Annie’s Love Triangle Was The Least Interesting Part Of Sterling Point

This year, Sterling Point is the ultimate summer show. It has all the essentials: a family secret, coming-of-age plot, and plenty of dreamy lakeside backdrops. Plus, like many of the greats that came before it, Sterling Point features a love triangle. Throughout the season, Annie’s conflicting feelings toward Rory and Ellis come up repeatedly. But instead of driving the story forward, this romance plot slows the whole series down. Spoiler warning: This post contains spoilers for Sterling Point Season 1.

As a trope, love triangles might be overused, but I rarely get sick of them. (A little about me: I re-watch the entire Twilight saga once a year, and I’m eagerly awaiting The Summer I Turned Pretty movie despite being 29 years old.) So going into Sterling Point, I was excited to see how Annie’s love story would play out. But a few episodes in, I was ready to fast-forward her scenes with Rory and Ellis — that’s right, I was so uninterested, I couldn’t even root for one boy over the other.

In the show, Ellis is the first person Annie meets when she arrives in Canada. After discovering a major family secret, she takes a spontaneous trip to a remote island in Muskoka, Ontario to see where her late mother spent so much time. Ellis is the pilot taking her there. He is a townie, and he introduces her to the rest of his crew. Although they have some deep conversations throughout the show, it seems mostly friendly. Plus, Rory — Annie’s old friend from New York who just happens to have a lake house in middle-of-nowhere Canada — keeps interrupting them from getting too close.

Rory and Annie first reconnect at a party at his waterfront mansion. While Ellis plays his cards close to the vest, Rory makes it clear that he’s interested in Annie. They bond over being overachievers and have a flirtation that culminates on Annie’s 18th birthday, when she loses her virginity to him. The next morning, she sneaks out — only to immediately run into Ellis. As the show wraps up, Annie’s attention seemingly miraculously shifts toward Ellis, and they start seeing each other. Rory, seemingly forgotten. Despite Ellis becoming Annie’s leading man, we never really find out who he is, outside of his crush on Annie.

On the most basic level, this love triangle is hitting all the marks — jealousy, will-they-won’t-they vibes, and sweet kissing scenes. It also represents a larger decision Annie has to make, between the comfortable NYC life she’s used to and this new world she’s discovering. And yet, this whole plot still pales in comparison to the rest of the show.

After all, the main reason for Annie’s trip is to fulfill her late grandfather’s last request: to “find her.” That “her” is Annie’s secret sister, Ramona. Throughout the eight-episode series, her budding relationship with Ramona is the highlight. There’s a clear arc to their connection, as they fight, bond, and even brush each other’s hair. Throughout it all, their sisterhood has an emotional depth and chemistry that makes Annie’s romantic connections look contrived in comparison. Not to mention, Ramona’s love story with her longtime BFF Oona is miles more interesting than both of Annie’s romances put together.

Sterling Point has not been renewed for a Season 2 yet, but the creator has expressed interest in continuing the story — as she should, there’s a lot left to uncover! But please, let the love triangle die with Season 1. Annie’s got enough going on without a love story, especially a boring one.