Cruel Summer was a television phenomenon when season one premiered on Freeform. The unraveling mystery behind what truly happened between Kate Wallis and Jeanette Turner spanned ten episodes as drama and truths revealed themselves. Did Jeanette see Kate in Martin Harris' house during the time she was held captive? That was the question the entire season relied on, and it was a good question. While Jeanette comes across as a mostly kind girl, there is always something suspicious about her hanging in the background, a darkness that never quite rears its ugly head. Meanwhile, Kate's story jumps from innocent girl to victim to the PTSD surrounding her dealing with the aftermath of escaping.
Season two dealt with a drastically different set of characters and storylines. This time, surrounding a love triangle, Megan, Isabella, and Luke find themselves at a crossroads of a dangerous situation when the revelation that Luke is dead means trying to understand who killed him, why, and how Isabella and Megan fit into the bigger picture. While the season relies on the love triangle to lead the murder mystery, season two never quite reaches the same level of excitement or intrigue that season one possessed flawlessly in every episode.
The Opening Time Skips
Season one's opening time skips for Jeanette Turner and Kate Wallis are definitive and suggest that plenty went on between the three years the series covers. It is clear from each time that Jeanette wakes up on her birthday each year that a massive transformation has occurred. She is a fairy average nerdy girl in the first summer, followed by a more popular variation of herself, and in the final year, portrays someone whose life had been turned upside down. Not only does she look drastically different, but her attitude and behavior also prove how much things had changed.
Connection Between the Main Characters
Although Kate and Jeanette do not spend nearly as much time together as Megan and Isabella, their connection is still far more intriguing. Jeanette is interesting given the way the time jumps present her, but Kate makes her relevant to the plot the second she accuses Jeanette of seeing her inside Martin Harris' house. As a lawsuit occurs, Kate and Jeanette's backstories are shown to see how they come in and out of each other's lives, and how Jeanette's jealousy of Kate's popularity has Jeanette transform into Kate after Kate's disappearance.
Megan and Isabella are thrown together when Megan's family takes Isabella in for the year. They eventually become best friends, but the sex tape airing for everyone to see, followed by the lies that come with it, and Luke's death all force Megan and Isabella apart.
Separate but Connected Storylines
Since Jeanette and Kate rarely directly interact, each episode follows their individual storylines. The lawsuit and Kate's accusation about Jeanette leaving Kate at the house keep them connected, though. Revealing that Jeanette had a history of sneaking into Martin Harris' house, and then went on to take Kate's friends and boyfriend, keeps suspicion on Jeanette for how easily she filled the void Kate left. Meanwhile, the other plot line follows what occurred between Kate and Martin Harris.
For the most part, Megan and Isabella's stories are connected at the hip. They share a relationship with Luke, the secrets surrounding his death, and the supporting characters are people that they both interact with. The individual subplots each receive are not enough to keep each character interesting on their own.
Bigger Roles for Supporting Characters
In season two, Megan, Isabella, and Luke are the central characters. While Debbie, Steve, and Brent may play supporting roles, everything they do is connected with the main plot, and the same goes for the trio's mutual friends. Otherwise, the supporting characters do not get that much substance on their own.
That was not the case in season one. Jeanette's friends had their own subplots that lasted the length of the series, as did the conflicts surrounding Jeanette's and Kate's parents.
Larger Exploration of Main Themes
Grooming is one of the main themes used throughout the first season. Martin Harris isolates Kate from her loved ones, getting on her good side, and convincing her that he is the only one who understands and that he is the only one she can turn to. In one episode, Cruel Summer finally gets to the meat of what really happened between Kate and Martin Harris in the house, including the huge plot twist that Kate was not held physically captive the entire time.
The episode explores how Kate had been manipulated into believing she could not leave the house, and when she did actually walk out the door, she went back because Martin Harris had groomed her into believing that staying with him was the right answer. Cruel Summer never romanticizes grooming, and always makes it clear that this is a dangerous but real situation.
The Mystery
Murder mysteries are common. Plenty of shows, from How to Get Away with Murder to Riverdale, have used a murder at the center of their plot lines. Who died? Who killed them? Why? It is fairly common, and while Cruel Summer wants to put its own spin on the murder mystery, it never quite justifies taking ten episodes to find out who did it.
Season one's mystery of questioning if Jeanette had actually seen Kate inside the house was far more innovative. The entire mystery hinged on who was being truthful, who was lying, and wondering what really happened. Season one kept you jumping back and forth between wondering who of Kate or Jeanette was telling the truth, especially as more about each character was getting revealed.
The Main Character's Development
Jeanette's jump from nerdy girl to town outcast is huge and done well. It is not just the physical transformation of her hair and clothes that are different, it is everything about how she presents herself and handles situations. Her confidence grows after Kate disappears, which also leads to her leaving her childhood friends behind for popularity. Kate goes from popular girl to dealing with the trauma of her past, dealing with what happened to her, and trying to find a way to move forward.
Megan and Isabella's characters do not develop the same way, and for the most part, it feels as if season two relies more on hair, make-up, and clothing changes to sell the differences than it does the characters.
The Time Jumps Themselves
In season one, viewing each year was crucial to understanding the full story. Regardless of whether viewers were following Kate or Jeanette, Cruel Summer made each timeline count and showed the distinct differences between everyone's relationships in each year. Season two tries, but so much of the different time periods do not feel relevant to the plot as a whole.
The Slow Burn
Season one made waiting for the answer worth it. Each episode slowly built on the next as audiences jumped between following Kate's storyline and Jeanette's storyline. Separating them allowed for audiences to better understand each character while further investing in the mystery. There were countless twists and turns that made you think one thing before the following episode would flip the script and cause you to question everything again.
Season two's murder mystery holds it back because the story is more about questioning who did it, and wondering what Megan and Isabella are keeping from everyone else. The length of time it takes to get to the answer did not help the season.
The Ending
Season one's ending may have been one of the best conclusions of any teen drama, and the plot twist in the final minutes is all due to that. While the season finale wants you to initially believe it was all a big misunderstanding between Kate and Jeanette, and that Mallory had seen Kate instead, which is all a great plot twist anyway, the stinger comes in the final moments when the season finale reveals that although Jeanette had not seen Kate, she had been in the house while Kate was trapped and screaming for help, and Jeanette never mentioned it or did anything to help her.
Season two's conclusion is anti-climactic in comparison, with Brent taking the fall for Luke's death, not realizing that his younger brother had survived their final confrontation. The final minutes reveal that Isabella ended up killing Luke. However, Cruel Summer's second season was unable to match the shock value and intensity that came from season one's revelation.