Cruel Summer season 2 episodes 1 and 2 recaps: Which years are the new season set in? 

Cruel Summer is back with another season, and for those who aren't aware, this time, the showrunners have decided to go with the anthology route instead of continuing the plot from the first season. This formula might, in fact, work out for them as it did for some popular crime/drama series like True Detective and Fargo.

Moreover, many would even agree that season 1 received a befitting conclusion and carrying the story into the new season would be redundant.

Season 2 of Cruel Summer is set in the late '90s and early 2000s. It revolves around the lives of two young girls named Meghan and Isabella and is set in Washington this time around.

Episodes 1 & 2 were titled Welcome to Chatham and Ride or Die, respectively. They were both released on June 5, 2023, on Freeform.

Disclaimer: Major spoilers ahead.

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Cruel Summer season 2 episodes 1 and 2 recap

The story kicks off with a focus on Megan and her family, which consists of her sister and her mother. It's July 1999. The family lives in a small town which has a ton of water bodies. And most businesses in the area are owned by Luke's father. Luke is Megan's friend and she has a massive crush on him.

One fine day, an exchange student named Isabella moves in with the family. The episode then took a small jump to December 1999, when it was revealed that Meghan and Isabella were now inseparable and had become the best of friends.

Megan wanted to go to the University of Washington to study computer science on a scholarship, while Isabella, who had traveled all around the globe just wanted to be in her native country on New Year. Like Megan, Isabella too had a crush on Luke but she kept it a secret. However, Meghan had sensed her friend's feelings.

It was then revealed that Meghan, in fact, got the scholarship and had approached Luke, but her world came tumbling down when she realized that Isabella had also hooked up with him. A s*x-tape of the two of them was shown at Luke’s dad’s Christmas party.

The story then moved to July of 2000, and featured Megan as a full-blown goth. It was also revealed that Luke had been missing for quite a while.

Soon after, a local radio station announced that a body had been discovered in the lake and unsurprisingly, the corpse in the body bag turned out to be the missing Luke.

The episode ended with Isabella confronting Megan. Isabella said that they needed to get their stories straight in order to stay safe, which clearly means that the duo were involved in Luke's death.

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Cruel Summer synopsis

Created by Bert V. Royal, Cruel Summer is a teen drama/thriller anthropology series.

The official synopsis of the new season reads:

"Set in an idyllic waterfront town in the Pacific Northwest, the next chapter of “Cruel Summer” follows the rise and fall of an intense teenage friendship."

It continues:

"Approaching the story from three different timelines surrounding Y2K, the season twists and turns as it tracks the early friendship between Megan, Isabella and Megan’s best friend Luke, the love triangle that blossomed, and the mystery that would impact all of their lives going forward."

Season 2 is led by Sadie Stanley as Megan Landry and Lexi Underwood as Isabella.