56 Days has been out for blood since the very beginning. Yet, the events of episode 6 left me stunned.
All this time, I thought I was catching on to everything. Instead, days 32 and 33 shook everything up and turned it upside down. Ciara and Oliver may love each other deeply, but their connected history won’t allow them to further their relationship. She knew this going in since she knew who Oliver was. Even though he’s a deeply messed up guy, he was blindsided by her lies. Everything he thought he knew was gone in an instant.
Not only are the detectives trying to uncover Oliver’s present but also his past. For years, he’s tried to outrun his mistakes. Ciara found him, and now the detectives are digging deeper into the mystery of the Narrow River. After hearing Oliver’s confession to Ciara, I’m starting to think he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and froze up. From his point of view of events, he watched his friend drown his other friend, and then he did nothing but let it happen. His guilt is still strong. Even with that confession, Ciara handles her mess on day 33 while the detectives talk to Paul’s mother in present-day.
56 Days season 1 episode 7 reveals what happened at the Narrow River
Sixteen years ago, Oliver’s day started out like any other as he talked to his friend, Shane (Sam Warnock), at their hangout spot. They talked about how Oliver was a rich kid while Shane wasn’t. Everything was typical until Paul (Aidan Ledingham) started walking up. Paul laid into Oliver about why they weren’t at his fancy house, and then into Shane about his mom running her mom about someone she barely knows. As they bicker about their moms’ issues, Oliver looks like an innocent bystander.
It seems like Paul and Shane are apologizing to each other until Paul name-calls Shane’s mom and throws his bottle, nearly hitting him. Shane throws sand in Paul’s face that stands their fight. Oliver comes in between them, but Paul gets the upper hand and slaps him to the ground. Getting up, he yells from the shore as Paul punches Shane. In a split second, everything shifts. Oliver runs into the water, tackling Paul so Shane can get away. Paul begs Oliver to let him go as they go underwater with Shane watching from the shore.
Oliver tries to convince Shane to say it was self-defense, but Shane doesn’t agree and starts spinning up a story to cover their crime. Instead of saying they met up at Narrow River after school, they didn’t hang out after practice with Paul because he wouldn’t have asked and Oliver and him weren’t friends. Shane went home and babysat his sister, so Oliver gave him a ride and then went home to study. They explain Shane’s scratch as something that happened at practice. As he’s shaking like a leaf, Oliver apologizes to Shane even though he probably saved him from being beat up by Paul.
Shane immediately throws his river clothes into the laundry. His sister, Megan, walks in questioning about his appearance and whereabouts. He tells her the fake story about getting hit at practice, coming home to shower, and being with her the entire time. Although he says he’s fine, he’s definitely not as they go to make stovetop s'mores.
Oliver sells out Shane
Oliver panics in silence as he tries to sleep. He eats breakfast and then goes to school. His mask almost slips as tears threaten to fall. The crime is driving him crazy when he calls someone and confesses he killed Paul. He tells the guy that only him, Shane, and Paul were the only ones at the river.
Oliver sits down with Detective Gerard Sheehan (Tadhg McMahon) at the station with his lawyer, Mr. Banks, who filled Sheehan in on what happened. He tells Shane’s lies for him about studying until he got a headache. Instead of keeping Shane out of it, he tells Sheehan that he woke up to Shane at his door at midnight.
Shane rolls up to the station with his parents and sister as his dad questions him about why the police would need to talk to him. He doesn’t know that Oliver sold him out. As he’s being questioned, Shane makes eye contact with Oliver, who’s walking past after his sitdown with the detective. Being stupid kids, Shane plunges the accusation further by coming out of the room and slashing Oliver with a pen, leaving a mark on his abdomen. He dares to look broken up as they haul Shane away. Oliver turns to see Megan staring at him, showing just how easy it was for her to know everything and hunt him down years later.
Oliver’s scar origin story
Oliver is hyperventilating when he gets an idea and pulls out a kitchen knife. He slices open the slash mark to make it look like an actual cut. His bandage is bleeding when he parks his fancy car at school the next day. His school counselor, Dan (Patch Darragh), walks by joking with him about being late until he sees the blood. Somehow, they end up at his house instead of an urgent care after Oliver passed out in his car. They can’t call his mom since she’s out of town, so his school counselor says it’s not even a lie that he saw Oliver and sent him home sick.
His counselor takes a call in his car to the same voice Oliver confessed to. That’s when the voice confirms he’s Oliver’s dad. He confirms to his dad that Oliver needs therapy from someone, even if it’s not him. They need to discover what really happened. Oliver’s dad puts the counselor in touch with his accountant.
Young Megan knows too much
Megan wakes up her mom to see if she wants tea. As she declines the offer, Megan looks out at Shane chopping wood in their backyard. Megan stares at the glass figures, lining them up as she thinks. Meanwhile, Shyla (Georgie Murphy) put stuff in her locker at work while she checks her phone. She calls Megan and lies to their mom that she’s talking to her sister. Shyla warns her to stay out of their mom’s way for everyone’s sake.
Megan’s mom catches her talking about what happened between Shane and Oliver into her mirror. She tells her mom how Shane didn’t come home right after practice, but she doesn’t want to hear it. She boils it down to Megan wanting attention like always. They are waiting to see if Shane goes to prison for the rest of his life. Megan starts crying as her mom yells at her saying she still has to make it about herself when the focus is on Shane. The jury finds Shane guilty of manslaughter. They haul him away in handcuffs as he looks heartbroken.
