Heartstopper S3E6 "Body" Recap

Hello and welcome to Big Gay Energy. I'm Caitlin. And I'm Fiora. Come along with us while we dive into the fun and nuances of queer media. Representation matters, and we're. Here to talk about it. Cheers, queers. What's on the big agenda today, Theora? Today we are continuing our scene by scene breakdown of Heart Stopper Season 3, and today we'll be discussing Episode 6. Body. All right. And of course, today we have joining us is Elena because we cannot do heart stopper without her.

Wait, it isn't. Hello. We hope that you enjoy being here as much. As I do, I really do. Thank you guys. All right, and before we get into the episode, just make sure that you're doing all the things following us, liking the podcast? Come check out the Patreon, join the Discord, do all the things, you know the drill, and let's get into it. Let's do it. All right. So we start with April. It's been four months since Charlie has left impatient.

And of course, Charlie being Charlie, he's downplaying how far he has come. But he has Jeff in his corner and he won't stand for that. So he's making him think about the progress he has made because he has made so much progress, even if he doesn't think it. And this is a very clever way to be able to see to have a time jump, but also see what happened in those four months through highlights. And because compared to the previous seasons, these this season encompasses the most time.

So it's just a very interesting way to see that. And it doesn't make the time jump jarring like some shows do. So we learned that Charlie started back to school in January and the first thing we get with him in school is Farouk telling him that he could come to him if he needed anything.

And it's just so sweet to see Farooq in his corner as well because we know he has Nathan already, but it's just so special with Farooq because Farooq does see himself in Charlie because of his experiences in school. And I feel like once Farooq saw himself in Charlie, he just invested himself in his progress and is like, I will support you

no matter what. Also, Farooq's ark has been such a joy as well because he went from this like closed off hard and exterior teacher to opening up and actually finding himself as well through his relationship with Nathan. And I think he's like really starting to accept himself and just his world. And it's it's making positive strides for him. Yeah, like Speaking of coming a long way, like Youssef is definitely the character in the background who's had tremendous growth, like you said.

Yeah, and Charlie also gets a warm welcome back by everybody and he seems to be fully supported, which is very nice. And yeah, I mean, how could you not love him? I know the stark contrast from season 1, like when he is going into the changing room for the very first time and how awkward that was to now. Like literally all the boys go and tackle hug him. So sweet, very sweet. So many people have gone through growth and it's nice to see.

So unfortunately, Charlie does relapse 2 weeks later and this seems to be weighing on him currently because of the fact that he relapsed. So obviously you're not magically fixed when you get out of an an inpatient program, but it's, it's so depressing when you do get those moments from that feel exactly like the moments that you went through right before going into inpatient. It's like, why did I do this? Like I made no progress at all.

I'm right back where I was. And so I I understand why this is making him feel like he's kind of a failure in that sense, but he's not because this is a roller coaster. Life is a roller coaster. And his relapse included arguing with Nick over him eating. And we then get the solitaire scene where Tori has to have Nick come back after their argument. And so it's like nice to see that solitaire tie in. But. Just really sad that he's gone through.

This yeah, I have to wonder for Charlie, like what it what is it about it that's weighing on him more? Is it is it the fact that he argued with Nick or is it the actual relapse itself, relapse itself because. Or is it a combination of both, like equally? Because obviously like the argument with Nick is what led him to relapse, but what what is it exactly that's weighing on him? Because we see the actual argument scene, so obviously that part is weighing on him,

but how much is it actually so? Yeah, I mean, that's a really good question because I think in this conversation with Jeff, there's like a hint that Charlie feels like a failure a little bit that like everything's not perfect. So I wonder if that's like like part of the OCD is kind of like, wow, Charlie, you're not perfect. You're arguing with Nick. I wonder if it's like a combination, maybe like you're saying, but. Yeah, like you're one you're 1 perfect or whatever.

In his mind you're 1 safe place. You you've done and messed it up or cuz now he's he's walked away from you too or whatever because of what you did. Yeah in his mind is what he's thinking for sure. Yeah. I think so, yeah. Definitely possible because he's like, I ruin everything because of this and I'm never going to get better so why? Yeah. Yeah, he fell falls back into that I just ruin people's lives

kind of mindset. Yeah. I feel you, Charlie. He's just, it's a it's a rough time, But luckily it seems that Charlie in his relationship has gotten better. And Jeff says something really interesting and he says that maybe it's because Charlie's not constantly thinking about his intrusive thoughts that he finally has more energy and more space to think about Nick and put that energy into their relationship and working on

that. And then we get a montage of him doing that and the whole thing's just really cute and, you know, really gay. But it's it's nice to see him be happy, especially after having just seen that relapse scene and then seeing them really work through it. I think Jeff's become like one of my favorite characters in

this in this season for sure. I'm so glad we got more time with him this like in the show, because like, obviously we only get to see a glimpse of him in the in the comics for obvious logistical reasons and story reasons. But I love that we get to have time to sit down. And also his writing is one of my favorite things, his dialogue, just like Charlie asks, do you practice your motivational pep talk? Do they just come to you? And he goes, they just come to me.

I'm a talented person. He just like Charlie's sarcastic and he's just sarcastic back in a like a very kind way That's not condescending, but it's meeting Charlie's energy. I think he says something about it's been four months since he's been out of inpatient. He's like, I should bake a cake. And Jeff goes. I know you're being sarcastic, but that's a lovely. Idea. I also think that's a lovely idea. Can we have some? He's like, Charlie's like, OK, fine. Like about the talk about his

progress. He's like, OK, fine, happy. And Jeff, like, just goes, yeah, delighted. So cute, so matter. In such a kind, loving way to Charlie. He doesn't put up with Charlie's shit and I love it. Yeah. Jeff and Susan are the therapist that we all need and I now I want them to both have a spin off where they're just like running like a psychiatric like clinic, inpatient, outpatient, whatever it may be. So we can get a bunch of

different stories. But then the two of them having to run like group therapy sessions together. I think that would be a really fun, funny dynamic. You know what, head? Canon. I would love for fan fiction writers to run with. They're actually siblings. Jeff and Susan are actually just siblings. That's interesting. That's a good. Or family of some kind and they share this passion or something because they're part of the same clinic so. Yeah, that's interesting.

I love that Someone do. It do it do it. And then we get to the title card. So the title of the show and episode here are written, and then it's mirrored back. And then it goes into the black fuzziness that we know as Charlie's anxiety.

So to me, this is in imitating looking in the mirror and communicating that Charlie is still having what he is still hating what he sees in the mirror, which is why this episode is titled Body. But I did notice that there is hope because there needs to always be hope because we don't end with the black fuzziness because they could have easily just like faded out from the fuzziness. They bring it back to the original mirror and it's indicating that Charlie will get past.

This. Got to love that hope in the animation. It's well done everyone. It's not hard stopper if there isn't a little bit of it's going to be OK kind of mentality always. Don't panic. Yeah. And of course, after this is we cut to Lambert. That's the school's name. I was like, what's the school name? Lambert, the art school where Elle is at her art college, she's with.

Elle. Naomi and Felix in this class, probably just in like a standard painting class, I guess they're all, they're all doing self portraits. It looks like Elle's done a fantastic self-portrait and the teacher, their professor comes over and approaches about the OR the radio station contacting and wanting to interview Elle about her artwork. So I love that the teacher in this scene, they clarify, they want to make sure they didn't.

They don't try to pressure L. They just say I just came to ask if that's something you're comfortable with. Let me know what you think, like I'll send you the details. They there is no like you should totally do it. You should do this. It's just AI just want to offer it to you. It's there. And then the friends, I think the friends don't even like after the teacher walks away. I don't think they even say, Elle, you should take it. You should totally do it In this

moment. They just say, Oh my God, Elle, you're famous. Like just so encouraging. Like, wow, even just getting this interview offer is a great thing because it shows like how great you're doing. And I think that's really sweet that there there is no pressure in this moment of, oh, you should totally do it so.

Yeah, I agree. What I thought was weird though, is that like the radio station went through the school, which I thought was kind of weird because the thing that was making Elle giving her notoriety was Instagram. So I found it weird that she wasn't approached through her Instagram. It was like they should. They went through the school. Which was. That's true. Interesting the. Only thing I could think of is that they aren't allowed to contact a minor. Yeah, I was thinking that too.

It's just. It's just. Odd that it went. Through. School as we know later, they don't really care about the rules with mine so. Anyway. My hope is. Maybe that was like too much of a paper trail. My hope is the I thought. The other thing wasn't oh, sorry, you're good.

Yeah, my hope is that if if they're contacting the school, like it's public knowledge where she goes to school, 'cause that's that's the other thing is OK, well, if she's famous through Instagram, who Instagram stalked her and found out what school she goes. Right. No, totally. Like is that just probably not. It was just very. Strange, somebody probably like tracked down her painting from her art show from the previous year from when she got accepted or something like that.

Maybe somebody could have usually or, or she posted, probably posted something by Lambert on her Instagram and they're like, oh, she goes to the school just. Maybe tag the location? Probably. I hope so, but. This is showing kids. Don't tag your location unless you want people to find you. You know, when, like, Facebook came out with that, like, tagging locations? Yeah, I had to deal with my mom tagging us in our house. Anyway, that's a whole nother story for another day. Yeah.

