Tamal Kundu
The second season of ‘Cruel Summer,’ the Freeform anthology thriller series, is set in the fictional Northwestern coastal town of Chatham, Washington, and revolves around 17-year-olds Megan Landry (Sadie Stanley), Isabella LaRue (Lexi Underwood), and Luke Chambers (Griffin Gluck) and the time they spend together in the summer and winter of 1999. However, by summer 2000, Luke is murdered, and Isabella and Megan emerge as prime suspects. In season 2 episode 7, titled ‘It’s the End of the World,’ Megan’s past acts of hacking catch up to her. She discovers that someone close to her has been lying and decides to retaliate. Frustrated with what he perceives as inaction on the police’s behalf, Steve (Paul Adelstein) hires a private investigator to look into his son’s murder. Here is everything you might want to know about the ending of ‘Cruel Summer’ season 2 episode 7. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 7 Recap
The episode depicts the events of July 31, 1999, December 31, 1999, and July 31, 2000. In summer 1999, Megan wakes up with a hangover and the memories of the previous evening, when her attempts to confess her feelings to Luke went less ideally than she preferred. She muses whether this is a sign from the universe that she and Luke shouldn’t be together. Isabella dismisses the notion. As Luke burped into Megan’s mouth, she speculates that this probably just means he has a weak stomach.
Soon, Luke arrives at the Landry home, telling the girls that his father has tasked him to prepare the cabin for an upcoming storm. Isabella convinces Megan to go along with Luke. At the cabin, the childhood friends find a pair of radios they used to play with when they were younger. As they recreate their childhood game, Luke enters Ned’s property and runs into the man, who sets his radio on a better frequency before sending him on his way. Later, he reunites with Megan, and they share a kiss, effectively starting a relationship.
In winter 1999, believing what Luke told her, Megan acts coldly toward Isabella, confusing the latter. As Megan and Luke prepare to host a New Year’s Eve party, they visit a convenience store for supplies. Outside of it, Megan runs into Ned, who gets irked at Megan’s nonchalant attitude toward Y2K and shouts at her. Luke rushes outside the store and gets into a scuffle with the much older and stronger man. Ned threatens Luke, declaring that he is not worthy of Megan’s attention. At the party, Megan finally tells Isabella what she has heard from Luke, prompting the other girl to tell her the truth. Megan goes to speak to Luke and finds him bragging to his friends. Realizing what Isabella said was true, she patches things up with her, and together they plan to make Luke pay for his behavior.
In summer 2000, Megan discovers that she faces misdemeanor charges for earlier copying watermarks of a governmental organization to create fake profiles for herself, Isabella, Luke, and Jeff (Nile Bullock). Megan realizes if the University of Washington finds out about this, she will lose her scholarship. She runs into Jeff and tells him what has happened, prompting him to admit that he is the one who told Sheriff Myer about her involvement to save himself. She learns from Brent (Braeden De La Garza) that his father has hired a private investigator to look into the murder case, and they have found out that she has become a hacker for hire. She also learns that the Chambers family suspects Ned, especially because of the scuffle he had with Luke in winter 1999.
Megan goes to speak to Ned, who tells her he can’t help with the scholarship as there will already be paperwork. She leaves when she sees Steve arriving at the property, though she runs into Brent on the way. This section of the episode ends with Megan learning from her principal that she has indeed lost the scholarship.
Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 7 Ending: Did Megan and Isabella Kill Luke?
Brent, who has known Megan since they were all children, outright dismisses that Megan killed Luke. Steve seems to think the same and focuses on Ned. Brent warns Megan about this, urging her to stay away from the former Apple employee. Despite this, Megan heads to Ned’s home to tell him the truth. When she runs into Brent again, he lets her slip away, presumably still believing she is innocent. But the plans she made with Isabella and their actions after Luke’s death seem to imply that they were involvement something hours before Luke went missing. Megan witnesses Luke bragging to his friends that he has made moves on Isabella and hopes to have a threesome with her and Megan. These aren’t necessarily true. He tried to kiss Isabella when he started feeling alienated by Megan and probably lied to the latter because he was afraid that he would lose her.
However, this does demonstrate that Luke has a darker side to him, which is enunciated in this episode as he criticizes the closeness between Isabella and Megan not just in winter 1999 but in summer 1999 as well. Toward the end of this episode, just after the world enters the 21st century, Megan tells Luke that they should head to the cabin to celebrate privately. Isabella is probably there already. The upcoming episode most likely revolves around what happens between these three at the cabin. If Isabella and Megan didn’t actually kill Luke, they at least probably had something to do with the bullet wound found on his body. Otherwise, Megan and Isabella wouldn’t have hidden Luke’s bloodied clothes, and Megan wouldn’t have meticulously cleaned the bloodstains off the cabin’s floor.
Did Ned Kill Luke?
Ned is clearly not the most stable person in Chatham. Steve’s investigator has apparently discovered that Ned has stolen millions of dollars’ worth of intellectual property from his previous employers and put his boss in the hospital. When Megan asks Ned about this, he gets agitated and claims those IPs belong to him.
Steve believes Ned killed his son because of the scuffle and confronts the man. When that incident happened, he berated Luke for his well-intentioned but poorly thought-out behavior. We get the idea that the feud between Steve and Ned over their property line has been going on for a while, and it’s easy to blame the usual suspect for every horrible thing happening in your life. However, even if Ned isn’t the killer, the video footage recorded by his CCTV cameras likely holds the answers to the mystery around Luke’s death.
Read More: Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 6 Recap and Ending, Explained
