This is a review of the Hulu Original Series, Saint X released on April 26th, 2023.
Saint X the original Hulu series is based on the Saint X novel written by Alexis Schaitkin which was released on February 18, 2020.
What happened to Alison in Saint X? After feeling rejected by all of her romantic prospects, she swims out into the ocean and finds a rock to rest on. She stands up on the rock and ends up slipping and cracking her skull.
Yes, her death was an accident even though it seems that ending her life was her intention.
Oh, yeah. The leading actress, Emily Thomas, Alison’s sister is not Noah Cyrus, Miley Cyrus’ sister. Don’t worry, I thought it was Noah Cyrus, too. The actress playing Emily Thomas is Alycia Debnam-Carey.
Completely Full of Spoilers
Now, that I’ve completely spoiled the ending for you, it should be quite obvious that this review will be completely full of spoilers. Stop reading now if you don’t want to know anything else.
The Saint X Series Has 8 Episodes, Each Episode Is About 1 Hour In Length
“The series, which is told via multiple timelines, explores and upends the girl-gone-missing genre as it explores how a young woman’s mysterious death during an idyllic Caribbean vacation creates a traumatic ripple effect that eventually pulls her surviving sister into a dangerous pursuit of the truth.” — Hulu
The series cover graphic is what made me click play. Maybe, because I want to go on a nice Caribbean vacation and figured I could experience it through the show’s location.
The resort used for filming is the Selectum Hacienda Punta Cana located in the Dominican Republic, and when they weren’t in the flashback scenes and were in the present, the filming location for Saint X was Brooklyn, New York.
It Is Your Typical White Girl Gone Missing While On Vacation Story
True, but is it?
While watching the first few episodes I wasn’t into it. They were making it painfully obvious that the resort help were the culprits for the death of Alison, but even though it was framed that way I had a feeling that they weren’t the cause.
I kept waffling on wanting to stick it out to see who did what to Alison even if it was Alison herself, and wanting to just exit the series because it felt neverending.
I’m glad that I persevered. The show is messy because it isn’t just a white girl gone missing story. It is much more.
Yes, the story is complex, and unfortunately, as much as I would love to condense it all for you… I just can’t.
In Order To Understand Everything You Need To Know About The Saint X Cast
Character/Cast Notes
There are a lot of characters in this series, but we are only mentioning the ones that really matter to the story. Just for clarification remember that:
- Claire is young Emily Thomas. She changed her name after what happened to her sister.
- Gogo and Clive are the same person. He goes by Gogo at home, but once he moves to New York he goes by his proper name Clive.
Multi-Layered Stories Woven Into One, Saint X Might Be Confusing.
The Main Story, The Gloss
This is what I call the cover, the gloss, the outsider, the dumb public story that is fed to us via the media. The story that the world has been given to believe.
The Thomas family goes on vacation and their eldest daughter ends up dead. Everyone even those closest to Edwin and Gogo/Clive is under the belief that they raped and then murdered Alison. Even without evidence, the horrific tale follows them wherever they go.
Alison’s Story
Alison is a complicated girl. She’s magnetic, everyone wants to be around her. She’s different and she knows it. Her goal during this family vacation is to become cultured. She wants to do everything that locals do and nothing that the tourists do because she is adventurous.
There’s a young man named Tyler that is interested in her, the young man’s dad sees this and tells him that he needs to give it up because she’s out of his league.
Alison has made it her mission to be the person she truly wants to be. Cool, cultured, different, and exciting. Not boring, basic, or vanilla.
She’s determined to be the dream she created in her mind.
She entertains Tyler in between her meetups with Edwin but becomes upset when she is told that Edwin is using her. Alison is just Edwin’s current white girl while she is there on the island. Nothing more and nothing less.
She goes to another vacationer named Dana and asks her if she is basic.
The woman replies “No, your presence commands attention.”
Okay when she said that I felt like I was on crazy pills because she couldn’t be serious, but I believe she was being serious.
I’m just a fucking extra.
Alison from Saint x hulu series
As her family vacation is getting close to being over, she gets the idea in her head to have a threesome with not just one black guy, but two black guys because why not?
Alison, Clive, and Edwin end up off-site. Alison kisses both of them, but then gets up and suggests that Clive and Edwin kiss each other because she did it so why can’t they? She laughs after witnessing them kiss one another because Edwin pretends to be disgusted once his lips leave Gogo.
