Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 10 Endgame Explained- Who Killed Luke And What Was The Final Gotcha Moment?

It’s endgame time. Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 10 tricked us by serving up the person we most medium suspected as the killer. However, that was just the beginning of the twists and turns in the finale. Some reveals confirmed things we already suspected, others were chilling reminders that people are cable of terrible things, and some wear stunning faces while lying straight to our faces. Was it the Season 2 finale as good as Season 1? The entirety of Cruel Summer Season 1 was fantastic, but Cruel Summer Season 2 held its own when looking at just the finale. Justice was served for some, but a sociopath is still on the loose. Here’s everything you need to know about Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 10, who killed Luke, and who got away with it.

A much more concise episode split time between the early morning hours and a few days following Luke’s death and August 2nd, 2000. Although a few things remained unanswered, namely what happened to Megan’s baby, enough details were patiently doled out to keep us riveted to the screen. In the end, it was the tale of two sociopaths. Here’s what we were led to believe happened to Luke.

Luke paged Brent, and he was the person we saw arrive on the dock. Luke was injured, drugged, drunk, and desperately sad. Brent came to help because he loved his brother. He was a bully and a monster in the making with his callous disregard for the women he taped and the physical abuse he inflicted on his brother, but he loved Luke. The boys fought when Luke, in a masterful performance by Griffin Gluck, lamented that he always thought he was better than Steve and Brent. His entire identity was defined by it, and when he realized he was no better, he was crushed.

The videotape he made of Megan, playing the tape at the Christmas party to benefit himself without considering what it would do to the girl, constantly lying to protect his reputation, and smack-talking with the boys are all pages right out of his family’s playbook. Luke wanted to be a better person. Maybe he could have been if things had turned out differently. Little by little, we learn that Brent and Luke argued about what their family had become and what really happened to their mother. Brent and Luke’s mom was drunk driving, and Steve blamed it on Luke to protect the family from scandal.

Brent, who had a bad temper, got angry, and the boys fought. Luke went into the water, and Brent tried everything he could to find him. He went home and told Steve everything, who looked for Luke before devising a plan to plant the idea. Luke ran away to the Coast Guard. When Luke’s body was found months later, he pivoted to blaming his death on anyone besides Brent. Isabella and Megan presented good choices after Ned proved to be unequivocally innocent.

The only problem was that Steve failed to recognize Brent loved Megan and had a shred of decency left. Brent went into the police station and asked to speak with Megan, who had been arrested for Luke’s murder. Brent confessed to what happened on the dock to save Megan. He knew the Sherrif would be listening. Steve’s part in the coverup was revealed shortly after, and he was arrested.

Who really killed Luke in Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 10?

Despite being shown the altercation between Luke and Brent, that wasn’t the entire story. Luke managed to swim to shore and was clinging to the edge, barely breathing. Brent didn’t kill his brother accidentally. He was still alive when Brent left to go home. Isabella returned to the dock in the early morning hours of January 1st, 2000, after Brent left and found Luke nearly unconscious. She put her boot on his head and pushed his face into the water until her drowned. Because of the drugs and alcohol in his system, he could not fight back, and he drowned. Isabella then pushed him out into the water, where he sank.

The clues were there. Isabella was cold and calculated when she wasn’t on fire with love for Megan. Despite her extracurricular online activities and fake ID talents, Megan had a solid moral compass. She wanted to return and untie Luke. Isabella wanted him to suffer and pay for what he did. At 8:00 am on January 1st, 2000, both girls returned to the cabin at Megan’s behest and found Luke missing. The girls continue to argue about what to do, and Isabella takes the confession tape and says she will destroy it. We find out later she didn’t destroy it. She altered it. We also know the idea to write a fake goodbye note in Luke’s handwriting was Isabella’s. Megan knew Luke so well she could fake his handwriting. Curiously Steve never questioned the letter despite knowing what Brent told him.

Megan didn’t give up hope that he would come back right up until the day his body was found. She loved Luke, and her love for him ultimately drove the wedge between Isabella and Megan. Isabella saw Luke’s potential to be exactly like his father and brother. More importantly, she saw his ability to get in the way of her friendship with Megan. The girls argue about who was to blame and everything Megan is involved in now. In the previous episode, it is evident that Isabella likes drama and loves Megan. She cares only about having a good time and having her best friend all to herself. That kind of attention can be intoxicating, and Megan got sucked in.

By August 2000, the girls had few cards left to play. Ned’s camera footage shows Megan’s car coming and going, but also Steve Chambers’ car. Isabella’s advice to place blame on each other worked, which should have been a red flag to Megan. Isabella knew too much about getting away with murder. Almost certainly, Megan killed Lisa after they argued, and Trevor suspects it. This is why he acted so odd around her when visiting. Steve had Isabella investigated and found out what Trevor suspected about his sister’s death.

Isabella is delusional. She is a Swimfan, a bunny boiler, and a crush gone very, very wrong. She moves from one relationship to the next, clinging to the fantasy of the perfect enduring friendship. Maybe it is because her parents never showed her love, or perhaps she was just born bad. We have no way of knowing, but Isabella’s end game has always been to keep Megan to herself. When it became apparent Megan saw through her lies, she gave the altered confession tape to the Sherrif and left town.

Why did Isabella kill Luke and make Megan look guilty?

When it became clear that Megan was through with her, she used the tape she had been secretly keeping as leverage. If she couldn’t have Megan, no one else could either. Isabella is a scorched earth, burn it to the ground kind of girl who isn’t afraid to blow up her life to invent a new one. She has gotten away with it so far. Likely she killed Lisa, who coincidently died the same way and got away with that. She didn’t expect Steve to plant evidence in the cabin implicating her, and she underestimated Megan, who looked poised to get some serious revenge after seeing the recording from the camera pointed at the dock.

There wasn’t justice for everyone. Brent got a redemptive moment after confessing to his brother’s death, and Steve looks like he will lose everything he has so carefully protected. Megan lost her scholarship, but Ned is still looking out for her and offered her a job with an old colleague needing a coder. Luke died without being able to apologize for everything he had done, but through Brent’s story, at least Megan knows his last thoughts. Unfortunately, Luke’s real killer isn’t in jail, though.

In the closing moments, we see Isabella on a plane to Ibiza, talking to another girl around her same age about her best friend. She is talking about Megan the same way Isabella talked about Lisa when she first moved in with Megan and her mother. She is also now going by the name Lisa. This is a pattern for her. There could be a trail of bodies in her wake, but finally, she made a mistake. Megan is intelligent, capable, resourceful, and very motivated. The final shot of her looking furious, shocked, and very resolved tells us Isabella’s days are numbered. Have fun while you can, Isabella, cause Megan is coming, and her excellent friend Ned is adept at digitally tracking people and more than a little obsessive.

Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 10 ended well, even if the first part of the season dragged a little. There are a few unanswered questions, like the baby and why everyone thinks Megan was a freak in 2000. She was well-liked and popular. Wearing dark eye shadow and clicking her hair back should not have made her a town pariah. That was a pretty common look for the time. Did Isabella make everyone turn against her to drive Megan back to her?

We will never know. It wasn’t the cleanest storyline, but it was satisfying. In the end, Luke really is dead. Isabella did it, not Brent, and she has probably committed murder before. I didn’t have all the pieces perfect, but I had enough right to claim a victory. There has been no news on Cruel Summer Season 3, and with the strike, it doesn’t look good, but summer wouldn’t be the same without this sudsy teen thriller. Find all our Cruel Summer coverage here.