Give Our Homes Back
Episode 2 of Summer Heat begins with Yasmin confronting Maresia with the bombshell news about her past. Vilma shows up and asks what’s happening but he lies, claiming it’s to do with paperwork. This hits Yasmin hard, as she walks away. In doing so, we learn this island used to be home to a number of different fishermen but they were evicted from the island for reasons unknown. Graffiti reading “give our homes back” echoes back to earlier struggles for these men and women to maintain their land. If that wasn’t enough. the eviction notice we saw last episode is brought into context here, given it’s for the Hotel they’re all working at. This could well prove to be decisive later on down the line. Yasmin remains determined to “wake our people up” and pursues a more liberating stance. In the morning, Vilma tasks Yasmin with putting her photography to good use. She wants her to take some appealing photos of the hotel and its guests. After a failed attempt to connect from Maresia, Yasmin uploads the photos to social media, using a tagline “the island belongs to the people.” Yasmin takes this idea to the rest of the group, deciding they should take the money originally planned to buy a new AC unit and use it to help the local fisherman. Democratically they do a vote and it’s unanimously in favour of getting air conditioning. Catarina shows up to work late, and is immediately tasked with a big brunch order for Bungalow 12. And that is inevitably for Rodrigo, whose friends push her to the limit. Having grown closer to Conrado, Miguel encourages him to join him over to Bungalow 12 where he sells them weed. Although they make the deal, Rodrigo forces the workers to smoke with them. Conrado is peer-pressured into smoking. Later that afternoon, Diego and Catarina head out for a boat ride. While they leave, Diego mentions he has some things from his past he needs to sort out. This appears like it’s going to be important going forward. Catarina though, is desperate to get back to her old rich lifestyle and continues to hound her uncle for news. It’s not good, and it doesn’t look like her mum is getting free any time soon either. While they’re gone, a stoned Conrado (acting surprisingly hyperactive which absolutely is NOT how stoned people behave) ends up hooking up with Helena. Out in the open, she takes his top off but realizes he’s worried and believes he’s not enjoying it. Yasmin’s social media post gets her into hot water with Vilma. She dances around firing her but hot-headed Yasmin walks out anyway. When Maresia finds out, he rushes out to catch up with Yasmin after hurriedly mentioning to Vilma that he may have familial ties with her. Down on the docks, the pair finally hash out their differences. Maresia admits they’re from different worlds but encourages her to stay so they can blend those two worlds together and get to know one another better. This, in turn, allows Maresia to convince Vilma to let her stay. Now, given the pair are in a relationship, Maresia admits all of this happened before the pair were an item. Meanwhile, Yasmin learns more about the history of the hotel from Miguel. It turns out Elias, Rodrigo’s father, is actually the third partner and owns the spa. He’s the one who evicted everyone while Maresia was actually the one who helped keep the people on the island. She’s clearly got it all wrong about her estranged father. That night, more drama ensues between Diego and Rodrigo. The latter shows up on the beach and a fight breaks out between the two Catarina steps in and stops them though. Rodrigo decides to leave the island, and as he heads home ends up looking at his trophy for being the junior surf champion. In the morning, Catarina’s big story about being robbed is brought to light. Yasmin opens up the closet… and finds bags from Dreambay. Turns out she went shopping instead!
The Episode Review
This episode is a marginal improvement over the first, shedding light on Yasmin’s role on the island and understanding a little more about the history. The fishermen being evicted thanks to Rodrigo’s father is a nice little twist, but it remains to be seen if there’s more development on that. Catarina could well go the route of a redemption toward the end, because right now she’s pretty unlikable. Likewise with Miguel, who uses Conrado for his own gain rather than genuinely helping him. Whether he’ll find out about the drugs in his guitar case is another matter, given that was a pretty big part of the last episode. Either way though, Summer Heat looks like it’s just starting to get a little better but this is still pretty tepid compared to some of the more fiery teen dramas out there.