Alison starts feeling faint and says she is going to go lay down for a minute to get it back together when she comes back she sees that Clive and Edwin had their sexual fun without her.
This makes her upset. She flees the scene and bumps into Tyler. They find an open bed where Alison starts fishing for compliments but asks Tyler what makes her different. He doesn’t answer. She gets on top of Tyler, starts riding him, and has him wrap his hands around her neck wanting him to choke her. Of course, he freaks out and the encounter ends there.
She runs to her hotel room where her little sister, Emily is waiting for her because Alison had promised she would hang out with her. Instead, she starts screaming about how she isn’t the main character like she thought she was. She’s a fucking extra.
The Thomas Family/Emily’s Story
The Thomas Family believe that Edwin and Gogo/Clive raped and murdered their beloved Alison. There is no proof of that happening. They leave their vacation without answers or justice but only with memories of their late daughter, Claire’s sister.
Emily and Claire are the same person. Emily decided to go by a different name once her sister passed away because she didn’t want to be forever known as the little sister of the girl who was raped and killed while on vacation.
The Saint X series is narrated from Emily’s point of view.
Emily has a loving boyfriend and a best friend that look out for her well-being because they feel she puts herself in danger’s way in an effort to find out what really happened to Alison. She’s also an investigative journalist.
Clive “Gogo” Richardson’s Story
Clive “Gogo” Richardson is Edwin’s best friend. He is also an employee at the resort with Edwin. He has a child with Sara Lycott.
Sara and Gogo are not together, but Gogo desperately wants to be with Sara and endures the snide remarks hurled at him from Edwin, and Sara’s antics.
He knows that Edwin is smooth with the ladies to get what he wants, but it all comes to a head when Alison is found dead. “Everyone” is in the belief that Edwin and Gogo killed Alison despite there being no proof.
Alison’s dad even assaults Gogo upon seeing him after the news of his daughter was received. As the news of Alison’s death spreads decisions are made. Edwin’s sister walks in on him as he is packing up for his trip to New York. She tells him that if they see him leaving they will assume he is fleeing the scene because he is the murderer.
Flash forward, Gogo/Clive is now in New York and living in shared housing. He is a taxi driver and sends money back to Sara to assist with providing for their child.
Sara tells Clive to stop sending money because she is a married woman now. Of course, this hurts Clive deeply, but when he asks Sara who the lucky man is she says, Edwin.
Yes, Sara marries Clive’s best friend, Edwin.
After Sara’s husband is revealed, Clive ends contact with Sara. His time is spent working and answering Emily’s questions that pry into his past and present life during her orchestrated rendezvous with him.
Eventually, Clive softens just a tiny bit toward Emily. He takes her to some of his favorite spots to clear his head, go dancing at a club, and lastly while spending time together Clive finally reveals what actually happened the last and final time he and Edwin were with Alison.
Emily runs off to find Tyler and confronts him. She tells him he was the last one to see Alison. Tyler quickly corrects Emily reminding her that the last person to see Alison was her.
Yes, Claire/Emily as a young girl was the last one to see Alison before she died.
Saint X, The Ending
Emily goes back to her parent’s home and they have a moment. She ends up going by her original name Claire again and not Emily.
After spilling everything that happened, Clive wants to come out of his self-imposed isolation. He has been lonely for years. He meets up with a friend and while chatting decides that is time to visit his home.
Upon arrival, Clive asks about Edwin. They advise him to see Edwin now. In the next scene, you see Clive enter Edwin’s home and see his best friend in bed with tubes in his nostrils.
Edwin as expected is happy to see his dear friend Gogo and says smoking wasn’t the best idea. Gogo walks over to Edwin’s side, gives him a kiss on the forehead, and sits down next to him.
Saint X Hulu Review
At the beginning of this series, I wasn’t that interested. It came off as just another boring tale of a pretty white girl gone missing and I was going to tap out around episode 3/4.
I believe the gloss of this story lingers longer than needed, causing viewers to dip prematurely.
I only kept watching because of my significant other because they were enjoying it. I’m glad that they joined my viewing session otherwise I would have missed out on something great.
I would have left thinking that Edwin, Gogo, Tyler, and that weird borderline pedo husband or his wife killed Alison and not thought much of it.
Instead, I finished Saint X, misty-eyed over Edwin’s and Gogo’s friendship.
