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Recap: Astrid & Lilly must 'Save the World' after opening a monstrous portal in SYFY series premiere
Who hasn’t accidentally opened a portal to a netherworld?
Let's face it: High school can suck. There's the cliquey caste system, the merciless bullying, the hormonal strife, the technocratic standardized tests.
And who hasn't accidentally opened a portal to a netherworld, inadvertently granting entry to a whole host of evil monsters bent on annihilating everyone and everything in our universe?
As if Astrid (Jana Morrison) and Lilly (Samantha Aucoin) didn't have enough to worry about — being the social outcasts that they are — in the Astrid & Lilly Save the World premiere, they become the world's guardians against the forces of destruction.
Of course, it is because of them that the portal was opened in the first place, so it's partly their responsibility to close it.
**SPOILER WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Astrid & Lilly Save the World Season 1, Episode 1, "Tontoom."**
Best friends Astrid and Lilly are two spunky high school seniors who share a deep admiration for Detective Olivia Benson of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and a rather unusual extracurricular activity: They drive around their neighborhood at night spying on their peers, and collecting souvenirs they left behind (e.g. photographs, chatchkes, perfume, etc.).
It's more innocent than it might sound, particularly since it seems this is the only pursuit their schoolmates have permitted them; in every other social situation, Astrid and Lilly are body shamed and mocked for their unconventional interests.
Case in point, when the two drop in at a party at the house of premiere jock Tate (Kolton Stewart), he calls them monsters and tells them to leave. His slurs wound Lilly and Astrid, and they decide to channel their anger into a vaguely Wiccan, ritualized demonstration of their grief. They gather up all the keepsakes they've collected from their butterfingered classmates, cast them into a large bowl, light them on fire, and then dance and howl beneath the moon.
Little did they expect that their bacchic incantations would have meteorological consequences, and the night sky crackles with lightning and thunder, turning a luminescent purple.
Sure beats whatever high the teens back at Tate's house are experiencing.
Speaking of Tate, he left his own party after having a drunken fight with his girlfriend Candace (Julia Doyle). While wandering the streets alone in a kind of heartbroken stupor, he's beckoned by an otherworldly creature lurking in the gutters. Whatever it is, it's been a while since it's seen a nail file.
The next day at school an announcement comes over the intercom: Tate has gone missing. But that's not the only thing out of joint. Astrid has been phantom smelling fire and brimstone, and Lilly's leg seizes in pain every time inexplicable lightning rattles the stormless sky. What's going on? They're about to find out.
While sleuthing around the area where the police are searching for Tate, Astrid and Lilly are surprised by a stranger coming out the woods. He introduces himself as Brutus (Olivier Renaud), and as he's rather handsome, they don't run off right away, but instead listen to what he's got to say. And he's got a lot to say.
Brutus is from another dimension, and has been sent to tell the ladies that (1) their casual sorcery has opened a portal to the other side; (2) they've got to close it before all hell literally breaks loose; and (3) to do that they've got to vanquish 10 monsters that have already made their way through the portal.
OK, he's handsome. But monsters? Looks will only get you so far, Brutusy baby!
However, the next day at school, Astrid and Lilly find Brutus has been in their locker and left them a vessel in which they're to deposit body parts of the invading monsters, and a post-it note with instructions on how to do that. Their first mission: Tear out the tongue of the Tearjerker monster, and stash it in the vessel.
The Tearjerker is the monster who abducted Tate and two other victims from town, threw them in a basement somewhere, and is now forcibly extracting and reducing their tears into his favorite brew. Astrid's deranged sense of smell, and Lilly's overstimulated leg will lead them to the Tearjerker's lair, writes Brutus.
Well, why not?
The two extend their amateur sleuthing into more perilous terrain, and follow their new super senses to an underpass in a park. While Astrid goes for a pee, Lilly is approached by none other than the Tearjerker out looking for more tear producers — namely, Lilly. But just as the Tearjerker is about to dig its exceptionally long fingernails into Lilly's face, Astrid returns, throws a drink at the Tearjerker to distract him, and the two monster hunters flee.
Later, while researching their predicament at the library, Astrid and Lilly are met by Brutus, who gives them a vial with some liquid inside. He tells them that if they mix it with some tears from the Tearjerker's victims, some elephant tranquilizer, and throw the concoction in his face, it'll bring him to his knees.
And that's just what they do. The duo use their heightened senses to locate Tearjerker's lair, shoot him with some of the mixed serum, incapacitate him, tear out his tongue, and drop it in the vessel. They free his prisoners, including the unrepentant Tate, and return to school the next day as if nothing has changed.
But things have changed. Astrid and Lilly are now monster hunters — and they've got nine more to go.
