Sterling Point Recap Season 1 Episode 1 ‘But I Just Took an Ambien’

Sterling Point Season 1 Episode 1

Do I really want to watch another teen drama featuring 17-year-olds who could party unsupervised in Ibiza or Thailand, or head to a remote and gorgeous Canadian island without their parents asking too many questions? One of the main things I learned from being a recapper is that I ought to be careful about judging a show based on the first episode alone. Even with the final moment reveal of another granddaughter of the mysterious and recently deceased island owner Gordon, Sterling Point has not really fully grabbed my interest yet. But, it has carefully laid out what could be an interesting story, introduced characters who casually carried melancholy alongside their youthful exuberance, and none too gently introduced the main character, Annie Jacobson (Ella Rubin) to the realisation that parents, even the best ones, are human beings, with all the frailty and imperfect judgment and long buried secrets that accompanies the human condition. 

Annie, who had a morning and skincare routine of a 30-year-old, lived a charmed New York life with her carefree twin brother Connor (Keen Ruffalo) and their father Steven (Jay Duplass). Despite a couple of disappointments – she did not get into the Wharton summer program, and her boyfriend since sixth grade Oliver was still not ready to come out to her – Annie, by all appearances, had an enviable life. Life changed when Connor received a phone call from a lawyer telling him that their grandfather – their late mother’s father – had died. As far as Annie and Connor knew, their mother died when they were very young. Their grandfather was a bad guy no one in the family wanted anything to do with. Neither of them had an emotional reaction to the news of the death of a man they never knew. 

A lady named Marjorie came up to the house and told Annie and Connor that they were beneficiaries of their grandfather’s trust that they would gain control over when they turned 18. This included property on a parcel of land in Canada, Muskoka, which is a real place. There were also two letters for them, which their father Steven immediately grabbed. Steven rather sternly told Marjorie that anything else about the matter of their grandfather’s death and estate was to come directly to him. 

Curious as to why their father would not allow them to read letters their grandfather meant for them, Annie opened their father’s safe, and saw a bunch of letters from Gordon. Apparently, he had been writing to them for years, and Steven had been hiding them in the safe. When Annie finally opened Gordon’s last letter, Gordon wrote of his regret over not fighting harder to see her. He wrote he should not have agreed to the plan, and that he hoped Sterling Point, their mother’s favourite place on earth, would reveal the truth. There was also something about finding an unspecified “her” and that she would need Annie once Gordon was gone.

Connor acted like he could not be bothered to think outside of his Ibiza plans, even after Annie told him about the letters their father had been hiding, and so Annie simply asked him to cover for her. Annie left a note for her father that she headed to Thailand with Oliver, then boarded a plane to Canada where she took an Ambien for a 45-minute flight. For a planner like Annie, that she took this trip without even checking the flight times showed how unsettled she was at what her father kept from her. 

Annie was met at the airport by Ellis (Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie), a seaplane pilot and clear potential love interest. He assumed she rented Gordon’s house, and told her Gordon owned the whole island. Did that mean he simply allowed the other residents to live on the island for free? The large wooden house had a rustic beauty made warm by all the photos, most of them (seemingly) of Annie’s mother as a young girl. 

Without food or supplies, Annie walked through the woods and found the Sterling Point Marina that Ellis had told her about. There she met Joe (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who was, unknown to her, Ellis’s father. Joe could not rent her a boat when she had neither a driver’s license nor a boater license. Oona (Bo Bragason) volunteered to give her a quick boating lesson, and the two of them headed to the mainland where they met Sully (Nikko Angelo Hinayo). They all ended up back at Oona’s mother’s boat, where Ellis picked them up to head to the lake. Later, they took a boat out to a massive mansion owned by a boy Annie knew from middle school, Rory, and his mother Denise. It was during a casual conversation with Denise that Annie found out that her parents divorced. Denise also mentioned that it was because of her parents that they discovered Muskoka; they came up together in the summer before Annie and Connor were born. 

Annie was saved from further family secret reveals by Oona, who wanted to leave the party when she realised Kaia Gerber was not there. Ellis walked Annie back to Gordon’s house and assured her that she was safe, alone, on an island with no cellular service. Inside the house, Annie found an unknown girl, who asked her what she was doing in her grandfather’s cottage.

I’m down for a good mystery, and family mysteries tend to be interesting as well as potentially emotionally shattering. Despite Annie’s obvious wealth compared to the rest of the Sterling Point group, she fit right in with the vibe of just another young one trying to figure life out, trying to survive things that a more just world would reserve to grown-ups who have had a chance to live more. So, my verdict for now is, we’ll see. There is certainly more than enough to warrant a full season watch, and I hope you will join me on these recaps. Till next time!

Rating: B

Strays

🏚️Annie and Connor were fully aware they were adopted. 

🏚️Oona has lived in multiple countries because her mother lived where her latest boyfriend lived. Oona’s mother was currently in India, and so she was left to look after her younger sister Maple.

🏚️Annie’s excuse for being at Sterling Point was that her mother used to spend summers there, which was true enough.

🏚️Marjorie told Joe to find “her” before Annie does. 

🏚️Gordon seemed to have a good reputation amongst the islanders. Oona said he was the best, and Ellis mentioned how Gordon could have made millions off the island but he never sold out. 

🏚️Oona did not look happy that Ellis and Annie had already met. Hmm. 

🏚️There was another boy at Rory’s party who recognised Annie, Lincoln, and I am mentioning him in case he shows up again. As always, I am writing these recaps as I watch each episode, so I have no idea yet where the story is going. 

🏚️Steven could not reach either Annie (who was cell service free on the island) or Oliver (who was busy partying and living his true self in Thailand).

🏚️What was that nod between Ellis and Rory? They probably knew each other from living around the same lake, but was there more to it than that?

🏚️Denise mentioned how Annie’s mother was so upset she could not be with her and Connor, and that was what finally led her to filing for a divorce. 

Episode Title: But I Just Took an Ambien

Episode Writer: Megan Park

Episode Director: Megan Park

Original Release Date: August 5, 2026