We’re here again to review Cruel Summer! After what we discovered in the previous episode, Cruel Summer 1×07 “Happy Birthday, Kate Wallis” returns with even more disturbing truths and, finally, some characters had the heart to heart they needed.
Here we go!
Cruel Summer 1×07 “Happy Birthday, Kate Wallis” gives us all the important and dark answers. There was a missing piece in this story. How did Martin get to Kate? And in this episode all the doubts are cleared up and the truth is really disturbing. Martin had already been weaving his web on Kate for a few episodes.
Somehow, he managed to sneak into her life. While Kate’s life is full of lies, grudges, facades and people who don’t understand her, who don’t listen to her (including Jamie, seriously, didn’t you realize that the girl is 16 years old and doesn’t want an engagement ring? Let her live, for God’s sake.) She feels totally disconnected from them.
Her father is wonderful … but he lives deceived by her mother. Her mother is … pure facade, pure lies, pure appearances and she doesn’t even have the courage to accept the truth when Kate exposes her. She just … keeps lying.
And Jamie … Kate feels like she’s too mature for him. She sees him fooling around with his friends and she feels thousands of light years away from him. He’s so immature, so … childish. He doesn’t understand her, he doesn’t know her, he doesn’t know what is happening in her life or is interested in it. He didn’t even realize that she didn’t want that ring and that she felt like she was being pressured.
As always.
They always pressure her to do what everyone thinks she should do. Jamie, her mother … but no one asks her what she wants to do.
And in the middle of all this, Kate finds Martin. She feels that he is always there, supporting her in her most vulnerable moments. Understanding her, being so … mature, so old, so upright, so kind and understanding. Kate feels that she can trust him like she cannot trust anyone.
He is her refuge. A secret refuge, where no one can reach her, where she feels safe, secure, cared for, where she feels that someone understands her and that, finally, someone cares about Kate. Not about appearances if not her.
So when a fight with her mother ends absolutely horribly … she takes refuge in Martin … and falls down the rabbit hole. Martin is never going to let her out of there and manipulate her with the way things happened, blaming her because what is happening, that he has her kidnapped, that he rapes her, that he abuses her … is her fault.
And I want to kill him.
Seriously, can I? I don’t think anyone is going to miss this disgusting pig.
Of course it’s not Kate’s fault. The only culprit here is that trash. I do understand Kate’s point about her mother, though. They just … miss each other but it’s hard for both of them because her mother doesn’t know how to approach her – although, of course, writing those notes is not the proper way, it’s quite disturbing, actually – and Kate … in a way blame her for what happened. For her to go to that house.
If it hadn’t been for her lies, if she had told the truth … it was all part of what allowed Martin to sneak into her life. That she trust him. And Kate can’t forget that. That she went through the worst, bordered by the lies of her mother. Everything mixes in her head and in her heart. Kate’s own guilt blaming herself for trusting him – although she doesn’t have to blame herself at all but she inevitably does – and the reason why she did.
And now her mother is there. Trying to control her life one more time. Trying to lie one more time. Making the same mistakes … and she just can’t take it anymore. The two explode and have a heart-to-heart talk. Kate’s mother loves her and she also feels guilty about what happened.
Every day she has to live with those regrets … and she could not protect her from that monster … but she is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her from everything that may happen to her now … even if that sometimes means that she doesn’t leave Kate breathe … and she has to.
In the end, the two come to an understanding. Behind all that guilt, that rage, that anger … they miss each other. They miss just being a mother and daughter. And the best thing is that, from now on, they can rebuild their relationship in a healthy one and not as toxic as the one they had before.
Perhaps this is the wake-up call that Kate’s mother needed to realize that appearances are not everything … and to stop lying because her marriage was mortally damaged because of that.
As for Mallory, it seems that her friendship with Kate is sincere but … I don’t know why, something tells me that she is more important than she seems. She is becoming a key character. First, she was very close to Jeanette and now she is very close to Kate. Both close friends and she knows the secrets of both … we’ll see …
On the other hand, Jeanette now has an ace up her sleeve: the virtual conversation between Angela and Kate in which Kate admits that she is hiding part of the truth. This ace is very powerful because it destroys Kate’s credibility. Until now, everyone believes her and no one doubts her, but if this conversation comes to light … the situation would change.
And here ends our Cruel Summer 1×07 “Happy Birthday, Kate Wallis” review. We will be back next week with a new one!
Agree? Disagree? Don’t hesitate to share it with us in the comments below!
Cruel Summer airs Tuesdays at 10:00 p.m in Freeform and you can stream next day on Hulu.
