"Is it worth losing your people? Your family?"
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Series 1/Summerhouse Season 1
Episode 1
- The setting is portrayed as a pure urban ghetto, with drug dealers round every corner, single mums being forced to grow weed crops, and all of this being based around the poorest most deprived area of the UK, most often not portrayed in television. Keep in mind the show is based on the Real Life, that many people actually experience.
- The backstory of Ra'Nell and Lisa in itself is quite tragic, being the victims of Domestic Abuse from Ra'Nell's father, Wayne Smith, to the point that Ra'Nell is forced to stab him to protect him and his mother. Arguably one of the worst traumatic experiences a child can go through and undoubtedly what many parents fear in the real world.
- Lisa's mental state is especially saddening, being a result of the trauma she suffered and ultimately resulting in her being sectioned. Shown explicitly when Lisa goes to the market and suffers a massive mental breakdown.
- Ra'Nell is shown from his first appearance to be looking after his mum to the best of his ability, despite being only 13 and unable to help her properly. After Lisa goes to hospital he is left a Minor Living Alone, which is treated as his best option as it prevents him from being put into care.
- Heather is 7-month's pregnant, alone and desperate enough to be growing a crop of weed in order to pay for her unborn child's future. Worse still she experiences a contraction whilst tending to the crop, making the audience question whether she'll be able to manage in her situation.
Episode 2
- Heather briefly mentions to Ra'Nell that she suffered a miscarriage at some point before her current pregnancy. Her bringing in Ra'Nell to help with the crop is because she's afraid that growing the crop alone could make her lose the baby.
- Dushane's brother Chris, who unlike Dushane isn't a criminal, is attacked in his own home in front of his girlfriend because of Dushane losing Raikes' money. There's also the Nightmare Fuel of him being shown branded with a clothes' iron, as a way of making Dushane remember the debt. His girlfriend Natalie angrily confronting Dushane and Sully about it afterwards, serves to emphasise how traumatic and horrifying such an experience would be.
- Ra'Nell's visit to his mum in the mental hospital is quite saddening.
- There's a lot of emotional weight in Lisa's scenes, as they show her being on the mend in contrast to her state in the previous episode. Of particular note is her waiting for Ra'Nell, whilst he's out helping Heather with her crop, resulting in him missing seeing his mother before her curfew to return to the hospital.
- Dushane's interaction with Wendell, see Fridge.
- Dushane and Sully's Accidental Murder of Kamale's cousin, especially considering that it leaves them back to square one in trying to recover the stolen money and they're both clearly shaken by what they've done.
Episode 3
- Both Dushane and Sully are clearly rattled by what they did in murdering Shaun due to him being innocent, Dushane especially is quite shook. Even their gang admit that Shaun's death was messed up.
- The scene at Shaun's shrine and his mother's tearstained face as she clearly struggles with her son's death.
- Chris telling Dushane that he can't come round his house.
- Ra'Nell recounting to Precious his dad beating his mum and him stabbing his dad.
- Gem finding Marnie hung in his den, and breaking down in tears at his dog being killed in such a brutal way, this is especially a Kick the Dog moment because Gem in the first two episodes is almost always seen with his dog.
- Tareek being stabbed after being set up by a girl he pulled, especially as he's never seen again.
Episode 4
- Dris callously gives Gem condolences for Marnie's death and money to buy a new dog.
- Heather's sadness when despite growing the crop, Vincent informs her it won't be sold for the price she needs to buy the house for her child, making her efforts feel All for Nothing.
- Leon's death is especially sad, as unlike the cold executions of Kamale and Lee, his death is seen through the eyes of Ra'Nell who's clearly traumatised by the experience, as he watches his surrogate father figure being shot and the life draining from his eyes. He also likely feels guilty as Leon came there to save him, and he was warned by Heather that dealing with Dushane and Sully was a bad idea.
- Ra'Nell trying to stab Dushane and Lisa's utter terror when she realises it. Even Dushane, who had just murdered Raikes to save Sully, and actually respected and cared about Ra'Nell is utterly shocked by Ra'Nell trying to kill him and Lisa telling him to stay away from them gives him a bit of a Heel Realisation to how badly all the death and chaos of the roads have affected even people he didn't mean or want to.
Series 2/Summerhouse Season 2
Episode 1
- Kamale’s body is found completely eroded by the police in the prologue and his mandem have all moved on like he meant nothing to them, even his Number Two Ninja.
