Guilty
Guilt can tear you up inside and consume your entire life if you let it. In the case of Addy in Dare Me, this week sees her destructive guilt spill over in the wake of the big reveal involving Colette. As we near the conclusive final act of this 10 episode drama, Dare Me injects a good dose of tension and mystery into the fold as our trio of girls inch ever nearer to the finale. An erratic Colette opens episode 8 of Dare Me by telling Addy she didn’t kill Sarge, imploring her not to touch anything. Between the blood-soaked rug and teeth on the floor, Addy and Colette work to erase any trace that they were inside the room after deciding not to phone the police. They leave the hotel together, bare-foot given the blood-stained shoes they’ve just washed, and proceed to drive away. Colette stops partway down the road though and leaves Addy’s car, telling her she doesn’t need to be part of this but the stress and guilt is too much, prompting Addy to begin losing control as we see her slip from reality, courtesy of several surreal segments. The next day, Addy tries to remain focused at school, struggling to be enthused by the elation and euphoric celebrations around her given the news of them making State Finals. In the cafeteria, the students give the team a round of applause and the girls revel in the cheers. Addy isn’t in the celebratory mood though, and she clutches her books close to her chest as she sees Sarge everywhere she turns. Suffocated by the pressure, she passes out. When she awakens, Beth sits with her in the nurse’s office and contemplates whether something big has gone down the previous night, especially given Sarge and Colette are missing from school. As she continues to probe, Addy keeps her nerve for now until she reaches cheerleading training later that day. Colette eventually does show up, stern-faced and ready to drill the girls, much to Addy’s relief. As she begins, she turns her attention to Addy for having the wrong shoes on and punishes her. Later that day, Addy heads to Colette’s house and forces her to reveal the truth about Sarge. The affair was supposed to be an escape for Colette, a break from the mundane, but Sarge didn’t see it like that and the more she pushed away, the more he pushed back. At the hotel, she found Sarge’s body and had no part of his death. The reason she phoned Addy is because she needed a friend. As the rain starts pouring down, they stand together and begin doing cheer moves, enjoying this thin slice of happiness together until Colette breaks down and begins sobbing uncontrollably. They fall asleep in her bed together but Colette awakens in the middle of the night and starts looking through her phone. In the morning, Addy checks her mobile and finds a message from Beth – “Sarge Will is dead. Suicide.” As we cut to the hotel, we find police and forensics at the scene of the crime. Will they find anything linking the girls to the death? Does Beth have any part of this? Or is Kurtz the one who killed Sarge? Despite finding out who the victim is this late in the game, Dare Me sets up some tantalizing questions to be explored for its remaining few episodes. There’s certainly scope here for one final twist in the tale and Dare Me is setting the foundations up to do just that. Although the show hasn’t always been the most consistent or exciting across its episodes so far, there’s enough here to make for an enjoyable enough cheerleading teen-drama nonetheless.
