The penultimate episode ofCruel Summer: I’m Just a Girl in the Worldedition, told entirely from the perspective of poor, doomed Luke, has unfortunately forced me to consider the possibility that this whole season would have been better if it had been told from his perspective to begin with. Instead of the usual three time periods, “The Miseducation of Luke Chambers” toggles between the fall of 1999, where we witness his infection with toxic masculinity brain worms, and the night of his kidnapping by vengeful ex-girlfriends.
Seeing Luke relentlessly bullied by his brother and his father, as well as his (not entirely meritless) fear of Isabella actively taking Megan away, doesn’t excuse his descent into late-’90s bro culture, but it does lend it some narrative logic. In September, Luke is still happy enough to blow off the guys in favor of kicking it with his two best girls. But the more Megan makes plans with Isabella that don’t include him, sometimes even forgetting about him entirely, the more Luke succumbs to Brent’s taunts that he isn’t man enough to keep her. “Megan is smart, and she’s hot now,” Brent points out. While this is obviously nonsense, I can see how the brain of a 17-year-old boy might get there. Especially one who’s had as much insecurity literally beaten into him as Luke has.
Steve doesn’t exactly encourage Brent to torment his little brother, but Luke can certainly sense his father’s tacit approval of Brent’s style of masculine aggression. And Luke may reject Steve’s plan for his future, but he definitely still wants his approval. You see, Steve expects Luke to follow in Brent’s footsteps and go to Branson to study business, but Luke wants to join the Coast Guard instead (this is what happens when you give your son a cop for a mentor). Meanwhile, as the distance between himself and his father grows larger, Luke finds that Megan no longer reliably provides the same safe space she once did. Suddenly, she and Isabella are planning summer Eurotrips and No Doubt concerts without him, and she’s bailing on plans in favor of clubbing with her new BFF. And all the while, Isabella is dropping provocative hints for him to chase his own dreams and leave the Megan side-kicking to her. Perhaps Luke surmises from all of this that he’s been doing manhood all wrong. I don’t know. In any case, he follows Brent’s terrible advice to secretly film himself and Megan having sex. And what’s more, after a particularly violent dustup with Steve duringthatChristmas party, he is the one who accidentally (it appears accidentally) gave the party planner the wrong VHS tape to play for the assembled guests.
Luke catches heat from his dad for the revenge-porn debacle, which we’ve already seen, but he is declared a god-king among his male peers. Unfortunately for everyone, Luke decides to lean in.
This leads us to the young Chambers’s current predicament — tied to the bed frame in his family’s remote cabin, shirtless, drugged, and getting half of his ear blown off by Isabella, who claims she never meant to pull the trigger of the gun pointed at his head. Luke screams that Isabella is a “crazy bitch,” understandable under the circumstances, and Megan frantically tries to bandage his bloody ear. Iz decides the best plan of action is to take the incriminating tape from the video camera to use as leverage against Luke (againstLuke?!) and skedaddle, which she promptly does, leaving Megan alone with their captive.
Why did Megan choose this moment, of all possible moments, to tell Luke that she’s pregnant? We may never know. But this is the choice she makes, and Luke, still tied to the bed and nursing a gunshot wound, does not immediately volunteer to teen parent with her. Instead, he suggests going to his dad, who probably knows somebody who can help them “take care of it.” Now, if Luke were not currently tied to a bed with a gunshot wound, I’d say Megan’s sense of outraged betrayal was justified. As it is, I simply cannot condone Megan’s next move, which is to tearfully tell Luke she never wants to see him again and leave him as he is.
Thus abandoned, Luke heroically manages to untie himself and stumble out of the cabin, insults and accusations from all his loved ones ringing in his ears. He finds himself at the edge of the dock and uses his pager to send one desperate plea for help. We still don’t know who killed Luke — it could be Megan, Isabella, or Ned. It could be a wildcard character like Brent or Jeff. Luke might have thrown himself off the edge of the dock. All we know is that whoever Luke paged, he wasn’t expecting this person to actually show up to save him.
Clues to Watch
• Jeff, echoing Isabella, says that Luke is even worse than Brent because at least Brent doesn’t actually think he’s a good guy. This has put Jeff on my personal suspect list.
• I’m guessing Isabella hasn’t destroyed the videotape of herself shooting Luke in the ear, which would be stupid but on-brand.
• We still haven’t figured out what Isabella’s money was doing in the cabin, have we?
