Who Killed Luke Chambers in ‘Cruel Summer’ Season 2? Ranking the Suspects
Cruel Summer Season 2 has taken us into a whole new world of murder mystery.
Following three different timelines (like the first season), it brings the audience into a small town in Washington called Chatham through July 1999, December 1999, and July 2000, flashing back and forth with different lighting techniques. This season centers on Megan Landry (Sadie Stanley), her mother Debbie (KaDee Strickland), her best friend turned boyfriend Luke Chambers (Griffin Gluck), and an exchange student Isabella (Lexi Underwood) who comes to stay with the Landrys to be a part of a community and “have that normal American high-school experience that I’ve always seen in movies.
The twist of this season: Luke is murdered. Many of the characters’ connections with him lead the audience to various theories of who is innocent and who is not. Let’s take a deep dive into each suspect and discuss the murderous possibilities of these teens so far.
Cruel Summer, Mondays, 9/8c, Freeform
Suspect #1: Megan Landry
Megan begins the season as the innocent, intelligent computer science nerd who protects her mom and supports their family immensely. She clearly doesn’t let her guard down easily, which is why it takes her so long to warm up to Isabella. We know that she gets a scholarship to her dream school University of Washington, she dates Luke in December 1999, and he’s murdered in July 2000.
Though Megan seems like the last person to commit murder — despite her darker, piercing-filled look in July 2000 — some clues indicate it is her. Though they eventually become best friends, she and Isabella are competitive from the beginning, especially over Luke. This gives her a motive because Isabella was involved with him before they dated; in December 1999 in Episode 4, at his house, Megan found her bathing suit in his bathroom, suggesting something else was going on. Could Megan have wanted to murder Luke because of the potential cheating and anger towards Isabella?
In December 1999, a sex tape is leaked at Luke’s father’s holiday party, and at first, the audience believes it is Isabella due to the pink sweater; however, we soon find out it was actually Megan. Isabella acted as a true best friend and covered for her (to keep her from losing her scholarship). This tape adds to Isabella and Megan’s feud because she starts to use it against her when they are both questioned about Luke’s murder in July 2000.
In July 2000, Megan is shown scrubbing blood off the floors of Luke’s cabin, throwing away the bloody cloth, and looking incredibly guilty when Luke’s body is carried out of the lake. Sheriff Mayer (Sean Blakemore) also lets us know that Megan was the last person to see Luke after the New Year’s Eve Party, and she lies that she dropped him off at home (she didn’t). The sheriff also explains that her prints were found on the gun used to kill Luke and the cabin was mysteriously cleaned, despite the family not being there for months.
In July 2000 in Episode 4, she admits to her lawyer that she knew he was going to run away and they went to the cabin before he disappeared. The sheriff then accuses her of killing Luke because she was pregnant and he may have rejected raising a family with her, and now the bloody sheets and all her motives are in question.
Suspect #2: Isabella LaRue
Isabella is the most mysterious character of the season. As a young woman who has moved around her whole life and has diplomats as parents and quite a juicy (most likely illegal) history, she is a great candidate to be the murderer.
In July 1999, Isabella arrives at the Landry household, hoping to start over in a small town. She immediately takes an interest in Luke and asks Megan if she can make a move on him. Megan initially lies about her feelings for him, and Isabella and Luke kiss and hang out like a couple. It is then revealed that Megan and Luke are dating by December 1999. This could be her motive. She likes Luke and makes her move, and as soon as they start getting close, Megan reveals her feelings, and Isabella backs off. However, those burning feelings of jealousy don’t go away so quickly.
We know Isabella has a dark past because of her suspicious stories, that she attended three different schools in three years, and other unknown secrets. In July 1999 in Episode 5, Trevor (Olly Sholotan) surprises Isabella and mentions the murder of his sister and her best friend, Lisa, to whom she had been writing letters (and not sending them). She drowned in St. Barts, and though nothing is explicitly said, it is incredibly telling of what she could be capable of. (As Trevor puts it, “You know Iz. She’s capable of absolutely anything.”) Isabella’s lawyer also confirms that she had to hide something like this before, referring to Lisa’s drowning, and it was covered up because of her diplomatic immunity.
In July 2000, when Luke’s body is found, she immediately turns to Isabella and says they need to get their stories straight, suggesting they were involved somehow. Her backpack is discovered at Luke’s cabin with a lot of money inside and her prints on the gun, though she claims to have not been there since July 1999.
In Episode 6, Megan finds the police reports that say Isabella convinced her friend Lisa to go swimming while drunk the night she died, along with the fact that she fled St. Barts overnight by helicopter after that incident.
