All eyes were on Carolina “Cricket” Diaz Tuesday night when Freeform’s freshman series Dead of Summer spotlighted the troubled character in its latest installment.
OMFGTV recently chatted with Cricket’s portrayer, San Francisco-native Amber Coney, where she opened up and reflected on her big episode, titled “Mix Tape” and the powerful message behind it.
As the title of the supernatural-thriller’s episode suggests, a mix tape plays a big role — and one in which Cricket is the recipient.
“The mix tape signifies what I could truly have and what I deserve, which is someone who cares about me for me and who wants to know me for me,” she tells us.
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“The flashback with my mom is significant because in that moment I come into the light in the sense that if I can forge down the path that I am in that moment, I really will never get what I deserve and I will have to continually settle and settle and settle like my mom told me I have to. Which isn’t the truth at all.”
When Cricket first receives the tape, she believes it’s from Alex (Ronen Rubinstein) until the truth comes out and that dream is shattered. “It’s really a moment of inner strength and an act of self love for me to leave that situation knowing that I deserve better, that I deserve someone who really cares about me for who I am.”
When she discovers that the true creator of the cassette is Blotter, however, Coney says you won’t see her start pining for him.
“Blotter is gone now so I can’t really feel out that situation,” she explains. “I don’t think I was ever after him romantically; I wasn’t pursuing him romantically. In terms of Alex, I think I’ve learned the lesson I needed to learn through that situation. My eyes were open to the fact that he wasn’t really seeing me in my true capacity and I deserve someone who does.”
Though Cricket learned her lesson of the pretty boy not seeing her for her true self, “that doesn’t mean that Alex is out of the picture. In the future, I’m not just going to give myself away. I’m going to have to evaluate if it’s worth it and if this person is interested in me beyond sexuality and beyond superficial relations and one night.”
Like most of the counselors, the newly re-opened Camp Stillwater provides an escape from their normal, everyday lives — and if they’re lucky, go through a transformation. This is no exception for Ms. Diaz. “It’s a place where I’m hoping I can be who I can be,” Coney says. “When I first go into this camp, I’m still in that superficial mindset of I have to be a certain way physically so that people like me.”
“When I go into this camp, that’s what it represents,” she continues, “but then I have a change of heart and then I realize being who I am is actually accepting myself as I am.”
“I have lost this weight — not necessarily for the right reasons — but regardless, I come to accept my body and accept my whole self and that rings true of the camp motto and the camp spirit.”
The multi-hyphenate actress really wants to stress that her character’s weight loss was for emotionally desperate reasons. “It wasn’t something that was an act of wanting to love myself at my fullest capacity and feeling the best that I can feel. It was ‘Oh, I will only be loved if I look a certain way.’ As Cricket that’s my thought process and that’s so wrong.”
“I’m so glad that this is an episode of growth where I finally come to the realization that I am worth while and I do deserve not only for other people to deeply see me for who I am at my fullest capacity as a human being but also for me to see myself and to respect myself,” she says.
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“Like myself, so many people have experienced insecurity and self consciousness and not feeling like they deserve what they do deserve. If anything, I really want people who watch this to be able to embrace the possibility that they are 100% worth it and they really do deserve the best that this life has to offer and no one should settle for less. That’s what I really want people to take away from the episode.”
Other important takeaways from the episode is the Satanist group’s use of masks, which Coney interprets as symbolizing all of Cricket’s struggles.
“I’m wearing a mask from the moment you meet me,” Coney says. “I was thinking about that when [co-creators Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz and Ian Goldberg] were telling me everything that comes out and the projections that the counselors start having are manifestations of their inner fears and their inner demons.”
Speaking of the Satanist group lurking around Camp Stillwater, could camp owner Deb Carpenter (Elizabeth Mitchell) have ties with them? Viewers did see one of the masks hung in her closet, so it’s natural for us to be curious.
“Things are starting to get suspicious,” she says in regards to Deb, but whether or not she’s involved is “up in the air.”
“It’s so funny because all of my friends who watched [the episode] were like, ‘I don’t trust [Deb] at all!’ It can either be that or she could be completely innocent, which would be an even bigger twist I think.”
One big twist viewers did not see coming was the early departure of bottle-guzzling Blotter. Eagle-eyed viewers who payed close attention to the Dead of Summer‘s opening credits in the first two episodes will notice that his portrayer Zachary Gordon is credited as a guest star, unlike the rest of the leading cast who are billed as regulars.
It was only a question of when we’d see him meet his fate. Promos for the show did tease that not everyone will survive the summer. Is Blotter gone for good? Is he dead?
“I can’t tell you for sure,” Coney teases. “You do see the hand in this episode. I don’t know. He could have been mutilated or not. We’ll see. We’ll find out!”
So either Blotter is dead or just dismembered. Either way, Amber’s lips are sealed. If he is still alive, may we suggest he speak with this guy on suggestions for a hand replacement? 😉
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One fun theory we have is that along with his severed hand, Blotter’s dead, decaying body is rotting in Lake Stillwater where he will soon come alive and one-by-one start murdering his fellow counselors and campers. Sure, he might not be the hockey-masked serial killer we know and love, but Blotter’s real name is Jason, after all.
As for Dead of Summer‘s next few episodes, there isn’t much Amber can say, except that “things start to get really intense! That’s what I’ll tease.”
“All these little inklings and glimpses into the darkness starts to really rear their ugly heads in the later episodes. It starts to get really scary and kind of sad!”
Dead of Summer airs Tuesdays at 9pm on Freeform.