Headscratchers / Cruel Summer

• Why would this make national news, even in 1994? This is very much a local matter
  • A kidnapping victim turned out to be alive after several months; that's newsworthy as most victims that have been missing that long turn up dead.
  • It's also quite likely her kidnapping quickly became a national story. For one thing, Missing White Woman Syndrome is a very real thing and Kate meets the profile (pretty, young, upper-middle to upper class) that tends to get a lot of coverage. To top it off, her stepfather is a famous ex-NFL player. Combine the two and this was guaranteed to get national media attention.
• Kate knew she was untruthful about parts of her story. So why would she accuse anyone else of withholding truth? If Jeannette was there and knew stuff, then she could call Kate out on her lies.
  • Kate thinks that Jeanette saw her on Christmas Eve, which would give her a pretty solid handle on what (if anything) Jeanette knew, most of which she could explain. She had genuinely no idea that Jeanette saw her again (or where/when). Also, the trauma of her imprisonment also helped her to see the truth behind Martin's intentions. She seemed genuinely unaware that, to Mallory, she would've just looked like a woman living her life freely. When she found that out, she forgave Mallory easily because she understood that it was a mistake and not malicious.
• What is this talk about Jeannette taking over Kate's life? Kate is painted as a sympathetic character so this is a pretty low blow for her. Why would her boyfriend and friends be off-limits if she's presumed missing? Besides, Kate must have known that her rich friends were pretty flaky anyway. She was running away from them.
  • Although Kate doesn't know this, to be fair to the show's accusation, we do see Jeanette start to directly emulate Kate. She wears the same outfit Kate wore on the Marsha Bailey show and she's wearing almost a carbon copy of the outfit Kate wears in the pilot when she hears Kate in the basement. That's pretty much what solidifies the idea that she has taken over her life. Of course, Kate doesn't know any of this, so maybe it's a product of finding it easier to cope with everyone moving on if she has someone to blame? But, yikes, the audience does...
    • That still seems unusually vindictive to use your 15 minutes of fame to destroy the life of a fellow teenager in your small town. Then again, that could be the point.
  • At the time, Kate was running on the - ultimately correct - assumption that Jeanette knew she was imprisoned in Martin's house and left her there. That would naturally leave Kate with the question of who could do that and why. Seeing Jeanette with her friends and boyfriend (however shitty they may have been) straight after she escaped convinced Kate that that was Jeanette's motive for leaving her there, which is pretty logical reasoning all things considered.
• Is it possible that Martin didn't have the intent of grooming Kate? Rather, he simply found himself in a situation and then fell in love. That, mixed with his own instability, led to toxic circumstances for Kate.
  • No. Martin didn’t “find himself in a situation,” he created one; he might not have always intended to kidnap Kate or specifically lock her in the basement (though there are indications of both), but he inserted himself in her life and manipulated/groomed her. He might not have seen his actions as wrong or grooming but he knew what the effects were. It’s also pretty clear that he never really loved Kate, since he locked her in his basement to save his own ass from the consequences of his actions and mentally tormented her while she was there.
• Why do news report Martin's death in a shoot-out? The cops were called hours after his death and found his cold body in the basement. Kate should have at least been charged with murder.
  • Kate says that the news just heard he died of a gunshot wound and assumed that meant he was killed by the police. Since the Wallises don't like any narrative that could make them look bad, they were probably happy to run with that story instead of correcting it. The police also likely would not have charged Kate with murder for shooting her own kidnapper in self-defense, especially given the amount of sway the Wallises have over Skylin.