Surviving Summer season 2 was a well-deserved sequel, and it matches up to its predecessor in terms of the pure love for the sport that is at the heart of the story. This is how you give people an adrenaline rush, and this is also how you make the audience fall in love with unlikeable characters. We wouldn’t mind a season of it coming out every year for our benefit. The essential theme of the season is the spirit of sportsmanship versus the desire to win and lose, and what it means to work as a team. We are not fans of sports, but we do believe in the lessons that come with playing, and seeing them presented in such an entertaining format is what makes us love this show so much. So, let us go through the recap of Surviving Summer Season 2 and see why it is so good.
Spoiler Alert
What happens with Ari and Summer?
This was the biggest cliffhanger of the previous season, when Ari and Summer separated at the airport after a goodbye kiss that had been teased all season long. At the beginning of Surviving Summer season 2, when Summer comes back as a surprise, there is one waiting for her as well since Ari has a new girlfriend, Wren, indicating that he has since moved on. The fact is that while Ari and Summer stayed in touch after she left, the latter ended up avoiding him after a while. She wanted to focus on her surfing ambitions, and she also did not know whether she would ever be back, which is why she put some distance between them. Perhaps she did not expect that Ari would move on since she has not, but she also steps back graciously. As for Ari, he still feels the sting of being ghosted, since he believed that he and Summer must have been dating.
It is all well and good, except that Wren is a deeply insecure person who constantly tries to antagonize Summer, who is not one to take it lying down. Wren pretends that she twisted her ankle because of Summer, and over time, she makes Ari feel as if Summer doesn’t like him one bit, but throughout it all, she is the manipulator. It doesn’t help that Ari is still not seriously treating his anxiety. He doesn’t tell his sponsors about it, and since he keeps it from his coach as well, it ends up hampering his performance in the finals. Summer calls him out at one point for being a people-pleaser and not knowing how to assert himself in his relationship. Thankfully, instead of being angry, Ari sees sense and decides to break up with Wren. However, Wren turns the situation around, and Ari ends up confessing his love for her, which shoots up his anxiety like nothing else.
Meanwhile, Summer has started seeing Baxtor, who is Wren’s brother, and he is a decent guy. But he is also manipulated by his sisters, Elo and Wren. They have blamed him for a stunt that cost them their job and forced them to move to a different place, so he pretty much listens to everything they say. One of those things is sabotaging Summer at a critical competition, and he eventually confesses it to her, which is the end of their budding romance.
Are Poppy and Marlon together?
This romance was a surprise since in Surviving Summer season 1, he was with Bodhi. But this season, he is a sub on the team and is with Poppy, who takes her time warming up to him but eventually comes to like him. It causes some friction between Poppy and Bodhi since the latter is furious that she did not know of it. They have a fight about it, and after a few words, they eventually end up apologizing a few days later. Marlon gets a little upset with Poppy at one point when she points out how he is not a part of the team but is a sub. She apologizes eventually and Marlon gets to surf at a critical point when Baxter refuses to do so. It is also then that Poppy confesses to him how much pressure she has been dealing with and how all she wants is a break. These two may go on for a while since Poppy is finally acknowledging her needs, and Marlon is a much better person than he was in Surviving Summer season 1.
Does Team Victoria Win The Nationals?
When Wren became the team captain and her sister, Elo, became the coach, the team became all about their victory and not a collective effort. Wren sabotaged Summer whenever she felt insecure about her. At a photoshoot, after the photographer was racist towards Bodhi, Summer suggested calling him out, but the team shut down the idea. Later that night, when Wren caught her talking to Ari, she thrashed the photographer’s room in the way Summer had suggested, to make it look like she did it. This causes significant tensions between Bodhi and Summer for the rest of the summer, which eventually starts coming to a close when Bodhi realizes that Summer covered for Poppy with the police. Summer even calls out Tuscany for leading on Bodhi a bit, which actually angers the latter because she sees it as interference. However, when Bodhi sees that she was indeed objectified by the sponsors, she cannot help but do exactly what Summer said and tell the sponsor how she was treated at the photographer’s hands. Till the end of Surviving Summer season 2, the truth doesn’t come out, but people start realizing that Summer must have been right about Wren framing her.
When Ari is unable to play in the nationals, Elo starts drilling into him, and that is when Summer starts revealing the truths in the closet. Wren and Elo had been let go from their previous jobs for bullying and toxic coaching, respectively. They had been using the ‘divide and conquer’ strategy all along with Team Victoria to push the teammates. Even Baxter comes to know how he was manipulated by his sisters, and he seems pretty much done with them.
During Surviving Summer Season 2’s ending, the entire Team Victoria comes together, and refuses to accept Elo’s guidance anymore. They are prepared to compete all by themselves. However, that is when they realize that they need Wren, and Summer asks her to stand with her team. Wren seems confused at first, but she eventually makes her way into the water, only to sabotage Summer and not help their cause. Luckily, Summer is not one to give up, and at the end, she catches a wave and does the best she can with it, which earns the team second place in the competition.
As Season 2 comes to an end, Margot is a lot more supportive of Summer’s surfing ambitions, as she has gotten a better look at the kind of player her daughter is. Ari has told Wren that he doesn’t love her, and he gets together with Summer. As for Baxtor, he stays back to avoid his sisters for the season. Everyone is happy, and it is a beautiful ending, once again, for a great show.
Final Thoughts
Surviving Summer is the best show of the year, without a doubt. If we have claimed this about anything before, it was only because we did not know that Surviving Summer would have a second season. It is entertaining, engaging, and makes you feel a certain sort of way about being on the beach and with people you like or don’t mind fighting with because you are all friends and teammates at the end of the day. Do not neglect to watch this show. It truly makes your watchlist richer than before.
