Freeform is pushing the hashtags #IBelieveJeanette and #IBelieveKate in its “Cruel Summer” (Tuesdays) promotions. But I believe it’s unlikely that one is the villain and one is the victim. Both are flawed teens — victims in some ways, strong in some ways. But a 2021 Freeform show won’t make one of them into the villain.
It would be lame (to use a 1990s term) and reductive (to use a 2021 term). That’s one thing I’m sure of as we head into the final two episodes of this tasty, time-jumping 10-episode mystery series. However, I do think it’s possible that Kate is mistaken about seeing Jeanette for reasons we will find sympathetic. (More on that later.)
I’m going to dig into “Cruel Summer’s” 10 biggest questions and embark on some theories. I’m always wrong about these things (see my guesses for “The Killing” and “Gracepoint”), so take it more as a thought exercise than a guide.
“Cruel Summer” Season 1 (2021)
Tuesdays, Freeform
Creator: Bert V. Royal
Stars: Chiara Aurelia, Olivia Holt, Harley Quinn Smith
The neat thing about “Cruel Summer” is that we’re not looking for a killer, but rather a manipulator – if you agree that it’s not as simple as Kate framing Jeanette or Jeanette seeing Kate locked in Martin’s house but not saying anything.
SPOILER WARNING: Make sure you’ve watched the first eight episodes before reading this post.
1. Why the 1990s setting?
Creator Bert V. Royal (born in 1977) set “Cruel Summer” in the 1990s because he’s of that generation. It allows for era-specific fashions and songs (usually somber covers of radio hits from the likes of the Cranberries and Smashing Pumpkins).
But, more pertinent for the sake of theorizing, it allows for two recurring themes that will certainly play into the Big Reveal: gay oppression and drunken driving. Vince and Ben are gay, and Mallory and assistant principal Martin Harris show suggestions of being gay.
Most notably, Martin is uncomfortable when a student’s mom aggressively hits on him. And when Mallory rents out the roller rink for Kate’s birthday – a la Rocky’s romantic gesture to Adrian – it’s staged as if Mallory is gonna go in for a kiss at any moment.
Being gay caused stress and problems in the 1990s more so than today. Drunken driving is still a problem today, but it was a fresher problem in the ’90s.
Jamie (the boyfriend of Kate and later Jeanette) and Cindy (Jeanette’s mom) have alcohol issues, and when Kate starts drinking, this concerns Martin. Maybe he is looking for an excuse to get close to Kate, but maybe he actually is concerned – or both.
Vince’s mom died in a car accident. It is not stated whether that involved drunken driving, but it’s a tidbit worth filing away.
And, as I’ll discuss later, there’s one more reason for the 1990s setting: It’s important to set this narrative in a time when you can receive a phone call and not know where it came from.
2. Why don’t we know all the parents?
When a teen TV show features some parents but not all of them, it raises the question of who those unmentioned parents are.
We know Jeanette’s mom and dad, and Kate’s biological mom and adoptive dad. We know Mallory has a mom (who likes marijuana), but her dad goes unmentioned. We know Vince’s mom died in a car accident.
Since Kate is the co-lead character, it’s fair to wonder “Who is her biological dad?” Could it be Martin? Could the scenes where we assuming he is attracted to her also play naturally through a lens where he knows Kate is his daughter (but she does not)?
A snag here is that Kate’s mom, Joy, has interacted with Martin and there’s no hint of past recognition.
I noticed that Kate’s psychiatrist’s voice sounds like Mallory’s. Kate and Mallory have their first extended talk – and become friends – in the psychiatrist’s office. Mallory claims she’s a patient. But maybe she’s just hanging out at her mom’s workplace.
As we delve further in Mallory’s role in these events, it’s worth keeping in mind that her mother might also be involved.
3. Who is Annabelle?
So far, the mysterious Annabelle seems like an imaginary friend that Kate invented during captivity – maybe with the help of Martin and drugs. (We’ve already seen Martin put a sleeping drug in Kate’s grilled cheese.)
But Annabelle is more likely a real person, albeit not physically present in the basement.
I think it’s Mallory, and that she is the biological (possibly twin) sister of Kate. I think Martin could be the father of both. Perhaps he knows he is, but Kate does not, and Mallory does not at first – but finds out later.
Martin left his previous town after an incident with a student. Maybe that was Mallory. We know Vince and Jeanette are lifetime best-friends-next-door. It’s not clear when Mallory moved to town and completed the trio.
If Martin and Mallory already knew each other (but are keeping it secret), that requires all their scenes to be re-read that way. It’s also possible that Mallory learns Martin is her father partway through the narrative.
