Black Knight

Essentially, there can only be one theory of the crime. The prosecutors would need to decide whether to charge Megan for Luke's murder, or Isabella for Luke's murder, or both of the girls together for Luke's murder. They can't just say to a jury, "Figure out which of those three scenarios you think is the most believable." The girls' defense attorneys would have a field day, since all it takes in the U.S. is reasonable doubt. Since Isabella and Megan are each claiming the other girl did it on her own, that makes the "they did it together" theory hard to prove in court in the absence of concrete evidence. And without a preponderance of evidence pointing specifically to one girl over the other, each of them saying the other did it makes it a toss-up. Since Isabella and Megan aren't friends anymore and don't trust each other, agreeing to just throw each other under the bus would be the smart play. They don't have the trust necessary to take the other option, that of both of them staying silent and stonewalling the cops. Each of them would be paranoid that while she stayed silent, the other girl would be accusing her of doing everything. Neither of them is willing to go to jail for the other at this point, but I do think there's just enough feeling left on both sides that they'd prefer not to have the other girl go to jail either if it can be avoided. Isabella is obviously somewhat stuck on Megan, and Megan acknowledged during interrogation that nobody else would have taken the rap for the sex tape, so I think she still feels a bit of a debt.

What was the tint of the scene? Blue is winter, green is summer 2000. Summer 1999 is basically normal lighting, the yellow turned up slightly to make it brighter. She wanted to remain clear-headed for the inevitable scene of Luke and Isabella accusing each other of stuff so she could better sort out who was lying. I don't think it'll come back up as there aren't any plot ramifications. It shows Megan didn't trust Isabella, but both we and Isabella already knew that. One thing that did strike me was at the police station when Megan and Isabella started throwing each other under the bus. The chief commented earlier about how their stories for being at Ned's matched up almost word-for-word. Well, so did their accusations against each other. Since the girls had already coordinated a story for the possibility of getting caught at Ned's, I wonder if they coordinated their turning on each other should the police come up with more evidence as well. Sort of an inverted version of the old trope about everyone confessing to the same crime so that the police don't know who to charge - if Isabella says Megan did it and Megan says Isabella did it, then it's a wash.

Well, at least the plot moved forward and we're one episode closer to the end. Since Luke knew Brent was taping sex with girls, and taped his sex with Megan, I wonder if he also taped his sex with Isabella. And did Isabella know this or not? We were shown that she knew Brent was taping sex with girls. At this point it seems like everybody knew it except Megan somehow. Ugh to Luke and Brent's dad. My guess for Luke's murderer is Parker. I don't know why or how that would have come about. I think it just because they keep going back to Brent's skeeviness for some reason, even though he's not the murder victim (and should have been). And Parker is just a pointless character otherwise.

I remember back then very well. Some people already knew about "no year zero" and others understood once it was explained to them. But a good chunk of the latter just didn't care. To a degree that's what many of the "well, actually" people didn't seem to get, that it's not that people didn't necessarily know or understand, it's that they didn't care. It was just too cool to see the numbers change from 1999 to 2000, and the change from 2000 to 2001 wasn't nearly as exciting, so the former is what people chose to celebrate, even if they knew about "no year zero." This season has a lot of issues, but to me, the biggest one is that the question of who killed Luke (if anyone did) just isn't that interesting, unlike S1's central question of "Did Jeanette see Kate in the house?" I love a good murder mystery, but this isn't it. For one thing, there hasn't been any real effort in building out a plausible list of suspects beyond Megan and Isabella. For another, Luke isn't a compelling victim - he's neither likable and sympathetic enough to make me care, nor is he awful enough to make me relish his death or (going back to the first point) engender a long line of plausible suspects. Sure, kissing his girlfriend's best friend, then throwing her under the bus to Megan after she rejected him, then engaging in some gross talk were all shitty actions, but they don't reach the level of making me want to see him dead. Brent would have been a better choice of victim, with just a bit of tweaking - have it so that he was not only taping sex with girls, he was blackmailing them with the tapes. Now you have an appropriately loathsome victim and can generate a long list of suspects with ease. There is something there with the triangle of Megan, Luke and Isabella that could have made for a compelling central narrative. And I think it's probably what the show is trying to do, make a twisty psychological thriller out of that triangle. But it's failed for a couple of reasons. First, the writing isn't very good, as mentioned by many posters. Second, Luke is poorly cast. I just read a few days ago that he actually played Paul Adelstein's son on Private Practice - a show I watched, but since that was quite a few years ago, I never connected the little kid from that with Luke here. It seems like Cruel Summer, for some reason, really just wanted to import the Private Practice family of Cooper, Charlotte and Mason to this show. Paul Adelstein is fine. KaDee Strickland is fine. But Griffin Gluck just does not work. It was a stupid sentimental casting choice. The actresses are being sabotaged by the writing too, but the casting in itself for those roles was not bad, especially with Lexi Underwood (who interestingly wasn't who was originally cast to play Isabella). I could see the promise early on with them, before the writing increasingly dragged them down.

