Reviewing the Killer Season 2 Finale of "Cruel Summer"

Cruel Summer. Once only known as the title of a hit song by Bananarama, now it's the title of Freeform's highly addictive series. I thoroughly enjoyed Season One of the series, especially that last "wham shot" twist, but we would have to wait two years for the second season after its renewal. Once the promos were out and the date was set, I was over the moon with excitement!

Timelines play a role in the show; Season One usually took place on the same date in 1993, 1994, and 1995, and regarding this season, the timed settings were the summer of 1999, the winter of 1999, and the summer of 2000. In addition, Cruel Summer is an anthology series with different characters, and while Season One centered on Kate Wallis and Jeanette Turner, the centerpieces of Season Two were Megan Landry, Isabella LaRue, and Luke Chambers.

From what we saw during this season, it was quite a twisted love triangle between the trio. Megan and Luke were clearly an item, though in the season opener, "Welcome to Chatham," a sex tape is played that apparently shows Luke with Isabella, and that episode ended with Luke actually being found dead in the episode's Summer 2000 setting. Though Isabella was identified and got the unfair shame, it was actually Megan in the video, and the antepenultimate episode, "Confess Your Sins," revealed that while Luke's older brother, Brent, had been suspected of being the cameraman (as he had a library of vids of his own), Luke was behind that particular tape.

The admission was made while Luke was tied up and interrogated by both girls, which came after Megan overheard Luke boasting about hooking up with both of them, and the episode actually ended with Isabella holding Luke at gunpoint and later shooting him after Luke revealed that he and Isabella hooked up prior to his relationship with Megan, as well as Luke stating that Isabella had a weird obsession with Megan. The following episode, "The Miseducation of Luke Chambers," took us to the final months of 1999, and revealed Luke's motivation for creating the tape (he wanted to prove that he could), and led us to New Year's Day 2000, when Luke escaped and went to the docks.

The opening of the season finale, "Endgame," revealed that the person who visited Luke at the docks was Brent, which surprised me, because I definitely though it was an actual friend in the form of Sheriff Myer. For weeks, I had my theories/hopes on who killed Luke, and my main hope was Debbie Landry, Megan's mother. For one, Debbie was played by KaDee Strickland, and I was hoping for her to play an actual villainess (I still don't know if she has or not). Plus, Debbie kinda has it in her to possibly resort to evil methods out of motherly protection. A small part of me had either Megan and/or Isabella as the killer(s), but once Brent returned home, he was panicked. It appeared that Brent may have been the actual killer.

We only see two timelines in this finale: January 2000 and the summer of 2000, and in January, Megan and Isabella fall out, though we see that throughout the season. Meanwhile, at the Chambers household during the summer season, Steve Chambers does what he's been doing the entire season (and even before the events): attempt to cover for Brent. The summer setting sees the investigation play out, and also reveals that Megan and Isabella's turning against each other was a ploy to get suspicion turned away from them. Isabella sees this as her friendship with Megan returning, but Megan sees their alliance as the pair being in the trenches together and nothing more. Later on, Megan is interrogated after video of Luke's capture is shown, which has Megan holding the gun. She's arrested because of this, and we're all thinking it: Steve and Brent set her up, because of course they did. As for Isabella, well, we see her on a plane to Ibiza, and introducing herself as "Lisa" to a passenger.

More on that later, I promise.

In another stunner, we see Brent visit Megan and confess, adding that he could not let Megan go down for something she didn't do. We are later treated to a flashback of the day in question, which shows Luke revealing that his release of his sex tape was an accident, he meant to grab one of Brent's to take him and their father down. Why? It's simple. Brent and Steve had been blaming Luke for the death of his and Brent's mother, Jane. They had went with the story that Luke distracted Jane, when in actuality, Jane drove drunk that day and crashed. This led to a heated argument between the brothers, that ended with Brent shoving Luke, whose head hit a rail before falling into the water.

So for six months, Brent had believed that he killed his brother, and he confesses, leading to not only his arrest, but Steve's as well. Everything's wrapped up in a neat little package, right? Have you learned nothing from Season One?

