The first day of school was quite eventful as it gave us a glimpse into the day Kate Wallis went missing, tackled Jamie’s guilt, and Ben’s accident.

Much like all the other episodes, Cruel Summer Season 1 Episode 8 was broken up into three timelines — 1994, 1995, and 1996 — in order to emphasize how different the first day of school was with each passing year.

In 1993, Jeanette, Mallory, and Vincent were best friends who just wrapped up their list, which as many fans believed, did play a crucial role in the overall mystery.

The final item on the list included breaking into the AV Club room to play their prank video, which included footage of Martin Harris getting sprayed down with a sprinkler as he left his house that morning. 

However, no one besides Mallory really seemed into completing the final item and holding onto the past.

Vincent was more preoccupied with his feelings for Ben, so he left his post to chat him up about losing their moms. 

Meanwhile, Jeanette was tired of being pushed around by Mallory and bullied into doing things that she didn’t want to do. 

When she saw Mrs. Wallis walking towards Mr. Harris’s office, she also left her post and eavesdropped on their conversation detailing Kate’s disappearance.

Without her lookouts, Mallory was a sitting duck when Martin walked into the AV club.

While the prank seemed harmless, he freaked out over the footage and gave Mallory detention. 

As he played back the tape several times, it became clear why he was so frazzled over something so trivial.

The VHS seemed to show Kate standing in his window as he left for work, which makes it the only piece of evidence connecting him to her disappearance. And that’s not good considering he just told Kate’s mother he had no idea where she was. 

Naturally, he stomped on the VHS to destroy it, but I wonder if Mallory held onto another copy. Or better yet, did she notice Kate when she filmed/ played it back?

Martin was very clearly in the circle of trust with the Wallis family, so he was able to control the narrative to some degree.

Joy made his office her first stop when Kate went off the radar and he lied straight to her face.

He even gaslighted her by encouraging her not to go to the police because they might view it as negligence.

Seriously, that should’ve made Joy rethink the whole situation, but as I said, she trusted him and thought he was giving her sound advice.

At this point, it seems as though Kate is still hiding out at his home willingly, but it’s frustrating that we’ve yet to see what transpired between them once she entered his home. 

Based on the previous episodes and how Martin didn’t have anything prepared for her downstairs including food or clothing, I don’t necessarily think he planned to keep her a prisoner. My guess is that once the cops were involved and the whole town was searching for Kate, he figured that things had gotten out of hand and he needed to keep her locked away so that she wouldn’t incriminate him.

Jeanette overheard this whole conversation and used it to get in with Jamie, who thought Kate was mad at him about the drinking from the night prior. 

Throughout the whole season, it seemed as though Jeanette “stole” Kate’s life, but from the looks of it, she simply fell into a more popular role in school following her glow-up, which started when she first got her braces off. 

Jamie was nice to her even before she changed her whole appearance. He was one of the few who noticed she got her braces off and commented on her pretty smile. 

Jeanette didn’t have to become a completely different person to get on his radar. And though she wanted that popular lifestyle, the guy, and the friends, it was a more natural transition for her than I previously thought. 

As was her falling out with Mallory. 

To be quite honest, Mallory wasn’t a good friend. She was pushy, judgemental, and controlling. She kept trying to manipulate Jeanette, and when she began blooming in her own way, she tried to push her back down a notch. 

It was a clear sign of someone who is jealous and feels their friend slipping away so they do everything to ensure that things don’t change. 

Eventually, Jeanette got sick of it and called her out, which led to their big public fight and the end of their friendship. 

Mallory is a tough character to crack. I haven’t gotten good vibes from her from the beginning, but I think it’s too obvious if she were to be involved or responsible for what happened to Kate. 

And though she clearly hates Jeanette, the hate was fueled by pain and hurt, so I doubt that she’d do anything to punish her or get revenge. 

Under the surface, there’s still some love there. 

In the present day, when Jeanette went by her house to get the snow globe, Mallory appeared indifferent, but in reality, she knew exactly where the snowglobe was, which meant that she still cared about Jeanette and their friendship on some level. 

But now there’s the mystery of the snowglobe. What does it symbolize? Why is it important?

And why did Jeanette think of it when she heard Jamie’s sinister recording of a girl breathing while a movie with the words “till death do us part” played in the background?

Did she recognize the movie? Did she think it was Mallory calling Jamie? What happened on Christmas Eve?!

Initially, I thought the recording might have indicated that Mallory was somehow involved, but Jeanette was more concerned about getting the snowglobe and didn’t seem too concerned about Mallory.

The episode also painted a full picture of how Kate’s disappearance ruined several lives. 

