“Proof” shows events from (approximately) August 30th, 1993, 1994, and 1995. For the remainder of this recap, we will be getting into heavy spoilers; so only continue reading if you’ve seen episode 1×08 of Cruel Summer.

On the first day of school, everyone learns that the drama of the summer is anything but over and that some people will pay more for the consequences of Jeanette and Kate’s deception than others.

1993 shows that Jeanette (Chiara Aurelia) finally got her braces off for the first day of school. The morning in the Turner household is as happy and busy as ever. When she arrives at school, Mallory (Harley Quinn Smith) calls Jeanette out for still having Kate’s (Olivia Holt) scrunchie, but the other girl continues to make excuses about her reasons for keeping it. Vince (Allius Barnes) tries to play peacemaker between the pair and manages to end the fight. Martin (Blake Lee) is there to greet the trio and we’re about to go down a rabbit hole of drama. Halfway through the day, Mallory pulls out the final list item, a prank tape. Jeanette is clearly uninterested while Mallory and Vince are excited. After saying she’ll meet them inside, Jeanette takes a seat near Jamie’s (Froy Gutierrez) table, listening to him, Ben (Nathaniel Ashton), Tennille, and Renee talk about how Kate didn’t show up to school. Jamie is obviously concerned, walking off and saying he’s gonna go call her. He spots Jeanette, saying hi to her before continuing on his way.

She finally meets up with Mallory and Vince, the blonde heading into the AV room while the other two are instructed to keep watch. Ben finds Vince in the hallway, saying hi to him before starting to walk off. Vince gets him to stop by asking if his mom died, saying his mother died as well. He offers to talk about it with Ben, who immediately suggests they go talk about it now. Vince goes with him, leaving his spot and heading to the gym. The two discuss the horrible experience, the emotional scene leaving the audience really wanting more from the pair. Ben asks what the last thing Vince said to his mother was and when the question is reversed back, Ben admits that there was something he wanted to tell her but got too scared to. Vince asks what it was and the intimate action that follows instead of an answer needs no words as we fill in the blanks.

Jeanette sees Joy Wallis (Andrea Anders) going to Martin’s office, which causes her to leave her spot in order to follow Joy and eavesdrop on the conversation. Joy is trying to figure out where her daughter is, asking Martin to check if she’s absent from school. He tells her that Kate isn’t there and we see flashbacks of Kate arriving at Martin’s house the night before. Joy suggests involving the police, but Martin convinces her not to. Jeanette follows Joy out, telling the mother that she’s there if she needs anything, even calling Kate her friend, which Joy obviously doesn’t even entertain. Meanwhile, Mallory puts in the tape, but Martin catches her. He immediately freaks out when he notices the prank footage includes him, turning it off, taking the tape, and giving Mallory detention. She finds Vince and Jeanette, angrily questioning where they were. Jeanette brings up Kate and Mallory goes off, fed up with the constant talk of the other girl. Vince makes up an excuse for where he was but Jeanette tries to turn the situation around on her. She brings up how her mother said it’s natural for friends to grow apart and we see the trio start to fall apart, explaining how they act with each other in the following years.

The fight ends with Jeanette basically calling Mallory a bully and saying she doesn’t want to be friends with her anymore. The words clearly hurt the other girl, who leaves in tears. Outside of school, Jamie notices that Jeanette got her braces off and the two get into a small, but friendly conversation. Before he leaves, Jeanette reveals that she heard Joy report Kate missing, which clearly shakes the boy. In Martin’s office, he plays the video again and we see why he freaked out earlier, the image of Kate in the window proving that she is at his house to anyone who saw it. He takes the tape out and destroys it, stepping on it and pacing around his office.

1994 starts off with Greg (Michael Landes) confronting Jeanette about the key. There is much to unpack when it comes to this scene. Jeanette asks about her mother coming home, before lying and saying she only used the key one time. She admits to stealing it from his office, telling him about breaking in to play hide and seek, but saying that she never went back. He points out how bad it could look to the police and insists she is going to tell them before anyone else does. Jeanette and Vince drive to school together, Jeanette expressing her worry about the rumors and her mother leaving. The two then venture into what’s going on with Vince and Ben but don’t talk about it too much before making their way inside. An awkward hallway staredown and some gossip doesn’t make for a pleasant entrance, but the two stick together.

