Theta – Season One’s finale begins with Lucien Belmont’s (Zac Burgess) sex tapes being released all over campus. Annie Grover (Savannah Lee Smith) is one of the first viewers, as is CeCe Carroway (Sara Silva), thanks to her Delta satellite team connection. Caroline Merteuil (Sarah Catherine Hook) is still asleep when she hears the news from CeCe. This conversation quickly turns sour when CeCe mentions that seeing the tape might prevent Annie from jumping into anything new. Caroline snidely tells CeCe to use this to their advantage by building a support system around Annie before storming off.

Beatrice Worth (Brooke Lena Jackson) is in her dorm watching her tape with Lucien when she receives an unexpected visit from Annie. Beatrice is surprised that Annie isn’t upset with her for sleeping with Lucien and Annie is surprised by Beatrice’s maniacal conspiracy ranting about the fraternities hacking Lucien’s phone and releasing the tapes.

Lucien clearly wakes in a bit of a drunken stupor at the Alpha Gamma House. Despite receiving various reactions from his brothers as he makes his way to the coffee in the kitchen, it takes Brian Blandsman (Zeke Goodman) actually showing him the tapes before Lucien realizes what is going on.

At the same time, Blaise Powell (John Kim) attempts to repair his relationship with Scott Russell (Khobe Clarke) by bragging about being right about Lucien being the bad guy. Scott reminds Blaise that he isn’t speaking to him until he returns the money he stole and walks off.

Lucien immediately confronts Caroline after learning of the tapes. She mockingly reminds him that he made the tapes for her and the confrontation goes from bad to worse the more she teases him. Although Lucien gets mad enough to punch and break a glass mirror, he appears to strike Caroline the deepest when he tells her that it is no wonder her mother never cared about her.

Things don’t appear to be going any better for CeCe and Professor Hank Chadwick (Sean Patrick Johnson) when he freaks out after arriving to find her waiting on him in his office. The quick confrontation leads to CeCe learning that Chadwick thinks she has reported him for misconduct. Although she tells him that she had no reason to report him, he doesn’t appear relieved and makes her promise to stay out of it. She promises but it’s clear she has no intention to do so.

By the time Lucien visits Annie to see how she is taking the news Beatrice and Ella (Isabella Tagliati) have started seeking signatures for the petition against misogyny. They don’t receive the outcome they expected and Caroline’s appearance doesn’t make matters any better. Much to Beatrice’s surprise, Caroline not only claims to be on her side but blames all the bad in Beatrice’s life on Lucien. After a bit of initial refusal, the conversation ends by suggesting that Beatrice believes Caroline.

After Scott apologizes to Annie for the hotel debacle, he asks her for advice on his current situation with Blaise. Although his details are very scarce, she tells him to try to find out why Blaise did whatever it was he did. At nearly the same time, Blaise returns to Alpha Gamma to find Brian in his room already making arrangements for Blaise’s departure. This quickly spirals into an argument with Blaise sticking to his story that it was Lucien who stole the money.

Scott appears completely stunned when he confronts Lucien about the stolen money. Lucien points out that he is rich and has no use for the money, whereas Blaise’s situation is much different. CeCe is equally surprised after wrongfully accusing Beatrice of reporting Chadwick. Beatrice admits to knowing about the complaint because of her position with the registrar’s office but tells CeCe that the complaint was for sexual misconduct.

In a desperate act, Blaise ends up making his situation worse by visiting Congressman Russell (Jon Tenney) and threatening to blackmail him about Scott’s sexual preference. Unfortunately, Blaise reveals everything before Scott shows up and reveals that his father has already paid back the debt. Despite all this, Blaise is nearly speechless after learning that Scott has even come out of the closet to his father, who apparently doesn’t have a problem with his son’s sexual preferences. He does, however, have a problem with blackmail.

Lucien’s apology to Annie doesn’t go much better once he discovers that Caroline has already gotten to her. Not only has she filled Annie’s head with lies but she’s got her convinced that Lucien is a horrible person who has done some horrible things. Despite all this, Lucien never reveals the truth about the tapes. He does make an attempt to save Annie by telling her that no matter how horrible he is, it’s nowhere near Caroline’s level.

Caroline returns to the Delta House to discover CeCe in emotional turmoil over learning about Professor Chadwick’s complaint. Once Caroline orders the other members from the room, she continues to further manipulate CeCe until he has her full devotion and personal guarantee that she will not let anything stop her from turning Annie into a Delta Phi member.

Blaise, once again, makes things even worse for himself when he attempts to apologize to Scott. Despite Blaise’s best attempts to get Scott to see things from his point of view, he appears either unwilling or incapable of understanding. This ultimately leads to more arguing and Scott’s storming off.

As Caroline begins the Delta Pledge Ceremony, Lucien is briefly shown returning home. The ceremony continues for several minutes but ends once Annie gives her full pledge, signs the register book, and receives her brooch. Annie spends most of the after-party with CeCe and their conversation suggests that Annie is beginning to suspect something amiss about Caroline. While that takes place, Lucien seeks and receives comfort from Claudia Merteuil (Claire Forlami).

As Blaise packs up in shame for his departure at the Alpha House, CeCe begins to have her doubts about Caroline after discovering the official sorority uniform Caroline wore while manipulating Chadwick. Brian makes Blaise’s departure even more shameful when he prevents him from taking a frat sweater with him.

Lucien is briefly shown dressing and saying goodbye to Claudia while Beatrice receives an unexpected visit from a very excited Annie. Despite Beatrice completely changing her mind about Caroline, she seems more than intrigued when Annie asks if there is a way to discover who actually filed the complaint against Chadwick. Her response is not shown at the moment due to the footage abruptly cutting to Caroline who receives a new file in her shared folders. A few seconds later, Lucien receives a call from Caroline while driving in the Jaguar. The episode ends with him intentionally ignoring it.

 

Cruel Intentions Review

I can completely understand wanting to keep your audience guessing or leaving them wanting more, but this abrupt closure to the first season seemed a bit premature, almost rushed. Being that the majority of the series followed in line with the movie, it wouldn’t be hard for anyone to see where things were headed.

Despite not entirely enjoying the series and all that was left unresolved, I can’t say that the finale was completely unfulfilling. Lucien’s sleeping with Caroline’s mother certainly brought a new spin to things, although it wouldn’t have been unexpected for anyone with prior knowledge of the film. I would give the finale a 5.4 out of 10 for at least keeping the audience twisting to the very end.

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