Be safe online, kids. This is not, you know, remember the days of PSA's being safe online when we're in middle school? Yeah, that's still relevant. That's still very relevant Anyway, yeah, so we cut from that to Elsa got like this look of smiling on her face, like obviously she's contemplating, like, huh, Like just trying to decide how she wants to take that information of these people want to interview you about your art. So after this, we go to Truham and we see Nicholas in the

hallway. Probably just walking, I think. I assume he's probably going to find Charlie. And it's so cute because he goes to find Charlie in the practice room. And it's really cute that he, he hears Charlie before he sees him because he can hear Charlie in the practice room playing his drums. And he, like, pauses in the hallway, and he just smiles like, that's my man playing his music. He goes up and finds Charlie in the practice room.

And he just peeks through the glass for a second, which I think is really cute. He just gives Charlie, like, another second to, like, keep practicing without interrupting. Can I just say, first of all, these practice rooms are huge. Right. Like the ones at my school. I don't know about you guys but the ones at my college were dinky. They were tiny compared to this. Is it a? Practice room or did he just

take over a classroom? To I mean, he calls it a practice room in in the show, but I'm like, is it, is it the practice room? I don't know. I he calls it a practice room. So I'm like. I mean, the drums were already there. So like, I don't see him, he carrying her on drums, you know? So I assume this is like there's musical equipment in this room, so it must be dedicated to some sort of practicing?

It's also but it's not like a high school that's dedicated towards music so I don't see them having more than this one room. I mean, maybe UK schools are different and they actually have funded art programs in their high school. That's. True, they care about the arts. Maybe. I mean, that's. Fair. I didn't look into that. I. Also did grow up in AI, did go to College in a state where they didn't federally fund the arts because they didn't think it was

valuable enough. So I'm like, you know, I guess that makes sense. Welcome to America. I'll go to the Midwest. Yeah, I do love this. I do love the scene where where Nick is peeping on Charlie while he's like playing the drums and Charlie has no idea. It's just like ultimate golden retriever Nick, because he sees Charlie, he's like boyfriend. It's so cute. And like Charlie is just in his black cat energy, not paying attention to the world, just doing his drums.

It's just this very cute. Yeah. And then enter Nicholas, stage left or more up, up, stage left, if you will, immediately comes over. He goes, scoops Charlie up, spins him around again. If it's not a season of Heart Stopper, if there's an at least one moment where Nick scoops up Charlie and spins him, that's just their thing. So cute. It is. Yeah, it. And it's really sweet. So it's Charlie's birthday today. He's our boy is 16. Oh, my God. So much has happened.

Yeah. And so Nick, for his birthday, surprises him with some really cute tickets to go see Jack Maddox, who is an author that Charlie's obsessed with. Me too, my dude. Side note, I just want to say as as a comic reader, Charlie's also super obsessed with this band called The Ark. It's this boy band. It's in another one of Alice's novels called I Was Born for This. It's actually, yeah, it's actually from their perspective. So or it's more focused on them.

Yeah, I read that novel to read it. It's good. It's good. Yeah, so I I would love at some point escalate a glimpse or even just a reference to them. I'm kind of surprised they haven't been referenced. I I get like why they wouldn't have the band because that's just is that would require like more casting, more actors they'd have to hire. So I get like the practicalities as like a filmmaker and everything, but like give us a poster or something, or like a

tort, like toys or something. We got Taylor Swift. I know, right? So give us a band poster. Like I know, I know there's some fan out there who would be so happy that would make their life to be able to make a fan poster of this band and make it into the show 100%. That fan's name is Elena. I can't draw to save my life. Caitlyn, what are you talking about? You don't have to draw, you just like drag and drop things on. A graphic design? Nah, I'll leave it up to graphic

designers. I'll help you. Why don't you just go with Caitlyn? No one got time for that. That's hard. To get some of that, yeah. I'm also, I think if I remember right, this the the mini comic about this author who was originally called Henry Maddox in the comics. I think this was originally not written by Alice, but I think Alice illustrated it, if I remember right. And it basically made it Canon. So it was like a collaborative

effort. Somebody else wrote it and then Alice, I think I remember, bring this right. But it's really cool if it's actually made it into the show and it's like officially show cannon. Like, hell yeah. So when Nick gets gives Charlie these tickets, he says, yeah, he's doing the lecture in the book signing, which first of all, I assume Charlie probably knew that this was happening. So look at his face when he goes, wait, we actually get to meet him.

He's probably thinking, Oh my God, wait, we're going to this book signing. I get to meet this guy. What? So. Naturally, Tackle hugs his boyfriend, proclaims his love for him, as you do when they buy you tickets to meet your celebrity crush, Obviously. But Nick teases he's just like, Oh, well, obviously you don't love me as much as you love Jack Maddox, Hey. I love jealous, hey.

Man, if say we were talking about season 1C and Tao got you tickets to go, I don't know, a freaking kissing booth or something to kiss Nick Nelson, I think he would do the same thing. Somebody write that fan fiction. That terrible idea for fan fiction? They have a crossover with the kissing. Oh God. I mean, could be. So Charlie asks Nick if he can get a birthday kiss, cuz you know, that's apparently a requirement in relationships. Wouldn't I wouldn't know but why?

It's true. But Nick happily obliges. And this is where things get a little bit a little bit heated very quickly. It gets more intense than either of them probably intended it to. And at one point Charlie has to break away and he says we should probably. And Nick kind of gets where he's going with what he's trying to say. And he goes, yeah, not at school. When had they? Ever stopped them first of all? The school.

Part like come I. Mean, I don't know the amount of times they've, I don't know if they've ever been walked in on at school, but they definitely gotten walked on at other places. So who knows? Yeah, for sure. But yeah, so the thing that I think is So what makes this scene so funny at the end is Charlie's body language at the end. He literally does this awkward little thing where he as he's turning away from Nick, he swings his arms in a very

awkward light. Like he's so like he's like purposely trying to stand up straight as he's like turning away to like go grab his bag and he's like, it's almost four in time anyway. Charlie's like, I don't know what to do with my hands. I don't. Know what to do with any part of me, but I cannot be looking at you right now. So yeah, Joe's, Joe's body language and this just made me laugh so good.

It's a very teenage boy trying to like, calm down, but doesn't know what to do with all this energy. And it's like, yeah, it's awkward. Let's go to. Class. Yeah. And then he changes the subject. He's like, but Saturday, Saturday around the sleepover. Saturday. So. Yes, all right, But before we move on, we have to interrupt this video for a few brief Patreon shout outs.

So we have so many lovely chaos Crew Patreon members and we want to make sure they all know that we appreciate them, but we also want to make sure that everybody listening, watching any way you're consuming this episode. We appreciate you as well because any little bit of support that you give us means the world, and it enables us to keep spreading the joy of queer content. So thank you, all of you.

So our chaos. Crew members on our big Gay Rider die tier and above are Angela, Natalia I and A Jill L Regina B Monet, F Dana Shy, Isla Madison, and Amix Newmanzone under score Mbolti, thank you so much. I hope you're enjoying our craziness. That is our big energy after dark. And our featured big gay supporter members for this episode are close to you. 28 KC and Natharis. Thank you again. Thank you again to all of you. Come join us either on Patreon or Discord or both, or, you

know, wherever. Wherever you need your big gay energy fix or friends because there's friendships happening, which is fun. Yeah, and if you just want to shout about queer media, because let's be real, if you're watching this, you know, you want to. So come, shout, shout out about it. Come. Just talk about it with us. All right, There you go. That's the right words. Speaking of friendships, so let's get back to Heart Stopper.

So in the next scene, we shoot on over to Charlie's bedroom where Isaac, Tao and Charlie are hanging out, you know, just being boys. And when the scene opens, it's Tao and Isaac sharing a bag of crisps. And like, Tao's eating them. And then he's like, I'm done with this. And he like tosses the bag over on the other side of the bed and it just so happens to be where like the stuffed lemur is hanging out.

So it like it almost looks like Tau passed the chips to the lemur and the lemur is like hanging out with the bag of chips, which I find really funny. I'm sure this was not on purpose or anything. I just find it amusing that the lemur ends up with the bag of chips. OK. I I love that you pointed that out. It was super random when I saw it and I was like, that's really funny. I think the lemur ends up with the food anyway so they're hanging out and Charlie

confesses to his friends. Basically the scene we just saw with Nick and Charlie's like it happened again and it being super intense make out sessions with Nick that get super awkward once they stop. And like in the scene their animations are more intense too. So it's not just like the spark of electricity, it's like a meteor shower of electricity. So like a sexual tension is a ruin between the two. And Isaac and Tao immediately understand that that's what's

happening here. And then the conversation transitions into Are you ready to have sex with a Dick? Which they're being very mature about handling this, but like, also immature because they're boys. So I appreciate the way this was all kind of done. So like Isaac. Yeah. Taos basically do not get into the details with me, Charlie. I don't. But Isaac's, like, avid book reader here. I want all this funny details. Charlie, tell me literally everything.

