Aahana Swrup
‘Echo Valley’ takes the viewers on a tense exploration of the lengths a person can go to for love and the dangerous places it can take them. The Apple TV+ thriller film revolves around a mother-daughter duo with a complicated relationship. Kate Garretson, who lives on a lonesome farm, recently lost the love of her life, her wife Patty. As such, despite the usual trouble her daughter, Clarire, tends to bring with her, a surprise visit from her still arrives as a ray of sunshine in her isolated life. Even so, the mother isn’t prepared to witness her kid walk into the house one night, with someone else’s blood on her clothes.
As a shaken-up Claire tells it, the blood belongs to Ryan, her boyfriend, whom she had brutally murdered during an impromptu camping trip. As a result, Kate, who is picking up after her daughter, finds herself with an impossible mess to clean up. Yet, as the story progresses and certain truths about the manipulative young woman come out in the open, one can’t help but grow suspicious of her initial claims about Ryan’s death. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Claire’s Tall Tales About Ryan’s Death
From the moment Ryan is introduced into the narrative, it becomes evident that he’s bound to bring trouble to Kate’s farm. He’s Claire’s long-time boyfriend, frequently insulted by his girlfriend and openly hated by her mother. As it turns out, he recently pulled a prank on Claire and threw her phone into the ocean. Consequently, she hauled his stuff in a duffle bag and tossed it over the river for payback. However, little did she know that the bag was filled with drugs worth thousands of dollars. As such, he tracks her down to her mother’s house, desperate to find his stuff. Once he realizes what his girlfriend has done, he grows angry because now his head is on the line for a payment he can’t make with a dangerous dealer, Jackie, as his debtor.
Soon enough, Ryan ends up bringing Jackie to Claire’s place, shedding all the blame for the loss on her. Still, he regrets his actions, especially when the dealer beats the young woman up and threatens worse if she fails to pay him back in cash. Somehow, even after all that, the two end up back together, prepared to face the music together. However, for them, facing the music means running away to the campsite to bid their time for a while. Nonetheless, this trip ends up taking an unexpected turn when Claire returns a few nights later, all alone. Tearfully, she tells Kate about the argument the two had gotten into at the camping woods. Eventually, Ryan grew aggressive, which compelled his girlfriend to bash him on the head with a rock.
As such, Ryan is now lying dead, wrapped up in sheets, in the back of his own car that Claire drove back to her mother’s farm. Once Kate learns about the horrific turn of events, she immediately begins putting together a plan to help out her daughter. She takes over the responsibility of hiding the body and feeds Claire a cover story about the night to share with anyone and everyone. Once the mother dumps the body in the local Marsh Lake, the family has evaded a looming dark cloud. Yet, a much more menacing truth lies ahead when Kate wakes one morning to find her daughter gone from the house. As she tracks her down through a FindMyPhone app, she’s surprised to see that her daughter is currently back with her boyfriend, Ryan, who is well and alive.
Ryan’s Faked Death Was a Cover For a Real Murder
Although Claire lies about Ryan’s death, she still brings a dead body back with her to Kate’s farm. Therefore, the question remains: whose body did she have her mother bury? The full truth comes out in the open under taxing circumstances when Jackie decides to blackmail the barn-owner. Apparently, the dealer has been in on the plan from the beginning. Ryan really did owe Jackie a huge chunk of money. However, he tried to pay him back by selling his product. Unfortunately, he grew greedy and impatient, which compelled him to mix fentanyl with his stash. Consequently, one of his clients, a young man named Greg, ended up dying from an overdose.
As a result, Ryan and his girlfriend came to Jackie looking for help. They needed to take care of the body as soon as possible without leaving behind any links to themselves. That is when Claire came up with the plan to use her mother as a scapegoat. Her addiction issues have caused major problems for the family over the years. Even so, her mother continues to hold a soft spot for her. Therefore, she knows that Kate will do anything for her if she feeds her the right story. For the same reason, Claire makes her believe she killed Ryan in self-defense to win her mother over to her side. However, in reality, the daughter only exploited her love to manipulate her into covering up a crime for her.
