Chloe (Season 1): Review, Recap & Ending Explained (2024)

Now Becky has already shown the skills to assume different identities in order to gate crash certain parties that would have remained inaccessible to her otherwise. Emboldened by her previous escapades, Becky tries to get inside the societal circle of Chloe, with the name ‘Sasha’. She manages to befriend Livia (Pippa Bennett-Warner) and starts her work through her. Her motive seems to be understanding what really happened on the day Chloe committed suicide.

It is gradually revealed that Chloe and Becky were not strangers to each other. Quite on the contrary, they used to be best friends, during their teenage days. Their friendship met its tragic and abrupt end when Chloe moved to a different school. It is also revealed that Chloe had called Becky twice before she jumped off a cliff, however, Becky did not pick up the calls.

Becky, perhaps burdened by a pang of disproportionate guilt, takes it upon herself to find more and more about Chloe. Especially about Chloe’s marriage with Elliot (Billy Howle). With each episode, something newer about their marriage and about that closely knit friend circle gets revealed from each of their members. Becky’s obsession to find the truth and the thrills of masquerade get intertwined with her genuine feelings towards the members of the group. Especially for Elliot, whom she starts to date, albeit secretively; and for Livia, who considers Becky, or rather ‘Sasha’, her new best friend.

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Chloe (Season 1) Review:

In “Chloe”, Creator Alice Seabright has a span of six episodes filled with palpable tensions and organic emotions. As mentioned, she does not rely on a big reveal or a twist that will completely blindside you. Everything that gets revealed is something you would expect as you go further with the show. It is how “Chloe” reaches there that sets the show apart.

The first three episodes are directed by Seabright herself and the latter three by Amanda Boyle. The transition is seamless. Especially with the “Roshom*on”-Esque treatment of the events of the night Chloe died. With each new information, the show enacts the ‘What could have been’. Here what could have been is Becky taking Chloe’s calls. She imagines what Chloe could have told her in each episode, with newer and continuously changing details.

The writing of the central character, “Becky”, is impeccable. And so is the performance from Doherty. Doherty switches between Becky and Sasha with surgeon-like precision. Every time her masquerade is under threat, Doherty perfectly switches between fear and confidence, between timid trepidation and bold assertion. Billy Howle is equally good as the at-first-vulnerable-but-later-formidable Elliot.

Chloe (Season 1) Ending Explained: Did Chloe really commit suicide?

The show never intended to awe you with climactic twists. Instead, it relied on good old storytelling. Both Becky’s search for the truth about Chloe’s death and her masquerade comes to an end simultaneously. But the show did not abruptly find itself there, it gradually reaches there in its last three episodes. As Becky and Elliot’s relationship starts to mature, Elliot’s controlling nature also starts to surface.

Becky starts to find under heavy interrogation every time she misses Elliot’s call. She starts to feel trapped, both figuratively and literally, as Elliot locks her in the house one day. Although he denies that and tries to tell Becky she could not find the keys. Gradually she, and also we, understand that Chloe also felt the same, under the watchful eyes of Elliot. It also becomes evident that their friends also suspected Elliot’s nature, but did not say anything.

As Becky confronts Elliot in the end, Elliot gets angry and gets violent toward her. Becky, who had previously hacked Chloe’s social media account, posted the video of Elliot’s actions on that profile. As revealed from Becky and Livia’s conversation, Elliot always displayed controlling and extremely manipulative behavior before. It is, without a doubt, Elliot who killed Chloe with his toxicity. Whether he murdered her or drove her to commit suicide or it was an accident; that question is not answered.

The only witness was Chloe’s mother and she herself admitted she does not know what she saw. It is possible that Chloe did commit suicide when her attempt to flee from the shackles of Elliot failed. She probably saw no escape other than the great plummet. It is possible Elliot pushed her, but Elliot’s genuine remorse after almost strangulating Becky and reluctance to kill her indicates that despite all his toxic behavior, he is perhaps not a killer. It is also possible that Chloe fell from the cliff while being chased by Elliot.

The obfuscation of Chloe’s death actually highlights the evil of domestic abuse in a much more significant way. It tells that one does not need to be a sad*st killer to drive someone towards their end. Elliot does not have to be a murderer, but he is still a bully and abuser. It does not take a murder to cross that line. The fact that many of their common friends never thought of Elliot as evil, despite knowing or having some sort of idea about his nature tells how helpless a woman can feel in a marriage filled with such toxicity. It becomes a bottomless pit of grief and fear, compared to that a dive from a cliff becomes much better. As the latter provides an immediate end.

Chloe (Season 1) is now streaming on Prime Video

Trailer

Chloe (Season 1) Links – IMDb
Chloe (Season 1) Cast – Erin Doherty, Billy Howle, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Jack Farthing, Poppy Gilbert, Brandon Micheal Hall