First Kiss

First Kiss
Season	1
Episode	1
Overall	1
Air date	June 10, 2022
Running time	48 minutes
Writer	Victoria Schwab
Director	Jet Wilkinson
Episode guide
Next	"First Blood"

First Kiss is the first episode and series premiere of First Kill.

Premise

Under pressure from her parents to swap her blood pills for the real thing, Juliette sets her sights on new girl Cal, who has her own family stress.

Summary

Juliette Fairmont wakes up after an intense dream of kisses, screams, blood and peaches. With voice-over, she says that sometimes she wakes up with a racing heart and a dry throat. She can't figure out if the pills she is taking are the cause or if they're actually helping. In her neat, blue room she tries on different outfits, not feeling like she fits in and like she's pretending. After doing her hair, she looks at a small locket with red pills. She walks through the large, fancy house into her sister's red bedroom, sitting down at her makeup desk with a collection of lipsticks and "borrowing" one.

When her mother, Margot, calls her she joins her parents in the kitchen. Her father, Sebastian, asks her if she slept well and her mother says that she refilled her pills since she was already out, which concerns her father. Juliette, while making coffee, lies and says she's fine since if she told the truth, it would be "the end of everything" which she is not ready for. Just when her parents start to question her, her sister Elinor walks in and nonchalantly takes her fathers coffee. The parent's focus shifts to questioning why she's been out all night, and Juliette comments that admires her sister's free spirit. When Juliette's friend Ben honks from outside, to the annoyance of the rest of the family, Juliette takes her coffee and pills before leaving. Her sister stops her and removes the lipstick as its "not her colour" and lets her hair out. When Ben honks again Elinor comments that she'll kill him one day, but Juliette says she'll never allow that before leaving.

Ben and Juliette drive to school, singing the song "Before he cheats" together as Juliette explains they've been friends since they were born. They briefly dated for a month when they were 12 before they both figured out they were gay. Ben is the cool kid and a star athlete and she is popular by association and he makes her feel normal. At their lockers, Ben comments on his crush, Noah Harrington, to which Juliette replies that he has a girlfriend. When Ben is rebutting, Juliette starts to have an episode and takes one of her pills to keep it down.

Later, Ben tries to push Juliette to come to a party at Noah's, coercing her by saying he needs a wingman. Juliette says she hates parties. At the cafeteria, Juliette pretends to eat by opening a bag of chips and turning it away from her then looks in the direction of a girl sitting alone, reading. Ben tries to convince her to do something about her crush and not just quietly pine for her. Juliette lies and says they've talked, but then we are shown several scenes where she either just looks at her longingly or tries and fails to talk to her.

Outside, Ben and Juliette are walking when she's taking another pill and downing it with coffee, but accidentally walks into someone, dropping the rest of the pills on the ground. She apologizes as she picks them up, and when getting up she realizes its her crush, Calliope. After some nervous giggling from Juliette, they introduce themselves, their names and recognize which classes they have together, with Juliette being a nervous wreck throughout the conversation. Ben, in the background, pushes Juliette to invite her to the party, which she does. Calliope says no at first, but after some convincing, she says yes. A bee lands on Cal's shoulder that Juliette safely removes and releases, and they have a moment. When leaving, Juliette says they'll see each other at the party, but Cal notes that they have english first.

In English class, Ashley Stanton invites everyone in the class to Noah's party by giving out pamphlets. Juliette is about to have another episode, but then Calliope walks in late and she focuses on her instead. Cal is punished for being late by their teacher Mr. Porter to read in front of the class. When Cal goes to sit down, Juliette comments that while she's not her first crush, this one is different and she knows they'll end up together. When the class ends, Juliette tries to catch up on Cal but drops her pens. Defeated, she goes to her locker but almost steps on a bracelet that she picks up. It burns her, so she runs to the bathroom. She comments "who wears pure silver" while trying to rinse it off. At the sudden shock of pain, her fangs appear. She panics at first, then takes a few moments to calm down so they disappear. She says nobody knows, not even Ben, but she has a desire to tell Cal.

