Off Campus Season 1's Hunter Davenport Twist Explained By Showrunner

Amazon Prime Video's summer hit series "Off Campus" Season 1 ends with a pretty big twist. The season's secondary "Off Campus" couple, Dean Di Laurentis (Stephen Kalyn) and Allie Hayes (Mika Abdalla), are thrown into turmoil when their mutual decision to hook up with other people goes awry. As it turns out, Allie's dalliance of choice is controversial: Hunter Davenport (Charlie Evans), a man with a history of animosity with Dean.

Viewers who have read Elle Kennedy's book series may have raised an eyebrow or two when Hunter turned up in the season finale, since he doesn't play a role of any kind in the book that the season is based on, "The Deal." In an interview with Deadline, "Off Campus" creator and co-showrunner Louisa Levy explained the decision behind the big Hunter twist. She described the introduction of Hunter as a way to introduce an outside threat that adds to Allie and Dean's volatile dynamic, and hinted at some details about "Off Campus" Season 2 that may reveal more.

"So, yeah, [Hunter] came up," Levy said. "It's a little different than the books. We wanted to find ways to externalize the internal and keep the stories going, but it was a fun way to play with that character, and it still does honor, you know, his backstory. And there are some things coming up Season 2 that [sic] all I'll tease, but not reveal anything, because there's a ways to go before we get to it."

The Hunter Davenport reveal is a pretty good double twist. At first, Hunter uses a fake ID and goes by Carter St. James, so the eventual revelation of his fling with Allie and his real identity is all the more impactful. A lot of this is because Hunter isn't really a part of the narrative. Instead, he enters the fray in the spin-off book series, "Briar U," as the focus character of "The Play." In the Deadline interview, Louisa Levy explained the logic behind using the character.

"He has a book in the 'Briar U' series, and we mostly just wanted to tap on the fact that we have more than just four books, and we want to play with a whole universe of Elle Kennedy characters, and we intend to," Levy said. "And they might show up in ways that you don't expect, especially ones that have more story down the line."

The way Levy describes it, the show intends to use Kennedy's other works to complement the "Off Campus" books the series is primarily based on. As such, Hunter Davenport might be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to surprise appearances. TV shows like "Off Campus" always want to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat, and this is a clever way to do that for fans who are already familiar with the novels.

"Off Campus" Season 1 is streaming on Prime Video.