Surviving Summer Series 2 Episode 8 Recap
Send It – The episode opens with Summer Torres (Sky Katz) alone at the beach in an early practice session. Reuniting with the team, she learns that they have been a victim of a “pre-dawn raid” by the South Wales team. Wren Radic (Annabel Wolfe) assures the team that the prank indicates South Wales sees them as a threat. She encourages everyone to not let it distract them and focus on winning the competition. Marlon Sousa (Joao Gabriel Marinho) attempts to comfort Poppy Tetanui (Lilliana Bowrey) when she discovers the “GOAT” figurine is stuck in the foliage of a tree. Summer protests when Elo Radic (Olympia Valance) rushes the team to gather their essentials and prepare for payback on the water. Marlon offers to get it when Elo claims it will still be there when they return. Elo encourages Summer to focus on surfing instead of other people’s business, before reminding Ari Gibson (Kai Lewins) he’s up first today.
At Nationals, Tegan (Cecilia Low) and Flax (Jessica Grimwood) announce today’s competition is by far the most important event for teams and individual surfers. After claiming it is part of the competition where careers are made or destroyed, they unveil the leaderboards. Ari watches in a silent daze as his competition, Dante Levins (Jahli Brooks), puts up a flawless run. Summer voices her fears that something is wrong as Ari prepares for his run. Wren claims he’s waiting for the right wave. Elo points out that he has yet to catch a single wave. Ari is still sitting on his board, lost in thought when the buzzer goes off.
Later, Ari apologizes as Elo scolds him costing her the competition. Bodhi Mercer (Savannah La Rain) says Elo is being hard on Ari while the rest of the team watches on silently. Baxter Radic (Josh Macqueen) suggests giving Ari time to process what happened. Summer assures her that Ari can handle pressure. Elo threatens to bench her. Summer tells Poppy that Elo sabotaged Tuscany Bray (Emmanuelle Mattana) by not burning her “Purge” paper as she did her. Bodhi asks Wren if she was bullying Tuscany. Wren claims Tuscany wrote some terrible things about her. Summer says because Wren made it difficult for Tuscany. She suggests Elo does it to get the team fired up before competitions. Standing by her “harsh truth” coaching tactics, Elo assures the team that they couldn’t beat Tasmania before she became their coach. Summer tells her teammates that Queensland didn’t kick Baxter off the team but Wren was for bullying and Elo was fired for coaching harshly. Elo claims to have done it to help Baxter’s career. As the final countdown is announced, Elo benches Summer. The intervenes by voting Elo out.
Later, Summer apologizes to Baxter in the boy’s locker room for not revealing the truth earlier. Baxter assures her that she will be better off without him anyway because he’s so gullible and stupid. Trying to convince him otherwise, Summer says family is supposed to protect each other. He asks if that is why he protected Ari. When she doesn’t answer, he hopes Ari realizes how lucky he is with Summer.
Ari is having a panic attack as Wren chases him down claiming Summer is full of crap. Realizing the severity of the panic attack, she tries to calm him down. He admits to not being in love with her before breaking up with her.
Marlon damages Poppy’s “GOAT” figurine while trying to retrieve it from the tree. Team Victoria falls further behind in the competition with Poppy and Bodhi’s elimination. Summer informs them of Baxter and Wren leaving. Bodhi suggests the team can win with her, Griff Temple (Mitchell Hardaker), and Tommy Ahmed (Marcel Laidlaw). With Baxter out of the competition, Poppy rushes back to the hotel to find Marlon gluing her GOAT figurine back together. After a sincere apology, she asks if he remembers the competition after Laynah Tetanui’s (Kiriwai Hedges) funeral. Malon says she did exceptionally well. She confesses to being tired.
Ari talks to Thommo Gibson and Abbie Gibson (Adrienne Pickering) about the competition. He informs them of his anxiety attack which he attributes to his feelings for Summer. Eavesdropping, Honey Gibson (Amara Feik) is the first to celebrate. Margot Torres (Kate Beahan) says Summer likes him before suggesting they are good for each other. Ari asks Abbie to send him the dance video. Later, he utilizes it to boost the team’s morale. Marlon’s score is high enough to keep Victoria in the running to win.
While returning clothes to Wren, Summer tries to convince her to return to the team. Elo tells her that she must deal with the consequences of driving them off the team. Summer says Elo wanted to win to get back at her old team for firing her. Elo boasts of sacrificing a lot to turn Wren and Baxter into champions after their parents abandoned them. Summer assures Wren that a National win could help her career. Wren assures her that no one will care when she makes the World Tour. Summer asks if Elo told her that before warning her that she will end up alone. Elo says Wren will never be alone.
Later, Summer puts up a solid run before Wren returns and does the same. After Wren’s run, it is announced that everything has come down to the girls. As the two-minute warning is issued, Summer says Poppy and Bodhi should be out there, not her. As Summer races to join her competitors, Ari gives her a word of encouragement. During the final, Wren is in the lead until Tuscany jumps ahead with her first run. Wren is in second place and Summer in third. Up next, Wren motions for Summer to capture the wave. Summer is knocked off her board by Wren dropping her to fourth place.
The start of Summer’s next surf is shown before the show skips to the trophy announcement. South Wales takes third place, Team Victoria comes in second, and Queensland wins the tournament. The night ends in celebrations with Summer and Ari making out on the dance floor.
The following day, Margot promises Thommo and Abbie that she will invite them over when the house is finished. At the beach, Summer encounters Baxter who says Wren and Elo left Australia. He explains his plan to hang around for the summer. The episode wraps up with Summer surfing.
Surviving Summer Review
All things considered, not a horrible finale. At least it did wrap up the story nicely even if there isn’t a third season. I was surprised the series even got a second season but a third might be a bit much. If there is a third, it would be nice to see Baxter added as a regular. I do have to knock off points because the ending felt really convoluted and rushed. It felt like they were going from the boy’s individual comps to the girl’s individual comps and then back again and again. Somehow it finally came down to Summer and the whole incident with Wren pushing her in the water and Summer getting penalized for it was completely out there. Other than that, I’d give the episode 5 out of 10.
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