Cruel Summer: 5 Characters We’d Love To Be Friends With (& 5 We’d Rather Avoid)

A ’90s setting is always a good hook for a TV show and teen drama Cruel Summer goes even further by setting up a compelling mystery that viewers have become deeply invested in. When Kate Wallis comes home after being kidnapped by her school’s assistant principal Martin Harris, she goes on TV and says that her classmate Jeanette Turner saw her in his basement and didn’t offer any help. The show is also about friendship as the young adult characters are constantly shifting alliances. First, Kate is part of her popular social circle, and when she gets back home, she befriends Jeanette’s former BFF Mallory.

Fans have many theories about the mystery, and before the season finale airs and more answers are given, it’s fun to think about which characters viewers would befriend and who would be a nightmare to be pals with.

10 Friends: Vince Fuller

Vince is a kind and caring person whom Cruel Summer fans would love to be friends with. He has shown the most loyalty out of anyone on the series. When the whole town of Skylin, Texas shuns Jeanette and believes Kate’s side of events, Vince still reaches out to Jeanette and wants to be close to her.

Intelligent and perceptive, Vince doesn’t get caught up in what people think. While Mallory is very concerned with the popular crowd and how different she feels from them, Vince likes being close with Mallory and Jeanette and doesn’t seem as worried.

9 Avoid: Cindy Turner

At first, Cindy seems like a caring mom to Derek and Jeanette, but it quickly becomes clear that she has her own hang-ups and is still caught up on how popular she was in high school.

Cindy supports Jeanette’s desire to be loved by the other kids at school, and when Jeanette gives herself a makeover, Cindy is all for it. This isn’t the best thing for her to do, as if Cindy was a more likable person, she would love her daughter no matter what and want her to discover her true self. She also bails on her family when Jeanette’s troubles against Kate heat up, which is tough to get behind.

8 Friends: Mallory Higgins

Mallory doesn’t keep her opinions to herself, which can be her best and worst character trait. She’s smart, funny, and endearing, but she can also hurt people’s feelings by being too harsh.

Mallory has a good heart, though, and fans would enjoy being pals with her as she likes having fun and is up for deep conversations. She loves being part of her small friend group with Jeanette and Vince, although she often becomes impatient when they aren’t as bold and up for adventure as she is, and she becomes close with Kate when the latter comes back home.

7 Avoid: Jeanette Turner

While the jury is still out on what exactly happened between Kate and Jeanette, the three versions of Jeanette that fans are privy to don’t make her seem like a great friend.

In the first timeline in 1993, all Jeanette wants is to be popular and Kate is her idol. Jeanette goes to the fair with a nerdy kid named Gideon and leaves him all alone because she’s embarrassed to be seen with him, which is awful. In 1994, she’s so angry that she sues Kate for defamation, which seems harsh since Kate has been through a tragedy. And in the final timeline in 1995, Jeanette has transformed into a bitter person even more. It would be hard to be friends with her and know what to believe.

6 Friends: Derek Turner

Jeanette’s older brother Derek leaves for college on Cruel Summer and he’s a sweet character who would make a loyal friend.

While his town hates his sister, he can’t bring himself to feel negatively about her, and he does his best to support her and show that he’s on her side. Derek is calm, polite, friendly, and smart, and he tries to stay out of trouble. Despite the troubles that his family is going through, Derek manages to keep a clear head.

5 Avoid: Jamie Henson

When fans meet Kate, she and Jamie are in a serious relationship, and he seems like every teenage girl’s dream partner. But as time goes on, Jamie’s flaws are revealed and they’re pretty serious, as he drinks too much and in a disturbing scene, punches Jeanette in the face.

Jamie’s feelings for Kate and Jeanette are also a bit murky, as he swears that he loves Kate but when she goes missing, he falls for Jeanette. He’s not a reliable person, and friends would always be questioning his motives.

4 Friends: Ashley Wallis

Kate’s step-sister Ashley is smart and sensitive, and while Kate treats her unfairly harshly at first, the two bond later on.

Ashley seems like she would make a good friend as, like Derek and Vince, she doesn’t care about popularity and just wants people to be kind and good. She shows how much she cares when she pretends to be someone else so she can chat with Kate anonymously in an online chat room. While it was wrong to lie, she knew that Kate was struggling and she wanted to be there for her.

3 Avoid: Tennille Peterson

Before Kate disappears, her best friends are Tennille and Renee, and they’re both terrible people. No one would want to be friends with Tennille as she’s a classic teenage mean girl.

Renee and Tennille don’t seem to have much of a conscience, as they enjoy making fun of other people and believing that they’re superior because they’re part of the in-crowd. They drop Jeanette as soon as Kate comes back, and they don’t even try to talk to Kate about what she went through or understand how the tragic experience has changed her.

2 Friends: Kate Wallis

Fans want to find out if Kate is right to say that Jeanette saw her, but even if Kate lied about it, she’s still a character whom Cruel Summer viewers would want to befriend.

Before she went missing, Kate went along with the crowd, as she was used to her popular status and didn’t think too much of it. But as she got closer to being kidnapped by Martin Harris, she seemed to realize that her life wasn’t actually that amazing, and she felt deeply unhappy. Kate is a perceptive person and even though she’s struggling, she’s able to support Mallory, which is the sign of a good friend.

1 Avoid: Joy Wallis

Like many other mean TV mothers, Joy isn’t supportive of Kate and really has no idea how to talk to her. It’s clear that she doesn’t even want to understand her, as she has an idea in her head of how Kate should be, and she doesn’t want her family to have a “bad” reputation.

It’s hard to imagine being friends with Joy, as she loves having status in her small town and everyone praising her. It would be tough to forge a real, genuine connection as the friendship would be about surface-level topics and keeping up appearances.

About The Author

Aya Tsintziras
(1742 Articles Published)

Aya Tsintziras is a freelance writer who writes about pop culture and TV. She has a Political Science degree from the University of Toronto and a Masters of Journalism from Ryerson University. She loves coffee, reading, working out, and watching TV. She lives in Toronto with her husband.

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