One of the most shocking moments on Cruel Summer has little to do with the mystery surrounding whether Kate or Jeanette is lying about what really happened in the kidnapper's basement. Instead, it's a physical assault committed by Kate's former boyfriend, and Jeanette's current boyfriend, Jamie.

After Jamie is told that Jeanette saw Kate while she was held captive, he lashes out in a fit of rage, and punches Jeanette in the face. It's a shocking act of violence, made all the more disturbing by the fact that Jeanette is quick to forgive him — and protect him by lying about it to her dad. In fact, by Episode 3, it seems that Jamie has gotten away with hitting Jeanette, as in the 1995 timeline, he's still stalking her, and getting picked up regularly by the police for his intimidating behavior.

Showrunner Tia Napolitano knows that, while the men commit some of the more heinous crimes on the show, it's the women whose morality is put in the spotlight. This, Tia tells The Dipp, won't always be the case.

"I came onto the project after the punch was pitched, written and shot, it had happened already," she explains. "As a woman, and as a women who was a young woman in the ‘90s, it was really important that we explore the abuse. There’s abuse that happened in both Kate and Jeannette’s world, in that Kate got kidnapped, and Jeannette got punched. We talk about that. This story isn’t about a man who kidnapped a girl, it’s about a girl who got kidnapped. And it’s about a girl who got punched as a result."