At lunch, Tennille asks Ben out on a date and the jock kindly turns her down by using training as an excuse. Feeling like everyone hates her, Jeanette starts to leave the school before Vince tries to stop her. He attempts to get her to stay, but Jeanette says he shouldn’t be seen with her anymore. This scene seems to show the direction of how their friendship ended up in the following year. Vince sees Jamie watching Jeanette before confronting him and calling him out for his behavior towards his friend, allowing us to really see just how loyal Vince is. We then see Jamie alone in his car, drinking while he listens to some recording.

We catch some of Greg and Cindy’s (Sarah Drew) phone call, but it doesn’t end well. Greg asks Jeanette why she’s home from school when he sees her and the tension in the house finally reaches their relationship. He tells her that he’s taking her to the police station now, calling it a consequence of her actions. We see Greg head to Angela’s (Brooklyn Sudano) bar after, which he’s apparently been at all week before Rod (Ben Cain) walks in. The two are seconds away from a fight, Rod getting what he needs and leaving after Angela interrupts them. Greg informs her that Rod and his wife have been spreading false rumors about his daughter.

Ben gets in the car, not realizing his friend is drunk, and the two drive off. We find out in a series of flashbacks between ’94 and ’95 that Jamie planned to go apologize to Jeanette in the earlier year, saying how the torture she faced was too much. While driving to her house, Ben quickly realizes his friend was drinking, Jamie expressing he needed the liquid courage. At a stop sign, Jamie crashes into another car, not stopping in enough time despite his friend’s yelling. Jamie is arrested, earning him a criminal record and Ben is in an ambulance, his arm/shoulder badly injured. Vince runs over to the ambulance, attempting to comfort him, but Ben gets too nervous due to everyone watching them and says he doesn’t think Vince should go in the ambulance with him.

In 1995, Jeanette shares the printed messages that Derek (Barrett Carnahan) stole from Ashley’s (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) computer with her lawyer, who tells her this inconsistency in Kate’s narrative will serve as proof that she bent the truth of what happened. Jeanette finally meets with her mother, Cindy giving her a present from when she traveled to Paris. Jeanette is hostile, clearly upset with her mother’s actions. She shares that she’s going to register for her GED and Cindy asks how her daughter dropped out. Aurelia delivers an incredible performance in this scene as we find out that Cindy fought for visitations, although Jeanette didn’t want to see her. When asked if she hates her mother, Jeanette admits she doesn’t, which is a huge relief to Cindy. She asks her daughter to think about the lawsuit and her words strike a chord with Jeanette, which eventually leads to a conflict and her defending her father for staying.

Jamie tries to get a job at Angela’s bar but isn’t able to due to his criminal record. He catches Jeanette as she’s getting in her car, asking his ex-girlfriend if they can talk. With Jeanette in a rush, Jamie assures her that she can say no, but he’d like to meet her at his garage. She doesn’t give him an answer, getting in her car and leaving. Jeanette does show up, finally getting to express her anger when Jamie asks if she wants to sit. Jamie says he is going to regret what he did to her every day for the rest of his life, finally getting to apologize. He explains that he thought he was defending Kate with his actions, which Jeanette is clearly hurt by before she asks him who he believes now.

Angela confronts Greg about what Cindy told her at the bar, bringing up the key and how Greg never told her about it. We find out that they turned it over to the police and that was the end of it. Angela then addresses Cindy asking for space and Greg shutting down rather than her leaving him as Greg told her. She expresses not wanting to get between a marriage, but Greg assures her that wasn’t the case. We finally see Ben in ’95, Jamie saying that crash ruined his best friend’s future. Ben is struggling to lift weights, obviously trying to build his strength back up. Back to Jamie and Jeanette, we finally see how the entire situation affected him. The two seem to face the situation the same way, showing some sort of bond is still there. She asks him about the tape recorder, which is the same one he was listening to the day of the crash.

He reveals that on Christmas Eve after Kate went missing, he received a message on his answering machine. He thought it might have something to do with her so he kept it and Jeanette asks to hear it. Despite his initial protests, Jamie lets her listen. The recording shakes Jeanette up and she leaves, going straight to see Mallory. She asks for a snow globe, which Jeanette seemingly gave her, but Mallory denies still having it and shuts the door. As the episode begins to end, we see Mallory take the snow globe out from under her bed, but the exact significance is unclear.

New episodes of Cruel Summer air Tuesdays at 10 PM EDT/PDT on Freeform and are available the next day on Hulu.