Spoiler alert: Spoiler’s for Netflix’s Crew Girl follow. Netflix’s highly anticipated new teen drama Crew Girl dropped on Sept. 10, to the delight of love triangle fans everywhere. If you liked The Summer I Turned Pretty or Every Year After, then this show will cure your teen drama hangover. In Crew Girl, rower Teagan Tao (played by Miku Martineau) and her mother Ella (Jessica Pare) move back to her mom’s hometown of Eagle’s Cove after Teagan’s father disappears due to allegations of fraud. When she gets to her new school, Easton Prep, Teagan meets two boys: scholarship kid Cameron “Cam” Dillinger (Kyle Clark) and the heir to the empire that is Regis Airlines, Josh Regis (Samuel Braun). Both are rowers, like her, and both are vying for the top spot of strokeseat. But Josh has a secret — he’s dealing with a medical condition that could affect his rowing career.
Throughout Season 1 of Crew Girl, it’s revealed that Josh is dealing with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a dangerous heart condition which, if not treated properly, can become life-threatening. But Josh comes from a prestigious family — his father and grandfather are Easton rowing legacies — and it’s important for Josh to stay on the rowing team, in the top spot, to carry on his family’s reputation. That’s a little harder when your heart could potentially give out on you mid-row.
Throughout the first season, Josh is hiding the news of his condition from his family, and taking quick-fix drugs to stave off the condition that will eventually need surgery. Braun told Teen Vogue back in July, “A lot of people don’t realize the weight that is on Josh’s shoulders, and there’s a secret that he’s holding that no one else knows. When Teagan joins the mix, she ends up being a catalyst for his evolution.” After an incident with Teagan, Josh makes the hard decision to get the help he needs, and that includes telling his family what’s going on after their last race of the season. Josh does end up telling his family, and while most of them don’t take the news very well, his father surprises him by being supportive, and offers to help him prepare to undergo surgery.
So, all of this leads to a big question: Will Josh really be done rowing? If Josh’s surgery is successful, could he row again in Season 2? There are so many ways this could go, depending on if Season 2 picks up immediately after the events of Season 1 or a few months later, perhaps after Josh has his surgery. Even if Josh’s surgery is successful, should he row after he gets better?Â
Right now, there are more questions than answers, but it doesn’t seem like Josh as a character will be going anywhere anytime soon. Now that Easton is building a girl’s team, he could end up taking Tegan’s place as coxswain.Â
Josh has a lot of growing to do, and if the show is renewed, we may get to see more of him and Teagan’s dynamic. The fact that he dove in to save her after she fell out of her boat and they both caught feelings? I personally am a sucker for tropes like that, and the show pulled it off really well. I didn’t think I would end up rooting for him and Teagan, but I was pleasantly surprised by the chemistry and disappointed when they broke up. There’s a lot of potential there, and one thing is for certain: This story isn’t over, and I will be (not so) patiently waiting for a Season 2 renewal.