So I love that. Yeah, we have to have another moment of appreciation just for a heart stopper showing this conversation between male teens in a healthy way because it's like the perfect mix of like handling things appropriately. But also, you know, when you're a teenager, like it's, it's weird and fun like to talk about with your friends, but they're not making him feel bad about anything, pressuring him

anything like that. They're just having this really adorable conversation where Tao does not want to hear details, even though he would definitely give the details for himself. Oh that is absolutely what happens, because when given the chance to talk about sex, what does Tao do? He starts waxing poetic about El. So like, yeah, Tao is such a hypocrite in the scene, which I find hilarious, but like, Oh my God.

So yeah, I agree. I think this is a a good depiction of how to have this conversation as boys without toxic masculinity baked into this conversation because like, yeah, Tau literally waxes poetic about Elle and then Isaac's like, listen, I just want to know what's going on. Everything, give me everything. And like I and then Charlie's like the shy boy a bit about it, but nobody's like like nobody's bragging or doing anything weird.

It's just it's very cute the way they're kind of like talking about it in different ways, but like together it's a healthy conversation, which is really cute. Yeah, the way that Tao approaches it when he like starts doing the the sharing of his sex life with Elle, it's more like it's him doing a reflection in a way that's like how he remembers it. And it's not in a braggy way.

It's literally just I remember how wonderful it was because I love Elle and so like a very Tao fashion of just like fawning over his girlfriend and everything. So I love that so much and I love how it really like in the way that it does tactical toxic masculinity.

A lot of the time when you hear on in media at least, like men, especially straight men stereotyped in these kind of talks, they're always like belittling their partners or minimizing their partners, especially if they're if they're female. So I love it that it does.

It just naturally goes against all of that by just simply not acknowledging it and doing it in a in a way that's like so much more just like out of respect for his partner, but still be boys being boys so. Yeah, it's still playful in nature, which is very sweet. And yeah, and like Tao's reflection is very like emotional based as well, which also something I love about Tao, which is very passionate the way he's talking. It's so true, such a Tao.

Thing it's so good. How can't do anything without being passionate? I know, that's why I love him too. That's very true. He's very invested in stuff I know I love. And The funny thing is, it's just how Isaac couldn't care less about Tao's sex life, but he is invested in Charlie's. It's just like, Isaac, are you? Are you that that reader that

loves the Slow burn? Like the Super excruciating the long Slow Burn romances where they don't even like talk to each other properly until chapter 10? You know, he really did me. He would be like also I was. Probably telling them every detail as it happens. I think he's. Like enough? Yeah. Like how long after it happened at New Year's to the end of telling them that's the real question? Probably like the next day or something. Oh, the second. Or yeah, he came downstairs after midnight.

It was just like, guys, we totally just had sex, but not like in a weird way, just like a Oh my God, I cannot believe that was amazing. It was magical, yeah. Yeah, I mean, he was surprised too. So. Oh my. God. That was so funny.

OK, so back to Charlie though. So Charlie, I also like the fact that they, they frame the question as like, Are you ready, Charlie, basically, which I think is another, again, a healthy way to kind of like think about this and a good way for them to communicate it. So Charlie says that like basically, yes, he does. He he's at the point where he's

ready. I think Charlie's kind of been ready for a while, but like he had a lot of other stuff going on. So there's part of Charlie that we've seen since, I mean, since the beginning really, where he's like always afraid of pressuring Nick into something he doesn't want to do. So I think that's part of what's going on with Charlie. But 'cause I go back to their conversation in Paris when they first kind of talked about sex, where Charlie was like, I don't want to pressure Nick into

anything he's not ready to do. So I feel like that's always like in his brain when this topic kind of comes up. Yeah, also like when he does kick the guys out for, he's like, I need to change. It's so funny. So shout out to Caitlin for getting me into watching these shows with closed captioning on, like going back and rewatching with captions afterwards because I missed so many of these hidden gems without it. Especially like the dialogue in

between scenes. So literally as Charlie is kicking out Tao and Isaac, he shuts the door behind him and you just hear the caption show Tao and Isaac start seeing you like sexy time Doo Doo. And I like I went back and I watched it and I tackled at that moment because I was like, why have I never noticed this? Because I didn't have captions on so much, so much goes missed. Yeah, like so many gems. If you don't like have the captions because you can't you

can't always hear them very. And you if you can hear it, you can't hear it clearly. You can't hear what's actually being said. It's like when Charlie and what was it like episode 3? I think when he goes we little light bulb. I wouldn't have thought that if there was no caption. That was so cute so. It's so funny and Darcy has a lot of lines where it's just like thrown away because it's in between. It's it's great. I recommend captions.

I know. It's so also because it keeps me actually focused on it because it. Yeah. Anyway, you never know what you're missing. No, what? That was a good one. I appreciate being. Pointed out to that because it's. So on brand again. Playful teenage boys. So yeah, back to Charlie, he so part of part of his hesitancy is like, what is Nick's thinking? I'm afraid to ask.

But then the other piece that we've been hinted at for quite some time and going back to the title of this episode is Charlie's body dysmorphia is the other component. So he's afraid of Nick essentially looking at him and being like, because you can hide under. He hides under his clothes and, like, he often wears like, you know, cardigans and, like, pants. So he's usually pretty covered up. So Charlie's like, oh, no, what if he sees me?

And so to the latest point, eventually he kicks the boys out of the room so he can change. So he's not comfortable changing in front of his friends, is the hint there, too. But then he does start to change, and he's, like, looking at himself in the mirror. And he just looks very uncomfortable just being alone with his, you know, in his own

skin in a way. And the other thing that we see in the scene when Charlie takes his shirt off is in front of the mirrors is he's got the track marks on his left arm or right arm. Yeah. Yeah, his right arm. Sorry. Yeah, it looks like he's got them on both, but like the ones on his right or his on his left arm look a lot more fresh and more raw. So maybe they just are more recent. The other ones have kind of just like healed over time. It's kind of what it looks like.

Or it could just be something with the makeup. I don't know. I like to think that it's just Canon that they're a little bit longer healed so. Yeah, it's a good one. But this is this whole scene is basically the title card playing out. Yeah, 'cause we got his reflection.

So. And I think because he's not super comfortable in his own skin, I think that that's part of why Charlie thinks Nick would be kind of put off to use his words, because like, that's Charlie projecting onto Nick his own insecurity about how he feels. So and you know, that's, that's real. A lot of people are like not super comfortable in their own

skin. And like it is, you know, the way Charlie's like, well, it's one thing to change in a locker room where like there's a functionality to what we're doing. Like everybody's just changing it to their sports gear or whatever. It's a whole other thing to like do that in front of another person where like your nakedness or vulnerability is going to be the focus of that other person. So it's like more exposure. Is that Ringo my Ringo's tail. Ringo's here for the body.

Body talk. OK, so after Charlie changes, we then cut to the start of Charlie's 16th birthday celebration, which is taking place at his house. So his parents are out of town and Paris squad is over to throw a proper party for him and they've got booze and games and everything. They went all out for this. It's very cute. Yeah, but while, while they're like there, I think that this is another closed captioning catch.

They're like Charlie's telling them to like, not break something or like don't drink too much, something like that. And Tao Tao's response is fine. Darcy says yes, Sir, Isaac says. Sounds like a note for Imogen, right? It's definitely the don't drink. Yeah, I think he asked. Like please don't, please don't puke anywhere. I think it's what he asks so. Yeah, OK. Yes, that sounds about right. I apologize, Imogen says. How have I got this reputation? And I'm just like.

Girl. Really, Imogen, you can't think of any possibility of why you have this reputation right now, But also I at least Imogen has taken this reputation from Darcy because Darcy was that in the previous season. That's true. Darcy's Paris Folly. So basically these friends need to realize if someone is puking at parties, what is going on in their lives, Yeah. Yeah, they're not. OK OK.

So then the, the the gang starts partying and they're starting to get ready for, like, a drinking game, I suppose. And like, Tara is, like, filling her drink all the way to the, like, very top of the cup with wine because she says, quote, I need a night off. And so I get the impression that this poor girl has not relaxed since the season started, like, as every time they're at a party, she's always, like, stressed drinking, which nobody else seems to notice.

So that will come to a head of this episode as well. And the teenagers are teenagers, let's say. So they're making a quote potion that the loser has to drink for whatever the game is. And like, it gets so ridiculous that like Darcy starts like, I think like putting chips in it and like something children do when you leave them alone at restaurant tables. And they start like mixing the mustard and ketchup and stuff to get like, that's what they're doing. They're like loser drinks this

and this. Yeah, no, like the you think the word potion makes me laugh because it's like that specific word because like I know of kids like making when you make potions and they mix all of the shampoos, condition anything in the bathroom into the tub. To make a potion, it's just. So I can just find it. Like these kids? Are mixing alcohol to drink. It's it's ridiculous. But it's like a worse version of like jungle juice.

So when you're like, if you ever heard that term when you're just like broke and partying, it's just like all the alcohols get mixed together and then you put something sweet in it so you don't taste it. And that's like the drink you drink. But like they're like literally just like no, everything in the house, including food is going into this and the loser will suffer with our like, Oh my God. It's just really funny what they were doing. We never see the game play out or who drinks this.

