Even though season 2 of Cruel Summer has adapted the same pattern of parallelly telling the story of three different time periods from season 1, there is one fundamental difference. In Season 1, both the crime and criminal were dropped on us in the very first episode. But here, all we know is Luke is dead. He was probably murdered by someone we know, but we can’t tell for sure. While season 1 appeared to be a pulpy teen thriller, its writing was very much of the prestige television kind; the current season is definitely all pull and very little prestige. It is also a whole lot of fun, maybe even more than the first season. It would be safe to describe this season as guilty pleasure of the finest kind, and that is not a criticism by any means.
Spoilers Ahead
Summer Is Wild
The funny thing about this show is despite it feeling like any random Netflix teen drama at times, you can never see it that way. Because you know for a fact that the same character would become something else in a later timeline. Take the example of Jeff, who comes off as a sweet, nerdy teenager crushing hard on Megan in the Summer’ 99 timeline of this episode. But you can’t root for him- as you have already seen him turning into a top-tier nuisance of a person.
Thanks to her new friend Isabella, Megan’s journey of self-exploration has only begun. The immediate destination is a dive bar nearby, but to get inside the place, being over eighteen is mandatory. But does any fictional teenager ever follow the rules? In comes the Fake ID, which comes about pretty much easy-peasy lemon squeezy for the group with the computer genius Megan around. While doing the deed, Megan and Jeff have a pretty nice time hanging around.
Getting their way into the bar doesn’t come easy, though. While Isabella, aka Patty Highsmith (remember?) and Megan 2.0 do it with confidence, Jeff and Luke fail to pull off a McLovin. But to hell with the dudes, the girls decide to make the night their own as Megan takes her first plunge into alcohol. Everything is so great until they bump into Police Chief Mayers and come out of the bar while laughing like crazy. Jeff and Luke turn out to be good boys, as they were patiently waiting for Megan and Isabella to take them home safely. But Megan doesn’t want the party to stop, so the four of them end up at Luke’s and indulge in some more harmless drinking. Things eventually lead to Jeff kissing Megan, which she seems to like a lot but clearly upsets Luke. This is an interesting quadrangle romance in the making with these four, who would be in a very different situation by the next summer- if you know what I mean.
Winter Is Hell
Things have kind of settled now in the winter timeline, with everything accepting what has happened and trying to move on. A pipe bursts at Debbie’s home, causing a mini flood and makes the place unlivable until it gets fixed. The plumber gives an estimate of six thousand dollars, which puts Megan and Debbie in a bad place as they are never really doing well financially. Isabella offers to help, as Megan and Debbie are no less than family for her, but the mother-daughter duo refuses. Upon Debbie’s insistence, they all end up at Steve’s for a temporary stay. Steve is more than happy to welcome Debbie, Megan, and Isabella. However, he privately reveals to Debbie that ever since “The Tape,” he has lost a lot of business.
At the Chambers’ house, Megan finds a one-piece suit in Luke’s bathroom. She remembers seeing it before, as it happens to be Isabella’s- the same thing she was wearing at the Summer party at Luke’s. Despite Isabella being her best friend as well as the savior, this irks Megan, and she confronts Isabella regarding any kind of overlapping between their relationships. Isabella gets understandably mad, given what she has already done for Megan.
At dinner, things get really awkward when Brent apologizes to Isabella upon his father and Debbie’s insistence. But Debbie, Megan, and Isabella don’t buy it. Luke tries to cool down the situation; it gets further worse when Debbie gets to know about Brent having more tapes. She gets really angry and has a heated argument with Steve about parenting, who taunts her about having two daughters without ever getting married. Debbie, Isabella, and Megan eventually leave Chambers’ house with things hanging in the limbo. However, the pipe problem at Debbie’s does get fixed, as Steve later sends the plumber and takes care of the matter as a sign of apology.
Was Megan Really Pregnant?
Megan’s lawyer, Tom, is mad at her after what happened during the interrogation. For both of their sakes, Tom asks Megan to spill any earth-shattering secret she is holding onto. But all Megan says is that Luke and her drove for a while in the car until they ended up in the cabin. Clearly, a lot more than that happened, as Mayers soon takes out a letter Luke had written to his father about getting away. It is the same letter that has Megan’s fingerprints on it. Mayers understandably grills her again, and this time she reveals that Luke wanted to get away and she was only protecting him. Megan later confesses to Debbie that she was supposed to post that letter to Steve and meet Luke one last time to drop him at the train station, but Luke never showed up. Megan hasn’t given any reason to not believe her so far, but should we all completely trust her? I don’t know at this point.
Meanwhile, Isabella finds a blood-soaked sheet in Megan’s trash. Mayers confiscates Megan’s computer in order to find more details about Luke’s death. At this point, Megan is his Suspect numero uno. While Mayers goes through the computer at the station, Megan anxiously calls someone and contemplates whether the police will find anything in her computer. The police do come across a self-destructive virus at the computer; clearly a protection shield enforced by the computer genius herself. But that fails to stop Mayers’ from finding the truth-bomb- Megan was pregnant. Calling her at the station for the third time, Mayers lays down his theory. Megan was pregnant, but Luke didn’t want the child, so she killed Luke. Not sure what really happened, but I can take a million-dollar bet that Mayers is definitely wrong. I would also connect the bloody sheet Isabella found with the bit about Megan’s pregnancy. It might just be that she has secretly aborted the baby, and the blood is the result of that. That is just a thought I had; it might just be something else.
