Hulu’s Under the Bridge revolves around a horrific incident that took the entire Canadian society by shock. A young girl named Reena Virk was murdered in cold blood, and her parents were left to mourn the loss. Suman and Manjit didn’t know why their daughter was killed so mercilessly and what she had done to deserve such a fate. Reena had a difficult childhood and called it bad luck or destiny, she had people like Kelly and Jo to make her life miserable. Reena tried her level best to fit in, but she was bullied and tortured for no fault of hers. After being ridiculed and insulted continuously, Reena decided to take charge of things and retaliate in the best way possible.
Reena got hold of Jo’s diary, and she called many people from her list of contacts and spread all sorts of rumors about her. Jo wanted to teach Reena a lesson, and Kelly was quite eager to be on board, as if she just needed a chance to take her frustration out on somebody. The girls assaulted Reena Virk, but Kelly made sure that she did some irreparable damage and crossed all limits. Together with Warren Glowatski, Kelly killed Reena in cold blood, and for the longest time, she told the court of law that she had no role to play in her death. Dusty Pace felt guilty as she didn’t have the spine to be there for her friend, and in fact, she also took part in torturing her.
Warren, till the very end, couldn’t figure out why he was there and why he actively took part in the crime when he didn’t know Reena and didn’t have any sort of grudge against her. There was a lot of frustration inside Warren because nobody had ever treated him kindly. On that day, Warren just took it all out on Reena, and when he realized what a blunder he had committed, it was too late. Suman and Manjit didn’t know how they would live the rest of their lives. They thought of going back to India, but then, deep down, they knew that they couldn’t run from the tragedy.
Spoiler Alert
What did Cam find out about her real parents?
The death of Reena Virk made certain people think about each and every aspect of their lives. Cam Bentland’s perceptions had changed after she dealt with the case. She started seeing the world in a very different light. She had some unfinished and unspoken business with Rebecca, and we saw in the earlier episodes that they both became physically intimate. Cam knew about Rebecca’s inner conflicts, but a lot of times, they didn’t agree with each other’s views. Cam, in Under the Bridge episode 8, got to know that her family didn’t give her up for adoption, but instead, she was taken away by the law enforcement officers, after which Roy Bentland adopted her. She confronted her father and asked him about it because, on some level, she felt extremely hurt. Her family wasn’t in Alberta, as she was told, but they were living somewhere right next to her. For years, she had been kept in the dark, and she felt that it was extremely unfair to her.
Roy told her that his intention was never to hurt her, but nonetheless, Cam felt deceived and hurt. Cam decided to quit the force and go and find her family. She learned that she came from the Tsleil-Waututh community, and she was adamant about meeting them at least once.
Why did Warren agree to testify against Kelly?
Warren had lied a lot during his cross-examination, and Rebecca was well aware of that. She didn’t ask him anything because she was scared that the truth would change her perception of him and make her see him as a hardened criminal who deserved to be punished. Rebecca decided not to go and meet Warren in prison because it would mar her judgment. She wanted to be fair towards the victim, but in the previous episode, we saw that even she realized that in her book, she was just trying to defend Warren. The book had to be about Reena, and Suman told Rebecca quite blatantly that she didn’t seem to know anything about her daughter. Rebecca stayed away from Warren for some time and then wrote a few rough drafts, which she gave to Suman to read. Suman asked Rebecca if she could arrange a meeting with Warren, and the writer agreed. Warren met Suman in prison, where the latter spoke about how broken she felt from within and how her world shattered after Reena’s death. She told Warren that she forgave him not because she pitied him but because she wanted to move ahead in her life. Suman broke down in front of Warren, and maybe that was when he had a change of heart. He decided to testify against Kelly and speak the truth in court. He knew that it was the only way through which he could repent and probably achieve salvation for the sins he had committed. He said that he didn’t know why he did what he did, but he also understood that he had to make sure that Reena got justice. Warren got parole in 2010, as Suman and Manjit were magnanimous enough to advocate on his behalf. Warren, after his release, did a lot of work to propagate the concept of restorative justice and help those who were adversely affected in any manner.
What happened during Kelly Ellard’s trial?
In Under the Bridge‘s ending, Kelly’s lawyer tried every tactic to pin the blame on other kids and somehow prove in court that his client was not responsible for the death of Reena Virk. There was a scene in the last episode where Kelly was talking to Jo over the phone about teaching Reena a lesson. What amazed me was that Kelly’s mother was present in the room at that time, though I don’t know if she overheard the conversation. It felt as if she heard whatever her daughter spoke over the phone (though it can’t be said for sure), and if that was the case, it’s pretty odd that she didn’t scold her or talk to her after the conversation got over. Kelly lost her temper when the prosecution was cross-examining her, and she started shouting that she hadn’t murdered Reena Virk. Kelly was either mentally disturbed or, as Manjit put it in the past, the devil resided inside the girl. Whatever it was, Kelly was ready to throw anyone under the bus to save herself. She showed her true colors, and even Jo felt deeply betrayed. Kelly was charged with second-degree murder, but she appealed against the judgment twice in the appellate courts. According to Under the Bridge series, she finally accepted her crimes in 2016, and she was granted day parole in 2017.
