Is ‘Socio’ a Psycho?: Twisted Pilot Recap/Review

Alicia Carroll ’16/Emertainment Monthly Writer

ABC Family’s summer season is now underway and Twisted seems to be second in line for summer mysteries, behind another ABC Fam’ hit, Pretty Little Liars. Twisted is the story of Danny Desai (Avan Jogia) and his former best friends, Jo (Maddie Hasson) and Lacey (Kylie Bunbury) as they deal with Danny’s return after 5 years in Juvenile Detention for murdering his aunt.
In the pilot, the whole town has to adjust to Danny’s return, to not just the town, but to the High School as he re-acclimates himself to society. Jo and Lacey grew apart, after becoming social pariahs from being friends with the ‘murderer kid; Lacey being on the popular end of the spectrum-perfect clothes, perfect yet trashy friends, perfect boyfriend, the works- and Jo on the non-threatening loser end of the social pool. The two are forced to acknowledge each other when Danny comes back. They attempt to achieve closure and try and ask him why he killed his aunt, but he insists he cannot tell anyone for their own good.
Most of the episode consists of Danny trying to work his way back into Jo and Lacey’s good graces. The only person he doesn’t have to win over is Regina, Lacey’s best friend. Regina, for some reason, has a goal of hooking up with Danny (because it’s healthy to want to sleep with convicted murderers).
Jo warms back up to Danny first, and goes to Regina’s party with him. The whole night Regina tries to get Danny Upstairs but he resists. He does, however, see a special necklace that Regina is wearing. He asks where she got it, as if it was his. Meanwhile, Jo was having a great yet very inebriated-time, and ends up doing a body shot off of some guy’s stomach. When they insisted they go shot for shot and she takes off her shirt, the guy gets touchy and Danny steps in to stop him. Suffice it to say, it was awkward.
Lacey sneaks out of the party to take Danny and Jo home. After they dropped off Jo, Danny convinces Lacey to come to his house to hang out. They talk and seem to resolve some issues and Lacey falls asleep. Danny gets a text from Regina insisting that he come over because he knows why he killed his aunt. The next morning a housekeeper finds Regina dead in the living room. Her necklace is missing.
We didn’t see Danny leave his room and we see him asleep in his bed with Lacey in the room the next day. At this point we have no way of knowing for sure that he killed her, despite the fact that the end of the episode reveals that the necklace belonged to his aunt and that he has an identical necklace with him.
Overall, I enjoyed the pilot. It’s interesting to see how the search for Regina’s killer. I, personally, do not think Danny killed Regina. The pilot clearly portrays Danny as a mysterious but all-around good guy, despite his past. They show him trying to deal with his return and moving forward, with no vendettas or harnessed anger toward anyone. They wouldn’t bring a convicted murderer out of Juvee to re-establish friendships just to keep murdering people- that seems too easy. They obviously want the audience to like Danny. Now we just have to figure out why.
For those that do not know, I choose an MVP for each episode. It can be based on acting, or the character itself. The Pilot’s MVP is…
Rico, Jo’s best friend. His comedic timing was excellent and he is inevitably going to provide some choice comedic relief. Rico is played by Ashton Moio.
I am excited to see this mystery unravel. Check out Twisted on ABC Family Tuesdays at 9pm, after Pretty Little Liars.