Hello friends, this week we’ve got some really juicy stuff on The Bold Type, so get in here!
This episode mostly centers on Sutton’s shotgun, aka Betsy, and the ripples its existence causes between her and Jane. Jane discovers Betsy for the first time by grilling Sutton on the contents of the locked, stickered-up case that she always just said was her clarinet. When Sutton admits that it’s actually a gun, Jane loses it.
This tension between gun-hating Jane and skeet-loving Sutton is the most interesting storyline (well, except for the Sapphic Content, but I’m biased toward that one) we’ve seen so far this season. Both Jane and Sutton have really good reasons for their beliefs around guns and gun ownership. Sutton grew up skeet shooting in central Pennsylvania, an activity that brought her a lot of confidence and close friendships, and served as an escape from her mother’s alcoholism. Jane was a kindergartener only 5 miles away from Columbine when that shooting happened, leaving her traumatized. The two remain at an impasse for most of the episode as Jane attempts to write a Scarlet article titled “I Love Everything About My Best Friend Except Her Gun” and being criticized by Mama Jacqueline for her biased first draft.
The thing is, I’m more inclined to agree with Jane, as obnoxious as she is about not really listening to Sutton at all. Sutton’s agreement with the notion that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” is not one I can agree with. Jane’s arguments against gun ownership are all extremely important, and the real-life state of the US is proof in itself that guns in general are a serious problem. But Sutton’s reasons for owning Betsy are hard to fault. She’s as safe about it as anyone could be and sees it as a sport, a recreational pursuit that doesn’t hurt anyone. And in her case, that’s what it is.
At the same time, it’s hard to reconcile one responsible individual’s ownership of or use of a gun for recreational or hunting purposes with the broader reality that guns are a plague in America. I, too, have people in my life who own guns, and I don’t like it, but I also don’t blame them for mass shootings or the NRA lobby. This episode does a good job of addressing that conflict, and how impossible it can feel on an interpersonal level. In the end, Jane armchair-psychoanalyzes Sutton’s attachment to Betsy, connecting it to her own need for control while living in an unstable household, which might be true but also comes off as condescending.
Sutton is receptive to it, though, and ends up deciding to take Betsy to a place that turns guns into other things and melt her into a pair of earrings. Then, she gifts a former-gun flower vase to Jane for her new desk, which she inexplicably hates because it’s not her old one and she really wants her old one back. Jane is such a baby sometimes, lol.
Sutton is also having A Time trying to get hold of a bag for Kate Upton that was promised to her by Brooke, who has completely ghosted. Brooke is terrible but Sutton needs that bag; luckily her fruitless attempts to secure it are met with compassion from Oliver, who has all the connections to get it anyway. He also calls himself and Sutton a team in total control, and it’s v. cute.
Oh yeah and Pinstripe is still here for some reason, this time providing some perspective on how lucky Jane is to have friends like Sutton and Kat. Perfect Ben is absent, off “helping low-income mothers,” which is the vaguest thing ever but ok.
Meanwhile, in Kadena land, Adena has a plan. This plan involves Kat being free to be with other women in order to explore her queer sexuality more, lest she start to resent Adena, who is the only woman she’s been with. There are Rules: weekends are for the two of them, but Kat can do whatever she wants other times as long as she’s safe (shoutout to safe sex, which is a thing for queer women that isn’t talked about enough!) and doesn’t tell Adena about it.
Well, guess what, Kat loves Adena and wants to tell her everything, including about the awkward hookup she had with a cute uber driver who wanted Kat to be dominant. At first she couldn’t do it, but then she got into it.
So Kat literally wakes Adena up to tell her about this, which sounds like a bad idea but is actually kind of cute? Adena is reluctant but gives in, saying “fuck the rules,” and letting Kat talk it out. Listen, I’m here for these two figuring things out as they go along, and I like that she show is tackling this baby-gay-dates-lifelong-lesbian thing with nuance and respect, and some humor too.
That’s it for this week, come back next week for a pregnancy storyline maybe? No one can do a pregnancy story like Wynonna Earp did last season so my expectations are low, but hopefully this isn’t, like, a real pregnancy; I can’t imagine it is. See you next week!
