'Cruel Intentions' TV Recap (Episodes 1-8) Explained: What To Expect In Season 2?

Cruel Intentions, the 2024 Prime Video series, is essentially a remake of the 1999 film of the same name. There were many reasons why the film made a big splash, and the makers relied on similar tropes in the series, too. Thanks to the episodic format, a lot of subplots have been added to the original narrative to flesh out various characters, in addition to the central trio, in depth. Cruel Intentions, the film, became popular because it did not refrain from addressing issues and creating conflicts that filmmakers generally stayed away from. The explicit nature of the content, the dynamics shared by the various characters that are considered taboo in society, and the boldness of the narrative have been re-explored through a Gen Z lens. So, let’s recap all the major events of Cruel Intentions season 1 and see if they hold any water. 

Spoiler Alert

What deal did Lucien make with Caroline?

Caroline wanted to maintain her power over her college, and she was ready to go to any extent to achieve that. She was the president of a sorority named Delta Phi Pi, and she made sure that all the students who came from influential families were a part of the group. Caroline had a stepbrother named Lucien, and though they were quite cordial with each other, there were certain aspects of their relationship that they couldn’t reveal to anybody. Lucien did not refrain from expressing his feelings towards his step sister in private. Caroline knew that Lucien was physically attracted to her and that he would do anything in the world to get a chance to sleep with her. 

At the beginning of Cruel Intentions season 1, we saw that the daughter of the Vice President of the United States of America, Annie Grover, had joined the college, and Caroline desperately wanted her to be a part of the Delta Phi Pi. Caroline told her brother that if he was able to convince Annie to join the group, then she would finally let him sleep with her. The offer was way too lucrative for Lucien, and from that day onwards, he began to lay a trap for Annie. At that point in time, in Cruel Intentions, Annie was a part of Beatrice’s group that protested against sororities like the one that Caroline headed. But she didn’t stay there for long, and Lucien and Caroline’s combined efforts made sure that Annie, too, became an integral part of Delta Phi Pi. To understand Caroline and Lucien, their motivations and sensibilities, it was important to understand the kind of trauma they had faced during their childhood. They came from very rich families, but they didn’t have a happy life growing up. Quite early in season 1, we got to know that Caroline did not share a very good relationship with her mother, Claudia. And to make matters worse, we got to know that Claudia wanted to get physically intimate with Lucien, and she made sure that he knew about it.

Why did Blaise steal Scott’s money? 

The subplot where we saw Blaise playing all kinds of games to get close to Scott’s family and win their trust seemed a bit unnecessary to me personally. I get that the writers wanted to use Blaise’s character to show the economic disparity that existed between the people, but I found the entire thing to be a little bit stretched. Even though Scott and Blaise did cross paths with the protagonist, their exclusion wouldn’t have made any difference to the narrative. So Blaise was a sensible and shrewd man. He knew the perks of having a rich best friend, and so he made sure that he developed a very strong bond with Scott. He blackmailed the student who was going to become the president of the boys association, and then he made sure that Scott took his spot. Now Scott was a nincompoop, and he was only at the college because his father was an influential politician and the administration benefited from his donations. Blaise embezzled funds that belonged to the Boys association, and eventually the latter came to know about it. Blaise had a very good image in front of Scott’s father, and he wanted to use that to his advantage. Blaise came from an underprivileged background, and it was not easy for him to cover his tuition fee with what he had. He didn’t have the kind of resources that his batchmates had, and in order to pretend that he was as wealthy as the rest he used to wear knock-off brands to get along. In the end, he had no qualms about stealing Scott’s money, though he did feel bad that he lost a friend in the process. Also, if there is Cruel Intentions season 2, we will get to know what information was there in Blaise’s journal. I believe that he had some knowledge about the scandals his batchmates were involved in back in the day. Probably he had jotted everything down as he knew that he would need the information in the future to save himself. 

Why didn’t Lucien like celebrating his birthday? 

