With a show with so many secrets like Freeform’s supernatural-thriller Dead of Summer, and with just one episode out of the gate, viewers are already dying for answers!
To get more intel on the show, OMFGTV jumped on the phone with one of the series’ stars, the absolutely adorable Amber Coney (Cricket), where she previewed some of what’s to come in tonight’s all-new episode.
First thing on the list: The one simply known as “The Tall Man,” played by none other than horror icon Tony Todd. We knew his role was going to be a good one!
In the series premiere, fans were briefly teased with his character — first in the opening sequence, then in present day 1989 when he appeared behind Amy (Elizabeth Lail) on Joel’s (Eli Goree) camcorder, a scene that still gives us goosebumps! Amber says that we “definitely” will get to see more of him in tonight’s installment, titled “Barney Rubble Eyes.”
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“That’s one of the main things that part of the episode centers on is who is this ‘Tall Man’ and what’s going on,” she says. “[Throughout the episode] a lot of people are getting mixed messages about who it could possibly be.”
While the counselors struggle to find the identity of the Tall Man, viewers will get to know more about the identity of Alex Powell (Ronen Rubinstein), who he is and who he was.
“This episode is a mystery episode in a way,” Coney explains. “Certain things come about where the counselors choices are at stake. Alex is fighting to make sure that nothing in his world and his realm gets too out of control.”
As we learned from the series premiere, fans of the show will get a peek into the lives of the counselors pre-Camp Stillwater, thanks to the use of flashbacks. We’ll see that “there’s more to them than you expect.”
In Alex’s case, you will see that “he’s not just this pretty boy who’s trying to get a girl. He has a past,” she teases. “It’s really interesting. I actually did not expect what the writers actually conceived up,” she said of Alex’s past, and that in regards to his present storyline, adds that “it was very cool that they brought those elements in.”
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The “pretty boy” isn’t the only one at Camp Stillwater trying to get the girl. Blotter (Zachary Gordon) has his sights on a girl of his own: Cricket. So what’s the story behind that?
“Blotter and I have been friends as young campers,” Coney says. “You’ll see in the episode that we used to play Dungeons and Dragons together. We were quite nerdy. In my imagination, he was probably — besides Blair (Mark Indelicato) — my only guy friend or the only guy who gave me attention in any way, even though as kids it was probably more somewhat on the platonic side. Regardless, he has had a crush on me and you kind of see that come into the light in this episode. He’s trying to make the moves, really.”
Also coming to light in the episode is possibly the series’ first of many LOST easter eggs, courtesy of Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, who were both writers on the massive ABC series. The power duo peppered easter eggs all throughout their last creation Once Upon a Time, and you can expect the same for the anthology series.
“I think the fact that they did that and you caught it, that’s amazing” she tells us after pointing out tonight’s easter egg. “I didn’t even catch that. They’re obviously putting these little homages here and there. I think it’s so fun for creators to do that with their own work. It’s kind of like when M. Night Shyamalan makes a cameo, it’s sort of like a reference to himself.”
“I’m sure if you look for it, you can find it.”
Dead of Summer airs Tuesdays at 9pm on Freeform.
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