I just think it's really random that they had it in here and very funny. OK. So then everybody kind of starts like talking and hanging out and we don't see them play a drinking game. They're just like that was implied by the potion. But then they start kind of like hanging out and stuff. And then Nick gets third wheeled against his will by Imogen, who confesses that things are weird with Sahar right now and that they haven't spoken since New Year's.

So like these two interact and then they like don't speak for months. And now I'm just like, I need to talk to somebody about this. Let me talk to the lesbian third Wheeler, Nick. So. How are they functioning without talking though? Because they're in the theme friend group at this point now. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. So Nick advises Imogen.

He's like, instead of talking to the lesbian whisperer, AKA me, why don't you go talk to her and like, work this out. And Imogen looks like really, really worried. Like I'm sure she's thought of this, but she's like, so I get the impression that like Imogen at this point has like sat with her feelings and like her actions over the past couple of months and has been actively processing stuff instead of like ignoring it, brushing it off and is like scared to confront it so. Yeah.

And then we cut the Sahar, who like, doesn't look worried or beaten up the way Imogen kind of does. And she's at this point working on recruiting Charlie to play drums for her band for an up and coming gig, which we will see later. And he's like, I'll think about it. And it's like, yes, we saw Charlie playing drums at the beginning of this. That's a clue that yes, the boy plays the drums and he's good at it. But again, Charlie's somebody

who doesn't like spotlights. So like, playing in front of a crowd, what especially a strange crowd, like at a gig, I feel like would be intimidating to Charlie. So he's like, I got to think this over, which totally makes sense. And I realized during the scene that, like, this is one of the very few times that I can recall where Sahar and Charlie were having a conversation alone or interacting by themselves. And like, I want more of this,

please and thank you. Because like, I want more of Sahar. Well, that's true. I mean, yeah, I'll take more scenes with them, but. Yeah, I think. I. Am freaking love with Sahar. I think this is like, from what I remember, the only time that they actually talk one-on-one ever in the show. Yeah, OK. I'm. Not going. To no wholeheartedly agree they need more screen time, the two of them especially cuz like the interviews with Joe and Layla

are so freaking cute. I love their friendship is just so sweet. So wholeheartedly support more screen time for Charlie and Sahar. More or just more of Joe and Lila together, period, please. Yeah, it is kind of weird that they cause like Nick interacts one-on-one with Imogen a lot and it is weird that like Charlie has not hasn't really interacted with Sahar one-on-one. It's more like she became part of the group, but like didn't really orbit Charlie, which is a very interesting.

He's like the center of the group. So I think it's, it's interesting, I guess we get. Season 4, I would love to see like the pairings, like completely switch up and just totally like see what would happen if like they were forced to be indifferent because I think we had a little bit of that at one point. I can't fully remember the scene right now, but I think we talked about it. But like, like fully like people that you don't really see interact by themselves.

Yeah, but. What I still wish we could see is Imogen with the the other girls, like a lot more. Yeah. Or just with like that group of like Tara, Darcy and Elle. Like we don't really get to see Imogen with them. We all only have seen them like the one time in season 1 where she's like, I'm an ally. That's the last time I think we saw her just with them. So. Yeah, that's also a really good point. That is kind of weird that like Imogen only shows up when the boys are there.

Yeah, like I think. That's that's also an interesting thing, like maybe she's trying to remove herself from. Yeah, I think the one time we still see her with the group is like when they're at school and that's it, which is good. I like that we do see her with them, that she is hanging out with them at school. I think that's great. But I want to see more of these, this group, this specific group. Yeah, I totally agree.

So Speaking of the group, so then the gang sings happy birthday and presents a homemade cake to Charlie. And it's so I love the fondant stars on this thing. The way they're like not perfect stars. Like they're clearly like hand cut out, like free cut out, not with a stencil. Like it's so cute. And I want to know who baked it. Yeah, so I had. AI don't have, would you like to?

Do I had a theory on this? I thought my head cannon was that it was Nick because it's Canon in the comics that Nick is a Baker, that he loves making cakes. So I was like, it's probably Nick and it could have been really cute if it was a team effort between him and Tori. OK, I would love that you, but it would have been a tragedy, travesty, whatever the word is that we didn't see it, if that. Yes, so I did go back and I I watched it with captains again.

Shout out to Caitlin for starting this with me. I went back and I watched it and apparently there is a moment where Imogen says I made it. Something about like, tell me what you think. So Imogen's actually the one who made it so. I would not have. If you made me guess, I would never have guessed. Exactly, I don't think. So. Interested, Imogen. But it does kind of make sense because Imogen's always looking for something to distract her.

That's true. I think this would be a good way for and she also cares a lot about the people in her life. I guess. That's true. Like at the beginning she was like, remember she overcompensated by bringing all the things to the beach. I bring the fun so I I can see her like I, I think she's like naked. She might like buy a cake, but like, it's. Interesting she made it. I wonder if she felt. Yeah, I think. Oh, go on Caitlin, Sorry. Yeah, go ahead.

I feel, I wonder if so, when the beginning of Season 2, when she comes over for the sleepover, She brings basically nothing from what we can tell, except for, like, her essentials. Like, there's her bag and all of her, like, toiletries and everything. We assume she brings what she needs, but she doesn't bring, like, snacks or anything to the party. Obviously, Charlie's providing everything. But like, I wonder if she felt awkward that she didn't bring anything and that's why now

she's overcompensating. Like, oh, if I bring stuff. Yeah. I mean, this is a very I, I mean, I was the same way in certain groups. I was like, if I bring the snacks will people like me more? Right, I can see Imogen thinking along those lines for sure, especially as she gets insecure. More insecure maybe? It's I think it comes from a place of like feeling like you don't you as a person don't have much to give in like your

presence. And so not me projecting about this at all, but like I feel like no. That's not what this point. But like just feeling like, Oh well, if I have this physical matter of like things I can actually give like snacks or gifts or anything, Oh well, people will want my presents, People will like me more because I, I have a package deal, I include these nice things, so. There's a reason I'm in this friend group. Yeah, right. Because she was added later.

Basically you. Know yeah, she adopted the mom role. I'll bring the snacks. She is the mom friend. Well, I'm drinking too much. Like a She's a wine mom. She's. The cool aunt. Yeah, right. She's a wine mom who's going through some shit and realizing that she's not in love with her husband. Well, yeah, that's absolutely what's happening. Damn. OK, so there's no transition from that. So at this point, Tori then joins the party, which is really cute because we don't see her

enter. She's just there for like giving Charlie the cake and singing Happy Birthday. So I love that she showed up for that. And it kind of cuts to Charlie giving a piece of cake and he's with Nick and Nick looks kind of worried about the eating the cake because like it's obligatory that you eat the cake and Charlie's like no, no, no, I I want to, I want to do this like I want to try the cake. And so he does, and I love that.

Like, it's not a big deal. Nobody's focusing on him eating the cake, and he seems happy about it and proud that he actually, like, was able to eat his own birthday cake without an issue. So I get the sense, like, from this little moment that, like, this party actually feels like normal for Charlie. Like, I'm just a normal boy enjoying my 16th birthday, unlike the disaster that was Christmas. So, you know, he, he, it's April and he has made a lot of strides since.

Like he went into recovery and rehab. And like, I feel like this is his first big event that he has that actually feels normal to Charlie because he's behaving very normally and seems like genuinely happy here, which I love. For him, I think it definitely helps especially. And it's. Also, oh, sorry Caleb, I keep cutting you off. What were you gonna say? OK. I was going to say, it's also an event that's focusing on him

too. I mean, obviously they're not focusing on him eating, but it's the focus is still on him. So this is a lot of progress. Yeah, yeah. Like I was just kind of what I was going to say too, like the fact that especially because Christmas was kind of an obligation for him, whereas this is an event that yes, it is solely on him and that obviously can be a lot for him. But this is his friend group and this is purely a place of love.

This is people made this Imogen made this cake because she loves Charlie, because she is his friend, because she really cares about him. It's it's out of love. It's not about obligation. It's not about, oh, I have to do this. I have to pretend I'm normal. He just is with people who love him no matter what. So that probably that probably helps a lot.

Definitely, like clearly this is more of a safe environment for Charlie like Tori. Like of all the family members, it's just Tori parents are gone and his friends who know the truth about what happened to him. So like, yeah, it's very safe for Charlie. Yeah, Charlie even says, like at the beginning of the episode, I think he said specifically about Nick. He's seen me at rock bottom and he hasn't run away screaming. None of these guys have, obviously. Like, not all of them. Yeah.

None of them saw it as explicitly as Nick saw it or like as Tori saw it or anything with Charlie. But they're still here too, man. They're still, they still love you. Yeah, that's a really good point. And at the end of this part of the scene, they're I guess they're talking about figuring out what game to play because they want to play a game. I guess either they didn't play the drinking game yet or, you know, that that ended. They want to play more games.

