There were quite a few characters opening up in the latest episode of Freeform’s Cruel Summer, which is great because it gives us more insight into their lives. Also in the installment, titled “You Don’t Hunt, You Don’t Eat,” the Wallis teen prepares her defense, the family goes on their annual hunting trip, and an anonymous letter sends accusations flying. Here’s what went down on the new hit series‘ fourth episode.
July 15, 1993 | The Wallis’ family take advantage of their Hartwood membership and head to their annual hunting trip — a tradition they had started 10 years prior. As a thank you for escorting Kate home safely after the garden party, Kate’s mom, Joy (Andrea Anders), invites Martin Harris (Blake Lee) to come along and join the festivities. Kate (Oliva Holt) proves to be a really good shot as she successfully manages to aim and shoot at the flying clay targets. The gun shots, however, make Martin a bit jumpy. “You get used to it,” Kate assures him. “The startle — you get used to it.”
Kate approaches her step-sister Ashley (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) to talk about what she had heard not too long ago while he was on the phone. “I kinda overheard something that made me think that dad was having an affair,” she tells her. Ashely was having none of it, saying that a rumor like that would tarnish his integrity, legacy and everything he worked for — and even says if anyone was to cheat in the family, it would be Joy. “That woman should come with a gold digger warning,” Ashely says. As for Kate trying to her best to be sisters, the other is just not into it. “Stop trying.”
Unable to sleep, Kate sneaks out at night and finds Martin lounging under the stars. They both start to talk about and bond over the many different constellations in the sky and how different they appear in different parts of the world. They then come to the topic of family. She explains that family business isn’t supposed to be discussed outside of the family, but no one in her family wants to talk. Martin opens up to Kate, revealing that when he was Kate’s age, something really tragic happened to his family — his father had committed suicide. “I stuffed it down and I never ever talked about it,” he says to her. This, he says, is why he’s jumpy about guns.
July 15, 1994 | Kate’s parents make her go see Sylvia, a therapist. When the teen tells the woman that she doesn’t really know what to talk about, the therapist assures her that “this is a safe space.” “I used to think that the world was safe,” Kate responded, adding that her room felt like a safe space, but now feels like a cage. Kate goes on to say that the world kept spinning around her, and now that she’s back, everything looks spoiled. She asks if she can help her fix that. “We can do the work,” Sylvia says, “weed through your memory, your trauma together, and we can process it.”
Sylvia explains that it is common after a traumatic experience that people protect themselves from ugly truths, some things can’t be remembered, or a memory is replaced with one that makes them feel more comfortable. “I remember every second of it,” Kate tells her. “Do you want to talk about it?” Sylvia asks. Kate recounts what happened early on during her captivity to her therapist, explaining that in the very beginning, she and her captor were both learning their roles. She didn’t know what he was planning, what his intentions were, and just how twisted his mind was. “That was almost the worst part,” she says. “I was a lion in a cage and he was the lion tamer.” She goes on to explain that after her initial attempt at freedom by trying to escape, things got much, much worse.
Kate recalls a moment where Martin crouches over her as she lays disoriented on the floor, about to pass out. “This part will be over soon,” he cryptically tells her. What happens next, we can’t even imagine. However, after she regains consciousness, who knows how long after, she finds that the basement has been filled with jugs of water, toilet paper, groceries and other supplies. This can only mean one thing: Kate isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
After her therapy session, Kate runs into Mallory (Harley Quinn Smith) in the waiting room. “I’m also here to see Sylvia, so your secret’s safe with me,” Mallory tells her. Curious to find out why she’s there, Kate asks why she’s also seeing a therapist. “I’m in for being the child of divorce,” Mallory reveals. “The other stuff is pretty heavy, verbal abuse heavy.” Kate wonders if Mallory is even supposed to be talking to her, considering her friendship with Jeanette. “Oh, we’re not friends anymore — at all, actually,” she says to Kate. While they have a moment over their woes, Mallory makes a confession that she disliked the girl with a pony, “like, a lot.”
The police bring in Joy and Kate and deliver the bad news that the Wallis’ don’t have a case against Jeanette Turner. The necklace that Kate had found, claiming it belonged to Jeanette, had fingerprints that were inconclusive. They informed Joy that they can’t go after the Turner girl without hard evidence and the worst they could do was give her community service.
