Cruel Summer may have ended with a truce between Kate and Jeanette, the show still delivered a "bad guy." Though Jeanette convinced Kate that she didn't see her while Kate was at Martin's house (leading Kate to declare to the world that she had wrongfully accused her) Jeanette was well aware that Kate was locked in Martin's basement for months before her rescue. No, Jeanette didn't see Kate walking around upstairs on Christmas Eve, but not long after her "glow up," she did hear Kate screaming for help while she was locked in the basement, and turned away — seemingly, to protect her relationship with Jamie and newfound popularity.
While the ending of Cruel Summer is a jaw-dropper that seemingly proves Jeanette was just as bad as Kate said she was on The Marsha Bailey Show, it doesn't come without questions. For one thing, we're still missing details on how Kate was rescued in the first place. Yes, Kate killed Martin with "Annabelle," but he only came down to the basement initially to tell her that the police had shown up at his house. Knowing what we know now, it's worth wondering: Did Jeanette call the police in order to save Kate? After all, Jeanette was the only person who, as far as we know, definitively knew Kate's whereabouts prior to her rescue.
It's possible, but I'm not convinced — and it may be because of how little I now think of Jeanette.
We don't know the exact amount of time between Jeanette hearing Kate and Kate's ultimate rescue, but showrunner Tia Napolitano confirmed in interviews that it was "months" between Jeanette going to the house and Kate leaving Martin's basement. Had it been the next day, or even the next week that the police arrived to Martin's house, it's possible to chalk it up to Jeanette having a change of heart, and calling the police in order to avoid having to explain why she was in Martin's house to begin with.
But I'm not sure that explanation can really fit in here. Why would Jeanette call the police on a random day, after she got everything she could ever want? She just had an amazing birthday with her boyfriend Jamie and her friends, who just so happened to be Kate's former BFFs. Would she call the police to save Kate because now she felt firmly cemented in her social standing in order to feel comfortable having Kate return to the fold? Eh, maybe, but it certainly seems that the safer bet for Jeanette's social life would be to leave her there — and if she didn't feel guilty hearing Kate scream and plead in the basement, it's hard to imagine the guilt really gnawed on Jeanette for so long while she was having a fabulous time being popular.
It's also so easy to see how Jeanette could have played it, if she wanted Kate out of the basement. Jeanette explains in the finale that all she ever wanted was to feel special, to have a place in the sun. You know who would be wildly celebrated in town? The person who rescued the kidnapped the queen bee.
Jeanette didn't know that Kate saw her on Christmas Eve, so in theory, she could have called the police, stated her name, and claimed she heard screaming from the basement? In Jeanette's mind, she would have been the town's heroine. Maybe that did run through her brain before she backed away from the basement door, instead prioritizing the "bird in a hand of it all: Her social status and relationship.
Look, maybe Jeanette made a really bad mistake, and felt guilty about it. But the idea that she could be Kate's heroine just feels pretty out of character. Kate's mom said she always needed a bad guy, and while Kate may not know it, she found the right one in Jeanette.
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