Bonjour fellow The Bold Type viewers! This week gave us the S2 finale, We’ll Always Have Paris, which in turn gave us some complicated feels, amirite? Le sigh.
This week I’ll start with Kat, who has had the most frustrating storyline/story-chaos this season. Last week, after having hooked up with every queer woman in New York (and Pennsylvania), Kat decided she wanted to be exclusive with Adena. This isn’t meant to slut-shame Kat, but the frustrating thing about her character this season is how little regard she has for Adena as a human being outside of being her girlfriend. There are moments when she’s very encouraging and supportive, but most of the time she’s pretty selfish with her. Last week, after declaring her intention to be exclusive with Adena, she immediately got pouty when Adena went to the studio to work instead of spend that specific chunk of time with her.
This week, as Kat is headed to Paris as part of Scarlet’s Paris Fashion Week team, she easily convinces Adena to come along. Adena has to leave the country and re-enter it in order to get her visa approved, so it’s the perfect opportunity. They agree it will be a fun vacation and reset for their relationship.
Only while in Paris, the pair run into one of Adena’s old friends on the street who asks about what she’s working on. Adena dodges the question by vaguely referring to a project but that she isn’t showing at Coco’s gallery anymore. This disturbs Kat, who is convinced that Coco is blackballing Adena because they broke up over her. So she contacts Coco without telling Adena and asks her. Coco says she has no hard feelings and would love to show Adena’s work, but she doesn’t have any.
So now Kat realizes she’s “the opposite of a muse” for Adena, who apparently hasn’t produced a thing since they’ve been together. They have the saddest conversation about Adena’s lack of inspiration but don’t come to a resolution; they basically break up without explicitly breaking up. I think we all saw this coming but i for one am really disappointed in how both of these characters and their relationship were written this season. Adena was barely developed at all, despite Nikohl Boosheri’s status as a series regular, and the relationship drama was all over the place with her and Kat. I feel bamboozled by the whole thing.
Then there’s the conundrum of so many A-Listers dropping out of the Scarlet fashion party, which Jacqueline asks Kat to solve. She comes up with the idea to make it a no-phones/social media blackout party: the most exclusive party it can be. It works, so that’s a win.
Anyway let’s talk about Jane, whose romantic situation is even more ridiculous, because why is Pinstripe still here, can anyone tell me?
Jane’s had the hard truth of health insurance thrown in her face when she realizes that Safford’s insurance won’t cover fertility treatments (despite it covering Viagra). Listen, the American “health care” system is the most whacked thing in this country, I feel like that’s common knowledge? Has anyone ever had insurance cover egg-freezing? I’m genuinely interested to know. Regardless, Jane writes an angry article about it that Jacqueline is hesitant to publish for reasons I’ll get to. But good on her, it’s one of the few things she’s done this season I can get behind.
So Jane and Pinstripe run into each other in the Safford elevator again because I guess it’s their spot or something, and in the time it takes to travel a few floors, Pinstripe’s puppy eyes have gotten Jane to spill everything about her fertility planning pickle. This leads us to an incredibly cringe-worthy scene in which Pinstripe comes over to Jane’s apartment that night WITH A DOZEN EGGS and tells her he wants to help pay for freezing her eggs. Then they kiss, or rather he basically tells her that he doesn’t care she has a boyfriend because he knows she wants him so he kisses her. This is disturbing and doesn’t belong in this ostensibly feminist show, even if it’s true that Jane somehow still is attracted to this dude.
For his part, Perfect Ben can pull some random doctor card to help her, as long as they’re registered as domestic partners (even if they’re not really). This is something she says she has to think about, which, fair.
In the end, both of these guys are texting her and Tiny Jane is Big Torn, but when Kat asks her who she would call first, Jane says she knows who. But we don’t, because season cliffhanger y’all!
Then there’s Sutton. Sutton has been kind of the best character this season, which is something I never thought I’d say in a show that features two QWOC. But this episode does not do her character any favors. And that’s because despite her badass boss-lady status as Oliver’s assistant, her ability to crush every task in her career, and her confidence in this fact, this episode focuses on her incredible longing for Richard.
Richard’s father dies and he holds a wake the night Sutton flies to Paris, but she goes to it before going to the airport. There, she’s convinced that Richard really is over her and that he’s all in with his new/old person. Later, Jane hears that a famous jewelry designer has a meeting with Richard and assumes that she’s designing an engagement ring that he will use to propose to his girlfriend. She decides to tell Sutton.
Then Jane goes to Paris too because all three of our women are a hot mess due to their romantic lives and they need to be in the same place. And Kat has millions of frequent flyer miles so no prob! Sutton cries to Jane about how much she loves Richard. She even cries to Oliver about it! And Oliver gives her the worst advice! I mean, he’s the best in so many ways, but it seems so strange for him to tell her to go after Richard. He contradicts himself: when Sutton explains that the reason she broke up with Richard was because she never wanted anyone to think she excelled in her career because of anything but her own merits, Oliver says that’s smart. Which it is! It’s not fair, but it’s smart. But then he tells her that she should never walk away from love and should LEAVE Paris to go back to NY for him?! Like now?! PLEASE. What is this writing?
Maybe it’s just me who felt like Sutton and Richard didn’t have that much chemistry to begin with and their relationship never really felt equal, but even if they really were in love, this woman is at a crucial moment in her career, the one she supposedly cares about more than anything.
Luckily, I guess, Richard had the same feeling and came to Paris to declare his love. So they make out in the street and now they’re together and open about it. Good for them.
The other major plot point is that Jacqueline is really on the ropes with the board, about to be replaced. The reasons for this are so underdeveloped and I don’t like how defeated she is in this episode. She almost doesn’t publish Jane’s article, repeatedly claiming that “it’s just not a good time,” but then she finds her inner Mama Jacqueline and does it right before happily handing over her phone to the party bouncer for a much-needed “night off the grid.”
Well friends, that’s it for season 2! Whelp. Let me know what you think- are you into the hot mess of these relationship dramas? What are your S3 theories?
Thanks for following along on this Bold Type journey! See you next year!
