What's A "Bic Girl"? Under The Bridge's Nickname For The Seven Oaks Teens Explained

Summary Reena Virk's murder sparked a national panic about teen violence, portrayed without judgment in the miniseries.

The "Bic girls" of Seven Oaks are seen as disposable, like a Bic lighter, by the town and cops.

Under the Bridge explores how society discards women, perpetuating cycles of violence in a haunting true crime story.

The first episode of Hulu's Under the Bridge miniseries introduces not just Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta), the Canadian teenager who was brutally murdered in 1997, but a group of tight-knit teens from the town's Seven Oaks foster home. Helmed by ringleader Josephine Bell (Chloe Guidry), the Seven Oaks teens refer to themselves as "Bic girls" while sharing stories and cigarettes with Rebecca Godfrey (Riley Keough), a wayward writer who finds a renewed interest in the culture of her hometown. Based on the book of the same name by the real-life Godfrey, Under the Bridge is a haunting investigation.

Rebecca Godfrey's book presents the teenagers involved without obvious judgment...

The murder of Reena Virk became national news in Canada, igniting a panic about teenagers' propensity for violence. Unlike other true-crime explorations, Rebecca Godfrey's book presents the teenagers involved without obvious judgment. Instead, she uses the incident to further interrogate the circumstances that pushed the girls to bully one another and, eventually, kill one of their own. In the Hulu miniseries, Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone plays Officer Cam Bentland, who has ties to Seven Oaks. Despite her connection to the teens' particular set of circumstances, Cam, like Victoria's other cops, doesn't think much of Reena's initial disappearance.

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Under The Bridge's "Bic Girl" Nickname Is A Reference To Disposable Lighters

When viewers are introduced to Reena, it's clear that the teen is struggling to fit in. Reena chases the high of hanging out with the cool girls over at Seven Oaks, even though the teens' dynamic with Reena could be described as "frenemies" at best. If Reena is toting the latest hip-hop album, Josephine will let Reena hang with the group. Otherwise, she shuts Reena out. Jo's best friend, Kelly Ellard (Izzy G), falls in line with the "John Gotti of Seven Oaks," as does Dusty Pace (Aiyana Goodfellow), the Seven Oaks teen who seems closest to Reena.

Like a Bic lighter, if one of the Seven Oaks girls goes missing, its absence doesn't have a huge impact...

When Rebecca meets Under the Bridge's cast of characters at Seven Oaks, they describe themselves as "Bic girls." Horrifically, the nickname stems from the idea that a Bic-brand lighter is disposable by nature. To the people of the town, the Seven Oaks teens don't matter. Like a Bic lighter, if one of the Seven Oaks girls goes missing, its absence doesn't have a huge impact — a replacement is easy to find. It's a truly awful, haunting way for the town and its cops to view teens, especially when they've already been abandoned or mistreated by their families.

Related Under The Bridge Review: Hulu's Haunting True-Crime Miniseries Fills The True Detective Void Bolstered by Lily Gladstone, Under the Bridge chronicles a real-life crime by showing viewers just how close to the surface haunting brutality lurks.

Why The Cops See The Seven Oaks Girls As Disposable (& What It Means For Reena's Homicide Case)

The nature of the Seven Oaks group home plays into the police's treatment of Under the Bridge's so-called "Bic girls." Since the teens are in foster care, law enforcement doesn't seem all that concerned with their well-being. Frustratingly, the cops of Victoria write the teens off and assume the worst. Although Reena was being bullied and abused by Jo and her crew, the officers use Reena's willing association with the Seven Oaks teens against her. As in life, Under the Bridge's Reena Virk murder isn't taken seriously because girls go missing "all the time."

Related Where Was Under The Bridge Filmed? Hulu Show's Canadian Filming Locations Explained Hulu's Under the Bridge, starring Lily Gladstone and Riley Keough, uses multiple Canadian filming locations to create the Saanich, Canada setting.

Narrated by Keough's Rebecca, the opening of Under the Bridge suggests the story at hand is something of a fairy tale. Like so many other fables, the show centers on the punishment of women and girls, showing how society discards them and, thus, perpetuates cycles of violence. Throughout its eight-episode season, Under the Bridge does a remarkable job of interrogating the entire community that shaped — and pushed — the so-called "Bic girls" into committing a brutal crime.

The first two episodes of Under the Bridge debut on Hulu on April 17, with the remaining episodes releasing weekly thereafter.