But Imogen suggests that they should play Never Have I Ever because Imogen just wants some secrets to get spilled. Probably whoever, not whoever says I. Have done that enough times is the one who has to drink it right? That's probably where the potion goes with Darcy, yes. Maybe. Sahar. You never know. You know. What secret life does she live? Does she lead? We need to know more. About that. We don't know enough. We only know very few facts. Yeah, I mean, every, every

league guitarist has a story. You know, let us hear the story. All right, so then we get a new person coming to visit, and Tao answers the door. And who is there? It's Michael Holden yay and I love the way he says hello like really bright and like sing songy and Tao was like do you have other friends Charlie? Like who is? That Tao was like what is this Charlie? I never seen this person in my life. Right. And here he is, just being like they've known each other for 15 years.

And I was like. Who is this human? I love Michael also. Part of Tao was probably like, why don't I know anything about? Oh yeah, He's like, what? Also because like, it's another thing, Charlie kept his struggles away from him, so he's like, Oh my gosh, what else is he keeping from me now? It's true. Is he replacing me? Charlie's living the double. Lines, He might not have gone to that place, but but Michael comes in and just full force. He's Michael, of course.

Yeah. And Michael gives Charlie words of wisdom and these loose wisdom. It's hilarious. 16 is when everything starts to make sense, or when nothing makes any sense anymore. I love that that was the ending. It's so true though. It is, but I think that this is every age. It's true. That's very true. So it's such a Michael thing to say.

Yeah, and then he gives Charlie a ceramic cat and he's so cute and he says that he got it because it had the same energy as Charlie. OK, so one is showing that Michael is very observant considering like I'm sure he hasn't spent much time with Charlie at this point, which is very good that he's observing because that's something Tori needs right now. But also it is adorable that he did a ceramic cat because what did we see in Tori's bedroom?

A bunch of cats. And there's like something else that like they both think about like cats. And I just, I thought that was really cute. And I love it. It's like a happy cat too, which which is more like Charlie versus like the stoic baby tiger looking cat, which would be more Tori like the more like clothes off. Like this is a happy cat. Yeah. It's. Like a cat that like wants to be around. Yeah. But is it a maniac like an orange cat? I don't know what cat he.

So like Ringo, who's literally just like, sleeping right next to me right now. He's chilling. Oh, he's sleepy. I love the fact that the the choice of the angle of how they shot this little scene of this little, the little figurine. It looks like the cat is looking up at Charlie from Michael's hand. It does. He's just like. Hello. It's so. Pretty cute. I love it's just the the choice of angle there. I wonder if that was on purpose.

I hope it was because that is genius and it's adorable. Or it's the best accident ever. That was so funny. I want to know like what accidents happened in heart stopper that like we're like fangirling about and they're like, oh, we. Know that yeah, I just like we know that some scenes were improvised so. And those are like hidden gems that we find and we're like oh wait that was unscripted. What Stuff like that.

But what was not intended at all or what was for what was for aesthetic purposes that just turned artistic. Who knows? Also, the fact that Michael says it made him sad to see this, this little Kitty sitting all alone on his shelf. It's such a Michael Holden thing to say. First of all, also just like this is supposed to, This is supposed to be like Charlie being alone makes him sad to see Charlie alone. No, I don't know. Or is that or a projection?

Or the cat. Or is that but I love how like. Emotional Michael got when he was talking about the ceramic cat at this estate sale or wherever the hell he was and he was just like getting emotional and that's when Tori he's like grabs him he's like stop it I. Know you can see him kind of spiral. What are you doing? Sort of just spiraling a little bit. Spiraling. And she's like, oh. My tori's like, no, come on, you're go upstairs. Nope, I know. Let's go.

That's enough share. I love Tori and Michael, they really balance each other out in that aspect. It's. Beautiful. It's so funny. So then the party moves to outside and this is where we get a couple scenes with queers intent. Queer, not queers intent, not a queer intent, queers intent. OK, so first up we have Tao and L in a tent and Elle, well, tell first as Elle if she thinks that

she's going to do the interview. And he then follows us up by encouraging her and saying how the world needs to know how talented she is. But the thing that I noticed from this is and something that I really appreciated this. He allowed her to tell him how she was feeling first before he added how he felt about it. And like his once not well, like encouraging her into doing it. So he wasn't pushing her into doing this interview. He really wanted to know what

she wanted to do, and I was. Just. Supportive without being pushy. Yeah, basically everybody that has a conversation with Elle about this interview is not pushy. It's more so like Elle, tell us what you think and feel. Not so much like basically the way I would, I would kind of like almost compare it to like what Tara's going through right now and the way it's kind of like a foil where she achieved stuff. And immediately the response from everybody is like, great

job. Aren't you going to be prefect now? Aren't you going to do this? You're in like an Oxford like prep class and this and that the way everybody like projects the next thing on to Tara and that gives her a ton of anxiety with this like L is being presented with this big opportunity and like the conversations with L are very much like, how do you feel L Not like, Hey, you could

get even more famous. Like people aren't projecting the next level of success onto L. It's more so like, how are you feeling L? So it's like polar opposites going on with like Tara and we get to see like Elle being comfortable in this, whereas Tara's like stress drinking in the corner basically. I also love. Yeah, it's nice to see the contrast between the two. Yeah. Exactly. They're contrasting situations.

It's also just very on brand fertile, especially, especially after like what we saw last episode, the whole like them having sex for the first time. He was so like on and about like, what are you comfortable with? So it's like such a pattern for him. It's still like so, so tall to be like, are you comfortable with this? Is this OK? Because he, he's seen her out of her comfort zone before and he's like, yeah, we don't want that. So yeah, I love that he is still

like. On other little deeds, other little detail may or may not be intentional, but I'm choosing to say it's intentional. Is that the colors on the flat on the tent behind L or trans pride colors which we love to see? That has to be intentional.

I feel like this has to be intentional because it's like such a like a trans like positive episode, like her being confident about it. But it'd be really funny if these things aren't like the the fireworks behind Tori and they're like, Oh yeah, no, we totally meant to make that the ace color. Yeah, totally. Really how so much for production randomly watches this. It's so please let us know. I feel like because there's, it has to be because I think. One of the I agree. It's too, I think.

One of the designers from Season 1 during the bowling alley scene when Nick is like fully bathed in bisexual lighting, I I feel like I saw an interview, like I read somewheres. Though one of the designers did confirm that one was intentional. I don't know about the rest of the show and I don't know. I couldn't tell you what source I had so I don't even know if it's true or not. But it's the Internet, who knows, I feel. Like there's too many. For it to be random, honestly.

I'm gonna have to find a lighting person cuz you do bring up a lot of lighting theor so it'll be interesting to see if like every single lighting is so. We've got to get like a theater kid on the show who's done like, lighting design, who just, like, knows. That would be fun too cuz like this too. It's not like the with the tent in particular, it's not like the tent has those colors that's like lit to do that.

Yeah, You know what I mean? So it's more intentional than just like buying a tent that has like rainbow patterns on it or whatever. Like the lighting specifically is like setup. It's like, who set up these tents? I know, I'm curious also, just like how did they get that background? Cuz I'm like it doesn't look like if it's a gobo, it's a very, very complexly designed gobo cuz it's like all the different colors so. Right, but like these? Tents are like, they're just not just tents either.

They're very complicated, like setups to like. So who is doing this? Darcy. Can you imagine Darcy? 'S like secret talent is like, I mean setting up tents, they're like, OK, send the lesbians first of all. And then but when like Tarsi's like really good at this for some reason, like just got the Feng shui down and stuff. It's like something Darcy's good at. Yeah, that's my head. Imogen was busy with the cake. That's fair, yeah.

I don't know if Sahar would have a hand in any of it unless she showed up early. So her problem? I could say Isaac. May be good at it cuz like remember Isaac's little cozy corner at Christmas book nut yeah that's but Isaac probably brings like a Feng shui book or like interior design book being like all right colors. They all show up early so Charlie doesn't have to worry about anything. Yeah. Charlie was off this duty cuz it's his birthday for sure.

Anyway, I don't know, but whoever, I never thought about that. I'm like this is. These are elaborate tents. Yes, very elaborate tents. Because they even have in the next tent that we're about to talk about with Imogen and Sahar. I think they have this like star thing. Hanging in. It's hanging in the tent like. It's just there's a lot going on. I'm. Pretty sure they have the pansexual colors going on in their tent too if I'm not mistaken. Oh, I think pants. Yes, they. Do blue.

They do. Blue. Is there pink? Blue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just the pink. Yellow and blue, Yeah, that's interesting. Quite. Interesting. Also, why? Is there also interesting that wouldn't be the BI colors. I love that there's bright because. There's no there are balloons in there freaking tent too. I'm like why are there just like blast balloons? Yeah, listen. Like who designed the tents? Yeah. And why? Maybe even. Imogen's contribution? Imogen showed up.

They were like doing these tents and she's like, I want to help. She throws balloons in here. Right. It also could just be that somebody was drunk. I was like, this is a good idea. That's why I think, darling. Imogen. You know what I could see? Could you imagine just Imogen and Darcy trying to work on something together? I feel like. It would be, yeah. I think it would be a disaster, but I think it would be amazing to watch. Yeah, it. Would be wildly entertaining.

