The Woods Season 1, Episode 1 recap: End of Innocence

The Woods Season 1 premiere: Its 1994 and summer camp takes a turn.

This Netflix show starts with a man staring down the barrel of a gun. We are then brought back to 1994 at a summer camp in the woods.

The summer camp is a crime scene and there are investigators moving a body and placing crime scene cards all over. But there is a boy watching in the woods. It is a younger version of the man from the first clip, but it is obvious he does not want to be seen.

Now we go even further back to before the crime. Teens are dancing and enjoying the heat of the summer. Playing games, drinking, and dancing. This looks like the kind of summer camp we want to attend.

Now we see the same boy sitting next to a girl on the beach. They seem to be into each other. We then see the girl’s father talking about how someone had lit something on fire and they can’t figure out who did it.

We get names! The boy’s name is Pawel, he is a chaperone at the summer camp, and the girl’s name is Laura.

Pawel is in his bunk talking to his younger sister, Kamila. She seems to be into one of the boys at the camp. Kamila is trying to convince Pawel to go after Laura, the principal’s daughter.

Pawel leaves the cabin and goes into the woods to have a drink by himself. Someone is approaching. It’s Arthur. He wants to show Pawel something. He shows him a car that he wants to take. Laura comes to join them. They get into the abandoned car but its full of sand and leaves. They take it for a joy ride, but they end up hitting something.

We are then taken to a diving competition in September of 2019. Grown-up Pawel is there watching a girl dive. It is his daughter, Kiah. We also find out that he is a prosecutor.

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After the competition, Pawel’s sister in law is helping him to clean up his apartment. She is trying to convince him to move closer to her family, but he doesn’t want to uproot Kiah. He leaves her with his daughter and her daughter, as he leaves to go finish up work.

He is working on a case file when an inspector shows up at his office looking to question him. The man brings Pawel to another location. Where they are met by Inspector York.

The inspectors tell Pawel that a man named Mark was found murdered under a bridge and they believe that Pawel will be able to help. Apparently Mark knew him, but Pawel doesn’t know anyone named Mark. Mark apparently had some items on him that attach him to Pawel. The inspectors then tell Pawel that Mark is a fake identity and they think that he can identify him.

Pawel claims to not know him, but could he be someone from summer camp in 1994? This Mark guy seems to be obsessed with whatever happened in 1994.

We go back to 1994 at summer camp. The boys are playing basketball. Arthur is flirting with a girl, Monika, by showing off his basketball skills. It ends up working and they end up kissing, but Arthur’s mom finds them and things get awkward.

We flip back to 2019, Pawel is looking through the articles that “Mark” had on him. Pawel says the articles are a coincidence. Pawel is allowed to leave, but these inspectors are not finished with him yet!

The Woods Season 1 premiere recap: Pawel begins having flashbacks

Pawel is having flashbacks to the woods at summer camp. Is he putting things together? Pawel returns home to his daughter, who is still awake and asks him to read her a story.

We return back to 1994. They are having a party, but Arthur does not seem to be entertained. He tries to approach Monika again, but she doesn’t seem interested and then kisses another guy. This makes Arthur so angry that he throws the guy to the ground and confronts Monika. The two guys get into a fight that is then broken up.

The boys then hit some more alcohol and start singing in a cabin. Due to their loud singing, some girls come and find them. Pawel has a little too much and gets sick in the woods. Lucky for him, Laura comes to find him.

We travel back to 2019, Pawel is in his apartment looking for something. He takes out files and pictures from the summer of 1994. His sister in law comes in and looks at the pictures with him. Apparently Pawel’s mom abandoned him at some point after summer camp.

Back in 1994, Pawel is now woken up by his mother and she finds all of the alcohol. She wants to know who was drinking with him. But, he takes the blame. She is mad and alludes to the fact that Pawel’s father was an alcoholic. Pawel’s mom goes straight to Arthur’s mom and blames Arthur for the alcohol and tells him to stay away from Pawel.

Pawel is putting all of the basketballs away from the day’s activities and something is drawing his attention to the woods.

But, we go back to 2019. Pawel is at work and talking to a girl. Pawel has the girl look at two pictures. According to her, the two guys in the pictures raped her and she thinks that there is a video of the rape.

Pawel then meets with a journalist at a bar. The journalist is apparently the father of one of the boys accused of rape. He says that his son had nothing to do with it. He then tries to bribe Pawel, but Pawel does not seem interested in money. This man threatens to dig up Pawel’s past if he doesn’t go easy on his kid.

We go back to 1994. Pawel and Laura are sitting in the woods. She wants him to go somewhere, but Pawel has to watch the kids. Apparently this is the last night of camp and this was all Pawel needed to convince him to go with Laura. They venture into the woods to have some alone time. But, during their alone time, they start hearing screams. Pawel sends Laura running out of the woods and he stays behind. Then, we never see what happens!

We cut to adult Pawel in the pool and then at court. He is prosecuting the rape case. He wants to keep both suspects in custody and claims to have found the video. Pawel lied, he doesn’t have the video, yet. The journalist’s father is not very happy with Pawel’s decision. This could be a problem for Pawel.

Pawel calls the inspectors and asks them to meet at the morgue. He tells us 4 kids entered the woods one night in 1994 and all four didn’t come back. 2 bodies were never found. One of them being his sister’s. Pawel knows who the dead man is. Its Arthur.

What did you think of The Woods Season 1, Episode 1? Is Arthur is alive? Could this mean Pawel’s sister alive too? We are already sucked into The Woods! What do you think happened?

The Woods Season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix!