Well, that escalated quickly.
One of fans’ biggest gripes with this season of Cruel Summer has been that so much happens in each episode yet nothing really happens, but Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 8 changed all of that as it painted a (almost) full picture of what happened at the cabin on New Year’s Eve.
Furthermore, it seems as though the Sheriff finally broke through Isabella and Megan’s “girl code,” pinning them against each other in the interrogation room until they cracked and started turning one another, revealing the events of that night in the process. It shows that persistence pays off, particularly when you know that the subjects you are trying to crack are hiding something and play a key, integral role in your investigation.
The nights of NYE played out across our screens, bringing into focus what transpired between the fractured, yet once inseparable, trio.
After Megan overheard Luke’s degrading comments while chatting with the guys, she looped in Isabella and devised a plan to give him a taste of his own medicine at the cabin shortly after midnight. Once she lured him there, under the premise that they were about to have sex, and tied him up to the bedpost, Isabella came down, and they began to record everything in hopes of getting him to confess to all his sins so that they could then play the video in front of the whole town and reveal who he really is.
Part of getting Luke to be completely honest was giving him a truth serum—spiking his drink with pills.
Admittedly, it wasn’t a fully thought-through plan, but they are also teenagers whose hormones are raging, so I’m also not entirely surprised.
While their actions seem straightforward on the surface—get revenge—there are some gray areas when it comes to motive, particularly when Megan mixes Luke’s pills with more alcohol to deliver a much more potent dose all while Isabella is looking away.
What was her intention? Did she just want to make sure Luke couldn’t weasel his way out of it? Did she want to hurt him, or worse, kill him? And why do it when Isabella was turned around?
From there, Luke, dazed and confused, begins to open up, apologizing for being a complete ass because he wanted to “look cool” in front of the guys. It’s clear that Luke hides behind his good-guy facade, but in this sense, I can see him truly just wanting to impress the guys and get some cred, or whatever it is the guys call it. It doesn’t excuse his behavior, but I can at least understand where he’s coming from. Isabella has a point when she says that he’s worse than his brother because at least Brent owns it.
Things get a little hairy when Luke finally reveals that not only did he know that his brother had a penchant for making videos, but that he was the one who recorded his and Megan’s sex tape. His behavior was very clearly influenced by those around him—he’s seen his brother do this for years with absolutely no consequences as his father has turned a blind eye and defended him; it’s unfortunate because Luke seems to be the product of his surroundings even though he always tries to be better in public.
He attempts to defend the action by stating that he wanted to film it so he and Megan could watch it back together later in a “hot way,” but it’s clear that he has absolutely no understanding of the depth of pain that sex tape caused in the first place.
Things go nuclear when Isabella and Luke begin to fight for Megan’s affection. Luke becomes desperate when he realizes they’re going to leave him tied up at the cabin, so he tells Megan that she wasn’t his first, Isabella was. And then, in another weasel move, he says that it was Isabella’s decision to keep it a secret from Megan when flashbacks indicate that couldn’t be further from the truth. In those earlier scenes, Luke informs Isabella that Megan doesn’t know, and convinces her, despite her hesitations, that it’s better if they don’t tell her because it would hurt her.
Megan is now facing a double betrayal from the two people she thought she knew best and loved most, and it’s the moment that Isabella snaps, and quite frankly, I’m not surprised; Luke has tried to make her out to be the bad guy since day one. He keeps trying to convince Megan that Isabella is obsessed with her and that she wants her all to herself, and even after he’s been drugged and confronted, he continues his manipulation tactics, trying to win back Megan and her loyalty.
Isabella has had just about enough of it, particularly as she’s tried to be the best friend that she could possibly be, so, in a moment of what I’m assuming is lapsed judgment, she takes a gun and points it at Luke, demanding that he take back the lies.
Luke continues to do himself absolutely no favors in this situation by insinuating that Isabella is crazy, and despite Megan’s pleas to just put the gun down, we hear a gunshot go off.
Who got shot? Was it the deadly blow?
With a few episodes still left on the line, my guess is that we haven’t reached the conclusion of the story just yet—this is just the tip of the iceberg. If I had to guess, I’d say Isabella’s aim is nearly as good as Megan’s, so the bullet grazes Luke’s ear, which is in line with what the Sheriff revealed. It’s possibly the gunshot on Y2K night—when Ned was already on high alert—brings him to the cabin to check things out, and from there, he either tries to help the girls or lets them run off while he attempts to care for Luke in his less-than-coherent state.
There’s also a possibility that Isabella never pulled the trigger, though she definitely seems capable, and that Ned arrived to see the commotion unfold and tried to break up the situation.
However, the question on everyone’s mind remains—how did Luke die? Did he die at the cabin because of Isabella/Megan? Was it the gunshot that killed him? Did Ned help them dump Luke’s body? Or did something else lead to his death that’s separate from their drug-fueled interrogation? Maybe they left him after things got too intense and Luke freed himself, got lost in the forest, and ended up walking off a cliff. There are so many possibilities for this storyline, but I don’t think it ends with Megan and Isabella.
And why are Megan and Isabella so concerned about the footage from Ned’s house from the camera pointing outside? Would it reveal that they were both there that night? Or is there something else that may have been captured on it? Did they call someone else, like Brent, to help out?
Also, where is Ned in the present? Megan broke into his home since he wasn’t around, but it’s unlike him not to be home. Is he in the Sheriff’s custody? He seems to be monitoring the home since he was there the moment they broke in.
And possibly the biggest question that I have is—what happened to the tape that Isabella and Megan were recording? Did they destroy it that night realizing that it would incriminate them both? Are they seen on those security cams burying it? I think it’s irrefutable proof that they aren’t lying, so I’d bet one of them held onto it and put it in a safe spot where they figured no one would locate it.
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Given everything that transpired, and everything the Sheriff has pieced together, he seems to have Isabella and Megan right where he wants them in 2000, though I’m going to say that the probability of isolating the audio from that Y2K party and figuring out what they were saying was pretty unlikely. I know that era had some groundbreaking tech, but it just seems far-fetched. It’s also Jeff’s recording that gets them in trouble, so this dude has been terrible news all around for Meghan, incriminating her in crimes at every turn. We still don’t know what secret Megan was keeping for him, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it has something to do with the videotapes he was selling on the side that probably include R-rated content. And if that’s the case, Jeff isn’t any better than any of the guys in his friend’s circle. No wonder Megan underwent a dark transformation after having everything go from peachy to doomsday in just a year. Everyone she’s ever cared about lied to her and betrayed her.
Isabella and Megan, despite not being friends, promised to stay true to their version of events for that night, but will they finally turn on each other? Has the trust been broken officially with all the mounting pressure and evidence?
Megan seemed rather shaken up seeing Isabella in a trance after Luke attempted to throw her under the bus, and maybe this is the side of Isabella we’ve never seen; the side that also got her former best friend Lisa killed. Though I’m still leaning toward Isabella being a red herring this whole time.
As of now, it does all seem too easy, so I’m waiting for the huge twist to unfold. Did Isabella really go back and kill Luke that night, as Megan suspected and Parker reported to the Sheriff, since she hated his guts, or did Megan try to silence him once and for all?
I’m also waiting to see if Brent and Parker play a bigger role in the overarching plot—there are plenty of scenes indicating that Parker wanted to be good friends with Isabella and was possibly even jealous of the friendship they had, so I’m hoping she’s not just a supporting character.
And what happened to Megan’s baby?
As for Steve Chambers, the fact that we saw him dismiss Brent’s videotapes with the Sheriff was one thing, but seeing him completely shrug off Brent’s misogynistic and disgusting behavior toward women makes the Luke of it all far less surprising. Telling a girl who was just harassed by your son that she’ll be ok and waving off the behavior as “boys will be boys” is the catalyst for all of this problematic behavior, so I’m with Ned in trying to take Steve down once and for all.
My idea of a good twist would be the revelation that Debbie found out how Luke treated both the girls and handled it.
What did you think of the episode? Did you like all the momentum in terms of answers? And what do you think happened to Luke?
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