Freeform’s Cruel Summer season two episode 10 – the season finale – puts an end to all the whodunnit guessing games. Luke’s killer is revealed but, as with the first season, not all the loose ends are tied up.
It’s 4am on New Year’s Day when Megan (Sadie Stanley) and Isabella (Lexi Underwood) return home. Megan wants to go back and untie Luke, but Isabella doesn’t agree. Although he’s been tied up for hours, she seems to think they let him off easy. Megan reminds Isabella that she shot him, and Isabella maintains it was an accident.
Megan decides she’s going to wait until 8am and then head to the cabin to untie Luke.
At 5:00am, Luke (Griffin Gluck) has made it to the docks which is where we last saw him in episode nine. The mysterious person who Luke paged is none other than his brother, Brent (Braeden De La Garza).
A couple of hours later, Steve Chambers (Paul Adelstein) wakes up to water all over the floor. He finds a soaking wet Brent, crying. Brent tells his dad there’s something he needs to tell him. We don’t hear their conversation, but it results in Steve running to the docks screaming Luke’s name.
The girls show up and discover that Luke is gone and begin to search the woods. Isabella accuses Megan of untying Luke before she left the night before. Megan claims she didn’t. Megan realizes they need to find him before someone else does.
Their search is unsuccessful, so Megan calls the hospital and learns there’s no one there matching his description. She also hacks into the 9-1-1 call center, and nothing came in about him. Megan’s very worried about Luke but Isabella’s more concerned about destroying the videotape of what took place at the cabin.
While Megan worries, Isabella can’t believe Megan’s starting to forgive him and points out all that he’s done. Megan counters by pointing out that Isabella isn’t blameless. After all, she lied about sleeping with Luke. Megan admits she doesn’t know how she’s ever going to trust Isabella again.
January 3, 2000: Brent’s concerned about what to do, and Steve’s trying to figure out a way to fix whatever happened. Before Brent can elaborate, Steve stops him and assures him that he won’t let anything happen to him.
Steve asks Megan if Luke was mixed up in anything, and she says no. He confirms that he and Luke fought about Luke wanting to go into the Coast Guard.
Megan informs Isabella that Steve’s asking questions and that Sheriff Myer will be getting involved. Isabella’s eerily calm about the whole situation. As they consider that Luke ran away, they have no clue that Brent and Steve already know what happened to him.
Megan sends multiple Instant Messages to Luke, begging him to let her know he’s okay. She thinks the pills they added to Luke’s drink were a bad idea. Isabella reminds her that they did this together.
Megan can’t believe that she let Isabella talk her into this. Megan and Isabella argue, and Isabella continues to insist that this is all Luke’s fault. Isabella wants Megan to stop defending him and calls Megan ungrateful, seeming to believe she made Megan’s life better. Megan thinks Luke was right and that Isabella is only happy when Megan is miserable.
Before walking away, Megan tosses out, “I wish I never met you.”
Summer arrives and Steve demands to know why Sheriff Myer (Sean Blakemore) hasn’t formally charged Megan and Isabella for Luke’s murder. Myer explains that they received footage from Ned’s surveillance camera from that night in hopes of finding more evidence. Steve looks worried for a brief moment and tries to play it off, claiming that Myer’s trying to solve a case based on “that lunatic.”
Brent visits Megan and subtly tries to bring up that she and Isabella were brought in for more questioning. She admits that Myer thinks she and Isabella killed Luke but there’s no evidence – because they didn’t kill him.
It was Isabella’s idea for them to blame each other for Luke’s murder and somehow it worked. Neither has been charged with murder. Suddenly, Megan has an epiphany about the footage from Ned’s place. It will not only show Megan and Isabella, but it will also show who came later and killed Luke!
Megan hacks into the police station’s computer, and the girls watch the footage from that night. They see Steve’s car drive up to the cabin.
Armed with this discovery, Megan and Isabella barge into Steve’s office and confront him. He claims he was at home and turns the tables on Isabella, saying his private investigator found out her friends seem to have a habit of dying.
Isabella doesn’t think they shouldn’t tell the sheriff about the footage since they’re seen on it too. Isabella turns it into a weird moment by stating that the last few days felt like old times when they got along. Megan finds it odd that Isabella talks about their friendship like it’s something magical.
Meanwhile, Brent’s having a meltdown in his dad’s office about possibly going to jail if whatever happened comes to light. His dad slaps him and orders his son to pull himself together.
Megan tries to see Isabella, but she’s checked out of her hotel room.
Megan’s forced to return to the station, and Sheriff Myer plays an edited video of Megan holding the gun the night Luke was murdered. Conveniently, Isabella can’t be seen on the video at all, and Megan’s arrested for Luke’s murder.
Steve’s told about Megan’s arrest, and Brent becomes upset. We finally hear him confess that he killed Luke! Steve thinks Megan’s arrest is Brent’s ticket out. Brent can’t believe Steve would do this to Megan and her mom, and Steve insists his son should be grateful.
Brent needs to know if, when his mom died, she was drunk and if that’s what caused the accident and Luke had to take the blame. Steve’s cold about it when confirms that she was gone and he didn’t want her remembered that way.
Brent visits Megan at the jail and confesses what happened that night. The audience is treated to a flashback of that night, and we’re shown what transpired between the brothers.
In the flashback, Luke confesses to his brother everything that he’s done, even admitting that when he played the sex tape at their Christmas party, he thought it was one of Brent’s. That upsets Brent, and then Luke brings up what happened to their mom. At the time of this confrontation, Brent had no idea that their mom was drunk.
Brent shoves Luke, and he hits his head before falling into the water. Brent dives in after him to try and save him.
Back to the present day in the interrogation room, Brent admits that his dad was trying to cover it up and trying to place the blame on anyone else. Brent also confesses to planting Isabella’s money and bag in the cabin.
Sheriff Myer is listening to this entire conversation.
Brent refuses to let Megan take the fall for it. His parting words to her are, “Luke really loved you.”
Steve’s home alone when the police show up.
Megan, no longer in custody, receives an Instant Message from Ned. He’s got an old colleague in Palo Alto looking for a coder, and he gave the person Megan’s number.
Isabella has left for good, hopping on a plane to Ibiza. She chats with a young woman on the plane, and it appears she’s found a new person to get her hooks into. Isabella introduces herself as Lisa.
Season two ends with a tantalizing tease and a shocking conclusion that some viewers might have seen a version of coming. Megan heads down to the docks to say her final goodbyes to Luke. Suddenly, her attention’s drawn to a spot in the woods where the sun’s reflecting off something. It’s a camera pointed right at the docks, and we are back to the night of Luke’s death.
Luke made it to the shore but was still partially in the water. Isabella is seen standing over him. She placed her foot on Luke’s head, drowning him in the shallow water before pushing his lifeless body back into the lake to float away.
Megan watches the footage, shocked and in tears.
- Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 1 Recap: “Welcome to Chatham”
- Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 2 Recap: “Ride or Die”
- Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: “Bloody Knuckles”
- Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 4 Recap: “Springing a Leak”
- Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: “All I Want for Christmas”
- Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 6 Recap: “The Plunge”
- Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 7 Recap: “It’s the End of the World”
- Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 8 Recap: “Confess Your Sins”
- Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 9 Recap: “The Miseducation of Luke Chambers”
