The Summer of Broken Rules

On her way to eliminate her next target, Wit’s father, Meredith recalls the conversation she had with Wit the previous night. This time, she remembers him telling her that he initially resented the Duprés because he blamed them for his dad pushing him aside. His decision to attend Tulane was primarily to get his dad’s attention. The tactic worked, but he realized it didn’t make him happy the way he expected it to. The narrative returns to the present moment as Meredith casually chats with Wit’s family for a few minutes before pulling her squirt gun on Wit’s father. He takes his elimination in good humor and hands over his target card.

She leaves Wit’s family to get ready for dinner with hers, and along the way, she runs into her new target, Viv, whom she swiftly eliminates. Her target shows disdain for the whole game, to the point where she isn’t even carrying her target card, and as Meredith leaves, she overhears Viv saying that she needs to get off the island. The conversation at dinner with her parents is focused on the game of Assassin, and everyone shares stories about who they eliminated, how the eliminations happened, and their current struggles in getting to their next target.

That night, there’s a party designated for the younger members of the Fox and Dupré families. Luli, Pravika, and Meredith get ready together, and Luli is not pleased to hear that Wit will be attending the party. Meredith chooses to wear a new dress that Sarah gave her “to wow someone,” a dress she never wore for Ben. When the three arrive at the party, they go in different directions—Pravika and Luli to mingle, and Meredith toward Wit.

Meredith and Wit talk about the “lobster" situation—how Hannah had a meltdown that her stuffed lobster had been stolen, so Wit returned it. They keep inching closer to each other, almost holding hands, and Meredith tells Wit that she wants to kiss him. He responds by asking if she wants to leave, which she does. They get away from the party and head back to Wit’s room, where Meredith changes out of the dress and into one of his T-shirts before they share their first kiss.

Meredith wakes up in the middle of the night and hears her phone buzzing. She has received several drunk phone calls and text messages from Ben, who says that he misses her, that “they” were too hasty, and repeats that he would have gone to the wedding with her. She calls him back, tells him off, and then blocks his number, simultaneously accepting and enforcing the fact that Ben will no longer be a part of her life. The next time she wakes up, she and Wit are snuggling. He dislikes her calling him “cutie” and then tells her that she’s pretty. Meredith asks him not to call her pretty or cute or anything that relates to her physical appearance. She starts to leave for meditation, but Wit reminds her that Ian may be lurking in wait for her. He goes to do recon and finds Ian waiting, so she returns to the Annex to check in with her parents.

She and Wit get breakfast at a local restaurant, where they are caught by Sarah and Honey, who are also having breakfast. Meredith wants to leave, but Wit encourages her to stay by admitting that he really likes her. She returns the sentiment and then begins what he calls the “Claire Fox tour” by taking him to Claire’s favorite locations in Paqua, starting with the bookshop.

Wit drives the two of them back from town and maintains a safe speed until the traditional speeding section. When he increases his speed, Meredith has a panic attack and screams for him to slow down; he stops the car, gets out, comes around to the other side, hugs her, and apologizes. He is willing to hand the keys over to her, but she lets him keep driving; she knows that she has to get over her fear of not being in control of the vehicle. While Meredith checks the mailbox for her next target card, Luli arrives, and another argument brews between the two about why Meredith is spending so much time with Wit. This turn of events causes Meredith to lie, saying that she is only associating with Wit to get enough information to win the game of Assassin.

Meredith takes Wit to a secret beach that was one of her favorite spots to go with Claire. While there, she asks about his plans to travel to New Zealand. He tells her that he plans to leave at the end of the summer to pursue an adventure better than the one he was looking for by going to college. Hearing this, her heart breaks a little because she realizes that despite how she feels about him, their situation cannot last past the end of the week, when they must go their separate ways.

Wit goes on an Assassin killing spree after Meredith lends him Claire’s Super Soaker. Meanwhile, Meredith is stuck grocery shopping with Julia and Rachel and cannot make progress in Assassin because she still does not have her previous target’s card. When she returns from the grocery store, her dad is sulking because Wit eliminated him from the game. She has to reassure Wit that her dad won’t stay angry at him forever; he just needs time to get over the indignity of being eliminated.

To give her dad that time, they go out to dinner at a nearby lobster place. Meredith asks one of the waiters to take a picture of them, and one of the shots is of her licking butter off his face. Wit insists on posting this particular picture on Instagram using the hashtag #HitchMeToWitry. Meredith is left wondering what this action says about the status of their growing relationship, since their contact will have to end by the conclusion of the event. Wit returns her to the Annex, where she decides to stay rather than spending the night with him. She finally receives her next target card with a note telling her to “grow up” and ends up going to Wit’s room to spend the night with him despite her previous decision. After a fade-to-black sex scene, Meredith confesses that she cannot sleep in the room she always shared with Claire because it makes her sister’s death too real. She shares her regret that the only thing she talked to Claire about on the day her sister died was Claire’s plan to have dinner with Sarah. She deeply regrets not telling Claire that she loved her or hearing it said back to her one last time.