Young Oliver panics about his decisions
Oliver stares at his watch as his counselor’s voice plays over him staring at the pool. We see them sitting in Oliver’s house as they talk about starting therapy and being his first patient. As they talk, the scene moves to Shane being hauled into the courtroom. His counselor finds out that Oliver may not have told him the whole truth, but his counselor also didn’t say he talked to Oliver’s dad, who does know the truth. Oliver does fear timed testing in the pool, but he seems more scared than ever as he breaks the surface.
Dan continues to talk to Oliver as he’s preparing to go to Stanford. But, Oliver doubts he’s ready to go with how he’s feeling. He tells him he needs to tell his dad about how he feels. They agree for Dan to tell him.
Oliver sits in a dark room discussing his timed underwater exercises with his dad on the phone. He confesses he hasn’t been sleeping since the verdict. Instead of acknowledging it, his dad tells him to keep practicing his underwater times and stay disciplined. Yet, he still struggles as he tells Dan he wants to be on Shane’s visitors list.
Shane understandably said no, so Oliver tried to write a letter. He even has the envelope addressed, but he didn’t send it. Dan requests to hand deliver himself, causing Oliver to hand it over. Once Dan is in his car, he opens the letter and reads how Oliver wants to promise Shane that he’ll fix everything.
Dan manipulates Shane’s mental state
Dan successfully gets on Shane’s visitor list and sits down to chat with him. Shane’s shocked that Dan is here as he plays the concerned school counselor. He tells him he’s working with Oliver as his therapist. Dan denies that Oliver sent him when Shane wouldn’t let Oliver on the visitor list. Shane wonders if Oliver needs therapy because he feels bad for killing Paul or him (sending him to prison).
Understandably, Shane is mad for being locked up for something he didn’t do, all because he tried to help his friend. He’s right on the money about Dan getting paid to listen to Oliver’s lies, but Dan deflects by saying it isn’t his job to judge Oliver. Dan tries to sympathize with Shane and all that he’s been through, but his intentions don’t seem sincere. His sob story about his past shakes Shane to his core.
Megan witnesses her mom and sister yelling about what Shane did to himself. Oliver talks to his dad and cries about the choices made. Dan calms Oliver down as he panics and almost stops breathing. He doesn’t know what Dan told Shane.
Young Shyla confronts Dan
Shyla confronts Dan about what he said to Shane. She doesn’t believe he’s sorry since Shane never mentioned him from school, not once. He explains it away, citing that HIPAA requirements say he can’t confirm or deny if Shane came to see him. She knows he sees Oliver as a therapy patient and knows he had to have said something to scare Shane into seeing no other way out. Shane was taking classes and fixing things out, but as soon as Dan showed up, Shane killed himself after their chat.
When she threatens to talk to someone about taking his license, he throws Shane’s mental state and home life back in her face. Her anger boils as he talks about her home like being unfit to care for issues. She punches him, sending him to double over and tell her he’s filing a restraining order as she storms out.
Later that night, Megan and Shyla cuddle on the couch and talk about Shane. She tries to convince Megan that wherever Shane is, that he’s no longer hurting. Then, Megan tells Shyla what happened that night when Shane was dropped off by Oliver. He lied to Megan and told her to never tell. Shyla explains that maybe Shane was scared Oliver’s family would hurt them and not to let it derail her life.
Lee and Karl question Shyla in the present-day
Shyla’s sitting on the couch when there’s a knock at the door. She tells Karl and Lee she’s one of the Mrs. Martins, Shyla. She says her mom, Kristi (Jennifer Ferrin), isn’t here at the moment. They’re stunned when Shyla bluntly tells them not to rub it in that she still lives with her mom. They confirm that she is Shane's sister, but then she interrupts them asking if she can ask a question. Karl says they are here to ask questions about the revenge killing about Oliver St. Ledger. Paul’s mother gave them Shyla’s address to come talk to her. Lee jumps right in about if Megan or Ciara, whichever she goes by, lives here and is her sister. She tells them she doesn’t know where Megan is or where she lives, or if she’s ever coming back.
Karl complains about Lee’s music taste as they talk about where Ciara/Megan could be. As they are talking about if she could be with Oliver, Lee’s window breaks. A gunshot goes off and a car peels away. We’re left wondering if Lee and Karl are alive or dead.
Day 33: Oliver and Ciara have a heart-to-heart
Oliver wakes up with a pillow under his head and a blanket covering him. Ciara sits next to him, greeting him in a whisper. Wasting no time, he tells her she’s Megan, Shane’s sister, and she doesn’t deny it. She finally tells him that she knew he was lying the day she told him of Paul’s murder. She wanted to hurt him for making her spiral. She made a plan, but she started to know him and how lonely he was. He was ruining his life all on his own. He regrets not telling her the truth sooner and apologizes. His best friend didn’t deserve what happened to him. She knew her brother didn’t deserve it, but she needed to hear it from him.
He smiles when she confesses that she’s so in love with him. He pulls her into his lap after confessing he’s so in love with her, too. They gently rock as the scene fades out, leaving me so confused.
All episodes of 56 Days season 1 are now streaming on Prime Video.