OK, but Imogen and Sahar in this tent are awkwardly trying to, like, lay out a blanket. And for two people who don't talk a lot, they sure do end up in the same space quite a bit. And in this scene, it's, it seems as if images gotten to the point where it's just her breaking point. Like all of this is just too overwhelming. She's sitting with all these emotions like she's not talking to Sahar from what we know now. So she has to just be like these

thoughts, I'm sorry. These thoughts have to just be like going through her mind every single day and to the point where like she can't keep denying it. Like they're not going way no matter how hard she tries. Yeah, and I like in this scene where she's talking so hard, she doesn't like admit like she has been reflecting and thinking and her conclusion over all of it is that she doesn't know who she is, you know, which I think is such a true thing to a hard

thing to admit for anybody. But like, that's a very mature conclusion to get get to based on everything we've seen about Imogen. So it's like, and it's a very like coming of age conclusion as well. Like she's becoming the person she was meant to be. And like she's been, as we've talked about somebody who's been hiding from, like hiding who she really is or hiding how she truly feels like being quote closeted and that kind of stuff.

So like to then be like, what is all this, these feelings I'm having? Like these things that I've been doing, like who even am I? Like that's a scary conclusion to get to. But also, she says that the one thing she does know is that she doesn't want to keep hurting Sahar. And that part made my heart belt because I love that she is realizing the harm that her actions are doing to Sahar. Yeah.

Because it's one thing to be in denial about yourself or not wanting to think about it or not care about how you feel, but when it's affecting other people, that's when it's a problem. Like a big problem, Like it's a problem if you don't accept yourself too, but at least it's only affecting you. And so it's just nice to see that she is thinking about Sahar and Sahar's feelings now, which was not the case in Halloween. Yeah.

And it's also like different to like Charlie's journey where like it became very focused on like Charlie and how Charlie's doing internally and how Charlie's feeling. And we saw like through the Christmas, you know, Christmas and New Year stuff the way like it's impacting Nick, it's also impacting impacting Tori. And like that was never fully

addressed. So it's interesting that with like Imogen, they are making the point of being like me going through my identity crisis and my mental health stuff is impacting other people. And like, I'm acknowledging that, which is really interesting that we're doing that with the side characters more explicitly. And part of it is Imogen is like, oh, I don't want you to be mad at me or hate me or whatever.

And so hard admits that like, oh, I can never like hate you or be mad, like truly mad at you because like Imogen on the flip side, helped Sahar realize she was, you know, bisexual, which like is something that was huge for Sahar. That's a whole nother identity of like, oh, who am I? I didn't know this about myself. So like she's like, well, you kind of helped me process something so I can never hate

you. I'm grateful that for you and the fact that you did that for me without realizing you were doing anything. And then we also get Imogen admitting softly, very like drops her voice when she says, like, I can say the same thing about you because like, here's Sahar being the catalyst for Imogen to figure out who she is. And I'm very, very proud of her for saying that out loud because like, it's one thing to admit to yourself.

It's another thing to say it out loud to the person that like was the catalyst. So, like, that's took a lot of courage for Imogen to say Kenja's here. Hi pup. Damn it, Kenja. OK. All right, so we can continue. So the conclusion from this conversation that I think is important is basically where they're just like, I think we're better off as friends and we get this cut to like, it's like them as children. And it's like, is this like they're healing their inner child?

Like I don't know why they did that. It was very weird. It's very fast. It's like baby Imogen, baby Sahar, like giggling and having fun of the tent. Yeah, OK. I can see how it is weird. I mean, it's very out of place. So I do like your read on it, that it's healing their inner child. Maybe it's kind of like they're like at a sleepover when you're little and like realizing things. Maybe this is the moment.

Maybe they were. I forget if we know their friendship timeline but maybe this is like the age where maybe Sahar realized. Yeah cuz we know they were friends. They like stopped being friends for a while. We just don't know how old they were. So is this supposed to be like a flashback to like that time when they were like really good

friends or something? Cuz in season 2 during the truth or dare scene, I think it's Sahar that says Imogen got a boyfriend and then she stopped texting me and Imogen was like no you stopped texting me and it's like. I think so. I think this is the moment that they like, it was a time where they were like talking together and like they both probably had an inkling about it.

And Imogen, I mean, obviously they're young here though, so like they're not going to fully understand what's happening. But Imogen like completely like what we see her do on the show when opposite, like overcompensated everything and kind of created the divide between the two of them. So maybe they're going back to this moment. Yeah, starting over. Maybe even just like. Which is really cute. Yeah, like rekindling the

friendship. But the children have to go quickly away because Imogen and Mealy then asks if they can get crazy drunk now because it's Imogen. And Sahar pulls out a bottle of wine and she says, cuz it's your bottle, It's your drink of choice. And it's just adorable. But then I I didn't catch it when we were watching it the first time. And the subtitles helped me. Imogen says, is this sustainable? I'm trying to do my bit.

Yeah. Sahars, the line delivery of this line when Sahar says just drink it Imogen, that was so fun. Dick gets up and leaves the tent It's perfect. I love it so much. This is one of my favorite scenes. I love Sahara Imogen so much. I want more of them. I want I mean, I want more of everybody, but I want more of them because we didn't get as much as them because they haven't been big characters since the beginning like everybody else has. Well, so so it's just very nice

to see. The story Caitlin, you want to know a really cute detail about these two? How does Sahar know that Imogen loves wine? Because in New Year's Eve, she was drinking champagne. At Halloween, she was drinking tequila. How does Sahar know that Imogen loves wine? Let's think about that like she's paying attention. This is girls paying attention. Imogen does say things a lot though, so Imogen was probably going off about wine one day but yeah no so hard. Definitely does pay attention

and files things away when. Remembered because. She can, which is why she gets annoyed sometimes because she's like I have to file this away again. Yeah. It's true, but I do like that they they're like we're better off as friends.

So personally, I like this Ave. for them because for me, I think this would be a very Alice message to say, which is that not every relationship in your life needs to be romantic, including queer ones, because like the bulk of like queer media that exists is all about romance. And like it is OK to not be romantically entangled with your first queer crush because that's basically what they were both admitting to each other. You were my first queer crush is

the message here. But like and that plasmics so much queer media where it's like your first queer crush is the one you end up with and that's it. And it's like that's not the reality the vast majority of the time, and it is OK to just like be friends with that person. Like you don't need to like marry them the way like Nick's first queer crush is Charlie. And that's basically the premise of hard snobber that Nick ends up with Charlie and that's his

first queer. Like not like that's celebrity awakening, like queer awakening kind of thing, but like your first real life queer crush is the person you end up with. That happens so much in media and it's like it's OK to not end up with that person. It's not the end of the world. It's OK to learn something from them and just be friends with them. That is totally fine. It's also kind of interesting because you know how the like for straight people, like boys, guys and girls can't be just

friends. Like there's that thing going on and now it's kind of like a play on, well, if two people are I guess bi, like they have to be together or like they can actually be friends. So it's kind of like the playing on that thing. I don't know if that made sense. It made sense in my head. I don't think I fully got the words out, but you know, it's all right.

Basically, just because you have two queer people with the same sexual preference in a room together doesn't mean they have to be romantically involved with each other. You can also just. Which is, yeah, which is what a lot of media does, because we'll have two queer people in a show. Only two. I think those two will be together. Right. So I do. I get that. And I that is very much needed and makes a lot of sense, especially for heart stopper. So that that's great.

I just, I just love. Them so much and I just really want them together just personally and that's just my own issue because I know that would be good for everybody if they weren't but I I just I just love them and because like I can also see that at the end it was kind of weird because they were like admitting that they both like realized that and like they didn't actually say that they had feelings for each other they just realized something about. Themselves.

So that's another thing. But I could see that Sahar was like, maybe just kind of brushing it off maybe. I don't. I wouldn't say she was embarrassed, but maybe just like, try not to make it a big deal. And pretending like she didn't want them to be together. And then like, Imogen could have like just got along with him was like, oh, yeah. But like, secretly, they still want to be together. And like, they'll figure that out in 20 years. I mean slow burn romance is the thing.

It could be the best best friends to frenemies to best friends to lovers slow burn romance ever. Does it count if they have like other relationships in between? Yeah. Like and it wouldn't. Yeah, it's still a possibility for sure. The point is that the the feelings slowly start to fester. They start to build, they start to fester. Doesn't always. They don't always have to

express the romance immediately. That's kind of the thing about slow burn is it takes forever for the actual expression of feelings to happen. All right, I think I'm growing during this conversation right now. I mean, I again, I would still love them to be together, but I think it could also be very fun to see them be like wing women for each other and like go out and then like, if it didn't start springing up. Oh yeah. We, we're, we both made each other realize that we were bi.

And so ours, like, stop telling people that. Oh my God. What if they turn to like the stereotypical lesbian exes where it's like they're still best friends and they like go to each other's weddings and everything? Yeah, totally. Like I can definitely. They're literally the maids of honor in each other's weddings. That would be so sweet. I just want to see more of them. I can see them just being best friends once they get past it, and I think that that that's OK. Like, that's real life too.