The makers take their own sweet time to introduce the various characters and establish the kind of role they were going to play in the scheme of things. The narrative picks up pace after the first four episodes, and we witness the conflict getting more and more convoluted and the cruel intentions of each and every character getting exposed. Now, we came to know that Lucien didn’t like to celebrate his birthday because, on his 12th birthday, his mother had taken her life. That horrifying visual left an imprint on his subconscious, and he became the kind of person who just wanted to disappear on his birthday. Lucien was the kind of man who kept things to himself and hid his real feelings. If he was dealing with some kind of conflict in his personal life, then he internalized his suffering and didn’t even try to talk about it to others. As if the dynamics shared by the step-brother and sister were not weird enough, we got to know about another strange thing they did together. So, every time Lucien got intimate with a girl, he recorded himself in the act. He then sent that video to Caroline, who used it for her own carnal desires. I don’t know how Lucien didn’t realize it, but it was quite evident that Caroline was, sooner or later, going to use those videos to get leverage over and blackmail Lucien. As expected, when things didn’t go her way, Caroline did leak one of those videos, and she tarnished the reputation of Lucien. Lucien might not have been a very good person, and he did play his own petty games at times. But he was not a dishonest man. He was not somebody who would betray another person after winning their trust. Also, he had his own boundaries, and he made sure that he never crossed them, no matter what. He never expected that Caroline was capable of telling the world about his trauma and using it to her own advantage. 

Did Lucien and Annie end up together? 

Lucien realized that he had started enjoying the time he spent with Annie. Now, he knew that he had to make sure that Annie joined Delta Phi Pi, but he just couldn’t help but admire how genuine Annie was. I mean, in a world where everybody looked out for their own vested interests, here was a girl who was not only honest but quite selfless in her approach. For the longest time, Annie was in a sort of relationship with Scott, who at that time was trying his level best to make himself and others believe that he could spend his entire life pretending that he was a straight man. Scott knew that his father would never accept him if he got to know that he was gay. He didn’t have the courage to confront him and fight for what he wanted. But it was just a matter of time before Scott realized that he wouldn’t be able to live his whole life this way. One day he was getting intimate with Annie when he got a realization of sorts, and he just got up and left from there. Now, the abruptness of that entire incident made Annie lose faith in her own capabilities. She started feeling that she was not good enough. Things changed after she started meeting Lucien on an everyday basis. She didn’t shy away from revealing her insecurities in front of Lucien, and that, I believe, brought them even closer. When Caroline realized what was happening behind her back, she made sure to create all sorts of misunderstandings between them.

Caroline leaked Lucien’s videos, and she told Annie that he was the kind of man who couldn’t be trusted. She even went and told Lucien that he was not somebody who was capable of loving and that he was just fooling Annie by making her believe that she could have a normal life with him. Also, Lucien knew that his stepsister wasn’t the best human being in the world, but still, he expected her to show some sort of dignity. He never expected that she would stoop so low to bring his deceased mother into the picture. Lucien felt exposed and didn’t know what to do after that. Probably, he would have told Annie about his trauma when he would have felt comfortable. For the first time, Lucien’s intentions with a girl weren’t bad. He actually tried being there for Annie, but then again, his own people made things complicated for him, and in the end, he didn’t have any option apart from leaving everything behind. How bad he felt could be ascertained from the fact that he crossed the boundary that he had set for himself and he did something that he would have never done in a normal state. Lucien got intimate with Caroline’s mother. Since the beginning of the series, we saw that Claudia had been giving all sorts of hints to Lucien. Nothing happened between them because Lucien always took a step back whenever he felt that the situation was getting too spicy. But after having a heated argument with Caroline, he went straight to Claudia’s house and got intimate with her. 

At the end of Cruel Intentions season 1, we saw that Annie gave a call to Lucien, but he didn’t pick up. Probably, Annie would have tried to mend things with him, but I guess Lucien had made up his mind to start afresh and distance himself from that toxic environment. 

Will Annie expose Caroline in season 2? 

Caroline told Lucien that people like him didn’t deserve to be loved, but I guess she said that to make him feel bad, as the reality was that it was she who was not worthy of being loved. Apart from ruining Lucien’s life, Caroline did one more thing, the repercussions of which I guess she will bear in season 2 (provided there is one). Caroline knew that her colleague, her assistant, CeCe Carroway, liked Professor Chadwick and that for a very long time, she’d wanted to express her feelings to him. Caroline was such a shrewd woman that, at one end, she gave advice to CeCe and told her how important it was to express herself, and on the other end, she went and got intimate with the man when she realized that CeCe was slowly escaping her influence. I believe that after watching Cruel Intentions season 1, there was no doubt left in anybody’s mind that Caroline was a sadistic woman, and it felt as if she couldn’t bear seeing people happy. After getting intimate with Professor Chadwick, Caroline filed a complaint of sexual harassment against him. Caroline didn’t reveal her name, though, at the end of season 1, Annie got a hunch that it could’ve been Caroline’s handiwork. Beatrice was the one who had picked up Caroline’s call, and when Annie had a chat with the former, she realized that things were not as simple as they seemed. I believe that if there is a season 2, then Annie will find a way to expose Caroline, and I won’t be surprised if she is removed from her position as the President of Delta Phi Pi.

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