The Watcher (2022) is a series based on a true story about a family who moved into a new house in New Jersey. The series stars Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale as the main couple of the Brannock family.
Streaming on Netflix
The Watcher - Episode 1 Summary & Recap
A quick decision
The Brannock family, which consists of Dean, his wife Nora, and their children Ellie and Carter, were looking to move to the suburbs. At the start of the episode, the family arrived at 657 Boulevard to attend an open house. They were immediately charmed by the house and the neighborhood.
There, Nora met an old friend, Karen (Jennifer Coolidge) who happened to be the listing agent of the house. They also met a lady named Pearl Winslow, and her odd brother, Jasper who was apparently from the Preservation Society. They took particular interest in the dumbwaiter in the house. The neighbors were also watching the open house using a pair of binoculars. Despite meeting a few odd people, the family was still in love with the house and Dean made an offer. He had to take a huge loan and did some refinancing in order to afford the house.
Welcome, friends
Six weeks after, the family moved in. Dean and Nora bought Carter a new ferret to celebrate. Soon after, creepy things started happening. Ellie once heard a sound coming from a room, but it turned off by itself. Jasper broke into the house one morning and gave the family their mail. Worse of all, a letter came from “The Watcher”. The letter asked the couple to consider the history of the house when making renovations and asked them to make more babies for “young blood”. It even threatened to kidnap Dean and Nora’s children.
Without hesitation, the couple went straight to the police. Detective Chamberland sent some police cars to patrol every few hours and sent the letter’s envelope for a DNA test. Nora found it odd that the detective seemed to know they had financial problems to afford the house. Few days later, Dean met their neighbors, Mitch and Mo. The old couple was in their garden plucking rocket leaves. On edge that a couple entered his property without permission, Dean made a fuss about it. Mo was offended and asked Dean to be careful as they will be watching. Meanwhile, Nora asked Karen for help to find “The Watcher”. She suspects the potential buyers who lost the bid for the house.
The next morning, Carter found Jasper in the dumbwaiter of the house. He was frightened and screamed. Dean took Jasper out and threatened to hurt Jasper if he ever broke into their house again. Pearl who was outside the house explained that the previous owners were fine with Jasper riding the dumbwaiter. Angry, Dean then claimed that he would demolish the dumbwaiter. This upset Pearl even more and she rambled on about oak trees before telling the couple to watch themselves.
Threat
Tired of all the breaking in, Dean and Nora decided to install alarms. They engaged a young entrepreneur, Dakota for it. When looking around the house, Dakota saw Ellie swimming and took a liking to her.
At night, someone broke into the house again and killed Carter’s ferret. Detective Chamberland did not seem to want to help much and suggest that the Brannocks quickly get the alarm set.
A few mornings after, Dean received another letter from “the Watcher”. This time, the letter discussed the Brannock’s children and how they would be scared to play in the basement because no one could hear them scream. The writer also mentioned that he will familiarize with the house’s windows and doors so that he can track the movements of the people in the house. Lastly, he mentioned that greed had brought many owners to that house, and now, greed had brought the Brannocks to him.
Additional Observations From Episode 1
- Nora is a clay pottery maker who used to work in New York. Nora signs up as a member of the Westview club.
- Karen divorced her husband because he had erection problems.
- Nora confided in Karen about their family’s financial problems back then. Dean lost a lot of money in a few bad investments.
- Dean gets uncomfortable when he sees, Ellie, his teen daughter wearing lipstick.
- Mitch and Mo dislikes that Ellie plays the piano.
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