‘Cruel Summer,’ ‘Grown-ish’ & More Freeform Stars Get Glam at TCA (PHOTOS)
With the Television Critics Association 2023 Winter Press Tour underway, more of your favorite stars are stopping by TV Guide Magazine and TV Insider’s TCA portrait studio.
Here, we have a collection of shots from Freeform stars, including the casts of Grown-ish, Cruel Summer Season 2, and the all new mystery series The Watchful Eye.
Their visits are fresh off the heels of a slew of exciting Freeform updates. On January 11, the network announced the Black-ish spinoff will return for Season 6 (the second half of Season 5 premieres January 18), shared the new Cruel Summer cast appearing in Season 2 (premiering summer 2023), and debuted the first trailer for The Watchful Eye (debuting January 30).
See the shows’ stars in the TCA gallery, below, before you see them all on the small screen this year.
Grown-ish Stars Marcus Scribner, Diggy Simmons & Trevor Jackson
Marcus Scribner
Diggy Simmons
Trevor Jackson
Cast of The Watchful Eye
Mariel Molino
Lex Lumpkin
Warren Christie
Jon Ecker
Aliyah Royale
Amy Acker
Cruel Summer Season 2 Stars Lexi Underwood, Griffin Gluck & Sadie Stanley
Isabella LaRue
Isabella is the most mysterious character of the season. As a young woman who has moved around her whole life, has diplomats as parents, and lots of juicy, most likely illegal history, she is a great candidate for the murderer. In July 1999, Isabella arrived at the Landry household, hoping to start over in a small town. She immediately takes an interest in Luke, Megan’s best friend, and asks her permission if she can make a move on him. Megan initially lies about her feelings towards Luke, and Isabella and Luke kiss and hang out like a couple. As the flashbacks and fast-forwards occur, it is revealed that Megan and Luke are dating by December 1999. This is her first motive. She liked Luke, made her move, and as soon as they started getting close, Megan revealed her feelings too, and Isabella backed off. However, those burning feelings and jealousy don’t go away so quickly…
We know Isabella has a dark past because of her suspicious stories, having gone to three different schools in three years, and more unknown secrets. In episode 5, July 1999, Trevor surprises Isabella and mentions the murder of her best friend Lisa, who also happens to be Trevor’s sister, who she had been writing letters to and not sending the entire time. We find out that she drowned in St. Barts, and though nothing is made clear, it is incredibly telling of what she could be capable of. Trevor expresses, “You know Iz. She’s capable of absolutely anything”. Isabella’s lawyer also confirmed that she had had to hide something like this before, referring to Lisa’s drowning, but it was covered up because of her diplomatic immunity.
In July 2000, when Luke’s body is brought out of the lake, she immediately turns to Isabella and says they need to get their stories straight, indicating that they were involved somehow. The Sheriff also explains that her backpack was found at Luke’s cabin with a lot of money inside and her prints on the gun, though she claimed to have not been there since July 1999.
In episode 6, Megan finds the police reports that say Isabella convinced her friend Lisa to go swimming while drunk the night she died, along with the fact that she fled St. Barts overnight by helicopter after that incident.
In December 1999, Luke tried to kiss Isabella at The Plunge, even though he was with Megan, giving her more motive to kill Luke. The question is, would she kill Luke so neither of them can have him or so she can have Megan all to herself?
Megan Landry
Megan begins the season as the innocent, intelligent computer science nerd who protects her mom and supports their family immensely. She clearly doesn’t let her guard down easily, which is why it took her so long to warm up to Isabella. We know that she gets a scholarship to her dream school University of Washington, and that in December 1999, she dated Luke, and in July 2000, Luke was murdered. Though Megan seems like the last person to commit murder, despite her darker piercing-filled look in July 2000, some clues indicate it is her. To start, though eventually becoming best friends, she and Isabella have been competitive from the beginning, especially over Luke. We all knew she liked him from the start and was taking her time to admit it. This gives her a motive because Isabella was involved with him before they dated, and, in episode 4, December 1999, at his house, Megan found her bathing suit in his bathroom, leading the audience to believe something else was going on. This could cause Megan to want to murder Luke because of the potential cheating and anger towards Isabella.
In December 1999, a sex tape is leaked at Luke’s father’s holiday party, and at first, the audience believes it is Isabella due to the pink sweater; however, we soon find out it was actually Megan. Isabella acted as a true best friend and covered for her, considering that her scholarship could be taken due to this. This tape adds to Isabella and Megan’s feud because she starts to use it against her when they are both questioned for Luke’s murder in July 2000.
In July 2000, Megan was shown scrubbing blood off the floors of Luke’s cabin, throwing away the bloody cloth, and looking incredibly guilty when we saw Luke’s body being carried out of the lake. Sherrif Mayer (Sean Blakemore) also lets us know that Megan was the last person to see Luke after the New Year’s Eve Party, and she lied by saying she dropped him off at home when she did not. The Sheriff also explains that her prints were found on the gun used to kill Luke and that the cabin had been mysteriously cleaned, despite the family not being there for months.
In episode 4, July 2000, her lawyer questions her more about the disappearance since she was the last one to see him, and she admits that she knew he was going to run away and that they went to the cabin before he disappeared. The Sheriff then accuses her of killing Luke because she was pregnant, and he may have rejected raising a family with her, and Megan admits that it is true to her family, and now the bloody sheets and all her motives are in question.
Griffin Gluck
Cruel Summer Showrunner Elle Triedman
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