In December 1999, Luke tries to kiss Isabella at The Plunge, even though he’s with Megan, adding to her motive to kill Luke. The question is, would she kill Luke so neither of them could have him or so she could have Megan all to herself?
Suspect #3: Ned
Ned (Ben Cotton) is first seen in the premiere, when Megan and Luke are kissing in his abandoned cottage in December 1999 and they hear gunshots. They look outside and see Ned (at this point a stranger) shooting birds.
In July 1999 in Episode 4, while Megan is coding to produce fake IDs for her and her friends, an AIM chat box comes on her screen from the username CBABBAGE5 that mentions something about helping her with shortcuts and they are a really good teacher. She seems very secretive about receiving these messages, implying something ominous or dangerous about the person messaging her. In December 1999 in Episode 5, Isabella sees Megan flirting with Ned at the diner, follows her in her car, and sees her going into his house and giving him a gift.
Next, we find out that CBABBAGE5 is Ned, and he helped her change her report card and most likely helped erase anything suspicious on her computer before the police got their search warrant and gave advice on how to hack the Feds. And in Episode 6, more is revealed. Ned promises to pay her for some help dealing with his security software, and he eerily locks her in the room while she’s helping, all while she is missing The Plunge, which she never skips. He also creepily says he doesn’t get visitors and quickly unplugs his devices — and the camera focuses on a locked closet he tells her not to pay attention to. Megan also tells Ned how Luke doesn’t understand her passion for computer science, giving him more leeway not to want them together.
Though nothing has been revealed yet, Ned could easily be in love with Megan and capable of doing anything to have her, including killing her boyfriend. Luke also knows about Megan’s visit with Ned because Isabella tells him out of concern for her safety. Could Luke have said something to him that set him off?
The proximity of his home — and the fact that Luke was at his cottage when he disappeared — seems too good to be true. Also, he and Megan make direct, prolonged eye contact after Luke’s body is pulled out of the river. If he’s not the murderer, he might definitely be an accomplice.
Suspect #4: Jeff
Jeff (Nile Bullock) is one of Megan’s close friends who has had a crush on her from the beginning. In July 1999, when Isabella arrives, Jeff comments that there’s no better host than Megan and proceeds to zoom in on her using the film camera he brings everywhere. (The use of the camera is very clever and may come up later in the season since he is filming almost everything.) The whole friend group meets at Luke’s cabin for the weekend, and Jeff brings scary movies, including Halloween, one of Megan’s favorites. Megan and Jeff tease each other outside, and she grabs his camera, forcing him to let his guard down for a moment. He calls her cute, and it is clear that he has feelings for Megan. In Episode 4, after a night of drinking, they kiss, and Luke is shown to be jealous.
In December 1999, after the sex tape is released, he tells Megan that he knows it’s her because he’d know that laugh anywhere and it used to be his favorite thing about her. Isabella and Megan yell at him that he can’t tell a soul, and something about his commentary seems more creepy than complimentary.
In Episode 6, returning to July 1999, Jeff is flirty with Megan at Luke’s birthday party. Jeff invites her to go to Whidbey with him and his family in August, and she is too distracted by Luke and Isabella to answer, leaving him ignored and alone. She says yes to being partners with Jeff for beer pong, then goes with Luke. Jeff realizes that Megan loves Luke and breaks up with her. Though not the murderous type, he loves Megan and sees her fall in love with Luke right before his eyes. Also, whoever filmed the sex tape remains a mystery, which could easily lead back to him. Jeff could have gone to extreme lengths to try to make Megan his again.
Suspect #5: Brent Chambers
Simply put, Brent (Braeden De La Garza) is a terrible human being. Is he capable of murder? Who knows at this point? From the start, he has made constant inappropriate jokes to his brother Luke about his life and every single girl on the show. He flirts with Isabella at the pool party, and she can only get him to stop by threatening to tell his girlfriend.
After the sex tape is released, everyone thinks it was him; he supposedly had filmed himself before. He confesses to those tapes and swears he didn’t record Megan and Luke, but Luke still brings the tapes to the police. Brent doesn’t get into legal trouble because of their dad’s (Paul Adelstein‘s Steve Chambers) power, but his secret is revealed. He knows it was Luke, which may be his motive for killing him.
In Episode 6, he is shown making jokes about Luke, deflecting his sadness, and admitting he’s not a good brother to him. He also makes it clear to the Sheriff that he thinks it’s Isabella, which could just be him trying to place the blame on someone else. Though Brent is unlikely… no one is innocent yet.
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