What happened with Carrie Red, and how is this going to play out with the rest of the season? There’s plenty to look forward to with Prime Video’s Carrie, and this episode, “Social Studies,” is a doozy.
That voice-over begins our episode again, this time focusing on telekinesis and how women, throughout time, have wielded this kind of power. But each time, it has followed a pattern—they make an extraordinary claim, which leads to accusations of fraud, and then often to death. As she speaks, we also see Carrie (Summer H. Howell) looking through books, all about telekinesis.
Emaline (Thalia Dudek) suddenly appears again, speaking to Carrie about what she’s looking for regarding witchcraft and everything else. Carrie says she’s just looking for fun, but we all know what she’s really doing. As she’s speaking to Emaline, a student walks by, calling her a “freak.” Emaline fights right back, but it doesn’t go further than that.
Chris (Alison Thornton) looks at the video she posted of Carrie, but it can only be shared privately, so thankfully, it hasn’t spread too much yet. She has to accept users to let them follow the account. She goes to homeroom, where Sue (Siena Agudong) apologizes to Carrie, and Chris forces herself to do the same. Chris decides to invite Carrie to a party that night to make up for it.
Meanwhile, we see Margaret (Samantha Sloyan) buying mini cameras to place throughout the house, speaking to her dead husband in her mind. As she does this, she gets certified mail that her husband’s remains are ready for pickup. Later, she throws it out.
School seems to be easy that day for Carrie, as she messes around with the rain and forces a drop to move. The big thing is Chris, who goes to her guidance counselor to talk about her options now that Duke is off the table, thanks to her father’s money problems.
The guidance counselor (Tim Bagley), however, is no help: he says that because Chris didn’t apply for financial aid, it’s too late now, and that she needs to drop her attitude about her family in this town because everything doesn't “revolve around her.” The best she can do is go to community college for a semester and see if she can get it another time around, he says. This, understandably, upsets Chris greatly.
When Carrie gets home, she learns her mother will be working late, giving her time to sneak out to the party. Sue and Tommy (Joel Oulette) talk in the car, and Sue says that she’s ready to have sex with Tommy at the party, which excites him. Back to Carrie, we see her making her own clothes for the party, and she asks her neighbor, Stella (Naika Toussaint), to drive her, which she agrees to, happy that Carrie is acting like a normal teenager.
Does Carrie have fun at the party? Or is it a ploy?
I know that inviting Carrie to a party might seem like a huge red flag, but actually, this party pretty much goes off without a hitch for her. Just for her, though.
Many people are there, including Chris, Sue, and Tommy. Chris spots Brooklyn (Rowan Danielle) and is visibly upset, but Sue attempts to distract her. Carrie arrives, and Tommy greets her, while Chris shows her around, saying she'll protect her for the night—quite a stark change from we’ve known her to be so far.
We also see another main character finally enter: Billy (Arthur Conti). He appeared briefly in the last episode, but he takes a bigger role this time around. His main purpose at the party is to sell drugs, and Chris instantly notices him and tries to flirt, succeeding.
Throughout the night, Carrie genuinely has fun. She drinks, dances, and talks with people who even compliment her clothing. As she’s there, she spots Emaline and talks to her outside about how happy she is, and Emaline warns her that these people might not want to be her friends. Meanwhile, Sue and Tommy hook up, but afterward things are… a little awkward, to say the least.
Chris and Billy also talk outside on the patio, and we see Chris looking over at Carrie talking to Emaline, who is hidden under the roof, saying that this is really just charity work for Sue. After their talk, Billy gives Chris his number.
Chris heads back downstairs, but during this whole ordeal, Chris’ other friend, Tina (Josie Totah), has been spiraling and wants to earn her favor again after saying the wrong thing. She ends up rage-baiting Chris by talking about Brooklyn, expressing that Chris is so strong for not attacking Brooklyn because if she were in her shoes, she would have done something.
Chris takes the bait and confronts Brooklyn at the party, accusing her of being an experiment for her mother. Brooklyn reveals that Chris’ mother is looking to divorce her father. Chris doesn’t realize this at all, and Brooklyn is shocked she doesn’t know.
Afterward, Chris decides to get ridiculously drunk. Sue realizes she needs to take Chris home, and she and Tommy split up to get both Chris and Carrie home safely. Tommy goes to bring Carrie outside, but she decides to lie out on the grass and look up at the stars. She and Tommy share a moment looking up at the sky together.
Carrie smiles as she goes home and secretly makes Tommy’s car float. Chris, on the other hand, is very much not having fun. When Carrie walks inside her house, seemingly talking to nothing and spotting her father's shadow at the table, she says she had a good night. She hides just as her mother comes home, and her dad’s shadow vanishes from the seat.
At that same moment, Sue tucks Chris in at her home. Drunk, Chris asks Sue if Carrie will replace her. Sue reassures her that she won’t, then leaves. Chris, however, goes on her phone, and in her drunken state, she reposts a bunch of videos and comments horrible things on social media, creating a gossip page, and then turning Carrie Red into a public page.
The next day, Chris is shocked to learn everyone knows about Carrie Red, and she realizes what she did while she was drunk. That morning, Carrie gets weird looks, and when someone randomly asks to take a picture with her, she shows them the account. The lockers behind her begin to rattle as she stares angrily at the screen before we cut to black.
All eight episodes of season 1 of Carrie are available to stream on Prime Video. Keep up with our episodic recaps here at Show Snob.
Add us as a preferred source on Google