Later at home, Juliette asks her mom if she can go to the party while hiding her burned hand behind her. Her mom grabs her face and asks if she's had night terrors yet and asks how she's feeling. Juliette lies and says she feels great, so her mom allows her to go. When her mom leaves, Juliette lies down and daydreams about Calliope.

At night, Juliette goes downstairs to get another pill. Her parents have caught her taking more pills than she should. Her mother argues that it's time for her to make her first kill. She pleads to her father that she's not ready. Margot stresses that she puts the entire family at risk, that they survive by blending in and soon, she won't be able to control herself. Elinor enters the room and asks what Jules did this time, then saves her little sister from the scolding by saying she can help her find something better to wear for the party. Margot grabs her arm and says she needs to make Juliette understand the gravity of the situation.

Elinor and Juliette talk in Elinor's room, where she calms her down and talk about her first kill. Elinor takes a hair clip from a drawer, filled with drivers' licenses of her kills. Juliette admits that she's found someone she likes. When Jules says she doesn't want to hurt anyone, Elinor rolls her eyes but gets serious and explains that its only going to get worse for her. She then puts lipstick on Jules and repeats the three rules for the first kill, "Stay Calm, Be Prepared and Always finish what you started". Finally, she gives her the lipstick, called Heartstopper.

Ben and Jules arrive at the party and grab drinks. Ben is excited and Jules looks out of place. A drunk Ashley greets them and Ben asks where the host, Noah, is and then leave Juliette. After a while, Ben texts Juliette to join her in the kitchen. He nods towards Calliope, who's sitting alone on a couch. Jules smiles nervously and when Cal sees her, she looks her up and down before smiling back.

Ben pushes a hesitant Jules towards a game of spin the bottle with Beau and some others. Calliope gets up and joins. Jules spin and Ben rigs the game by pointing the bottle at Calliope. Beau gives them both a shot and they enter a pantry together. Jules nervously greets Cal before kissing her, catching her off guard. She apologizes and says she's wanted to do that for a while now before asking if she can do it again. Calliope agrees and they make out for a while, including pushing down a jar of cherries. Juliette gets a little too excited, bares her fang then bites Calliope.

Calliope's side

Calliope is greeted by her mom, Talia, when returning home from an early morning bike ride. Over voice-over, she complains that her family treat her like she has a lot to learn but with great potential. She think she's ready to prove herself. She dresses and puts on the silver bracelet we saw Juliette pick up before. She's been in Savannah for two weeks, not yet making any friends because what's the point, knowing that they're going to move soon again? She longs to get home to her family where she feels normal. When her family first started hunting monsters, she had nightmares about the creatures they hunted, but she later learned that the most scary ones are the ones that look normal.

While JoJo and some other guild members are doing protection rituals on their house, her mother and brothers Theseus and Apollo are packing up boxes. Theo puts up a frame of his late mother when they're told to get out of the way of the woman waving sage around. Calliope is in her bed when she hears a car unlock. She goes to confront her brothers for trying to leaving her home while they go on a hunt. They argue for a bit but she joins them. JoJo hands Talia their covers as the siblings drive away.

Cal asks Apollo to turn down the music and asks why the monsters are showing up now. Apollo is dismissive and Theo explains that Savannah had monsters 25 years ago, but the Guild cleaned it up. Its strange that it took them so long to return. They head over to Colonial Park Cemetery and Calliope explains that while normal families go to the movies etc., they hunt monsters. Theo says the tip indicates that there are Ghouls there. Apollo looks at his reflection in a sword while commenting that ghouls are easy to kill because they don't talk. When Cal tries to grab a weapon, Apollo stops her, and she's stuck with being lookout again. Theo comments that its a vital part of the hunt. Cal thinks that she's going to be the greatest hunter who ever lived and her brothers will simply be in her shadow.

