a viable suspect with a reasonable motive for awhile there, but thankfully this is proven false.

Jac Bernhard is an amazing actor in this. After Liv photographs him, you can feel his panic as he frantically searches for her and cries into her voicemail.

I also realized something about him that gave me chills. In many ways Chris reminds me of Kurt Hummel from "Glee," and the two almost have the same last name, Chris's being Rummel. I wonder if this is somewhat intentional.

All in all, "In the Vault" handles a transgender coming out story well and positively for the most part, which is refreshing. We see Chris overcoming his fears, albeit a bit quicker than I expected, and it's nice to see him grow such thick skin.

Bernhard and I also kinda bonded over "Arthur", so there's that. lol

Valentina

Okay so I was really looking forward to Valentina's episode. I couldn't wait to finally find out the history between she and Liv because they build it up so much.

Needless to say, I was pretty underwhelmed.

So the show keeps suggesting that they have such a dark mutual past, constantly making Valentina out to be the prime suspect. They lead us to believe that Liv was the cause of a cyberbullying suicide scandal and that she and Valentina were involved sexually, all of which is true, but neither of those is Valentina's true issue with her.

It turns out that Valentina's mom cleaned Liv's house, and when Liv stole her own mother's necklace, she blamed it on the cleaning lady, so Liv's mom fired Valentina's mom and ever since then Valentina's mom has been struggling to hold down a job. Even when she proved Liv's guilt to Liv's mom, the mother didn't do anything to rectify the circumstances.

...

Really? This is all over a necklace?? A NECKLACE? REALLY?

I mean, okay, I understand Valentina's anger on behalf of her mom, but they build this up way too much for what it is, I think. Her anger against Liv regarding Aminta's death, what they insinuate all along, is seemingly much more warranted for how Valentina reacts toward her.

I can take or leave Valentina, but I'm not her biggest fan. She's always making comments about Trump and working towards making a difference and fighting injustices, but yet there are times when she goes too far, like when she makes comments about Trump and wrongly accuses Evin of assaulting Denise and vlogs about it, thus bearing false witness against him without much evidence and tarnishing his name and reputation. She is often moody and comes across the type of person around whom you have to walk on eggshells, and I don't go for those types of people. But regardless, she is someone you would want on your side. I always liked her friendship with Denise because she's always standing up for her, but now that they are lovers, that whole friendship dynamic has been replaced by a romantic one. I'm not sure if I like this unnecessary switch. However, it still makes an interesting twist.

This all being said, I never really suspected her. She doesn't seem like the type who would want targets on her back, and plus she is too obvious of a guess. She comes across smart, mature, sharp tongued, and no nonsense, and so even though she may hate Liv, I couldn't picture her choosing murder.

Given that Jane keeps trying to put the blame on Valentina, it should be interesting to see how Valentina is going to respond to all of this once and if the truth finally comes out.

Karlis

I knew it. I KNEW he was gonna be the one to figure it out and that his movie would piece everything together from the season! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT!

So, are we not supposed to like this guy? Because I do. He has an odd streak, but I never really had a problem with him. He's kind of designed as Taylor's foil, so I guess as my appreciation for Taylor diminished, my appreciation for Karlis grew.

He starts off as this outsider and really unlikable character, so everybody hates him. But he doesn't really do anything that heinous except for spouting his sarcastic one-liners and filming everything he sees, therefore coming across suspicious, so they use these as reasons to cast him out. The show treats him as a red herring, so therefore I never suspected him.

I understand that his constant filming is an invasion of privacy though, so I can't argue with the others' qualms with him there, but I still say that their severe reactions toward him are a little uncalled for. I mean, Evin persistently threatens to beat him up. Why??

But then because of all of his footage, he gradually proves useful to the rest of the characters whenever they want answers about something. All of a sudden he falls in love with Jane and when they are finally being intimate, he notices that Jane has the same tattoo as did Aminta, so he then pieces everything together - verbally, in front of Jane. After he finishes, she says to him: "As far as everyone knows, Liv killed herself. You and me, we finally have our chance. So what are you gonna do?"

We get a shot of Karlis's face and then it cuts to black. End of season.

Run the **** out of the room, Karlis!!! That's what I suggest!

So a cliffhanger like that opens this show WAY up for a second season and I can't wait! What IS he going to do??? And, if he does tell, would anybody believe him? He is not considered a very reliable personality and has immensely rocky relationships with the group, so Jane could certainly use this to her advantage. She already is, including playing with his heart. It's his word against hers.

I love that the initial antagonist has turned out to be the hero! The scene before Liv's death also explains why he is so bent on cracking the case. Karlis is a troubled individual and he had planned to videotape himself committing suicide. Liv caught him and they ended up having a heart to heart with Liv talking him out of it. She saved his life and so he probably feels like he wants to return the favor in a way. I love how the two of them from opposite walks of life ended up bonding...but only for her to sadly die in the next scene.

That's what's so great about this show. They promised that a hero one week would be a villain the next, and they delivered! The storytelling and writing is superb. Once you feel like you have everything figured out, chances are you are wrong because Epstein has one plot twist after another waiting for you. I laughed and gasped a lot and my mouth hung open plenty of times lol. You feel a little something for each character because they are all so normalized.

I'm so glad that I caught this show at the very beginning too. It's more difficult catching a show in the middle and not having context and needing to catch up.

So, here's to hoping and waiting for a possible Season Two. :) We're probably going to need it! lol