Back at home, Kate catches Ashley snooping on her computer. Her sister apologizes for being a “crappy” one. Kate says that she’s tried for years to have that sister relationship with Ashley, only to have her words twisted and left alone to fend for herself. “I am sorry I left you alone,” Ashley says earnestly. Kate says that their parents have been married for a decade and that she and Ashley are pretty much strangers. Ashley really wants to change their relationship and says that talking can help, and offers to listen. Kate rejects her olive branch after saying she has a therapist she can talk to about her issues.
Ashley tells Derek (Barrett Carnahan) that she wishes Kate would know her more, but is constantly being shut out. He tells the story about a puppet, which gives Ashley the idea to approach Kate from another angle. She enters the “Abduction Victims” chat room under the guise of “Berenice4” and strikes up a conversation with Kate, “Traumarama79.” “You’re a lifesaver,” Kate tells the online stranger after being invited to a private chat room.
July 15, 1995 | Kate and her family’s reputation is in jeopardy. Jeanette has been preparing and building her lawsuit against the Wallis family in secret for months. Their lawyers explain that Jeanette alleges that Kate knowingly spread false information causing her to suffer damages. Kate assures them that she doesn’t lie and that they can ask anyone. “It’s not just your integrity in question, it’s your memory,” the lawyers tell her. “Your legal victory lies within the consistency of those details. We’ll go over the details together and that’s how we prepare.”
Of those details, Kate recounts that she was in captivity for months when she heard someone break in. She goes on to say that before the intruder left, Kate was able to peer through the cages placed on the windows and was able to see Jeanette fleeing the scene. “I saw her, she saw me. We held eye contact. I’m sure of it.” Kate’s lawyers say that her entire time in captivity is “fair game,” adding that Jeanette’s team will try to remind the jury that Kate was traumatized in a way that could affect her memory, which won’t help their case at all.
Joy comes up with the idea to show Kate in a good light by using their annual hunting trip to fill their friends’ minds with the correct narrative to spread around town. “Especially Babs Stevenson, who has a big mouth,” Mama Wallis says. While there, the Wallis matriarch corners Mallory and accuses her of sending an anonymous letter, reading “Liar,” to their household. “Kate may trust you,” Joy says to her, “but I don’t.” Mallory shares this with Kate, who has just about had enough of it. She joins the bonfire filled with the family’s hunting buddies, and tells a story that’ll “send shivers down your spine.”
Kate tells a story of a girl named Annabelle, who found herself in the woods on a dark night all alone and vulnerable, on a hunting trip with a family full of hypocrites. The story continues where the alone Annabelle wasn’t alone anymore, as she’s joined by a man who the grownups trusted. Annabelle trusted him too, because she was just a child. “That trust lead to something unspeakable,” Kate says. “And I think that puts blood allover their hands, don’t you think? They are all responsible for what happened to her. They better have all their stories straight, ’cause Annabelle sure has hers.”
Back at the Wallis house, Kate contemplates listening to her therapy session recordings, while Mallory tries to convince that it’s not a good idea. “Sylvia said listening to your own tapes can be really scary,” Mallory tells her. In an effort to get her story straight, she decides to revisit what happened to her in order to feel confident about what she’s going to say in court. “My own memory of my time down there is the only reference I got,” Kate tells her. “The other person didn’t make it out alive.”
Kate scrubs through one of her therapy session tapes on her cassette player and stops at one very crucial moment. “He came downstairs right before I was rescued and something was different, something was wrong,” Kate says in the recording. “And that was when I met Annabelle.”
“Who was Annabelle?”
“I can’t remember.”
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What a crazy episode! Here are other bits we wanted to point out:
• Was Annabelle ANOTHER girl Martin abducted and held her captive in his basement? Is she the one Kate was referring to when she said “the other person didn’t make it out alive”? Or was it Martin she was talking about? Could Annabelle be another persona Martin had forced Kate to become for some sick, twisted fantasy?
• Anyone notice how Kate was playing Solitaire?
• We LOVE Andrea Anders, who plays Joy in the show. We also loved her delivery of this gem: “The truth shall set you free, and throw that little bitch in jail. I just gotta grab my lipstick.”
• We saw that Kate has really good shooting skills. Could she have been the one who shot and killed Martin? Remember, there was a gunshot heard in the first episode. Could this have been when Kate successfully escaped?
What did you think of the episode? Let us know in the comments below!
Cruel Summer airs Tuesdays at 10pm on Freeform.