Give Archie Panjabi an Emmy for ‘Under the Bridge’ Finale

There are many things about Under the Bridge, Hulu’s devastating limited series that chronicles the period surrounding the brutal 1997 murder of Canadian teenager Reena Virk (played in the show by Vritika Gupta), that have stayed with me during its airing. Its depiction of adolescence as a long, tumultuous road that eventually reaches an obscured fork is riveting. Then there are the kids involved in the crime, barely old enough to have a learner’s permit, who make microscopic, rash decisions that will alter their entire lives just to take someone else’s from this world. These teenagers, played by a cast of gifted newcomers, entwine a sense of suffocating dread throughout the show. It’s hard to watch, but that’s the point: If it’s difficult just to observe this semi-fictionalized retelling, it was horror to endure it.

But amidst all that repugnance, what I really can’t seem to shake is one awful term: “Bic girls.” The phrase is a nickname for the young, troubled girls of Victoria, British Columbia, coined by members of the local police force like Cam (Lily Gladstone) and repeatedly used by area residents. “Bic girls” references Bic lighters, the cheap drugstore brand, known for being as easy to get your hands on as they are disposable. While it doesn’t excuse their actions, it’s clear to see how the young girls involved in Reena’s murder could feel unloved, their isolation colliding with adolescent hormones to turn into a violent rage. To say it’s dark would be putting it mildly.

Despite all the murkiness that fills its first seven episodes, there is light at the end of Under the Bridge. In its eighth and final episode, the series comes to a stunning close, unwilling to relent on its unsettling atmosphere, but giving some grace to the beleaguered hearts at its center. While it’s interesting to watch Cam reconcile with the disconnect between her Indigenous identity and her occupation—and how she closes the chapter with her old friend, writer Rebecca Godfrey (Riley Keough)—it’s Archie Panjabi as Reena’s mother, Suman, who steals the show. Struggling to wade through her despondency after the death of her daughter, Suman finds a path forward through radical forgiveness, and Panjabi’s quietly affecting performance leads Under the Bridge to an ending more haunting than anything in its first seven episodes.

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