'The Shards' Episode 1 Recap: Did The Trawler Call Bret?

The Shards episode 1 opens with Bret going to the nearest theater in LA to watch The Shining but instead of focusing on the movie, he gets obsessed with one of the members in the audience. The guy’s name is Robert and, as per Bret’s narration, his arrival into Bret’s life as well as his high school coincided with a “season of horror and murder.” After exiting the theater, as Bret tries to get another glimpse of this elusive Robert, the focus of the narrative shifts to a random girl whose dog, Shadow, seems to have gone missing. As she is looking around, she realizes that some of the water in her aquarium has been drained. When she checks out the cupboard in the bathroom, she sees that all the items in there have been placed upside down. She doesn’t think about it too much and takes the valium. Later that night, she gets a call, seemingly from the serial killer. When the line disconnects, she notices the light near the pool in her backyard flickering; so, she just closes her door to her bedroom and locks it. Then she goes into the town square to post a missing poster for Shadow on the local bulletin board; which is when she notices that a lot of pets have gone missing over the last few weeks or months. When she is about to board her car and return to her house, she is abducted by this man in an all-black ensemble. What happens next? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

Bret’s friends group includes Debbie (his girlfriend), Susan, Thom, and Ryan, and they spend most of their time making the most of their money and privilege. Bret isn’t particularly interested in Bret because he isn’t sure if he likes girls, but he accepts Debbie’s “love” because that allows him to appear “normal” in society. Bret contradicts himself by revealing that he is in love with Susan though because she’s the most beautiful girl that he has ever seen. Anyway, at Debbie’s dad’s pool party, Ryan breaks up with Bret, which is something that Susan notices. But when Susan asks Bret about it, he doesn’t tell her the truth about their dynamic or why he had an upsetting conversation with him. Before Susan can pry, Debbie makes an entrance and the topic of their discussion veers towards parties and whatnot. That’s when Susan tells everyone about Robert’s arrival at the school; and even before formally meeting Robert, Bret thinks that he is an odd guy because Robert’s going out of his way to enroll in the school where Bret and his friends go even though he could have enrolled in any of the schools in the vicinity of where he lives. Of course, no one else is thinking about this topic that deeply, so that discourse goes nowhere. While wandering around the house, Bret runs into Terry, Debbie’s dad, at the jacuzzi and they start talking about the latter’s interest in writing; Bret is working on his own novel but Terry wants Bret to write movie scripts for him. He even invites Bret to a lunch date to talk about his prospects in the entertainment business. This conversation gets derailed by Steven, who seems to be Terry’s assistant and the family’s handler of sorts, and Bret takes that as his cue to leave the jacuzzi room and head over to Debbie’s bedroom. That’s when he runs into Liz, Terry’s wife and Debbie’s mom, who seems to be aware of her husband’s sexual proclivities and yet she questions Bret about it. Oddly enough, Steven comes to Bret’s rescue, thereby allowing him to continue heading towards Debbie’s bedroom. 

While waiting for Bret to arrive, Debbie gets a call seemingly from the serial killer, and it sounds like he is pleasuring himself to the mere fact that Debbie has picked up the phone. When Debbie realizes what’s going on, she immediately hangs up, and she doesn’t even talk about it with Bret because she is more interested in getting into his pants. Bret, through the narration, makes it clear that he doesn’t like having sex with Debbie, even though she climaxes pretty quickly to the mere sight of his loins; relatively speaking, he enjoys his time with Matt (Bret goes to his house right after the party at Debbie’s is over). After their “frolicking” session, Bret tries to engage Matt in a conversation about Robert but Matt isn’t interested in all that; he prefers pot over gossip. Bret tries to help Matt understand that he has a lot of potential which he is wasting, but Matt defends his way of living. That prompts Bret to bring his “relationship” with Matt to an end. Matt is evidently heartbroken by this turn of events but he acts nonchalantly because he doesn’t want Bret to diminish his aura. As Bret is leaving, he points out that the water in his aquarium has depleted and the fish are gone. Moreover, Matt’s cat, Alex, is also missing. We know that this is a sign that the aforementioned serial killer is stalking Matt but these kids don’t make that connection because they are unaware of the serial killer’s methodology. They don’t get to stay ignorant about this matter for too long though because, the day after the party, the body of the deceased girl is discovered at a tennis court and the mascot statue in the school where Bret and his friends go have been desecrated with the innards of the fish that swam in there. Bret and Susan briefly discuss the matter and then they partake in their daily gossip session with Thom and Debbie. That’s interrupted by Robert, who introduces himself to the group and as he is talking about himself, Bret decides to narrate his whole backstory to the audience because learning about Robert from Robert is stupid (in case the sarcasm isn’t clear enough for you, this is a critique of The Shards’ godawful writing). Bret asks Robert about the time they ran into one another at a screening of The Shining but Robert completely denies it. But Bret keeps questioning Robert until things get sufficiently awkward; thankfully, the school bell rings, which prompts everyone to leave for the daily seminar.

When school ends and Bret is about to head home in his car, he spots Robert talking to Matt of all people. So, he starts following Robert to see where he is driving to. This leads to a pretty decent car chase and things get so intense that Bret has to hide in the parking lot of a mall to avoid getting spotted by Robert. When he heads into the mall, he sees Robert looking at the aquariums in there. To avoid him, Bret heads into the records store; when he exits the store, he sees Robert waiting for him, which leaves Bret no choice but to engage Robert in a conversation. Robert immediately addresses the fact that he doesn’t like being followed. With that out of the way, Robert and Bret exchange some verbal barbs, and then they come back to the topic of The Shining. When Robert refuses to accept that he has seen that movie, Bret chooses to leave. Since Robert goes after Bret, the latter brings up his exchange with Matt. Robert doesn’t answer the question and says something vague about Matt needing a friend. Then Robert switches topics to Thom being Susan’s boyfriend. Why? Because Robert wants to start an affair with Susan. Bret doesn’t want to entertain that prospect and he tries his best to make it clear that he doesn’t want to talk to Robert anymore. Robert gets the clue and, on a parting note, he tells Bret that whenever he talks to him, he is actually talking to himself; which probably means that Bret doesn’t know how to converse, he just likes to hear what he wants to listen. 

In the ending of episode 1, Bret gets home and sits down in front of the TV to learn about the latest incident of serial killing. He says that the serial killer has been nicknamed The Trawler and he seems to have a thing with killing teens and using their pets (especially if they have fishes; hence the nickname) to mutilate their bodies. As Bret switches off the TV, because it’s upsetting to listen to that stuff, he gets a call, and based on the sound on the receiver, it seems like The Trawler is about to make Bret his new target.