My theory is that Martin split from Joy upon telling her that he’s gay. She hates him, and by extension hates gay people. When Annabelle/Mallory shows gay tendencies, Joy abandons her. Annabelle gets adopted and her name gets changed to Mallory. Kate and Annabelle/Mallory would’ve been so young at this point that they would’ve forgotten they had a sister.
Maybe Kate’s memories come back when she’s in Martin’s basement and he accidentally calls Mallory “Annabelle.”
Perhaps the snow globe – introduced in episode eight — is the key to Mallory realizing she herself is Annabelle. Perhaps the globe was first at Martin’s house, then Jeannette steals it from Martin’s house as part of the girls’ list of pranks, and then Jeanette gives it to Mallory because she doesn’t want stolen goods at her house.
When Mallory acquires it, a memory is triggered (snow globes are often tied to memory in cinema) and she realizes Martin is her dad.
4. Is Mallory a red herring?
When a show gets us thinking about one character as the closing episodes near, odds are that person is a red herring.
Even setting aside “Annabelle” theories, Mallory has been involved in a lot of stuff in recent episodes. She videotapes Martin in his yard (with Kate in the living-room window behind him). She doesn’t notice Kate in the window at first, but I think – spurred by Martin’s strong reaction to the video – she’ll go back to the raw footage and see Kate.
Then perhaps Mallory leaves a truncated message on Jamie’s answering machine. (The snow globe sound effects can be heard in the background.) Perhaps she had intended to tell Jamie that Kate is at Martin’s house, but she gets interrupted. And the nature of that interruption – maybe by Martin — changes her mind about informing Jamie, or anyone else.
Here’s another angle. Mallory’s closeness with Kate could be read as Mallory being in love with her, or as loving her as a sister. Regardless of the nature of her love for Kate, she’s definitely interested in Kate’s situation, listening along to the psychiatrist tapes and joining her in vandalizing Martin’s gravesite.
5. How are Angela and Vince involved?
I think Angela is Vince’s aunt who is looking to find out the identity of the drunken driver who killed her sister. She moves to town and buys a bar, setting herself up as the bartender. It’s the ideal place to learn about people with drinking problems.
Vince and Angela meet at the video store and neither shows a reaction. This means they either don’t know each other, or that both are faking it – like the killers in “Scream.” Maybe they have a pact wherein they are both seeking out the identity of the driver.
6. What is Martin’s backstory?
Maybe that driver is Martin. That would explain his concern for Kate’s (his daughter’s) drinking problem. This requires that Martin’s current identity and appearance are different from in the past (something that’s also necessary to explain why Joy behaves like she does not already know Martin).
And that then requires that he successfully changed his face and identity. Granted, “Face/Off” and “Mission: Impossible” were big in the 1990s. But “Cruel Summer” has shown no sci-fi tendencies. So the idea of Martin being from everyone’s past, but no one realizing it, is a stretch.
7. Why is Kate convinced she saw Jeanette?
Now we come to “Cruel Summer’s” central question. Kate says she locked eyes with Jeanette through a window of the house, as the latter was departing. Jeanette says that never happened. Who should we believe?
Perhaps Kate saw Mallory video-taping the house (for the prank video in episode eight). She worries – for herself and for Martin – that people will find out she is there.
As the living arrangement shifts from voluntarily to captive, Martin (with help from drugs he gives to Kate) gradually convinces Kate that she saw Jeanette, not Mallory/Annabelle.
Martin needs to shift Kate’s thoughts away from Mallory, and he’s not a fan of Jeanette anyway. She’s a convenient scapegoat.
Also in the “Kate mistakes Mallory for Jeanette” evidence ledger, we can point to an event from early in the series where Kate and Mallory switch bicycles.
The bicycle switch is the type of detail that would not be included unless the writers want us to think about it. But it could be a red herring to get us thinking down the wrong path.
8. But Kate insists she saw Jeanette; how can it be someone else?
More likely, since the show centers on “Did Jeanette see Kate locked inside Martin’s house or not?,” we’ll see that pivotal encounter in the last episode. Again, the recording on Jamie’s answering machine (with the snow-globe sound effects in the background) comes into play.
If the snow globe was originally at Martin’s house, maybe Kate is the one who called Jamie (from Martin’s house, in a time before caller ID was widespread). Why didn’t Kate leave a message? Perhaps she was in a drugged stupor, and maybe she used all her energy to get to the phone and dial.
Maybe this is also the moment when Kate saw Jeanette fleeing the house, and they locked eyes.
