I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER Post-Mortem: Sara Goodman on the Killer Twist, What’s to Come in a Potential Season 2

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for season 1 of I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.]

The first season of I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER ended with a couple of game-changing twists.

The series started off with a deadly hit and run, as teens Margot (Brianne Tju), Dylan (Ezekiel Goodman), Riley (Ashley Moore), Johnny (Sebastian Amoruso), and Allison (Madison Iseman) accidentally killed Allison’s twin, Lennon (Iseman). The extra level of trouble for Allison? The kids she was with assumed she was Lennon—who they were actually friends with—so she was forced to assume her now-dead twin’s identity so they didn’t turn on her.

But with a mysterious killer tearing through the group, the murderer was unmasked in the finale: Margot (Brianne Tju), who was out for revenge. Her reasoning? She realized Allison, not Lennon (whom Margot loved), was the twin who was alive. Margot stabbed Allison, and put a plan in motion to frame Dylan for the deaths. (Allison told Dylan the truth about her identity after the duo slept together; she knew he loved the real her, even though he thought he was sleeping with her twin. He did not handle the news well.) When Lyla (Fiona Rene), a cop showed up, Margot claimed Dylan had caused the mayhem, but Dylan insisted it was Margot; Allison, torn, protected Margot, who seemed willing to protect her secret.

As if that wasn’t enough, Riley, who had been presumed dead came back to life in the final moments of the finale…indicating she might be the person the local cult had been waiting for.

Where the heck does the show go from here? Showrunner Sara Goodman gave some insight into crafting the first season’s mysteries and what could be in store for a potential season 2…

Starting at the very final moment, at what point in writing the season did you know you were going to end the season with Riley’s eyes opening back up?
Honestly, I had not told Ashley, the actress, that she was going to die for a reason at the beginning because there was something about that character that I felt had a purity to her that no one else had. And I really wanted to also be able to go into the cult stuff, in a way, if there’s a season 2.

I was on set all day, every day, and writing the finale. I realized that Riley was the way in. And so with that moment, I felt like I could basically save this innocent of the show, and have a way into this cult prophecy stuff that this town has been hiding and living for many, many, many years. Like the parents, if we went back in time to that story.

How might Riley be different after being revived?
You know, it’s funny because I was thinking about that. And I was like, I think she’s exactly the same. And maybe when I get into [the writing of] it, that would change. But she knows who did it. And she knows everyone’s secrets. And she would have a belief system, I think, that goes against everything that she believes—she is the pragmatist. She is the realist. She is the rational thinker. And so where is she going to come out on this? It is an interesting question.

The other big reveal in the finale was that Margot was the one who had been responsible for the killings. At what point in your mapping out the season did you figure that out? And did your experience on other shows influence the importance of knowing the answer to a mystery like this from the start?
Yes. [Laughs.] I think you need to know who did it. I think you need to know those things—certain things—and you need to know why. And I think even though I did not tell any of the actors who the killer was until the last two episodes were handed to them, I did tell all of them what motivated everything they did.

Margot still thinks she was justified. I mean, she believes that she did what was necessary, which is an interesting character to write, as well, because she’s not only a killer, obviously. [Laughs.] I definitely knew [it was always her] and I definitely knew that at a certain point that she and Allison would be together.

What was the balance like, writing-wise, in threading those hints about Margot’s guilt, but not tipping your hand too far, too early?
The writers room is filled with incredibly meticulous people. So we would go through every single episode and make sure that [things lined up], that there were motivations for everything, that there was an explanation for how physically she could have done things, and which is why I put that whole thing in the credits of her explanation. [Laughs.] Because I’m sure I was gonna get a huge amount of shit.

After Allison turns on Dylan and protects Margot, Margot threatens Allison—before saying she’s never loved anyone more. In either of their minds, do they think this is a healthy relationship? Or is it something where they think they have found a kindred spirit?
I think that’s what Margot believes. Margot believes, “You’re the only person who gets me. We are soulmates. This is love. This is what love feels like.” I think she’s so stunned by that sacrifice, that, to Margot, it is the biggest grand romantic gesture any human could make.

For Allison, it’s a lot more complicated. I think it’s self-preservation; it goes along with her identity stuff. I don’t know that she loves Margot or Dylan more. There will be a huge backlash against me when I say that, but I don’t think she knows. And I think she thinks the only way she’s safe is with Margot. And that Margot understands that part of her that she’s not sure she understands either.

Allison is someone who has struggled at times with the weight of her duplicity. With Dylan, this is both a betrayal in the moment and for however long this secret is kept. How is she going to handle the guilt?
If we have a season 2, that’s a huge part of it. Is this what she signed up for? It’s one thing about taking her sister’s identity—and I think she’s not sure if she hit her on purpose. I don’t think she knows the answer to that. I think it’s one of the things we all struggle with with like an accident “Did I see it? Did I not? Could I have stopped it?”

But with Dylan, he’s alive. And he’s there. And that is something that she’s gonna have to deal with, in a very different way than her sister [who] is not there, and her dad who’s facilitated it. And she’s stuck in this relationship with Margot. And whether that works for both of them, or doesn’t, whether she really needs to make things right with Dylan to live with herself, we’ll have to see.

Allison’s relationship with her father has been one of only truthful ones she had at this point. How do you imagine keeping this secret might impact things?
I’ve started thinking about it only in terms of seeing what Bruce may have done when he was younger, as part of some of the cult stuff that that will come up.

In your mind, would season 2 be formatted like season 1, but the flashbacks would be to the cult versus the night Lennon died?
If there is a season 2, the flashbacks might be to the original sin of the cult, which Clara was involved with. And, also, that night in the cave with Clara, Dylan, and Riley would be a way of going back into that original belief system and the original sin of the cult that some of the parents were absolutely involved in.

Speaking of the cult, one of the other emotional moments in the finale was Allison seeing her previously presumed dead mother. What made the timing right to have them reunite now, albeit briefly?
I actually felt like it was important to see it before she made that choice at the end. I think she had so idealized her mother. She had so idealized that her mother was the one who saw her and loved her. And so to have been seen through those eyes in such a negative way, interestingly, really did inform her decision at the end. I think she believes that she’s not lovable. I think she believes she’s a bad person. I think it made her question even more of who she is and how she had to not live as herself.

Right now, what are your feelings about whether the show will return?
I honestly have no idea. I mean, I think they’re waiting for this last episode to come out and to see what the response is. It’s a show that I think at the beginning there was a lot of anger that it wasn’t the movie. And that it was more of a psychological thriller, that it was more about the kids. I think it’s slowly finding its audience, and the people who really are into that part of it. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, Now Streaming, Prime Video

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