Even though I was delighted with how Saint X wrapped up, there were some problems that I had with the series.
Alison
You are supposed to like the victim, right? Alison was borderline annoying. Harping on about wanting be a cultured individual to the point that she was forcing herself onto the locals.
For someone that wants to be cultured, she definitely used her privilege to an advantage. She comes off as selfish, needy, and flakey. Alison believes she isn’t like everyone else. She’s different, but is it her fault that she thinks she is so different?
She has a little sister who looks up to her, Tyler pining for her attention, a random strange couple that uses her existence as bait in the bedroom, and an attractive local that entertains her. Yet, the entire time I didn’t get it.
No offense, but she wasn’t that attractive or exciting, but for some reason she was the spiced chai latte in the vanilla realm. The pregnant wife said she commands attention and Tyler’s dad said he should find someone in his league.
I felt like I was missing something, but I believe it was intentional.
I felt that Alison’s character was meant to represent the surface level. She believes what people say about her. She believes she is different. She believes that everyone should want her.
Alison is the prize.
That’s why it rocked her to the core when Edwin and Gogo had their fun without her and when she has her moment with Tyler was unfulfilling. Due to her insecurity, she believes she is basic despite what people tell her.
She wants to be the cool girl, badly. The pressure she puts on herself causes her demise.
Emily
I get it. She’s a shell of herself because she couldn’t move on from her sister’s death, but she is so damn flat.
I think we are supposed to feel sorry for her because she lives in Alison’s shadow, but I feel like she loved living in Alison’s shadow. It gave her an out. She didn’t have to confront anything and not much was expected from her.
Emily does suffer from main character syndrome just like her sister. Clive and Emily are out together and Clive wants to show her a place that he thinks is magical because of the scenery.
She says to Clive, “Are you going to kill me?” with a crumpled face and Clive replies “No, stupid girl! I am not going to kill you!” as he shows her where he goes to clear his mind.
Do I blame her for thinking that Clive might want to kill her? No. Not only have her family and friends conditioned her into thinking this way, but the world also has too.
The most popular true crime stories are centered around pretty young white ladies. They get the most attention because they’re perceived to be the most vulnerable and everyone else is just predators waiting to pounce on them.
Emily’s boyfriend isn’t really supportive and neither is her friend Sunita. They treat her as a fragile broken kitten, but to be fair they both come off as rather daft.
Josh, Emily’s boyfriend, sees Emily with Clive and assumes she is cheating on him with Clive. I couldn’t stop laughing. It was absurd. Not because it wasn’t a possibility, but if your girlfriend’s career revolves around investigation and you know she is working on finding answers about her sister, wouldn’t you think hm, maybe she is seeing this guy to get answers or why not confront her and ask her?
Nope, let’s just jump to the conclusion that Emily is cheating on Josh.
Sunita, her close friend, was worthless. She was only good for making sure nothing happened to Emily when she meets Clive. That’s it.
The Saving Grace Of Saint X
Edwin is portrayed as a guy you need to watch for because he is manipulative and stays sucking and fucking no matter the gender. He isn’t the kindest to Gogo. It doesn’t help that they show him telling Sara to never marry Gogo, then years later Edwin marries Sara.
I was so angry when Sara said she married Edwin. He badmouthed Sara to Gogo and mocked Gogo for wanting a relationship with Sara, but then he goes and marries her!
I quickly melted and became emotional when I realized Edwin married Sara because he loved Gogo.
This entire time we were distracted by the Thomas sisters’ issues when the true story was a love story between Edwin and Clive “Gogo”.
The description of this series is accurate. Saint X’s pacing is a replica of Gone Girl the book and the movie. It moves like pond water, so still. You often wonder why you are forcing yourself to continue and then the ending happens and you’re either underwhelmed or mouthing the word “WOW!”
As a fan of the author Gillian Flynn, I can say that Saint X the series did one thing better than Gone Girl. The ending. We got a tragic death, but a great love story.
I Haven’t Read The Saint X Novel
A few of my friends that have read the Saint X book said they didn’t finish it because it was incredibly boring. Some that have finished the book have said that the Saint X series is better than the book.
That’s all I got, and since I haven’t read the book yet I’m going to leave it at that. Now mind you if you’ve read the Saint X novel I’d love for you to leave your comments on this post or send us a message.
Saint X Hulu Original Series Review
Saint X Hulu Original Series
