The second season of Surviving Summer sees Summer returning to Shorehaven to compete in Nationals, but Ari’s new girlfriend makes it hard for her to follow her passion. The second season is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
A year after the events of the first season, Summer returns to Shorehaven with her mother. She has found her passion for surfing and wishes to be a surfer now. Summer directly comes for the state team tryouts and impresses everyone with her skills.
The only person who is not impressed by how much Summer has learned in a year is Ari’s new girlfriend, Wren Radic, who goes on to become the Victoria team captain. Summer had crashed Wren and Poppy’s final during the tryouts to get the selectors’ attention.
It is Wren’s brother, Baxter, who helped Summer crash his sister’s final. Baxter is a talented surfer, and he was in the Queensland team last year. He was kicked out of the team for burning down a clubhouse, so he, along with his two sisters, had to move to Victoria.
Summer gets selected and so do all her friends except Marlon, who will be a sub this year. When Wren finds out that Summer was selected, she starts feeling threatened by her, as none of the others made it to the Victoria State Team in just one year. This leads to Wren bullying Summer.
Summer does not tolerate it, and the two girls lock horns on various occasions, despite Ari assuring Wren that she does not have a reason to be jealous of Summer. On top of that, Wren and Baxter’s older sister, Elo, is the team’s new coach
Summer likes Ari, but he claims that he moved on because Summer cut all contact with him. Summer did that because she did not know if she was ever coming back, and she did not want either of them to get too attached.
Summer organizes a team bonding session at the place her mother is renting. The bonding session turns into a party, which ends with Summer setting the house on fire and Wren pretending to be hurt because of Summer.
Summer’s mother, Margot, wants to take her back to the US, but Ari and Summer convince her to let Summer compete in her first heat. It is the talent search comp, and the young surfers will get sponsorships here.
Meanwhile, Marlon likes Poppy, but she does not want to get into a serious relationship. Bodhi goes out on a date with Tuscany Bray, the captain of Queensland. Bodhi likes Tuscany, but Wren and Elo warn her that Tuscany bullies her teammates and tries to make others lose focus before the competition.
Right before the competition, Tuscany tells Bodhi that she has a girlfriend back home, which upsets Bodhi and she is unable to perform well. On the other hand, Summer surfs well, even though Wren gets Baxter to loosen Summer’s surfboard fins to sabotage her heat.
Summer’s mother gets convinced to stay in Shorehaven with Summer, who gets a sponsorship offer from Subtropix. Ari also gets a sponsorship offer from Blu Gravity, which makes him anxious about portraying himself in a certain way on social media.
Summer, Bodhi, Poppy, and Wren are taken to Byron Bay for a Subtropix photoshoot. However, the photographer’s racist comments and Subtropix not using her surf shots make Bodhi uncomfortable. She is not seen as a competent surfer by the sponsors.
Wren hears Ari and Summer talk on the phone and gets jealous. She trashes the photographer’s room and frames Summer for it. This leads to Poppy and Bodhi getting angry at Summer and Summer being sent to Shorehaven.
Even Ari does not believe Summer, and she has no one standing by her side. At a time like this, Baxter supports Summer because he knows his sister and believes that Summer is innocent. Poppy and Marlon also get together, and Bodhi sees them kissing.
The team goes to surf camp, and tensions rise. Elo makes them participate in an activity, which makes matters worse between teammates when they find out what the others think about them. Bodhi and Poppy end up fighting, and Bodhi becomes close friends with Wren.
Ari ends up kissing Summer at the camp, and Baxter, who brings a surfboard for Summer, sees him leaving her tent at night. Soon after, Summer starts liking Baxter as well and kisses him at Wren’s birthday party when she realizes that Ari is not going to break up with Wren.
Baxter tells Summer about how he sabotaged her heat, and Ari tells Wren that he still has feelings for Summer. Wren convinces Ari that Summer is not the person he believes her to be. Instead of breaking up, Wren and Ari confess their love for each other and sleep together.
Poppy and Summer get drunk, and Poppy hurts Marlon’s feelings. She is bothered by Bodhi and Wren’s friendship, so she breaks the window of a shop that has Wren’s poster on it. When the police arrive, Summer sends Poppy away and takes the fall for her.
