Hulu's 'Saint X' May Be Loosely Based On A Real FBI Cold Case From 2005
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If you love beach reads, true crime, and binge watching, Hulu has a perfect new show for you. Saint X, a new series based on the 2020 Alexis Schaitkin novel by the same name, is dropping on the streaming platform tomorrow, and it'll be all you'll want to discuss in your group chat for the next month.
Saint X follows the story of the mysterious disappearance and death of an 18-year-old college student, Alison Thomas, while on vacation with her family in the mid-1990s. Alison's little sister, Claire, who is only seven years old at the time of her disappearance, is still searching for answers as an adult woman living in New York City.
The series jumps between timelines of the vacation that led to Alison's death and Claire in her current life, as she befriends the main suspect in her sister's case under the pseudonym of Emily.
Claire is desperate for any closure regarding her sister's suspicious death, especially as the story has followed her around for her entire life. "My sister's murder was headline news for years," Claire says in the trailer. "The whole world knows more than I do."
If you just can't wait for the entire series to drop (same), here's everything to know about Saint X, and the answers Claire may find. WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
The series will have eight episodes.
The Hulu series has adapted the Saint X novel into eight episodes. The first three will drop tomorrow, April 26, and there will be one episode released each week following. Here's when you can expect new Saint X episodes:
April 26: Episodes 1-3
May 3: Episode 4
May 10: Episode 5
May 17: Episode 6
May 24: Episode 7
May 31: Episode 8
Saint X is the aftermath of a murder mystery.
Unlike a typical murder mystery story, Saint X picks up 20 years after Alison Thomas' death, while its two main character attempt to move on with their lives. Claire (Alycia Debnam-Carey), Alison's little sister, is unable to move on without knowing for sure what happened to her sister (as the case went cold), and who she was at the time of her death.
Saint X
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HuluAnother character, Clive Richardson (Josh Bonzie), is also unable to separate his life from Alison Thomas's death. Clive, who was a worker Alison befriended at the resort during her final days alive, was a main suspect in Alison's murder.
Although his name was cleared, Clive couldn't detach himself from the reputation that he had something to do with Alison's death. He is forced to leave the island of Saint X and relocate to New York City for work, where he crosses paths with Claire by happenstance because she takes a ride in his taxi.
The series will also reportedly play with themes of class, race, and privilege, as the Thomas family is very wealthy, while Clive was working class living in Saint X.
The story may be based on the real disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
In May 2005, an Alabama high school senior, Natalee Holloway, went missing during a class trip to Aruba. The 18-year-old Mountain Brook High School student was last seen leaving a bar at around 1:30 a.m. in a downtown area on May 30, 2005 with three young men—including a man who became a primary suspect, Joran van der Sloot.
The next morning, the class was set to leave Aruba, but Natalee never made it for their departure—and was never seen again, according to the FBI.
While Saint X is a fictional island, it is set in the Caribbean Sea, which is also where Aruba is located. The Natalee Holloway case was also never officially solved. While van der Sloot made many statements regarding Natalee's death, he never formally admitted to killing her, or revealed what happened.
In 2008, van der Sloot said on camera that he threw her body in the ocean after she passed out on the beach the night she disappeared, but later claimed he was lying, per Biography.
Van der Sloot was eventually arrested and charged for the murder of another young woman, Stephany Flores Ramirez, in 2012. That same year, Natalee Holloway was officially declared dead by an Alabama judge, although her remains were never found, per Biography.
The Natalee Holloway case was international news for many months, similar to the fictional case of Alison Thomas in Saint X. However, based on the novel and the series' trailer, it doesn't seem like Clive's character is at all based on van der Sloot.
Is Alison's murder ever solved?
Not exactly. In the book, Claire is able to find out what didn't happen to her sister (a.k.a discover that Clive actually had no involvement in Alison's death) but she's not able to definitively figure out what did happen to Alison.
TBH, it's a rather unsatisfying ending, so it wouldn't be surprising if the Hulu series takes a different approach. However, Claire is able to make peace with her grief and the death of her sister without any true closure in the book. This ending would also be most similar Natalee Holloway's case, and to how death is truly grieved.
You can see how it ends in the Saint X series for yourself when it comes to Hulu on April 26.
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