Jamie spiraled and began drinking to cope with his grief. Up until now, Jamie had come off as a selfish jerk, but underneath that facade, he’s just a guy whose world came crashing down after they found Kate. 

He didn’t know who to believe or who to stand by. In trying to defend Kate’s honor, he assaulted Jeanette and was then overcome with guilt after his actions led others to blame and torment her publicly. 

All of that pent-up guilt and rage led to Jamie’s drinking, which then led to an accident that destroyed Ben’s football career. 

In one of the earlier episodes, Ben tells the lawyers that he blames Jeanette for destroying his life. Aside from the obvious Kate and Jeanette drama, it’s one of the storylines that I’ve been most curious about. 

Ben got into Jamie’s car, who was under the influence. He sped off to Jeanette’s house to apologize to her and T-boned another car. He was fine, but Ben wasn’t so lucky and badly injured his shoulder.

Ben has every right to feel angry and resent what happened, but blaming Jeanette for what happened is unfair. 

Jeanette didn’t tell Jamie to drink, nor did she tell him to drive drunk. Those were his decisions.

Jeanette has been nothing but good to Ben and even kept his romance with Vince a secret since they weren’t ready to come out publicly. 

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that Jeanette has been painted as a villain mostly through no wrongdoing of her own. 

Jamie’s actions forced everyone to doubt her story. Kate’s tell-all put her in the spotlight as the bad guy without ever giving her a chance to refute the claims. And Ben blamed her for an injury that she didn’t have anything to do with. 

Now, I’m not saying Kate is to blame in any of this because she’s not; she’s also a victim who was groomed by Martin and thought he was a good guy that she could trust and confide in.

However, since she is the kidnapping victim, she’s avoided the scrutiny while Jeanette has bared all of it. 

That also doesn’t seem fair. 

The fact that Vince confronted Jamie about leaving Jeanette alone also indirectly led to the accident, so one could argue that it was a series of events that led to Ben’s injury, and everyone played a part. 

Even Jamie didn’t seem to think Jeanette was guilty when he apologized to her, which might mean that she’ll begin to have more people in her corner now. 

Of course, we still haven’t seen the moment in which Kate alleges that Jeanette saw her. 

Could it be the moment where they played a prank on Mr. Harris and she was standing in the window? Because if so, technically, Mallory and Vince should’ve seen her then too. 

Also, is it possible that Kate saw Mallory recording on Jeanette’s bike and assumed that Jeanette saw her being held captive?

And does this explain why present-day Mallory is so obsessed with being Kate’s friend? Is it stemming from some sort of misplaced guilt?

There’s also something off about Joy’s reaction to seeing Jeanette in the hallway back in 1993. Jeanette was all too eager to help the Wallis family, but Joy brushed her off and was outright rude to her. 

Why does she hate the Turner family so much? Is it because she wasn’t able to snag Greg?

There have been some theories that Greg may also be Kate’s father, which would make this that much messier. 

All I know is that there has to be more to Joy’s hatred of the Turner family. I don’t think she’d be that vile to the children simply because she didn’t like Cindy. 

Speaking of Cindy, we finally saw her reconnect with Jeanette in the present day, but her approach was pretty terrible. Jeanette’s obviously been through hell and back and finally has compelling evidence that casts doubt on Kate’s credibility, but her mother insisted that she drop the lawsuit because it’s a losing game for her. 

Is she trying to protect her daughter from more pain or does she continue to think her daughter is guilty?

Cindy seemingly left the house the moment she learned that Jeanette was lying about having the key, which led to the end of her marriage with Greg. 

She pursued her career, which, on one hand, is deserved, but on the other, does seem like an attempt to run away from the issues and abandon the family. 

The negative press was too much for her, but it was also when her daughter needed her most.

Greg might not be perfect, but he stuck around and vouched for Jeanette at every turn. 

We also find out that he made Jeanette come clean to the police about having Harris’s key and being in his home once before, which means Jeanette’s only hiding the fact that she went back there multiple times. 

And considering the allegations against her, I’m not surprised she kept that a secret. 

No one would even hear anything else if they knew she frequented his home.

Sadly, there was no movement on the Annabelle front, and while I’ve read some pretty out-there theories, I’m going to refrain from theorizing because I have a feeling that what the writers come up with will blow me out of the water. 

I’m hoping we get more scenes from Martin’s perspective as I like knowing what was going through his mind throughout all of this. 

I also want to see the alleged moment Kate thought she saw Jeanette while in captivity. 

What did you think of the episode? Do you think it’s fair that Ben blames Jeanette? Do you see Jamie in a new light?

What’s with the snowglobe? Is there something off about Joy? Who is Annabelle?

Let us know your thoughts and theories in the comments!