‘The Pact’ Recap: ‘Episode One’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the series premiere of ‘The Pact’.
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Each and every one of us firmly believe, that the moral core that our parents helped us to form and that we have reaffirmed throughout the years, will guide us to be incredible people. The kind that are honest and noble and brave. To the point where we will step in if someone is hurting or in need and where we will be a champion for the right side if by chance an injustice is taking place. But while that is a wonderful way to think about how we will live our lives, the fact of the matter is… that kind of perfect person only exists in fiction. Because despite having good in our hearts, we still lie from time to time and we are sometimes neither noble or brave when bad situations present themselves, because we also feel fear and worry for our personal safety.
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Which means that in reality, life isn’t always so black and white and lovely, it’s gray and it doesn’t become one or the other until we are genuinely put to the test in a manner that forces us to pick a side and really, all of this is relevant to our discussion today… since that grand test to challenge who we are morally, serves as the core theme of the Sundance Now series, The Pact. But it sure doesn’t seem as though that is going to be the case early in the series premiere. For when we meet our four main characters, Anna and Nancy and Louie and Cat… they’re just trying to find their best way forward in life and they’re running into some tough times at work. For the brewery where they work at has changed hands management wise, for the worse. 

Because the old boss, Arwel… has handed it over to his idiot son Jack. Who just so happens to believe that treating employees like dirt is the right operating procedure for management and that’s provided of course that he’s even on site to see how things are going. Since more often than not, he’s more interested in using the company’s profits to surround himself in fine clothes and fast cars and to hammer home just how unsavory a boss he truly is, he takes the time to outright embarrass Anna badly when she attempts to apply for a supervisor position in the brewery and his jackassery doesn’t end there. For at a company party one fine night, he gets coked out of his mind and treats Louie, who is also his aunt, like utter garbage and well… his behavior and the party, sets the stage for the moral conundrum in question.

For our four friends drink a lot more than they should at this party, to the point where tempers flare over how Jack treats everyone at the brewery and that is taken to the Nth degree when Anna and her pals see Jack commit assault against a friend/co-worker and well… that prompts them to try and humiliate a nearly unconscious Jack by leaving him in a compromising position in the forest in the middle of the night. But once the buzz wears off and Anna understands the cruelty of this decision… she and Nancy return to retrieve him, only to discover that he died in the middle of the night and well… that forces these four, everyday people to make quite the choice. In that, do they alert the police and take their lumps for this accordingly or do they leave Jack where he lies and see if they can quietly get away with this mess and shockingly… they choose the latter.

Not out of cruelty mind you. No instead, this is a decision based out of necessity. Since it would ruin Nancy and Louie’s lives and Cat would go back to jail and as for Anna… well it could cost her husband his career and well, their decision to hold fast and watch as their world reacts to Jack’s death, makes for some compelling moments. The kind that genuinely stick to the theme and that really is the best possible way to set up the rest of this series. Because now we know that this incredible decision is going to be the core conflict that this group will face in the weeks to come and this will also help them determine which side they want to fall to and most important of all, it will make for one compelling story. One that will ramp up in intensity and that’s saying something. Since this episode was engaging and powerful in its own right and it that is definitely going to make the wait for next week’s episode a difficult one. Since we are all now eager to see… if these four souls are ready to embrace good… or the darkness. Until next time.

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