I finally got around to binging this on Showtime. It took me a little bit of time to get back into the Lynchian headspace, as it's been a while since I've watched anything of his. It did make sense to me that the show started with Cooper in the Lodge and that it was mostly about his getting out and back to himself. As much as I have affection for the Twin Peaks characters, I didn't particularly see where most of them could go anyway, so I wasn't upset that there wasn't the soap opera stuff of the TV series and that this was mostly about Cooper's journey out of the predicament he was in the last time we'd seen him, 25 years before. Early Dougie was hard for me because I suffer secondhand embarrassment easily, but once he was able to start being effective in his own weird way, the storyline got a lot more enjoyable. I'm fascinated by the idea that Cooper actually succeeded in pulling Laura out of that universe before she was murdered, but then of course the Black Lodge got involved and kidnapped her and stuffed her into a timeline where the year is unknown. I read through the vaulted TP threads and there was some thinking expressed there that Cooper trying to save Laura was an example of Cooper trying to do too much, being messianic - and essentially that it was obviously a mistake for him to try to do that. But we don't know what Laura whispered into Cooper's ear at the start of S3, and I think it's significant that a snapshot of that moment was the image that S3 closed on. Cooper might have been acting on some information she whispered to him. Man, I really wish I knew what happened next...maybe someday.

I agree in principle, but it's likely that Kristin Davis wanted the body double. From what I've read, most actresses who are in a position to ask for a body double choose to do so, and Davis as a show lead and producer certainly has that power. If Davis is uncomfortable being filmed like that, it'd be wrong to make her. Her body is fine, but social media is vicious and there would be a lot of awful comments anyway, and Davis has already been through that with the remarks about her face. So I would understand her not wanting to put her body up for scrutiny too.

There was no camera taking a picture every 60 seconds. It's a security system where the door and window sensors let the server "know" that the doors and windows are all still closed like they're supposed to be, and if not, then the house gets locked down. And for that, you want date and time stamps. It's important evidence if someone breaks in. I wasn't surprised Luke threw Isabella under the bus. After all, in the car, he claimed that he'd thought Isabella was feeling it too. But Isabella had just got done telling Luke that she didn't regret breaking up with him so Megan could have him. He tried to gaslight Isabella, so of course he then went and threw her under the bus. I did not miss Luke's dad or brother in the last episode. Whoever drowned Luke should feel free to drown them too.

I honestly don't think that's what Cynthia Nixon means. The cameo by all accounts is a short one - hence, "cameo." She's right that if fans go in thinking it's going to be a longer appearance, they'll come away disappointed. She's also not wrong that it's unfortunate that the cameo leaked; if it hadn't leaked, fans would have simply been delightedly surprised when Samantha appeared onscreen. Instead, there will be people who will be disappointed when the scene turns out to be like 30 seconds of Samantha onscreen. It's not about worrying that fans will want more of Samantha in future seasons; Kim Cattrall has already stated that this cameo is it and she's done. And when you look at all the restrictions she put on the cameo, it's obvious that she couldn't come back for any kind of actual storyline.