Episode 2
- Jermaine is introduced as quite the Nice Guy, so to see his own cousin Sully kidnap him and threaten to kill him for money is quite saddening.
- Jason feeding his mum’s habit.
Episode 3
- Ra’Nell getting the rejection letter from the youth football trials and then getting severely beaten by Vincent when he tries to stand up for Gem.
Episode 4
- Michael’s death is brutal, especially poignant coz he’s only 12 and sacrifices his life to save Dushane from getting murdered by the Albanians. Dushane is even in a state of shock at what’s just happened and just to hammer it to the viewer we get a last shot of Michael’s battered body on the car after his Destination Defenestration.
Series 3/(Netflix) Season 1
Episode 1. Bruk Up
- Dushane’s clearly put his days as top boy behind him and looks a right state with his Beard of Sorrow and having gained weight. Furthermore he’s clearly unsatisfied with his life in Jamaica and even seems a bit depressed because of how far he’s fallen.
- Dris is shown struggling to run Summerhouse alone, the years having clearly taken a toll on him without even adding to his physical deterioration from his stroke. Jaq even has to push his arm down because he’s lost function in it and he’s not even able to stand up to the Turks when they bump their prices up.
Episode 2. Building Bridges
- When Sully leaves prison one of the prison officers asks him if he has any family and whether he intends to reconnect with them, which Sully avoids answering.
- The only person who's there to welcome Sully to his freedom is Jason.
Episode 3. Big Flame
- Sully telling Jason that he's never been on holiday, left the country or even seen the sea despite being 34 years old. Jason himself hasn't left the country either, and this episode shows both of them reminiscing on their childhoods.
Episode 4. Bonfire Night
- Jason's death is arguably the saddest death of the entire series if not at least of the season.
- It stands as one of the only deaths onscreen which has nothing to do with the gang life, and is simply the result of a racist attack purely out of hate.
- Keep in mind the attack's targets were the asylum seeker family living in the house, who were shown to not only be terribly poor but now also homeless, one of who is a baby.
- Doubling with Nightmare Fuel the blaze itself is darkly reminiscent to Grenfell Tower.
- Sully risking his life to try and save Jason is incredibly brave, heartwarming and frightening all at once. For a moment it looks like he might be able to get to Jason but sadly as tough and courageous as Sully is, he's still just a man against a blazing inferno and he's barely able to make it into the house before being forced to escape the blaze consuming him.
- Sully's heartbroken reaction as he sees the flames having fully consumed Jason is also quite sad.
- What serves as a dark Dramatic Irony is that Jason's death is very similar to how he told Sully his mother died.
Episode 5. Smoke Gets In Your Hands
- The ending of the episode, where Sully walks into the sea after giving one of the racists responsible for the house fire that killed Jason a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Despite getting his payback for Jason’s death, it’s clearly not enough and for the first time in the series we see Sully break down.
Episode 6. Press Gang
- Arguably all of Sully's scenes this episode, especially sold by Kane Robinson's amazing acting and subtle facial expressions, which emphasise to the audience how upset and broken Sully is beneath the surface.
- Sully being the only one there at Jason's crematorium highlights not only how deep their bond was, but also that Sully was probably the single person who truly cared about and was kind to Jason in his life.
- The attempted hit on him by Leyton and Jermaine is especially sad, not only does the viewer witness Sully defenceless and vulnerable but this is also the first time Sully is seen visibly scared for his life, with the camera even focusing on his fear-frozen expression whilst bullets are flying into his car.
- His argument with Dushane near the episode's end can also count, as it fully highlights the anger, terror and feelings of pure frustration at the fact that he was attacked while he was at his friends funeral.
Sully: They fucking just tried to kill me! And I was fucking burying my friend.- Furthermore Sully's outrage at Dushane's apathy toward the whole thing and how he's more concerned with how they're going to continue dealing rather than comeback for the attack, you can tell by his tone of voice he's diappointed in his best friend.
Episode 7. The Squeeze
Episode 8. Bad Eye
Episode 9. Everyone’s Got Family
Episode 10. You Don’t Know Me
- The pure terror of the armed police raid at Jamie’s flat.
Series 4/(Netflix) Season 2
Episode 1. Good Morals
Episode 2. How Do I Fix This
Episode 3. Likkle Favour
Episode 4. Fully Loaded Headache
Episode 5. 15 Points
Episode 6. De Capa y Espada
Episode 7. We Ride Out For Family
Episode 8. Prove Yourself
