History YMMV / CruelSummer

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Jeanette's cravings for attention, her constant lying, manipulation and at times stilted emotional reactions (when she heard Kate pleading for help in Martin’s basement, she stopped herself from helping Kate and even smiled at the thought of Kate being gone and being able to become the most popular girl in school). This suggests that she might be {{the sociopath}}, or a personality disorder.

** The Creator/OliviaRodrigo album “Sour,” is especially popular with fans of this show, thanks to the release of the show and the album lining up, and especially with how well so many songs off the album fit the show— “jealousy, jealousy” for Jeanette’s feelings about Kate; “brutal” for Kate’s character; “traitor” for the Kate/Jamie/Jeanette triangle; “deja vu” once again for the triangle, more specifically the ReplacementGoldfish elements; “favorite crime” for both Jeanette/Jamie and Martin/Kate’s toxic relationships; and so on.

* SignatureLine: “Jeanette Turner, I hope you rot in Hell.”

** Kate and Mallory’s friendship has a lot of [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship romantic undertones to it.]] Particularly, in "Happy Birthday Kate Wallis", Kate and Mallory wake up in bed together (albeit entirely clothed) in 1995, and Mallory surprises Kate by shutting down the roller rink for the day so that they can have the whole place for just the two of them. Mallory is also treated as a positive {{Foil}} to Jamie in the episode: Kate mainly spends her 1993 birthday with Jamie and her 1995 birthday with Mallory, but Jamie ruins her birthday with his ItsAllAboutMe behavior while Mallory actively shields Kate from anything that could ruin her day. Jamie also expresses a desire for the two of them to be just like Kate's parents when they grow up and gives her a promise ring with a green gemstone, with the heavy implication that Kate doesn't want either of those things. Mallory, on the other hand, encourages Kate to break free of her mother's influence and gives her a green Ring Pop, both of which make Kate happy. It's hard to watch the episode and not conclude that Mallory would be a better LoveInterest for Kate than Jamie was. [[spoiler: Turns out to be intentional, with the two of them kissing at the end of Season 1.]]

** On the other end, many fics deal with [[spoiler:Jeanette being caught.]]

* TheWoobie: Kate Wallis is all but forced by her mother into acting like an impossibly perfect daughter, and once she discovers that her mother is having an affair, the stress and emotional burden she’s under is taken advantage of by Martin, who uses this as an in to groom and manipulate her. Finally confronting her mother and admitting that she knows about the affair is resulted in Kate being slapped and verbally abused by her mother, leading Kate to run away to Martin’s house. Once she’s there, Martin escalates his grooming and eventually starts a romantic and sexual relationship with her (while she is too young to consent and he is in a position of power over her), and coerces her through manipulation into staying alone in his house for months. When the loneliness and homesickness start getting to Kate, she sneaks out to see her parents- only to find them seemingly happy without her- and returns to Martin’s feeling she truly is alone without him. Martin later confronts her about sneaking out, guilt tripping her about the trouble he would’ve been in if she were caught, and Kate finally realizes that he’s her kidnapper and demands to be let go, only for Martin to trick her into going into the basement, and then locks the door. He keeps her there for months, drugging her food and tormenting her with the fact that her friends and boyfriend have moved on with Jeanette, as well as reminding her that she went to his house. After several months, Martin traumatizes Kate once again by holding a gun to his head and threatening suicide, which leads to Kate grabbing them gun and shooting him herself, in self defense, despite part of Kate still loving him. Jamie kisses Jeanette and then tries to gaslight Kate when she confronts him about it. After years of loathing her, Kate finally learns that Jeanette [[spoiler: didn’t actually see her, but instead her best friend Mallory did, and Kate is riddled with both guilt and the realization that her friend had been lying to her— which is thankfully alleviated when Mallory makes it clear she initially didn’t know it was Kate. And then it turns out Jeanette really had known Kate was locked in the basement.]]

* FanficFuel: [[spoiler: What would have happened if Jeanette had let Kate out of the basement when she found her begging for help?]]

* MoralEventHorizon: It oould be argued that [[spoiler: before she gives Jeanette blessing to sue her for being wrong]] that Kate using her 15 minutes of fame to destroy the life of a classmate is a pretty harsh act. Even if it's a coping mechanism by a survivor of a brutal kidnapping.

