“The Watchful Eye” 2-Hour Series Premiere Recap: Freeform’s Twisty Tantalizing Thriller Awakens

Freeform just hit us with a brilliant two episode premiere of their new thriller The Watchful Eye. In the episodes we meet Elena Santos, a new nanny to the Ward family who has some ulterior motives for taking the job, and we follow her as she learns about The Greybourne and all of its inhabitants. ‘Hen in the Fox House’ was written by Julie Durk and directed by Jeffrey Reiner, and ‘Hide and Seek’ was written by Emmylou Diaz and directed by Jeffrey Reiner. Here’s what went down in the premiere episodes!

The Nanny | The episode begins with the horrible scene of Allie Ward (Emily Tennant) writing her goodbye letter and jumping to her death. The episode jumps to six months later, where we meet Elena Santos (Mariel Molino), who is being interviewed by Matthew Ward (Warren Christie) to be his son Jasper’s (Henry Joseph Samiri) new nanny. Matthew loves Elena, but his sister-in-law Tory (Amy Acker) doesn’t seem as thrilled by her. It doesn’t take long for Elena’s true intentions are revealed; she’s trying to steal a valuable ruby hidden somewhere in the building so she and her boyfriend Scott (Jon-Michael Ecker) can sell it and run away together.

Of course Elena gets the job and quickly moves into the building. She gets to live in a teeny tiny room on the top floor with one other nanny who is currently on vacation. Elena quickly makes friends with Darcy (Megan Best) and Bennet Ayers (Grace Kaufman) and a pot-smoking teenager named Elliott (Lex Lumpkin). Elliott gives Elena the lowdown on The Greybourne: there have been all sorts of mysterious deaths in the building, accidents, suicides, and murders. He also mentions Allie Ward’s suicide and said she didn’t leave a note, but we know she did.

Elena crushes it on her first day on the job. Jasper loves her and she makes two new nanny friends at the park, Kim (Clare Filipow) and Alex (Baraka Rahmani). That night she learns that Tory is throwing a party and needs help, so Elena volunteers. This allows her access to Tory’s home after the party so she can snoop around. She’s caught by Tory’s drunk husband, Dick (Christopher Redman), who tries to threaten Elena, but his daughter comes to her rescue and gets him to bed.

Jocelyn | When Elena returns to her room there is a joint left at her door, presumably left by Elliott. Elena smokes a little bit of it and falls asleep. When she wakes up there is a blonde Irish girl in her doorway who introduces herself as Jocelyn. The conversation feels a bit strange, and Jocelyn warns Elena not to trust people, alluding to theWards’ and also making it seem like she once lived in that room.

The next day Elena ends up saving Jasper from being hit by a car. Tory wants Elena fired, but Mrs. Ivey (Kelly Bishop) stops by and says she saw Elena save Jasper from her window, saving the nanny’s job. Elena later goes to thank the older woman, who invites her inside and makes Elena an offer. She knows Elena is lying about her past, and she’ll keep that information to herself as long as Elena is her eyes and ears around the building. She especially wants Elena to keep an eye on Matthew, she feels he’s somehow responsible for Allie’s death.

Later, Elena sneaks into the basement at Scott’s urging. She finds a strange room that has a strange locked compartment in it. She also notices the large portrait of Alistair Greybourne, who is said to haunt the basement. There’s a very strange presence and then a sudden loud noise. Elena leaves the room and finds one of the doormen dead at the bottom of the basement stairs. She’s questioned by a detective, who turns out to be Scott, about the incident and then is free to return to her room. There she meets Ginny (Aliyah Royale), the other nanny who lives up there. Elena mentions Jocelyn and Ginny has no idea who she is talking about. Weird.

Required Materials | Episode 2 begins with showing the audience how Elena and Scott met 6 months prior, showing how Scott persuaded Elena to work with him. But now in the present, it seems Elena is starting to have doubts. She tries to tell Scott how creeped out she is about the Jocelyn thing, but he doesn’t seem to care. He just wants her to check out the basement some more, which she does. She’s caught by Cecil (Dhirendra) the doorman and lies about looking for an earring from the other night.

In the Ward’s unit, Elena overhears a confrontation between Tory and Matthew about Jasper’s trust money. After, Matthew and Elena go over Jasper’s schedule for the week and he notices that Elena doesn’t have a tablet. Elena takes Jasper to art class where she runs into her nanny friends and gets some info on the Ward’s last nanny, Morgan.

When Elena returns to her room there is a gift for her, an iPad Air from Matthew. Elena doesn’t think she can keep it and goes to him to tell him so, but he tells her it’s required materials for the job so she must keep it.

Later that afternoon Elena and Jasper play Hide and Seek inside The Greybourne instead of going to Tae Kwon Do. Elena uses this chance to search odd places for the ruby, but no such luck. They move the game up to the attic and Elena is quickly able to go into Ginny’s room to ask her new friend to pee for her since Tory has demanded a urine sample for a drug test. Ginny happily agrees to help and the two of them make plans to go out for drinks later. After Hide and Seek Elena gives the urine to Tory in front of Mrs. Ivey and Matthew, who is very pissed off Tory did this.

Nanny Drinks | Elena and Ginny go out for drinks and run into Kim and Alex. Ginny’s friend James (Lachlan Quarmby) also comes along. Elena pulls James aside at the bar and asks him about Morgan since he was close to her. He clams up and doesn’t say much, then he quickly leaves the establishment. Scott has followed Elena here to see her and she’s pissed about it, but briefly kisses him before sending him on his way.

In the building lobby Elena notices a painting that matches a part of the Alistair portrait in the basement and snaps a quick photo of it. She runs into Elliott and thanks him for the joint only to learn that he didn’t leave it. Now she thinks Tory left it to get her fired, but I have a feeling it may have been Jocelyn. Elena goes down to the basement and compares the portrait to the photo she took, and notices the lobby painting has a key in it that the portrait doesn’t. As she’s leaving the basement Elena catches Cecil and a married Candace (Bronwen Smith) hooking up down there, and it is awkward.

Later while talking to Scott Elena learns that her mother is up for parole, so she’s not dead like Elena has been telling everybody.

Elena goes to see Mrs. Ivey to report about some of the stuff she has discovered when she sees a photo in the old woman’s home. Mrs. Ivey was a baby and Jocelyn is on the photo, she died not long after it was taken. Elena is thoroughly freaked out and quickly returns to her room to look up Jocelyn’s death. She is shocked to discover that her death mirrors Allie Ward’s death.

Keep watching The Watchful Eye Monday nights on Freeform to see what the heck is going on at The Greybourne!