Diksha Sundriyal
Prime Video’s ‘Cruel Intentions’ recreates the erotic drama delivered by 1999’s film of the same name. The story centers around two step-siblings who come up with a deal, the delivery of whose terms will get them both exactly what they want. After a hazing incident, Caroline is entirely focused on getting Annie, the daughter of the Vice President, to join her sorority at Manchester College and make all the problems vanish. She tells her step-brother, Lucien, to charm his way into Annie’s heart and mind and nudge her in the right direction. In return, he will get to have Caroline, which is what he’s wanted all along. As Lucien embarks on this quest, he starts to have real feelings for Annie, which complicates things a lot. Still, what happens between them shows the true measure of Lucien’s feelings for her. SPOILERS AHEAD
Lucien’s One Complication With Sex Keeps Him Away from Annie
When we first meet Lucien, he seems like a spoiled, hedonistic person who doesn’t care about anything or anyone. The only person he seems to be invested in is Caroline, and while he does have sex with a lot of girls, it is clear that he is doing it to distract himself or to serve Caroline’s plots. A major pattern that emerges over time is his habit of making videos of himself and the girl while having sex. In fact, never in the show do we see him have sex and not record it. It is a weird habit, but it turns out to be more than just a kink. It shows the true extent of Lucien and Caroline’s messed up relationship. While Caroline won’t let Lucien sleep with her, there is an arrangement between them where Lucien shares all the videos with Caroline.
It’s their weird way of being sexually connected while not having sex. It also makes Lucien’s flings more meaningful for him as he tells himself that he is doing it for Caroline, and obviously, the girls don’t mean anything to him. But then, when the time comes for him to sleep with Annie, he encounters deep problems with this arrangement. For one, it seems that Lucien cannot seem to have sex without recording it. It isn’t just that it turns him on, but the lack of recording and not sharing it with Caroline seems unnatural to him, and in some ways, it makes him feel as if he is cheating on her. It shows the true extent of his devotion to Caroline, but it also proves how psychologically messed up he is, and he doesn’t realize it until he is on the verge of getting intimate with Annie.
It’s different with her because, over the course of trying to seduce her for Caroline, he has actually developed feelings for her. Unlike other girls he’s had sex with, he has actually taken the time to get to know her and befriended her. Against his best efforts, he has grown to care for Annie, and this is in great conflict with his feelings for Caroline. While Annie agrees to let Lucien record them having sex, she also expresses her faith in him, saying that she knows he will never share it with anyone. Lucien assures her that he wouldn’t, but he knows he is lying because the first thing he’ll do when he walks out of the room is share it with Caroline. For a minute, Lucien starts the recording, but then, he decides not to go forward with it. He is still devoted to Caroline, which means he cannot have sex without the video being made. But at the same time, he cannot break Annie’s trust, so he decides not to go forward with it.
Lucien leaves Annie, who thinks he will return, and goes to Caroline. His intention is to tell Caroline that the deal is off. It is his attempt to break away from Caroline once and for all, and in doing so, he also hopes to end the whole thing of sharing videos. His feelings for Annie prevent him from putting their relationship on display for Caroline, which is what he tries to tell her. But she lashes out when she hears about it and tells him he is completely unlovable. Her words have such an impact on Lucien that he completely ditches the idea of sleeping with Annie, at least for the time being, and doesn’t get to make things up with her because, by the time he comes around to it, Caroline has already caused enough damage. Still, things change a lot by the end of the season, and we see Annie calling Lucien. This shows that there is space for resolving things between them, and they might just have a happy ending. However, the journey to that ending won’t be so easy, all thanks to Caroline.