All right, so this next part, the party has basically moved fully to the backyard in the sense of the actual party. There is music, there is dancing, there is more booze, There is absolute chaos in the best way. And I thought it was a really cute little thing. So the song, you hear the song Good for You by Olivia Rodrigo at some point you're playing during the scene.

And I thought that was really a cute little detail because fun fact, Joe is actually buddies with Olivia Rodrigo IRL in real life. So I think that that's really cute. So wonder, I wonder if he like next song to personally call Olivia and be like, Hey, hey, can I can I have your song in in our show for my for my character's birthday party? I know it's not how it.

Was interesting, no, But like the music supervisors could have been like, oh, we have this idea or something like that and then like probably went through that way. Yeah. Who knows? Got got. Some kind of? Fair use rights or something like that. But that that song grew on me in the beginning, I wasn't too sure. I can't get over the fact that it's the same thing as Paramore. Which one? I don't know Paramore really. You only know the one song that was on Glee. Which one was it?

Only exception. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but I knew that one before Glee. I knew that one. I was on the radio a lot. Yeah, I can't think of the title of the Paramour song, but it's like literally the same. The music is exactly the same. Interesting. Maybe I did hear it because it sounded familiar to me. I'm trying to think of every para. That's a whole another conversation we could have, but probably not on camera so. I was like, I know only a few para war songs so I'm just like.

Misery business. That's the. Song which couldn't think of the title. It's the exact same, like the core of the music is exactly the same. So when I hear this song, my brain switches to Paramore because it's the same. Gotcha. I'm like wow, OK, well let's we talk about that another time. Anyway, curious. So, yeah, I mean, Music Choice in the show is pretty great. The sometimes they do like obviously the the songs that are kind of on theme for the actual scene.

And sometimes they just throw in some songs that it's like, hey, we actually know these people personally. And it's a really cute thing that we get to honor their work, especially when we have songs that are literally from like Wager Project, which is Will and his sister Olivia's band. If you don't know Will Will is the actor plays Tao and his sister have a band and they're amazing.

And Olivia's like Tao Tao. She's Will isn't a beautiful musician, a beautiful pianist and Olivia, beautiful voice, such a gorgeous voice she has so shout out to them. Olivia Rodrigo is Will's sister. Olivia or Olive? She was by Olive. I think she was by Olivia, Yeah. No, it's not the same person, but no. Also very talented singer. So Speaking of Tao, it's really cute. I think I accidentally went back to this part where Tao is getting out the camera and

asking about Elle's documentary. So Charlie and friends, basically during this next scene, they get pretty drunk. I mean as teenagers do so. It's really, it's really sweet to see Charlie getting to just laugh freely with his friends. Like yes, it is under the influence of alcohol, but it is in his safe place with his buddies. Charlie just wants to feel like a normal teenager. That's all he's wanted to feel since he got out of inpatient.

And I wonder if this is one of the first times he's really just like like what he said before, like if he's just feeling like he's back to his life now, like he's able to be norm like as normally as he can be, you know, in this situation. But where he? Yeah. And, you know, with, like, the mental health stuff, like it's peaks and valleys, it's not a straight line to recovery. So I wonder if this is like the best day, like he's had in a really long time, like a really good, good day.

It seems like it from all the shots we get of him in this party. So it's perfect for his birthday. I'm very happy he got to have that for his because like 16 is like a, you know, kind of a big deal, like age to turn. So I'm glad he got that.

I'm just worried about him later this day because like I know this feeling when you're finally having a great day at the end of the day when everyone's gone and all of it wears off, it's like such a crash that I hope and we don't see what I. Don't think he has that, but yeah, it's true. Yeah, it probably hopes that he wasn't. He's not alone at the end. Too. He's not alone. He's. With Nick and he has, he has something to look forward to the next day, so maybe that helps too.

I was going to look forward to. Definitely really makes a difference. Yeah. In this moment when all the gang is dancing around and partying, there's this really cute moment where Tori Mike is still here. Michael is just like hanging out with Tori. And they look at each other and they clink their glasses. So the question is, we know what Tori is probably drinking. What's Michael's drink of choice? Does he is he talking about in solitaire? I don't remember. I don't think he did.

Did she get? Is she getting him hooked on diet lemonade? He would drink it in solidarity. Yeah, in solitarity. Solitaire. I need, I need to leave. I need, I need to leave. Goodbye. It was. Right there. I couldn't not do it. That was too good. I can't go on. Yeah, it's just. But that's a really good question. I don't think I don't see him drinking alcohol. So like. Yeah, no. Yeah, what is he drinking? No I I literally would see him drinking this because of Tori.

He also has a straw too. He also is drinking out of a straw, just like her. So yeah, I, I. Could see I can see Tori not giving him a choice and just handing it to him and him being like all right. OK, yeah. She doesn't even ask. Can I get you a drink? She just gets him a diet limit. She's like and he's like. OK, cool. Very Michael. I love them. Oh my God. I need every single character to have their own spit off, literally, you know, so just.

Keep it going forever. Yeah. So after a while, there's like this point where they're all, they've kind of like wound down a little bit. You know, they're like the music's, the music's probably still going in the background, like very quietly. They're not dancing anymore. Everybody's probably a little bit tired. And they're all just kind of hanging out at this point. And there's a group of them. It's, I think it's Nick, Imogen, Sahar, Darcy and Tara all start

talking about university plans. And Darcy we hear mentions talking about taking a gap year, which we we know from the comics that they do end up picking a gap year eventually. And Tara is over here just like this is kind of where her pressure of being like the best of everything about being the top student, about everything just kind of comes to a head because she begins to have a panic attack.

And it's emulated, it's simulated with this fuzz, this shadow of fuzz that just like like starts to just engulf her and basically like starts to suffocate her to the point that breathing is hard for her. She has to literally like get up and bolt. She like she runs. She gets out of that space. I just want to, I do want to say like she does at one point say, guys, can we stop talking about university stuff? And it seems like literally no one hears her when she says it like Darcy might.

No, they just keep talking. Darcy might have like heard it, but Darcy is like, kind of invested in the conversation. I feel like Darcy's the only one that would have actually heard it, honestly, just because they probably, you know, listen to their girlfriend. But yeah, as soon as Tara gets up, Darcy's immediately on it. But first of all, immediately is

just like what's going on? And Tara basically rushes out, goes into the house trying to find like some escape, trying to just get out of this little space and just breathe. And CC, who is drunk, clocks her coming in and he comes over. Like he just immediately, like his brain just focuses on her and he goes over and he's like, OK, you're having a panic attack

here. He basically talks through it with her and demonstrates one of the breathing exercises that Jeff had given him in his therapy sessions. Hazard do the inhale, exhale just to keep herself afloat, which it obviously does. It does like a really great deal for her. It really helps. I appreciate the fact that he even says like, we're in my

house, we've had some drinks. Like he talks her through what has happened tonight, like where they are, what's going on, just to kind of ground her and put her like bring her back to the reel, like what's really happening in front of her. And it's very, it's very well done, I think. Yeah, I really love that this is also a one-on-one, uh, with Charlie and Tara because in the scene, like you see Nick hovering in the background over like Charlie's shoulder and he's

like in the frame out of focus. So he's like there for support, but like Nick doesn't jump in and try to help Tara too. He kind of like sits back and lets Charlie take control of the situation, which is really interesting because Nick has been framed as like the savior and like, you know, save your character archetype or whatever throughout the show.

And so it's interesting that he's like staying in the background while Charlie adopts the role because this is where Charlie's an expert really up the group and knows how to really help Tara through this. So I like that Nick doesn't jump in. He just like, let's Charlie do that and that's pretty significant. That like anything he did would not be helpful because he doesn't know how to handle it. He didn't know how to handle it with Charlie and Charlie had to figure it out through his own

journey. I also found it interesting that no one else followed her and that it right they all allowed her to have this moment alone without everybody crowding her which would make things 100 times worse in this moment. I just found that very interesting considering how like close the group. Is. Like did they mean to like give her a timeline? I'm just I'm surprised no one else. Followed like Darcy didn't even immediately. Followed. Yeah, that's the weird. Part. Really.

The weird part? I'm like, why didn't Darcy at least come? And like, Darcy and Nick be together, right? Because it takes a while for like, Charlie to get her to calm down. So like it took Darcy a while to be like, maybe I should check on her, you know, which is weird. But like The thing is like we've keep clocking glimpses of Tara's like mental struggles with all the stress that she's under throughout the season, but nobody else seems to notice that she's stressed out.

So like for all the closeness of this group, it does go to show you that like when people are struggling and they don't want you to know about it, they're not going to let you know about it. Like Charlie said it at one point when I don't remember, he was apologizing or like his mental health stuff was coming out and he said to somebody he was like, oh, I was really good at hiding it. Like people are good at hiding stuff.

So like, well, like we saw little glimpses, but Tara's been mostly like putting a fake smile on and just like going through the motions. And like, I don't think she's really shared her stress with with Darcy, even when they were living together. And so like Tara's just very good at hiding it. And so like he or she can't hide it anymore because it's like eating her up from the inside out. So but yeah, it that's a weird behavior from Tara, like, you know.