If Kate is an unreliable witness here – perhaps because of being drugged – we’d have to ask why she mistakes someone else for Jeanette. Perhaps it’s because Jeanette’s necklace is left there – perhaps by someone who possessed it and accidentally left it. Or perhaps by someone who wanted to frame Jeanette.
If this pivotal moment does feature Jeanette breaking into the house with Kate present, it then raises the question of how to explain things from Jeanette’s perspective. Did she somehow not see Kate but Kate thought she did? Or did she see Kate and then choose to not say anything?
If it’s the latter (which is more likely), then we have to ask: What are Jeanette’s motives for not saying anything? We know the motive that paints Jeanette in a bad light: that she has happily taken over Kate’s social status and wants Kate to stay “missing.”
But maybe there’s a motive that paints Jeanette in a good light, thus preserving my core assumption that neither Kate nor Jeanette is a villain.
Or maybe Kate saw someone other than Jeanette.
9. If Kate didn’t see Jeanette, then who did she see?
Imagine that a drugged Kate locks eyes with someone – maybe they are wearing a hoodie that hides all but their eyes – and she’s not sure who they are, but then she soon spots Jeanette’s necklace on the floor. In her confused state – and maybe helped by manipulation from Martin — she could become convinced it was Jeanette.
But maybe it was someone else. Who else is doing this checklist of pranks and petty thefts with Jeanette? Mallory, for one.
Perhaps it is Martin who interrupts Mallory’s intended phone message to Kate’s boyfriend, Jamie. Maybe it even happens in Martin’s house as Mallory is stealing Martin’s snow globe. (Although it seems like the globe was stolen by Jeanette and then given to Mallory, this need not strictly be the case. Maybe Mallory stole it, gave it to Jeanette, and then Jeanette gave it to Mallory again.)
And there’s a third person doing the prank checklist: Vince.
Since Mallory holds a position in the narrative as the most suspicious person before the Big Reveal – the major red herring – then Vince could slide in as the actual person who saw Kate. As Jeanette’s best friend, he’s in her room all the time and has access to the Martin house key and Jeanette’s necklace.
After stealing Martin’s snow globe, he could then show it to Jeanette and Mallory, and then Mallory stashes it under her bed. Vince’s motive for not speaking up about Kate’s presence could be the same as Jeanette’s theoretical motive, but once removed: He wants his best friend Jeanette to continue to be popular.
Additionally, he doesn’t want to reveal that he is a thief. We’ve already seen – in the CD theft incident at the mall — that he and Jeanette are aware that the consequences will be worse for him, as a black youth without an influential parental figure.
It’s also possible that the scene goes on longer, and Martin convinces Vince to say nothing. They have the common bond of being gay, closeted and oppressed. Martin can be convincing; his “grooming” – another of those modern words — of Kate provides a trigger warning to start most episodes. Perhaps Vince believes Martin is helping Kate; it’s likely that Martin believes it himself, after all.
A more mundane possibility is that Vince – from Kate’s perspective – locked eyes with Kate yet he didn’t really see her.
Like the switched bicycles, glasses are a detail that writers think are important. It could be an indication of Vince’s lack of coolness, the same as Jeanette’s glasses during her nerd year of 1993. But glasses also indicate that the person needs them to see.
If Vince steals the snow globe and flees the house while not wearing his glasses, it’s possible he did not see Kate even when looking in her direction.
10. So who is the master manipulator?
Ben mentions a Rube Goldberg device in the first episode. He tells the lawyer he indirectly blames Jeanette for what happened to him, which we now know is an arm injury in Jamie’s car accident.
I believe various people trigger each step in the flow of “Cruel Summer’s” events. The narrative is a chain of cause and effect. So, like in one of the endings of “Clue,” I think “they all did it.”
A Rube Goldberg device needs to be started by someone, though, and my guess is Joy (Kate’s mom) starts this chain of action and reaction with her abandonment of Annabelle/Mallory. Then we must consider Martin, who is trying to reunite with his daughters. Then we have Mallory, who seeks out her father (Martin), but who keeps this under wraps.
Meanwhile, Angela (who is Vince’s aunt, under my theory) is trying to find out who killed her sister in the car accident. She learns it’s Martin, but now he’s dead. By this point, Angela is legitimately involved in the lives of Greg (Jeanette’s dad) and Jeanette, to whom she is an ally in the “Did she see Kate?” case.
Maybe Angela flat-out knows Jeanette is telling the truth, because Vince told her that he – not Jeanette – saw Kate trapped in Martin’s house. This would explain Angela’s unwavering belief in Jeanette.
So Angela will be important to the finale in that she’s the one who puts everything together. While attempting to solve one mystery, she accidentally solves this related one that springs from it.