I did read an interview with him before this season was dropped in which he was upfront about it, so I knew going in and wasn't surprised. I think the problem is that in this expansive media universe no interview is going to be read by everyone. Some people like to scour for everything they can find about a show or celebrity or whatever that they're interested in; some are more casual and will read or view what they happen to come across, but won't specifically search; and others either don't care at all about reading/viewing outside related media content or prefer to go in unspoiled. Maybe Black Mirror can do an episode about that next season! That would certainly be tech-related. As for this episode, I really enjoyed it. The two leads were great. So Boney M is real? I'm going to have to check out some of their music. Also, this episode makes an interesting bookend with Knock at the Cabin - a film adaptation of the Tremblay novel that was released at the start of this year, and for which I then read the book after seeing the movie.

That's true! And let us not forget "Donna Martin Graduates!"

He said he stopped watching when he saw Luke on the tape, because he didn't want to watch his brother having sex. I think Brent is a sleaze and a liar, but that does seem plausible enough. I think a lot of guys would not consider that jerk-off material.

Yes, covid testing for some jobs still exists. My best friend was required to take a covid test upon arrival at the summer camp where she's teaching for two weeks.

At least now it makes sense why Megan remains so insecure about Luke and Isabella in the winter timeline. Luke didn't make a choice between the two girls; Isabella just walked away. Sure, doubtless Luke has said something to Megan about how he really prefers her, and that may even be true, but since he didn't leave Isabella for her, Megan can't be sure she's his first choice. In contrast, Megan actually left Chet for Luke. To boot, Isabella and Luke both come from money, and we can see how Megan feels like Isabella and Luke understand each other in that way, and do not understand her.

Yeah, they fooled me. When I read "surprise visit from her past" in the episode description, I assumed we'd be meeting Lisa. Instead she's dead! This season has been uneven so far, but between last week's pregnancy reveal and this week's Lisa reveal, they do do a good job with the cliffhanger shockers. Megan is such a sourpuss that I roll my eyes at how everyone is super interested in her. But I did agree with her that her pregnancy being leaked to the newspapers is a last straw where Isabella is concerned. I know it was technically Isabella's lawyer who leaked it, but Isabella has had a loose mouth at least once already. And of course Isabella on her way out the door tells Debbie there's something else Megan is hiding and where to find it. Definitely not a person to be trusted as far as the secret-keeping goes. It was nice to have a break from Luke's brother and dad. I'll be interested to see if Luke just goes along with Isabella passing him off to Megan, or if he at least kicked up a bit of a fuss first, just on general principle that he does have a say too?

Please be sure to use Che's/Sara Ramirez's correct pronouns, they/them.

I freely admit I don't want to go back and rewatch to confirm, so I could be wrong, but I vaguely recall the summer 1999 timeline had some sort of confirmation that they were involved. The thing with Megan's parents seemed like a one-off rather than something ongoing - like for some reason he came to see her, she fell back into old feelings, and they kissed. So I didn't view it as something that meant that she wasn't already seeing Steve by then. Particularly since she and Steve don't exactly seem locked down - we haven't heard them say they love each other, for instance, have we? And we can see that they're not engaged or married or living together on a permanent basis. I can easily see Debbie having a makeout session with her ex while being involved with Steve. Setting aside the theory that it's Isabella Megan is really into (whether platonically or romantically) for a minute, just to explore another possibility that we did get support for in this episode: People can feel very uncomfortable with the idea that they owe someone else too much, and sometimes will turn on that person for that reason. Some people do not like to feel grateful. Megan wouldn't accept a dime from Isabella in this episode, clearly because she did not want to owe Isabella even more than she already does. And we have some backing for Megan being someone who thinks like this, because she was so horrified in an earlier episode to learn her dad was funding her lawyer, and was yelling about how she was going to pay him back. A different kind of person would take the view that her dad hasn't been there for her up to now, and so the least he can do is pay for her lawyer now that she needs one. And Megan learned this, to some degree, from her mother. Debbie mentioned that she'd never asked Megan's dad for anything before the lawyer. And with Steve, Debbie didn't want to ask him for the money for the plumber, so what she ended up doing was creating a situation where Steve felt like he owed it to her to get her the plumber.