Calliope explains in voice over that Theo was 12 and Apollo was 14 when they got their first kill. She got her first try last winter but failed. She asks when she's going to get another chance, but the brother's say its up to their parents. Apollo says he would like to get his 20th kill that evening and is interrupted by a ghoul. They split up, Calliope climbs a tree. They recite the rules for killing monsters, "Pay attention to everything, Be prepared for anything and Always finish what you start". The brothers both kill a ghoul each with Cal's help, but Theo's earpiece falls out. Cal tries to warn him that a third one is there, but he doesn't hear her. She goes down to save him, but is caught off guard when it was stronger than she expected - it was a vampire, not a zombie. Theo saves her by staking it from behind.

At home, they talk about what happened on the hunt with their mother. Sparing their little sister a scolding, they leave out the part where she tried to fight. Talia is suprised that there was a vampire at the same place where there are ghouls, commenting on how fierce they were. Cal looks at her brother's arrow tatto and says in voice-over that she doesn't feels like part of the family until she gets a chance. Her father, Jack, calls and asks how school is. She asks when her chance is but he says she's only 16 once. They sit down in the living room and hand out covers, Cal doesn't get one because she's in school. Talia is a SAHM, Apollo trainer and Theo an independent analyst. They poke fun at Apollo and Cal sits quiet.

Later, Cal's ex Tess calls her and comments that she hasn't heard from her in a while and asks if she's out with girls. Cal says she had a moment with someone, but nothing else. Tess says she recently got her first kill. They hang up and Calliope draws an arrow on her arm but quickly erases it. She goes to punch a boxing sack. She says her family loves but underestimates her, but that she won't underestimate Juliette. With a few clips from the day, we see how Calliope found Juliette's pills, how she dropped the silver bracelet for her to test her allergy to silver. She know Jules is a vampire and she's going to hunt her, alone, without telling her family.

We see the shot at the party, in the pantry when they kiss and make out again. Juliette both recite the rules for their first kill, but this time when Juliette bites Calliope, she stakes her.

Cast

Starring

• Sarah Catherine Hook as Juliette Fairmont
• Imani Lewis as Calliope Burns
• Elizabeth Mitchell as Margot Fairmont
• Aubin Wise as Talia Burns
• Jason Robert Moore as Jack Burns
• Gracie Dzienny as Elinor Fairmont
• Will Swenson as Sebastian Fairmont
• Phillip Mullings Jr. as Theseus Burns
• Dominic Goodman as Apollo Burns
• MK xyz as Tess Franklin
• Jonas Dylan Allen as Benjamin Wheeler
• Roberto Mendez as Noah Harrington

Trivia

• The book Calliope is reading in the cafeteria and in class is "Wise Blood" by Flannery O'Connor
• After Calliope takes off her bracelet, she is not seen wearing it again.
• The things Theo says about Colonial Park Cemetery is true.
• The cut where they knock over the cherries in the pantry scene only had to be shot once.
• This first episode follows the novel "First Kill" by V. E. Schwab, including seeing things from both girl's view.
  • A few differences are that Cal has other friends, Juliette asks Elinor for help with her outfit instead of her just doing it, its truth / dare instead of spin the bottle, the room is a closet and not a pantry and Noah's name is Alex instead.

Songs played

• During Juliette's dream, the song played is "Hopprock" by Madlib
• In the morning, when Juliette is getting dressed, the song is "Insane" by Kinney
• Ben and Juliette sing "Before he cheats" by Carrie Underwood in the car
• When Ben and Juliette walk out from gym, they play "Panty Drop"
• After getting burned by silver, the song played is "Don't Assume What You Don't Know" by Grace VanderWaal
• The song played at the party during the spin-the-bottle and pantry scene is "Slumber Party" by Ashnikko feat. Princess Nokia.
• When we first see Calliope, the song is "GEAUX" by MK xyz (Tess)
• When hunting, the song is "I Still Taste Fire" by Stephanie Mabey
• When Calliope is going to the party, the song is "Soldier of Love" by Sade

Goofs

• When Juliette asks Calliope if she can kiss her again, in Juliette's version she says "Uhm, okay"; however, when the scene plays again from Calliope's perspective, the response is "Come on".
• The area where Juliette has a burn mark on her hand is not the same where she picks it up and where it is when she rinses her hand

Gallery