** In "Happy Birthday Kate Wallis", Kate and Mallory wake up in bed together (albeit entirely clothed) in 1995, and Mallory surprises Kate by shutting down the roller rink for the day so that they can have the whole place for just the two of them. Mallory is also treated as a positive {{Foil}} to Jamie in the episode: Kate mainly spends her 1993 birthday with Jamie and her 1995 birthday with Mallory, but Jamie ruins her birthday with his ItsAllAboutMe behavior while Mallory actively shields Kate from anything that could ruin her day. Jamie also expresses a desire for the two of them to be just like Kate's parents when they grow up and gives her a promise ring with a green gemstone, with the heavy implication that Kate doesn't want either of those things. Mallory, on the other hand, encourages Kate to break free of her mother's influence and gives her a green Ring Pop, both of which make Kate happy. It's hard to watch the episode and not conclude that Mallory would be a better LoveInterest for Kate than Jamie was. [[spoiler: Turns out to be intentional, with the two of them kissing at the end of Season 1.]]

** Jeanette's personality and motivations in general are hard to pin down--is she a lying sociopath, a mostly-innocent person caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, or somehow both? The Season 1 finale highlights this well: [[spoiler: while she really didn't see Kate in Martin Harris' house on the night Kate claimed, she ''did'' hear Kate calling out from the basement when she broke into the house again some time later and chose not to let her out for as yet unknown reasons.]]
* FanficFuel: [[spoiler: What would have happened if Jeanette had let Kate out of the basement when she found her screaming for help?]]

** Did Mallory’s vocal hatred for Kate before they become friends in 1994 come from having a repressed crush on her? Or from jealousy over Kate’s seemingly perfect life? Or Both?

** In "Happy Birthday Kate Wallis", Kate and Mallory wake up in bed together (albeit entirely clothed) in 1995, and Mallory surprises Kate by shutting down the roller rink for the day so that they can have the whole place for just the two of them. Mallory is also treated as a positive {{Foil}} to Jamie in the episode: Kate mainly spends her 1993 birthday with Jamie and her 1995 birthday with Mallory, but Jamie ruins her birthday with his ItsAllAboutMe behavior while Mallory actively shields Kate from anything that could ruin her day. Jamie also expresses a desire for the two of them to be just like Kate's parents when they grow up and gives her a promise ring with a green gemstone, with the heavy implication that Kate doesn't want either of those things. Mallory, on the other hand, encourages Kate to break free of her mother's influence and gives her a green Ring Pop, both of which make Kate happy. It's hard to watch the episode and not conclude that Mallory would be a better LoveInterest for Kate than Jamie was.

*** Kate believed she was there (she had her necklace as proof and was likely hurt because she seemed to like Jeanette). So when she finds it and realizes/believes Jeanette did nothing about her being held prisoner, she’s hurt. She becomes angry because Jeanette in her point of view stole her life, so not only was she not set free for god knows how long but once she was eventually saved believed that Jeanette let her stay there to have her life, you can understand why she she told everyone Jeanette saw her. (All we know is that she had Jeanette’s necklace which doesn’t prove anything, but still.)

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: A 'lot,' given the nature of the show’s plot.

** In "Happy Birthday Kate Wallis", Kate and Mallory wake up in bed together (albeit entirely clothed) in 1995, and Mallory surprises Kate by shutting down the roller rink for the day so that they can have the whole place for just the two of them.

* LesYay: In 1993, Jeanette’s admiration of Kate can really come off as also having a crush on her— and Kate seems to find Jeanette’s awkwardness endearing, and even speaks to her defense when Kate’s mom insults her. There is also a long HeldGaze between the two of them, while "Rebel Girl" (whose lyrics are... not terribly subtle in their subtext) plays in the background.

** A lot of fans of Series/PrettyLittleLiars love this show, being mysteries centered on a popular girl’s disappearance and the question of who can be trusted— it also helps that both shows are from the same network.

* FriendlyFandoms: A lot of fans of Series/PrettyLittleLiars love this show, being mysteries centered on a popular girl’s disappearance and the question of who can be trusted— it also helps that both shows are from the same network.
* LesYay: In 1993, Jeanette’s admiration of Kate can really come off as also having a crush on her— and Kate seems to find Jeanette’s awkwardness endearing, and even speaks to her defense when Kate’s mom insults her. There is also a long HeldGaze between the two of them.

[[folder:The movie]]

** [[GuiltRiddenAccomplice Calvin]], too.

* {{Padding}}: Some scenes drag on far longer than they should, such as the arcade scene and the playground one.