Agreed, and I was happy to hear the nod to that in this episode. It's not Megan's mom's doing though; she was dating Steve first, and then Megan started dating Luke. Megan and Luke really should have abstained from dating given their parents' pre-existing relationship, but teens can be stupid. But I wouldn't expect two grown adults to end a relationship they've been in for some time because their idiot teenage children decided to start dating as well. Most teen relationships have a short shelf life to begin with, and Megan heading off to college is an obvious breaking point. There's a theory that it's really Isabella that Megan is drawn to (platonically or otherwise), and a lot of the above makes sense with that theory.

Damn, Megan got pregnant? That reveal gives this story a shot in the arm. So - allegedly - Luke was planning to run away. I theorized last week that two of the core trio were planning to run away together, so I kind of lean towards believing this about Luke. And now the sex tape is shocking enough to kill a business deal, because an investor is just so horrified that a wealthy guy's teen son would be having sex. LOL I believe this even less than I believe the scholarship nonsense. What do investors care about? Potential profits from their investments, that's what. But if we must play along with this stupidity, that means there's another potential motive for putting that sex tape on display - that is, it wasn't aimed at embarrassing any or all of Megan, Luke or Isabella, but was instead intended to kill Steve's real estate deal. Heh on Isabella being totally fine with staying at the bar without the boys and Megan not really caring either. And yet another reference to Lisa. They're making a lot out of how much shit Isabella is taking in order to cover for Megan. Makes me think that in the present day, Isabella has the biggest secret of all and Megan's covering for her as payback. Maybe Isabella was supposed to run away with Luke and things went wrong somehow. It's hard to see Megan leaving her mother and sister no matter how fed up she might get with her mother, but Isabella has no real relationship with her own parents.

Manfred is there to be a lightning rod that distracts from the owners. I don't like him either, but that's whom he works for and that's where the real problems reside.

Megan always knew it was herself on the video. She's not surprised when she sees her face. What she was looking for was if her face was clearly shown, because of the stupid plot point about losing her scholarship if people know it's her. She doesn't actually watch the whole thing; she stops as soon as she sees her face, because that's what she needed to know. Isabella does say "I'm sorry" in that scene, but not as an apology. It's meant as an expression of sympathy, just like we all say to people when something awful has happened to them that we had no role in. Of course initially the writers wanted us to think she meant it as an apology so that hopefully we would be surprised in a few seconds to learn it wasn't Isabella in the video.

I've been wondering if two of the core trio of Isabella/Megan/Luke had decided to run away together, and that's what the bag of money was for, to fund their new life. Then the third person found out, maybe by following one of the others to the cabin, there was a confrontation, and Luke ended up dead. Megan's jealous a lot. Isabella's jealous a lot. Luke isn't jealous yet, but could become so at some point. Luke hates his family life. Isabella is alienated from her parents. Maybe during the winter of 1999 Megan became convinced she was going to get outed and lose her scholarship.

Luke dropped some sex tapes Brent had made off at the PD. Since some of those tapes involved underage participants, they would be child pornography. Isabella and Brent's ex-girlfriend must not have found and destroyed all the tapes when they broke into the house last week.

I've decided to pretend the scholarship is being funded by some sort of abstinence-only group that aims to encourage teen girls not to have sex by offering them a financial path to college if they abstain. And now I'm just going to not think about it again, because it's all too stupid. The cop should have stopped paying attention to Steve's blather when he looked over at Brent and saw him smirking. Steve's promise to handle Brent was empty. Of course we saw all that amounted to was a short lecture. So it seems like Jeff and Megan may have hooked up the first summer and then she dropped him for Luke. I wonder how Jeff makes his money, and if Megan and/or Isabella then did the same in order to get the money that was in that bag. Why did Megan wait until Luke's body was found to clean the cabin? And did she know that bag was there and purposely leave it?

The final twist was conceived when they were shooting E4, which was before the halfway point of the show. It wasn't a last minute idea.

Yes, back in S2 when Saanvi was testing experimental medications on herself trying to save Zeke, she became manic and needed medical attention, but she didn't want to go to a doctor for fear she'd be reported for illegal experimenting and lose her job and lab. Alex was the only doctor she trusted, so Zeke went and convinced Alex to come treat Saanvi. That's how Zeke and Alex met.