Summer does not go to Nationals and plans to return to New York. However, Summer’s mother finds out that Summer was just protecting her friend and convinces her to compete with her team. Summer then joins the team to bring home the National title.
Surviving Summer season 2 ending explained in detail:
Why did the Radic siblings move to Victoria?
Elo makes Poppy and Wren surf as a pair, even though Wren was paired with Summer when they were being trained. Poppy and Wren surf well, and Victoria makes it to the women’s pair’s final but Queensland does not.
When it was Tuscany’s turn to surf, Summer accused her of playing with Bodhi’s feelings, which made Tuscany lose focus. Later, Tuscany tells Summer that she does not have a girlfriend and that she likes Bodhi a lot. She lied to Bodhi because Bodhi is friends with Wren.
It turns out that Wren bullied Tuscany, who was her friend, and outed her to her sponsor when Tuscany started outperforming her. Tuscany also tells Summer that Elo and Wren did not have to leave Queensland because of Baxter.
Wren and Elo were kicked out of the team for bullying and toxic coaching. The two sisters lied to Baxter and led him to believe that they had to leave Queensland and start afresh in Victoria because of him, which is why a guilty Baxter did whatever Wren asked him to do.
Although Summer is still angry at Baxter for sabotaging her heat, she wants to tell him the truth about why he had to leave Queensland. However, she keeps quiet, as Wren threatens to get Summer benched during the competition if she tells Baxter anything.
Does Bodhi prove her worth?
In the women’s pair’s final round, Bodhi is asked to surf with Wren instead of Poppy. Bodhi and Poppy finally talk and apologize to each other. Poppy tells Bodhi how Summer took the blame for her, which changes Bodhi’s opinion of Summer.
Furthermore, Poppy also tells Bodhi that she thought she was losing Bodhi to Wren, and that is why she started acting out. Bodhi assures Poppy that she is never going to lose her to anyone.
Bodhi also questions her sponsors about using only her swimwear shots and not her surf shots. She calls out the photographer for being racist. She still thinks that Summer trashed his hotel room, but this time, she defends Summer’s actions.
Wren gives an excellent performance once again, and then it is Bodhi’s turn to surf. Bodhi manages to get a high score and proves her worth as a surfer. Bodhi’s team wins the round, but Bodhi refuses to promote Subtropix, as they did not take her complaints into account when it mattered.
Does Summer reveal the truth about the Radic siblings?
When it is Ari’s turn to surf, he fails to perform, which hurts Victoria’s chances of winning the Nationals. Elo yells at Ari, which leads to Summer risking getting benched and telling the whole team about why Elo and Wren had to leave Queensland.
Elo has been trying to repeat everything that she did to her previous team. She has been setting it all up to turn the surfers against each other because she wants them to channel that anger into surfing and deliver better results.
Summer also tells Baxter that he was never kicked out of Queensland, which leads to Baxter choosing to drop out. Baxter also realizes that Summer cares about Ari more than she cares about him, as she risked everything to protect Ari, not him.
Elo cannot bench Summer, as the team turns against her. They unanimously decide that Elo is no longer their coach. Furthermore, Ari has an anxiety attack and breaks up with Wren.
Does Victoria win the National title?
When Baxter leaves, Poppy asks Marlon to surf. She apologizes to him for hurting him and talks to him about her mother’s death. Meanwhile, Ari tells his family, as well as Summer’s mother, that he has feelings for her.
He decides to lift the team’s spirits by performing a dance sequence that Summer had choreographed when they were children. The team joins him, and their efforts bear fruit, as Marlon wins the boys’ final, which means Victoria still has a chance to win.
To make that possible, Summer asks Wren, who is a great surfer and has not made a single mistake all day, to surf for the team. She tries to convince Wren that listening to Elo will result in her ending up alone.
When it is time for the girls’ individual final, Wren shows up to represent Victoria. However, she is only there to sabotage Summer’s heat, and because of Wren, Summer’s score drops. Team Victoria does not win, but they do bag the second position.
The team celebrates together, but Wren is left alone, just as Summer had warned her. Now that Wren is out of the picture, Tuscany is seen dancing with Bodhi. Summer and Ari also start dating. Summer later runs into Baxter at the beach, and he tells her that his sisters are gone, but he is going to stay in Shorehaven for the summer.