What happens when your child goes missing on a family vacation? For some, this has become a haunting reality. Many around the world know of cases like Madeleine McCann, the aftermath that has followed, and how those cases continue to be in the headlines today. Hulu's new series Saint X takes this horrible situation to a new level with a time-bending story and a younger sister's determination to figure out how their vacation went so devastatingly wrong.
The series was announced in January 2022. According to Deadline, an eight-episode series was ordered. Leila Gerstein, the showrunner of Hart of Dixie, has been attached to the project since the initial announcement. Gerstein has previously worked with Hulu on popular series like The Handmaid's Tale and Looking for Alaska. The writer is credited with developing Saint X, writing half the episodes, and as an executive producer.
Prepare to find the answers lurking beneath the surface as we tell you everything you need to know about Saint X.
Saint X: The Plot
Saint X will follow Emily (Alycia Debnam-Carey), now an adult, as she starts to look into the mysterious circumstances of her sister Alison's (West Duchovny) disappearance and death on a family vacation to the Caribbean years before. The synopsis from Hulu provides a better picture of what audiences can expect.
The series, which is told via multiple timelines, explores and upends the girl-gone-missing genre as it explores how a young woman’s mysterious death during an idyllic Caribbean vacation creates a traumatic ripple effect that eventually pulls her surviving sister into a dangerous pursuit of the truth.
What immediately jumps out is that there will be multiple timelines used to tell the story. Based on the trailer, audiences will see what happened in the Caribbean, the days after Alison's disappearance and over a decade later when Emily is in the working world. There is a significant age gap between the sisters, which does explain the distance between the events of the series and why multiple timelines could work best. Alison appears as though she could be late high school or early college age, while Emily is clearly in elementary school.
The trailer shows Emily going down a rabbit hole, seemingly searching for information about her sister's death online and reading about what happened. Though the police in the Caribbean ruled Alison's death an accident, her family is not convinced from the start, with their father claiming it wasn't an accident in a press conference. However, if Emily is looking into it years later, she could be finding information from web sleuths and other online investigations that could lead her in a variety of directions.
Saint X: The Cast & Crew
Alycia Debnam-Carey is Emily. The actress is known for her work as Lexa in The CW's The 100 and as Alicia in AMC's Fear the Walking Dead. She has also had roles in the horror films Friend Request and The Devil's Hand. West Duchovny is Alison. Audiences may recognize the actress from The Magicians, Painkiller, and Linoleum.
Additional cast members include Josh Bonzie (The Good Fight, The Politician), Jayden Elijah (The Last Tree), Michael Park (Stranger Things, The Time Traveler's Wife), Betsy Brandt (Love, Victor, Life in Pieces), Bre Francis (Extraordinary), and Kenlee Anaya Townsend.
In addition to Leila Gerstein, credited as a writer on the series, Nina Braddock (Brave New World, Servant), Cynthia Adarkwa (Legacies), Jeff Augustin (Claws, The Morning Show), Matthew Cruz (How to Get Away with Murder), and Natasha M. Hall (Virgin River) also wrote teleplays for Saint X.
Release Date
The series will premiere with three episodes on Apr. 26. Weekly episode releases will continue through May 31.
Everything Else We Know
Saint X is based on the book of the same name by Alexis Schaitkin. It is the author's debut novel and received high praise from outlets like The New York Times and People Magazine. The book follows Emily, now an adult, as she tries to figure out what happened to her sister after a run-in with one of the men initially arrested after her sister disappeared. Seeing that individual causes Emily to dive back into the case and try to understand who Alison was.
The trailer implies that this encounter will happen, with Emily hiding behind a rack at a store while looking at someone. With episodic releases rather than releasing the entire series at once, there is the implication that there will be cliffhangers as Emily tries to uncover the truth, which could mean she finds out information about her sister and her death that she wasn't expecting.
If you're ready to watch Saint X, you won't have to wait much longer. But, if you need something to stay entertained in the meantime, check out the best series to watch when you're bored.