WARNING! This article contains major SPOILERS for Time Cut (2024)!After Lucy is transported back to 2003 from 2024 in Time Cut, she discovers the shocking identity and motivations of her sister’s murderer, the Sweetly Slasher. The cast and characters of Netflix’s Time Cut are led by Madison Bailey as Lucy Field, a present-day teen whose life continues to be impacted by the murder of her older sister, Summer, in 2003, which occurred before she was born. In Lucy’s original timeline, the Sweetly Slasher was never caught, so there was never a clear explanation for why Summer and her friends Emmy, Brian, and Val were tragically killed 21 years prior.
However, on the 21st anniversary of Summer’s death, Lucy finds a time machine and is transported back to the fateful date that the murder spree began. After Lucy befriends the scientifically-minded student Quinn and, eventually, her own sister, the group works to stop two of the tragic deaths and discover who really murdered Summer and why. In Time Cut’s ending, Lucy, Summer, and Quinn finally unmask the killer as he reveals why he chose the teenage victims, with the Sweetly Slasher’s identity creating a paradox still that leaves the characters’ future safety in question.
The Sweetly Slasher Is Quinn From The Future
Future Quinn Used The Time Machine To Kill Summer & His High School Bullies
The Sweetly Slasher technically isn’t any of Summer’s classmates – or even anyone from 2003. Rather, the Sweetly Slasher is Quinn from the year 2024. While Quinn was generally a friendly teen who enjoyed science and had a fondness for Summer in 2003, the time travel movie reveals that he becomes embittered over time and, in the year 2024, goes back in time to kill Summer, Emmy, Val, and Brian. Seemingly having acquired a job with SONR, the approximately 40-year-old Quinn uses the anti-matter time machine to go on a three-day killing spree in 2003 before returning to his timeline.
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At the end of the Netflix horror movie, teenage Quinn finds himself face to face with a terrifying version of himself from the future, and is intent on stopping himself from becoming that person. Lucy ultimately kills the future version of Quinn after he tries to murder Summer, which means that it’s up to teenage Quinn to prevent himself from repeating this tragic turn in the future. Considering there’s no telling what the butterfly effect will be from Lucy returning to the 2003 timeline again, whether Quinn will become the Sweetly Slasher again is technically still unknown.
Why Future Quinn Killed Summer, Emmy, Brian & Val In 2003
Future Quinn Wanted Revenge For The Mistreatment Of His Teenage Self
Since the killer was never found in the original timeline, the Field family never had any closure about why Summer was targeted by the Sweetly Slasher. However, Lucy’s time travel interference results in her finally getting the answer. When the teens fight Future Quinn in Time Cut’s ending, he explains that his motivation for the killing spree is based on his poor treatment from fellow classmates, the bullying directed at him by Ethan and Brian, and Summer rejecting his romantic advances. After 21 years of this hatred festering in Quinn, he decided to get brutal revenge for his younger self.
Time Cut reveals that Quinn didn’t have many friends, and was chosen by Ethan and Brian to be the senior embarrassingly thrown into the river in front of his peers. That bullying was soon followed by Quinn giving a letter to Summer confessing his love, which she responded to by saying she could never like him in that way. As revenge, Future Quinn planned to kill Summer and her closest friends, and get away by returning to the future. Plus, by leaving Ethan alive, Quinn would get further revenge by making him the biggest suspect for the slasher movie villain.
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However, many of the reasons that Future Quinn had for returning to the past and killing his classmates were erased by Lucy’s time travel to 2003. Lucy became Quinn’s friend, stopped Ethan and Brian from throwing him in the river, helped him become closer friends with Summer again, and even influenced Summer’s decision to feel supported in coming out to her family and friends about her sexuality. After Lucy, Summer, and Quinn kill Future Quinn, the changes they’ve already made to the new timeline seem to also kill those motivations to become the Sweetly Slasher.
Will Quinn Really Stop Himself From Becoming The Sweetly Slasher?
Lucy’s Timeline Changes Will Hopefully Prevent Quinn’s Dark Turn
Teenage Quinn promises that he’ll never turn into the monster that returns to kill Summer and her friends, but there’s no way of knowing that promise will be kept. While Lucy returned to Time Cut‘s 2024 timeline and saw that Summer didn’t have a husband but was still alive, she doesn’t give any word about what happened to Quinn. It’s possible that Quinn still becomes a killer but spares Summer. Additionally, that alternate future timeline has already been changed yet again by Lucy’s decision to return and stay in 2003.
Teenage Quinn and Future Quinn are both portrayed by Griffin Gluck.
Lucy’s final return to 2003 means that she’ll never be born in the future, but her presence will still continue to impact Quinn and Summer’s lives as they grow older. The future that Lucy saw when she went back to 2024 likely won’t be the same as it is in the new timeline, as there will be an entirely new butterfly effect from Lucy staying. This could potentially impact whether Quinn eventually acts on potentially different motivations to become the Sweetly Slasher; there’s just no way of knowing unless a new timeline and paradox is created yet again.
Lucy Killing Future Quinn Means Brian & Val’s Killer Is Still Never Identified
That Version Of Quinn May Not Even Exist In This Timeline Anymore
While Lucy traveling back in time helped prevent the deaths of Emmy and Summer, she was too late to stop Future Quinn from killing Brian and Val at the mall. One of the biggest tragedies of the Sweetly Slasher being from the future was that when he returned to his timeline, the town never got any closure on who killed the teens. This time around, Lucy and Summer discovering the killer’s identity suggested the public would finally get to learn who murdered Brian and Val.
Lucy and Summer can’t expose the killer considering Future Quinn returned to 2024 before dying, the teens would have to convince the authorities that time travel is real, and this information could lead to teenage Quinn being incarcerated for the killings that he hasn’t committed yet
However, the paradox of it being Future Quinn means that information will still never be disclosed. Lucy and Summer can’t expose the killer considering Future Quinn returned to 2024 before dying, the teens would have to convince the authorities that time travel is real, and this information could lead to teenage Quinn being incarcerated for the killings that he hasn’t committed yet. Tragically, it means Val and Brian’s murders will technically still remain unsolved after Time Cut, despite the fact that Lucy, Quinn, and Summer know who did it.
A teenage girl goes back in time to the early 2000s to save her sister from a dangerous killer.
- Director
- Hannah Macpherson
- Release Date
- October 30, 2024
- Writers
- Michael Kennedy , Hannah Macpherson
- Cast
- Madison Bailey , Megan Best , Michael Shanks , Antonia Gentry , Griffin Gluck
- Character(s)
- Lucy Field , Emmy Golden , Gil
- Runtime
- 95 Minutes