Warning: major spoilers for Prime Video’s Cruel Intentions TV show.
The Cruel Intentions franchise has expanded to streaming with a TV show based on the 1999 movie, but despite borrowing its premise, the show has a very different ending. The Cruel Intentions TV show follows Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lucien Belmont (Zac Burgess), wealthy step-siblings attending college in Washington D.C. Caroline is the President of the Delta Phi fraternity, while Lucien is the treasurer of Alpha Gamma. When both fraternities face a student movement that aims to end all fraternities, Caroline sets her eyes on Annie Grover (Savannah Lee Smith), the Vice President’s daughter.
As Lucien is into seducing fellow students and sleeping with them (and videotaping their encounters), Caroline proposes a bet to him involving Annie. Meanwhile, at Alpha Gamma, the fraternity’s social chair, Blaise (John Harlan Kim), is conducting his own plan to save himself by manipulating the fraternity’s President. At the end of Cruel Intentions, Caroline unleashes her revenge on everyone, but her reign might not last for long after that, as Annie and Caroline’s best friend and right hand, CeCe (Sara Silva), are starting to see through her lies.
Caroline’s Plan & Bet With Lucien Explained
Caroline Had Her Own Plans In Addition To The Bet
As mentioned above, there’s a student movement on campus that wants to end all fraternities, and the main target is Delta Phi. Of course, Caroline is not willing to let that happen, but she knows the Vice President’s daughter is about to enroll. Caroline knows that, if Annie Grover joins Delta Phi, the fraternity will be safe from any potential threat, as they wouldn’t end the fraternity the Vice President’s daughter is a part of. However, Caroline also knows that getting Annie Grover isn’t easy.
Knowing how persuasive and discreetly manipulative Lucien can be, Caroline proposes a bet to him: seduce Annie and sleep with her, convincing her to join Delta Phi. If Lucien achieves this, Caroline will finally sleep with him. Parallel to Lucien’s efforts to get close to Annie are Caroline’s, who befriends Annie and earns her trust. Caroline constantly lies to Annie to further entangle her with the fraternity, such as when, during an event in which they share secrets, Caroline seizes CeCe’s absence and tells her secret as if it was hers.
To Caroline, Lucien doesn’t do his part of the bet, and so she releases all of his sex tapes.
However, when Lucien develops feelings for Annie, he rebels against Caroline and decides to play by his rules, something that doesn’t please Caroline. Lucien does get to sleep with Annie and videotapes their encounter, but he doesn’t share it with Caroline. To Caroline, Lucien doesn’t do his part of the bet, and so she releases all of his sex tapes as he uploads them to a shared file with Caroline. Annie joins Delta Phi, but during the celebration of the new members, she gets a hint at Caroline’s lies.
While talking to CeCe, she mentions the tennis instructor her mother paid to have sex with her, which is the story Caroline told as her own. Annie realizes Caroline lied to her to earn her trust, and many more things since they met were surely lies as well. As she’s now part of Delta Phi, Annie has bigger chances of ending the fraternity from the inside, so she meets with Beatrice Worth (Brooke Lena Johnson), the leader of the anti-fraternity movement, to share her suspicions about Caroline and come up with a plan.
What Blaise Really Wanted From Scott Explained
Blaise Manipulated Scott & Made Him President
While Caroline goes to lengths to save Delta Phi and get Annie Grover, things at Alpha Gamma aren’t exactly perfect. After a scandal in which Scott Russell (Khobe Clarke) was injured, Scott returns and Blaise takes him under his wing. The two become lovers, which Blaise uses to manipulate Scott as he pleases. When the fraternity’s VP, Blandsman (Zeke Goodman), threatens to become Alpha Gamma’s President, Blaise uses CeCe to get compromising photos of Blandsman to blackmail him and stop him from pursuing the Presidency, as he wants Scott to be President.
What Blaise does is get Scott to sign checks under the excuse of being money and purchases necessary for the fraternity, but Lucien, as Alpha Gamma’s treasurer, knows that Blaise has been embezzling fraternity funds.
Blaise succeeds and Scott becomes the fraternity’s President, but Scott isn’t exactly the brightest crayon in the box, making him very easy to manipulate. What Blaise does is get Scott to sign checks under the excuse of being money and purchases necessary for the fraternity, but Lucien, as Alpha Gamma’s treasurer, knows that Blaise has been embezzling fraternity funds. It’s later revealed that Blaise is going through financial trouble and his family owes money to the college, so he has been taking the fraternity’s money by using Scott.
Scott eventually learns what Blaise has been doing, but as his father, a Congressman, had promised a job to Blaise after they graduate, he fears he might lose it if he learns what happened. Blaise goes to Scott’s house to talk to his father and tries to blackmail them by telling him Scott is gay, but to his surprise, Scott is also there, and he had already talked to his father about the money and his sexual preferences. Not only were Blaise’s plans uncovered, but he’s now also a liar and manipulator in the eyes of Scott’s father.
