Viewers know the drill; every episode of Freeform’s Cruel Summer starts off the same way. The dates of season two episode four are:
July 23, 1999
December 23, 1999
July 23, 2000
Summer of 1999
Megan (Sadie Stanley) tells Isabella (Lexi Underwood) she’s tired of the same boring Megan Landry. She wants to do something fun. Nothing too bad, but more along the lines of taking risks and going on adventures. She wants to be unpredictable.
Megan informs Luke (Griffin Gluck) and Jeff that she wants to go out and do something fun. They settle on a bar, and she and Jeff (Nile Bullock) volunteer to make fake IDs. Luke seems shocked that Megan’s up for this.
Megan and Jeff bond over making fake IDs and grow closer. He’s impressed with her hacking skills. Megan receives an Instant Message from someone offering to show her shortcuts, which she quickly closes as soon as the message pops up.
As Megan and Isabella get ready for their night out, they talk about Jeff. Isabella seems to really be pushing the idea of Megan dating him.
Once they arrive at the bar, Megan and Isabella have no problem getting through security. However, Luke and Jeff screw up and can’t get in, and Isabella convinces Megan not to worry about them as they enter to the bar. After grabbing drinks, they head to the dance floor.
Luke seems annoyed as they wait for the girls outside the bar, but Jeff seems fine with it. Luke takes this opportunity to ask Jeff about him and Megan. Luke tries to play it off like it’s cool that Jeff and Megan are hanging out.
Megan and Isabella are drinking and having a good time when Megan spots Sheriff Myer (Sean Blakemore). They decide to take off before he sees them.
Back at Luke’s house, the drinking continues, and Jeff asks Megan if she wants to go for a walk. Luke sees them kissing and appears jealous. He reacts by kissing Isabella.
Winter of 1999
Megan tells Isabella about a team called white hat hackers that looks for loopholes in big companies’ websites and fixes them before hackers can get in. She believes it’s something she can do in college to make money and help her mom. Isabella doesn’t look impressed.
Their chat’s interrupted by a loud bang, and they discover Debbie (KaDee Strickland) yelling in the kitchen about a broken water pipe.
The plumber wants $6,000 to repair the pipe and the damages – and he wants it upfront. Megan’s shocked to learn the emergency funds are gone, and Isabella tries to come to the rescue by offering them $5,000 in cash. Megan’s too proud and refuses to take her money.
Debbie announces they’re going to stay with Steve for the night, but Megan doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want to see Luke’s brother, Brent…not after he taped her and Luke having sex.
It’s awkward when they show up at Steve’s (Paul Adelstein), and he tries to get Brent to come welcome them. Steve informs Debbie that someone backed out of a deal because he can’t do business with people that don’t share his values. (That sex tape is now causing problems with Steve’s business.)
Megan discovers Isabella’s bikini tucked away in Luke’s bathroom.
Later, Megan reveals that Isabella tried to give them money and Luke immediately suggests that Isabella was just trying to help. The offer came from a good place. Megan feels like it was charity, but Luke says it was nothing like that. Megan realizes Luke and Isabella talked about it, and she accuses them of talking behind her back. Luke confesses that he and Isabella sometimes talk because they’re friends.
Megan tells Luke that he and Isabella don’t get it because they don’t struggle with money.
Megan catches Isabella going through Brent’s room and confronts her about the swimsuit she found in Luke’s room. Isabella swears it’s from the previous summer. Isabella turns on Megan, reminding her that she’s being called all kinds of nasty things by the town because she protected Megan so that she can keep her scholarship.
“How far do I need to go to prove my loyalty to you? I mean, what? Do you need me to kill for you?” asks Isabella before stalking out.
Brent (Braeden De La Garza) finally graces them with his presence which leads to a huge argument. As things heat up, Steve and Debbie show up to put an end to the fight.
Uncomfortable dinner alert… Debbie fills the silence stating that she feels Brent owes Isabella and Luke an apology. Megan wants Brent to admit he filmed girls without telling them, and Luke attempts to play peacemaker and just wants to have a nice dinner. But Debbie didn’t realize there were more tapes and is disgusted. She also realizes that Steve knew about the other tapes.
Steve and Debbie argue, and Luke jumps in to stop it. When Megan questions if he’s defending his dad, Isabella tries to defend Luke. And, well, of course, Megan isn’t pleased.
Back at home, Megan keeps getting crank calls that are aimed at Isabella. Megan wants to know if her mom and Steve will be okay after their big blowup.
As plumbers fix the pipe (Steve sent them over as a way of apologizing), Megan opens her report card. She went from straight As to having one C+, and she lies to her mom about what’s in the mail.
Summer of 2000
Megan tosses out a garbage bag late at night, and Isabella waits until Megan goes back inside before investigating the trash bag. Inside are what appear to be bloody clothes.
In episode three, Sheriff Myer confronted Megan about the discovery that she didn’t really drop off Luke the night he disappeared. Megan’s lawyer questions her about that lie. Her lawyer needs answers, and Megan claims they drove around for a while and ended up at the cabin. He points out that’s the murder site.
The lawyer needs to know when she last saw Luke, and Megan claims it was early that Saturday. He wants to know if she’s been back to the cabin since that day. Megan lies and says no. She also lies and says there’s nothing else she’s hiding.
Megan’s questioned again by Sheriff Myer over a letter Luke supposedly wrote saying he was running away to see family in Virginia. Myer wants Megan to explain why her prints are on it. (For someone so smart, she sure doesn’t know how to cover her tracks!) Megan claims Luke told her about it, and the sheriff brings up that she failed to mention it previously.
Her lawyer abruptly ends the interview.
Debbie confronts Megan about knowing that Luke was going to run away and how she didn’t say anything to Steve. Megan says she had to protect Luke and that he was freaked out about something but wouldn’t say what. She was supposed to drop the letter off in Steve’s mailbox after taking Luke to the train station. But when she showed up to take him there, he was gone.
Sheriff Myer shows up at Megan’s house with a warrant to seize Megan’s computer. Megan looks guilty as she freaks out over her computer being taken away.
Megan hops on the phone with a mystery person and explains what happened. The scene shifts to the police station’s IT guy revealing that he can’t get into the files on Megan’s computer and that there’s a virus on it.
Episode four draws to a close in the summer of 2000 when Sheriff Myer, again, brings Megan in for questioning over new information. Myer delivers the shocking allegation that Megan was pregnant and that when she told Luke, he rejected the news – so she killed him.
- 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 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”
- Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 10 Recap: “Endgame” Finale
