Under the Bridge Season 1 Episode 7 Review: Three and Seven (2024)

A few months’ time jump on Under the Bridge Season 1 Episode 7, “Three and Seven,” allows the story to move into its final act. Warren’s trial and the lead-up to Kelly’s trial is the final chance for these characters to get justice, whatever it means to them.

For Cam that’s convicting Warren and Kelly for murder, but even she is hesitant to do it at all costs. Her refusal to put Dusty on the stand because she knows her statement is perjured and doing so will just add years to her sentence is the first time we see Cam start to act like Rebecca.

Lily Gladstone does such a good job softening Cam’s edges just enough when she’s one-on-one with Dusty or Rebecca. Her character may be less of a bleeding heart than Rebecca but she’s every bit as tortured by this case and that nuance shows up on screen.

Throughout the entire season, Under the Bridge has been sure to explore the gray area of the perpetrators involved. Dusty, who was the first one to show any remorse, may be the only one who garners Cam’s full sympathy but they all show some humanity (except for Kelly).

On this penultimate episode, those dynamics that used to play out in high school hallways or house parties now play out in a juvenile detention facility where they’re all being held. For characters like Jo and Warren, it doesn’t make much difference, they were just as trapped by their circ*mstances on the outside.

Even when Jo realizes Kelly has played her once again, getting her to orchestrate a fight that leads to Kelly being transferred back home, she asks Kelly if she ever has nightmares about Reena. Jo’s realizations are written all over her face when Kelly quickly dismisses the idea.

Most of these kids are products of a bad system or bad parenting. It’s ironic then that the most vile and remorseless of them is the most privileged. Evil does exist but it’s root cause or where it shows up aren’t always what you think.

This episode also makes one of the more powerful uses of flashback this season as we see the day from Warren’s perspective leading up until the fateful moment when Kelly asks him to cross the bridge with her. We learn he is being evicted from his house that day, the catalyst that led him to be filled with such rage and shame he’d later lash out at Reena.

Although Rebecca tries to articulate all this through her book, it’s more meaningful to the viewer to get to see Javon Walton play out these scenes and see just how much of a child Warren still is in so many ways.

The only downside to this episode is that it still doesn’t prioritize Reena despite its constant talk about justice for her. It almost gets there in a tense conversation with Rebecca where Suman points out that Warren’s behavior was a result of him seeing Reena as less than human, someone he could take his anger out on, because of her race.

Until Rebecca is willing to understand that and accept that, she can’t understand Reena’s life. Despite her best intentions, Rebecca’s white privilege is blinding her to other aspects of the crime.

Even after her conversation with Cam about how Warren isn’t Gabe and how Rebecca is carrying that guilt around, she is still the first to comfort Warren after he’s convicted. Maybe Warren isn’t as remorseless as Kelly, but he still lies on the stand to protect himself and omits his role in the murder.

To continue to prioritize his and to an extent Rebecca’s feelings makes the message of the show muddled. Is it about justice? Accountability? Forgiveness?

There is still one episode left for Under the Bridge to clarify its message.

What did you think of this episode of Under the Bridge? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Under the Bridgeairs Wednesdays on Hulu.

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