Why Beatrice Wanted To End All Fraternities
Beatrice Has A Clear Mission
The biggest bump on the road for Delta Phi and Alpha Gamma is Beatrice Worth and her group. After having sex with Lucien in a bathroom outside Delta Phi and Alpha Gamma’s spring formal, Beatrice was denied entrance, which further angered her. Some time later, Beatrice writes an article in the college’s newspaper about the misogyny, racism, discrimination, and crimes of the fraternities, and leads a movement to end them. However, it’s later revealed that Beatrice had tried and failed to join Delta Phi three times, so her whole movement was a bit too personal.
Still, and despite various obstacles, Beatrice continues her fight to bring down the fraternities and forms a friendship with Annie, who joins her movement at first. Beatrice is disillusioned when Annie formally joins Delta Phi, but when Annie meets her to tell her she believes Caroline is behind Professor Chadwick’s (Sean Patrick Thomas) scandal, Beatrice’s hope is restored.
Why Caroline Betrayed CeCe
Caroline Will Backstab Anyone, Including Her Most Loyal Friend
CeCe is Caroline’s best and most loyal friend, but that doesn’t mean Caroline is also loyal to her and a good friend. CeCe is chronically stressed as she’s always doing things for Caroline and the fraternity, but on top of that, she takes a spot as assistant to Professor Chadwick. This new role takes more of her time and begins to mess a bit with her activities at Delta Phi, which Caroline doesn’t take lightly, even kicking her out of her favorite fraternity event. CeCe later confides in Caroline her feelings for Professor Chadwick and Caroline convinces her to make a move.
Caroline then makes an anonymous complaint about sexual misconduct against Professor Chadwick, so CeCe can no longer be around him.
However, CeCe’s involvement with Professor Chadwick is seen as disloyalty by Caroline, and tired of it, she betrays her best friend. Posing as a Delta Phi member from another charter, Caroline seduces Professor Chadwick and has sex with him, with Lucien finding them together. Caroline then makes an anonymous complaint about sexual misconduct against Professor Chadwick, so CeCe can no longer be around him.
Caroline’s betrayal works as CeCe pledges her undying loyalty to Caroline and the fraternity, but after learning that Caroline used her secret as her own, CeCe begins to suspect her best friend has been manipulating her and lying to her all this time, and so CeCe might go through some needed changes in a second season.
Lucien’s Shared File In Cruel Intentions’ Ending Explained
Lucien Had One More Surprise Move For Caroline
As mentioned above, Caroline releases Lucien’s sex tapes after he retires from the bet. Of course, this creates a scandal in the community as Lucien has seduced one too many students (and Chadwick’s ex-wife), but Lucien comes up with one final move against Caroline. Lucien visits his stepmother, with whom Caroline doesn’t have a good relationship, as her mother is never satisfied with anything that Caroline does. During their last conversation after finding her with Chadwick, Lucien tells Caroline he now understands why her mother never loved her, and so that is where his next move is aimed.
Cruel Intentions established from the beginning that Caroline’s mother had a thing for Lucien, and he seizes this after Caroline releases his tapes. Lucien and Caroline’s mother have sex, and as is tradition for him, he records their encounter. Cruel Intentions ends with Caroline getting a notification of a new video being uploaded to their shared file, and she calls Lucien while he’s driving.
Lucien’s sex tape with Caroline’s mother is a crossed boundary not even Caroline could have predicted.
Lucien ignores Caroline and Annie’s calls, simply smiling and continuing to drive. Lucien’s sex tape with Caroline’s mother is a crossed boundary not even Caroline could have predicted, and it’s a further punch to Caroline as it’s yet another proof of how much her mother doesn’t care about her, just Lucien.
How The Ending Sets Up Cruel Intentions Season 2
Cruel Intentions Leaves The Door Wide Open For A Second Season
The Cruel Intentions TV show changed the ending of the movie, thus making way for a second season. Over at Alpha Gamma, Blaise is kicked out of the fraternity, and without him on his way, Blandsman can now pursue the fraternity’s Presidency one more time – however, Scott is now a lot more awake and aware, and he might not give up the Presidency easily. At Delta Phi, Caroline got what she wanted, but Annie and CeCe now know that she has been lying to them, and Annie suspects that she was the one who filed the complaint against Chadwick.
Annie might start working closely with Beatrice now that she knows the truth about Caroline and that she has full access to Delta Phi, thus being able to destroy the fraternity from the inside. Meanwhile, CeCe is also becoming aware of Caroline’s lies, and after signing Beatrice’s petition, she might join her movement as well, more so if she learns that the Chadwick scandal was Caroline’s fault. Cruel Intentions season 2 might see the fall of Caroline, but she surely won’t go down without a fight.
Two ambitious step-siblings at a prestigious Washington, D.C. college will stop at nothing to keep their social standing. After a hazing scandal threatens their control, they resort to extreme tactics, including seducing the vice president’s daughter, to safeguard their reputation and influence.
- Cast
- Sarah Catherine Hook , Zac Burgess , Sara Silva , Khobe Clarke , John Harlan Kim , Brooke Lena Johnson , Sean Patrick Thomas , Savannah Lee Smith
- Release Date
- November 21, 2024
- Network
- Prime Video
