Cruel Summer showrunner breaks down that season 2 finale twist, teases alternate endings
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Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Cruel Summer season 2 finale, "Endgame."
Cruel Summer really meant the term "ride or die" literally this season.
Throughout season 2 of Freeform's anthology teen drama, viewers have been wondering who killed Luke (Griffin Gluck). And just like in the first season finale, the last scene featured a massive twist that reframes everything you thought you knew about the murder mystery.
While it seemed like Luke's older brother Brent (Braeden De La Garza) killed Luke on accident when he pushed him off the dock on New Year's morning, it turns out that Luke actually survived and made it to shore in serious need of medical help where Isabella (Lexi Underwood) eventually found him. But instead of saving him, she pushed his head back under water and drowned him, delivering the killing blow.
While Isabella thought she got away with murder and skipped town — making a new friend a.k.a. potential future victim on her flight to Ibiza — Megan (Sadie Stanley) discovered a secret security camera facing the dock where Luke died six months prior. The final scene of the season showed Megan hacking into the feed to watch her best friend murder her boyfriend.
Below, Cruel Summer showrunner Elle Triedman breaks down that finale twist, reveals alternate endings that were considered, and more.
Freeform/Justine Yeung
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did you always know you were going to end this season with the reveal that Isabella killed Luke?
ELLE TRIEDMAN: Yes. It's referred to as a doorknob moment after season 1, but it's hard because you want to make sure it's worthy. We went through a lot of different ones before we landed on this, and then it was suddenly like, "Oh yes."
What were some of the alternate ideas you were considering?
We had different potential killers before we landed on Isabella. It didn't take that long, but we certainly went down many avenues with other characters. Surprisingly, Debbie was a possibility, something you wouldn't see coming, Brent, obviously Steve, the girls together. We just wanted it to be surprising and hopefully satisfying. What I was really happy with about it was, it was a moment with the girls together — they're not [physically] together, they experience it together, because you're in the water with Isabella and then you pull out and Megan is watching it in real time.
Why did you decide on Isabella as Luke's killer?
Well, she didn't go there to kill him. I think that's important to say. She went there to have a serious conversation of, "You're not going to screw up my friend's life." She saw Luke as a dead end for Megan. She wanted Megan to dream on a bigger landscape to get out of Chatham, travel the world with her, go become this amazing coder, and she saw Luke as this tether to this town and this life and just this very small world and small life, and also one in which she didn't feel like there was room for both of [them]. So when she got to the water and he was in really rough shape, then it was a decision in a moment, but it was not a premeditated killing.
She thought Luke was the thing holding Megan back from her achieving her dreams, but by the end of the season, Isabella has now framed Megan for Luke's death with the edited tape the police have. Then she skips town and leaves Megan behind. How did she get to this point?
She's someone who tells herself a story to fit the circumstance. When she was in St. Bart's with Lisa, everything went sideways and then she extricated herself. She comes to Chatham with an open heart and a clean slate, and she puts her all into this friendship with Megan and this town and this life. But she's an outsider, and they don't look kindly on outsiders. Her lawyer tells her it'll be very easy for her to take the fall. In fact, she is the murderer, but at that point, they don't have that information. Once she's in the car with Megan and she says that she'd really like a do-over on their friendship, but Megan rejects her, at that point it's scorched earth. At that point she is out for herself.
She's already been aware of the status of her passport and gotten it back. If Megan had said, "Yes, this has felt fantastic. I miss you, I love you, I want our friendship to go back the way it was," the ending would've been quite different even though Luke is already dead. You can't turn back time, but you could rewrite the future.
Freeform/Justine Yeung
What was going through her mind when Isabella makes that choice to drown Luke instead of helping him?
It was one of those split second situations where she's so mad at him, she's still so upset ... this is hours after they were in the cabin and psychological games were played. First, she and Megan were in it against Luke, and then Luke starts confessing all the stuff he did. And then as he can feel Megan slipping away, he starts trying to get her onto his side and says, "Remember all the terrible things you say about Isabella?" He was trying to isolate her and save his own skin. He's playing dirty, but he's not saying untruths either.
So Isabella comes to the water and he is half dead, in terrible shape, he's swallowed a ton of water, he's barely conscious, and she looks around, and there's no one there. It's New Year's Day, 5 in the morning, and it feels like a clean ending. If she'd had 20 minutes to think about it, she might not have done the same thing, but it was a split second decision, and it was just one of those gut instinct moves.
I don't think she is really the villain. She's someone who has real boundary issues. She loves really hard and she takes rejection really hard, and I think she gets so caught up in pleasing someone else and sacrificing for someone else that she loses sight of herself and then, like anyone would, she resents that, and she gets angry. Everything is heightened with her. Once Luke is missing (and she knows he's dead), she's right back to trying to be Megan's really good friend and to be there for her. There's that Hail Mary pass at reigniting the friendship, and Megan shuts it down again. For Isabella, when her back's against the wall, she looks out for No. 1, and she's a survivor. It's not as much about framing Megan as saving herself.
She would frame someone else if it were conducive, but she's just taking care of herself. She's an 18-year-old girl who has had all of this privilege and all of this great wealth and experience, but has pretty much had to raise herself so the guardrails have been missing for a while.
Does this mean she probably killed Lisa too?
Well, she might have killed her, or she might have let her drown, or it could have been a terrible accident. Trevor clearly thought there was more to the story. Her actions make her seem guiltier, leaving makes you seem a lot guiltier than sticking around and being there for an investigation, but I like that mystery in her past. Did she or didn't she?
What's going through Megan's mind when she watches the security footage in the final moments?
I wanted it to be shock and horror, and Sadie did this so beautifully. Then you slowly see the sense of steel come over her and resolve, and you know that she's not letting this go. I'd written it as a series of emotions and it's denial and anger and grief because she never thought she was going to see that footage, but Megan is also a survivor and she's fierce, and she's not going to let Brent spend the rest of his life in prison for this. I think she's taking that footage right to Sheriff Myer. That's what I would do. I don't think you can see that and not do something with it.
If Cruel Summer returns for a third season, would we see a continuation of this season's story and characters or would it be another new setting, new story, with all new characters?
It's really too early to say what's in store for a potential season 3. Right now, my focus has just been on the incredible season we've had, and I'm so excited that fans finally will get the answers to all of the questions that they've been waiting on.
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