Cruel Summer season has only gotten more complicated as Time 2’s time-jumping secret has long gone on, but there have been a couple of clues that look to issue to the fact. Almost certainly the most significant came in Episode 4, when Megan, Isabella, Luke, and Jeff all chose aliases for their phony IDs to test to sneak into a bar. The pseudonyms must have stood out to any e book enthusiasts, as all 4 were literary references. And they might go deeper than just a surface-amount references — here’s why Megan, Isabella, Luke, and Jeff’s fake ID names could be Cruel Summer season’s greatest spoiler about Year 2’s twist.

It’s nonetheless unclear who killed Luke (or if he’s even definitely useless at all), so everyone’s a suspect in Chatham. But a tiny depth in Episode 4 could be foreshadowing how this period will switch out. Isabella’s fake ID was already briefly shown in the premiere, which elevated some queries about her phony identify Patti Highsmith. A couple episodes afterwards, it was exposed that Isabella’s fake name in shape in with a theme among her close friends. In get to sneak into a bar a single wild night in the summer of 1999, Megan, Luke, and Jeff all designed their personal fake IDs, entire with names not-so-subtly referencing popular authors. And every single name selection could certainly be a trace to how each individual character matches into Season 2’s major mystery. Let us go around them a person at a time.

Isabella, AKA Patti Highsmith

Isabella’s decided on name could be just one of the most vital, as it surely appears to lend itself to the predominant enthusiast principle that she might have a secret, harmful obsession with Megan. Patricia Highsmith’s two best recognised is effective — The Gifted Mr. Ripley and The Price of Salt — both of those centre on an outsider turning into obsessed with a new acquaintance. Her novel’s are notably queer, which could be another trace at the mother nature of how Isabella potentially sees Megan. Isabella’s curious backstory also has a good deal in widespread with Highsmith’s con artist character Tom Ripley.

Luke, AKA Rob Ludlum

Theories had already been bubbling up that Luke may possibly not really be lifeless, and his pretend ID identify only even more supports that guess. Robert Ludlum is famous for producing the Bourne Identity novels, about a seemingly unkillable super-spy who’s a learn at adopting new identities to remain hidden. The title selection absolutely appears to be to hint at Luke quite possibly pulling a Jason Bourne and faking his demise, then restarting his existence less than a new alias.

Jeff, AKA Raymond Chandler

Jeff’s pretend name is the only just one that’s essentially referred to as out in the present as staying a literary reference. Megan and Jeff bond more than their shared really like of Chandler’s mystery novels, primarily his most famous do the job The Major Slumber. That novel is finest regarded for its characters continually double-crossing a single one more, similar to how Jeff has long gone from Megan’s shut good friend to an individual who hates her involving the winter 1999 and summer season 2000 storylines. Possibly Megan double-crossed him, or he double-crossed her.

Megan, AKA Liz George

The identify Megan selected is almost certainly the most difficult to decipher, in terms of a link to what her arc may be. Elizabeth George is the author of the Inspector Lynley secret novels, in which the London-centered detective solves various crimes all around the city. It’s possible the suggestion is that Megan has arrive up with a strategy so airtight even Inspector Lynley would not be in a position to crack it, or perhaps the reference is intended to foreshadow Megan receiving caught by the regulation in the close.