Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 5 Review: All I Want for Christmas

The more isn’t always the merrier when a blast from Isabella’s past complicates her future on Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 5, “All I Want for Christmas.”

Trevor, Isabella’s friend Lisa’s older brother, visits her in Chatham and stirs up plenty of memories — and problems. Ultimately, he serves as the deus ex machina Cruel Summer needs at this point in the season.

He pulls Isabella’s cards away from her chest during his trip and drops that bomb about Lisa’s death in the episode’s final minutes. The latter gives Megan the momentum to retaliate against how Isabella’s lawyer used her pregnancy against her.

The former, though, underscores one of Cruel Summer Season 2’s greatest flaws — the underdevelopment of Luke’s relationships with Isabella and Megan.

It’s frustrating considering Isabella names how much closer Luke and Megan are than she and Luke, but “All I Want for Christmas” never proves Isabella and Luke’s compatibility.

The episode features a milestone for Luke in his first sexual experience, and Cruel Summer misses an opportunity to hear the characters speak about their feelings and why he would want to take that step with Isabella — and vice versa.

For a second, it seems like the show will give Luke and Isabella the space to have a conversation, but the script quickly switches gears to Isabella’s prioritization of Megan, which is hopefully the point Cruel Summer wants to prove.

Hopefully, Season 2 wants to reiterate how this friendship — at least for Isabella — will come above all else, including any deeper connection with a guy she likes. That distinction could result in a complicated motive for Luke’s murder if Megan needed a “ride or die” to help her out of a dicey situation.

Otherwise, there’s no lost love or overwhelming emotions between Isabella and Luke that would spur her to kill him. In fairness, the same is true between Luke and Megan. So far, Cruel Summer tells more about their relationship in Summer 2000 than it shows in Winter 1999.

However, the turn of Megan admitting her feelings for Luke in Summer 1999 gives enough hope that the next episode will show more of how the two fall for each other. It would be beneficial to the connection that the show keeps playing at — with the Matrix references — to see them communicate in more than passing conversations.

Not only would that aid the season’s mystery and make more than Luke’s dad and brother viable suspects, but it would also support the characters, their interpersonal relationships, and their motivations.

It’s strange that the show struggles to establish those core relationships when it builds up to Megan and Ned’s dynamic seamlessly. 

From his established presence in the town on Cruel Summer Season 2 Episodes 1 and 2, “Welcome to Chatham / Ride or Die,” to the hints in Megan’s chats on Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 4, “Springing a Leak,” his reappearance on “All I Want for Christmas” works. It’s also brief enough to raise suspicion.

Cruel Summer Season 1 did a fantastic job of repeatedly reminding its audience and characters about the criminal nature of Kate and Martin’s dynamic, and it always positioned Martin as the perpetrator and not someone with whom to sympathize. 

It was refreshing because that level of accountability about teacher/student relationships on teen dramas isn’t common. “All I Want for Christmas” shows just enough of Megan and Ned’s dynamic for red flags to raise in apprehension that the show may be breaching a similar storyline.

The addition of Trevor and the further incorporation of Ned plays out better in connection to the overall story than characters like Jeff and Parker. Cruel Summer eventually finds its footing with Jeff’s relationships with Megan and Luke, but it starts rocky. Alternatively, it has yet to dive deeper into Parker.

The two-episode season premiere teases a more prominent role for Parker, but the show has yet to explore a potential friendship between her and Isabella in Winter 1999, let alone any independent characterization.

For instance, Parker is present on Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 3, “Bloody Knuckles,” but only in Summer 1999, as Brent’s girlfriend, who is rightfully annoyed with him. But those interactions reveal more about Brent than they do about her.

Though she may not be one of Sheriff Myer’s main suspects in Luke’s murder, Parker is one of the characters he questions about the events, like Jeff. Her relevance to the mystery and the characters is evident, but Cruel Summer has yet to explore why.

So, even where “All I Want for Christmas” makes steady progress, its slower pacing makes it a concern that there’s still much ground to cover.

While it’s great that this episode breaks new ground between Debbie and Megan, it still feels like the show is building to a larger movement of that needle — between the mother and daughter or Debbie on her own. 

Even so, the anticipation of movement within other dynamics always comes second to that with Megan and Isabella, and Cruel Summer Season 2 only has a limited number of episodes left to deliver those arcs and revelations.

Until then, the ones that play as lines crossed and bridges burned between Megan and Isabella unfold with greater effectiveness than anything with Luke or others thus far because of the unparalleled prominence of their dynamic. If Cruel Summer wants engagement around this murder mystery, it must turn the tide.

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Cruel Summer airs Mondays at 10/9c on Freeform.

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