The last moment of the season saw Megan notice a security camera at the docks, and that video revealed what really happened after Brent left. Luke managed to make it to the shore, still alive, and saw Isabella standing over him. Luke pleaded for help, but in response, Isabella--after looking in every direction--simply placed her foot on top of Luke's head and smothered him in that water. So Isabella, not Brent, killed Luke Chambers, and that last scene showed Megan watching that video and being horrified to learn that her so-called best friend was a murderous madwoman.

This was a great season with an amazing finale! I truly enjoyed all of it, but let's get to the real centerpiece.

The Season 2 cast was absolutely amazing; I mentioned KaDee Strickland, who played on Private Practice. Sadie Stanley (Megan Landry) recurred on the Netflix series, Dead to Me, while Griffin Gluck (Luke Chambers) also did Private Practice, and I had seen him twice on the big screen in 2016 in Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life and Why Him? (the latter starring Bryan Cranston). The Prison Break uber-fan in me couldn't help but love seeing Paul Adelstein as Steve Chambers, but I want to talk about the season's revealed central villainess, Isabella LaRue, played by Lexi Underwood.

Isabella was introduced as the new girl in town, and I couldn't help but love that more and more layers were uncovered as the season progressed. This includes a revelation of an incident at St. Bart's, and that led us to wonder, "Did she kill someone?" It was revealed that a death was involved, and the victim was Lisa Cole, who was Isabella's close friend at that time. As the story went, the girls were swimming near the coastline when Lisa suddenly drowned, though despite this, we see written postcards to Lisa during the summer 2000 timeline.

Despite that, and despite Luke being shot by Isabella, I (for the most part) had Isabella as a red herring, but then that last moment came. In what is established as true Cruel Summer fashion, we receive a final twist in the form of Isabella actually drowning Luke while he was clinging to life following his confrontation with Brent. I am still beaming and cheesing over Isabella's heel turn in that final moment, especially her mannerisms during her act. What we saw was the real Isabella: a cunning, devious, manipulative and unhinged sociopath. What's amazing about this is we really don't know why she killed Luke. An argument could be made that Luke was right all along about Isabella wanting no one in the way of her friendship with Megan, so she eliminated Luke from that equation. It could also be said that Isabella was still scorned over how Luke used her.

Either argument can be true, but look back to that scene with Isabella on the plane. She talks about her friendship with Megan for a year (it was shorter than that), and she introduced herself as "Lisa," the same name as her fallen friend. That's another question we don't get answered: did Isabella actually kill Lisa at St. Bart's? The signs say she did, but that's up in the air. Lexi Underwood was amazing as Isabella; she played Isabella's friendly nature very well, and shined when it came to her unhinged demeanor in the last episodes, as well as her murderous scene in the finale. Prior to this, Underwood appeared on Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere, and played Malia Obama on Showtime's The First Lady.

Check out Isabella LaRue's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!

Honestly, the twist involving Isabella was better than the twist involving Jeanette Turner in Season One. As we recall, that season centered on Kate Wallis' abduction, with the kidnapper being school assistant principal Martin Harris. Jeanette went from unseen in 1993 to popular in 1994, but she became a pariah in 1995 after Kate claimed that Jeanette saw her in Martin's house and did nothing. It was later revealed that Kate went into Martin's house willingly, and while Jeanette actually did go inside the house to steal things, she never saw Kate, and it was actually Mallory who saw Kate that one day. Kate ended up becoming Martin's prisoner after months of being in his house, and the final twist revealed that Jeanette returned to the house in 1994 and heard Kate calling for help. Jeanette was going to open the attic door, but after hearing Kate introduce herself by name, Jeanette backtracked and gave that sinister smile, knowing that with Kate held captive, Jeanette could become the new popular girl.

So what's next for Cruel Summer? I'm hoping we get a third season of this show. If we do, I would be so elated and would be eager to wonder what that storyline could be. With this strike ongoing, however, I am worried. Plus, as of this writing, the ratings for the season finale aren't known yet, and that's a determining factor. This show is definitely good enough to get (at least) a third season. Here's hoping that, in spite of this strike, Cruel Summer gets renewed.

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