Well, after several episodes of wheel-spinning, things are finally happening on Cruel Summer: Girlz Rule Boys Drool Edition. Megan gets busted for making fake IDs, Steve Chambers’s PI turns up some compelling information about Ned and Megan, and Isabella does absolutely nothing wrong in all three timelines. We’re also dealing with some kind of Freaky Friday situation between Luke and his brother Brent. Suddenly, Brent is the braggadocious himbo hiding a heart of gold and Luke is captaining the Sexist Jerk Brigade. Even Steve surprised me in this episode. Instead of coming down on Megan as I expected, Steve actually comes to her defense and blasts Ned for exploiting a minor teenage girl with his clandestine off-grid hacking-mentorship program.
Because, apparently, Steve’s private detective uncovered more pertinent evidence in one day than Sheriff Myer’s entire department did in two weeks of investigation — six months if you count from the time Luke actually disappeared. Going by the show’s own timeline, less than 24 hours after Steve was bursting into Myer’s office and demanding the immediate arrest of guardian-less foreign teenager Isabella, his PI (Veronica Mars, I assume) has uncovered enough evidence incriminating Ned for Luke’s death to knock Isabella off of Steve’s personal suspect list entirely. The fact that Steve already knew that Ned was a mentally unstable recluse with a violent history and a grudge against his family, and that Ned and Luke had a physical altercation on the last day Luke was seen alive, probably should have put him at the top of the suspect list to begin with. But, hey, we live and we learn.
What Veronica Mars discovered is that Megan is a “hacker for hire” and, most importantly, was brought into this line of work by Ned. For whatever reason, this information doesn’t arouse any suspicion about Meg for either Steve or Brent. In fact, in a moment of uncharacteristic fluency with the manipulative potential of unequal power dynamics, the surviving Chambers men assume Megan had been victimized by Ned. Steve’s theory is that Ned killed Luke over a scuffle involving her, which I guess is as likely a scenario as any. Brent “She Was Asking For It” Chambers actually tries to warn Megan about Ned, detailing all the sketchy details of her mentor’s past, including an allegation that Ned once assaulted his boss and put him in the hospital. But, as the gaslit often do, Megan refuses to believe it. Instead, she runs directly to Ned’s house to warn him that the Chamberses are after him.
And she does this despite having seen Ned have a violent outburst firsthand — when he assaulted first her and then Luke in the parking lot the day before Luke died. But perhaps Megan didn’t take note of Ned’s blazing-red flag because she was too distracted by all of the flashing DANGER! DANGER! signals coming from her boyfriend at the same time. If you thought Luke was acting like an asshole in “The Plunge,” this little rich white boy doubles down in “The End of the World.”
Six months earlier, on New Year’s Eve 1999, Ned and the rest of the conspiracy-minded globe are worrying that Y2K will trigger the end of the modern world, but Megan is more concerned with why her best friend would make a move on her boyfriend out of the blue. After all, Isabella went so far as to end her relationship with Luke specifically so that he and Megan could get together. It doesn’t make sense for her to suddenly betray her BFF like that. When Meg brings this up to Luke, he wastes no time in spinning a story that paints our Izzie as some kind of jealous lunatic who wants Megan all to herself. Haven’t you noticed how Isabella hates it when we spend time alone without her, Luke suggests. Megan has not. Don’t you think Isabella wants us to break up because she’s a petty hater, Luke tries. Megan doesn’t seem totally convinced.
Being a little shit doesn’t mean Luke deserves to die, obviously. I’m generally very anti–death penalty. At the same time, it does seem that Luke’s shittiness helped lead to his untimely demise.
Okay, like, I’m just saying that Luke had several opportunities to save himself here. He could have listened to Megan when she wanted to call off the New Year’s Eve party, but Luke wanted to get “Y2Krunk” with all his friends. He could not have tried to make out with Isabella and then lied about it to begin with, but he also could have refrained from bragging about it to all his bros just in time for Meg (who has also just learned she’s pregnant, by the way) to overhear. This girl was so ready to believe you, my guy. Even after she confronted Isabella about the kiss and Isabella told her the truth, Megan was still totally ready to stay Team Luke. And then you had to say shit like, “I’ve got them wrapped around my finger, LOL!” I don’t want to say, “What did you expect,” but, my guy, what did you expect?
Jerk Luke is a far cry from the Loverboy Luke we see in the July of 1999 scenes. Luke and Meg spend the morning after Luke’s birthday party cleaning up the house and shutting up the cabin before a big storm. And also flirting heavily over walkie-talkies in the woods. Aside from a short run-in with Ned, it’s a perfect day of teen romance, which ends in their first kiss at sunset.
Cut to six months later, and Luke is loudly boasting about his ability to treat women terribly. Having heard more than enough, Megan is now activated. She immediately runs back to Isabella, full of apologies and righteous fury, and suggests a plan to make Luke pay for what he did. We don’t know what that plan entails yet, because the episode ends on the lure-him-back-to-the-cottage phase of the scheme, but it definitely doesn’t end well.
Clues to Watch
• Will Megan find another way to go to college after losing her scholarship to UDub? Or will she follow Ned’s extremely untrustworthy advice not to play by “their rules”?
• Does Megan know how Luke died? This is still unclear.
• Megan and Isabella seem to be back on good terms by the end of New Year’s Eve, so we still need to know what happened to cause their final falling-out (aside from Luke dying, obviously).
• Still waiting for some payback from all of those home videos Jeff is taking.