Yeah, the only, the only thing from like a writer standpoint, I could really see that would that would really make sense Why Darcy didn't immediately follow is like Tara bolts off and Darcy immediately goes, what did you say? Wait, what was it something one of you guys said or something like that? Like trying to like breakdown? Why? Why Tara literally just ran off? Because obviously everybody's kind of dumbstruck by that. So is it just like, is she OK? Wait.

What's that? I find it weird that Darcy didn't immediately follow. But this whole thing is just because they're all at this place now where they are talking about university. They there's so much going on in your last year of school, I mean every year, but there's so many decisions and things to talk about that you really are absorbed in yourself. I like we talked about before, they are all in the focus on yourself stage right now.

They're not focusing on like developing relationships around you. So it's a lot easier to just not notice or like see it, but like not really how to register to the point. Where? Yeah, that too. So is that? Yeah, Darcy's like I've been drinking. I'm not going to be helpful right now. Or like you're just not noticing because they're drunk, you know? I think maybe. Yeah, but it's a very

interesting situation. Darcy also, I feel like lately like probably has been on like some kind of high just because there's there is like this high that you get when you kind of start to understand yourself a little bit better. Like them figuring out now, obviously they haven't like opened up to target about being non binary, but they are coming into that understanding of themselves.

They're probably riding a little bit of a high just like feeling so happy, like they finally had this part of themselves figured out because it is it is such a rush or it could be a rush. It could be, it could be different for different people obviously, but it can be like such a weight off your chest just feeling like. And Darcy's been dealing with these struggles for years now with her, with their parents, and now with them living at Grands, they can finally relax

and breathe. And I think they also might be just trying to hold on to that as much as possible. The good time that they are overlooking Tara struggles because it has been all about Darsi. So I mean, that's just something that a couple of characters we see this season have to Start learning that it is a give and take. Even if you want the good times to stay, you can't ignore the fact that your partner is struggling. If you ignore it, it's going to

get worse, not better. Plus, I bet that there's probably a certain level of Darcy comparing themselves to Tara, like specifically like with their grades with university stuff like being Tara, being like all these things about being head, being prefect, and then also being like in the orchestra and everything. Obviously Darcy's also in the orchestra, but Darcy like we see like earlier in the season, like they literally throw their grade

card, the report cards away. So it's like there's got to be like this level of they assume that Tara has it all together because Tara is doing all the successful stuff. So maybe they just have no idea. But also, Tara hasn't opened up about it because, again, doesn't want to put that on anybody else. So yeah, I bet Darcy probably is just in their own head about it too.

Just like my girlfriend is amazing and I'm over here, you know, not even going to university or whatever, whatever they're dealing with at the same time as figuring out their gender identity. So yeah. There is a lot going on. Yeah, every single person. Yeah, yeah. So when Darcy does come rush in to check on their girlfriend, see how she's doing, Tara does somewhat admit that there's just a lot of pressure, that she's just kind of getting overwhelmed by all of it.

And she even, I think it's really sweet that she does acknowledge that Charlie has just helped her in this moment. And so when Charlie gets up, Nick says that's a mate that was amazing for helping Tara. And Charlie's immediate response is just I am so drunk right now. I love that that was his response. Like that was so random. He's like, I'm glad I did it. I'm just so drunk. I. Dude, that happens though.

It's all happens. Nature to him now though to like create these things, which is amazing to see how like ingrained it is now. Yeah. Yeah, that was really funny, Charlie. It's so relatable, though. We're like, I don't know how I just did that. I was out of it. He's like, I'm so drunk right now. Yeah, Charlie, we know, believe me. Especially in this next scene. We know.

Oh yeah, we know. So Speaking of drunk Charlie, next we shoot on over to the kitchen where Nick and Charlie have a moment alone and Nick being protective. Boyfriend is trying to get a very drunk Charlie to hydrate for lesbian Jesus and the birthday boy tells Nick and he just drunk Charlie starts being drunk and he's like, I like you, I like you so much, Please don't leave me. It's just like drunken confessions at the sink

basically. And it's like, OK, so it's like it's very sweet sentiment to like as Nick to hear all this. But I think these kinds of comments that coming from Charlie, like, inadvertently put pressure on Nick when it comes to, like, university, because I remember we were just talking about university and we know Nick's, like, said, well, I'm going to try to stay close to home and, like, home is Charlie.

So like, this is more pressure, like, to hear these confessions from Charlie to be like, please don't ever leave me. And Nick's, like, about to go to university. So like, yeah. So that's going to be burrowed in his brain. Hey, little Ringo's face. Can see his if you're listening. Ringo's face has made a presence on the camera. Very cool. What? I know he's a OK all.

Right, so anyways, the drunk and flirting continues and like Charlie basically pulls Nick like in like close to him and they have this very honest and very flirty conversation about taking things further in their relationship. And Charlie admits that he's ready to have sex with Nick. And Nick, you know, admits like, hey, a lot has happened since Paris, like the last time we talked about this. And he's like at a place where he is also ready to do that.

And I think, and I kudos to Joe and Kit because the acting here was beyond perfect because the way they had this conversation, because it's very like tentative and shy and sweet. And it felt realistic for like these two characters like to

have this conversation. And I love the way they chose to like dip their voices into whispering when they're talking about this, like, even though they're completely alone and nobody's anywhere near them because it it makes it feel like an extremely intimate moment between the two of them because it is. So I like the way they like executed this. I thought it was perfect for like teenage first love, first time kind of conversation.

And then Charlie's like, you want to go to my room and do stuff and Nick's like, listen, you're super drunk. We're not doing this for the first time or ever when you're super drunk and cannot consent to things. So good job, Nick. But good job, hard. Stopper. Yeah, good job, hard stopper. But from Charlie's point of view, I see where he's coming from to be like, let's do it now. Because he, you know, he's not sober, meaning he's not in his

head about this. And he's has more like courage to like go through with this because when he's sober, he starts to have the body dysmorphia and he starts to like tell Nick about it because again, this is a conversation they've never had about the body dysmorphia. So as he's trying to have this conversation, said drunkenness starts to emerge in the form of vomit. So he's like, I need to get out of here right now and throw.

Up so like. They cut the conversation short and Nick, just like rushes into the bathroom before he throws up on Nick, which would have been terrible. I know the reason why they're not doing anything right now. Right, exactly. Yeah. So 2 two things I wonder is like, so hypothetically, if Charlie had not started feeling sick, would he have actually

finished that sentence? And second of all, had Charlie never had this moment of being drunk and being able to have the liquid courage, how would this conversation have ever been brought up? That's my curiosity is like if I could see it probably being like much further down the line, like couple weeks maybe even a month before they actually even mention. It. Or would Nick have been the one to mention it?

Or do we think maybe Charlie would have eventually gotten the courage with the with the current or the encouragement from his friends and everything? I don't know. I'm very, I've been very curious about that, how that would have all. Yeah. No, that's a really, really good, really good question because like, Charlie was kind of talking about the sex stuff with his friends, but like, even with the friends, he doesn't

talk about the body dysmorphia. So yeah, I feel like it would have taken longer for him without the liquid courage to, like, admit this to Nick. And I feel like Charlie would be the one that has to broach this topic because like, traditionally with their relationship, it has been Charlie has been the one that brings it up, not Nick. So yeah, I feel like it would have to, like, organically come up, which would have been a lot harder.

Yeah, I agree with that because let evidence being let's shoot over to the next morning. So Nick and Charlie, like, wake up together in the tent. And Nick asked Charlie, hey, do you remember anything from last night because you're pretty drunk. And Charlie goes on like a hungover trip down memory lane until he remembers the conversation from the kitchen and then gets embarrassed.

So that's why I think that, like, organically, this would have been a lot harder without the alcohol for him to, like, say anything because even now he already said it. He's has a hard time talking about it now, like when he's sober. So. But Nick's like, hey, I'm glad you brought it up. So, like, it's something that needed to be said between the two of them. But it's very hard to have these conversations and then like. They're always like, am I pressuring the other one this and that?

So like, yeah, I agree with you. I think this would have taken much longer to, like, be a conversation without those. But they, again, don't get to finish the conversation because the writers are evil. And so like, Tori and Michael, that opened the tent immediately. And they're like, hey, mom and dad are coming in 30 minutes. And they're like also, Tori, you have to get to the Jack Maddox

event today. And then Michael, ever the helpful lad that he is, is like, I'll make everybody toast because you look like you need toast. And like, I love how precious he is. And he's just like I want to help toast toast. But it's also cute like does has he been over a bit and saw that Charlie like likes toast? Because in the beginning, we saw that that is something that he would eat when he was having these thoughts. Yeah. And that's something that he could still get down.

So like, I just found it. That's pretty interesting. Michael's very absurd. I love Michael. He's so cute. I want more Michael and Tori. We need more Tori. I just want to appreciate Tori or not Tori. Michael. He, he acts like such a dad in this scene which is so funny to me. He literally opens the tent and goes morning campers. Oh my God. That's right, he does do that. He is like a dad. Oh my God, he has dad energy. You're right. He's. Like, oh.

Never put that together, Yeah. He's like, you look like you could use some eggs on toast. I'm like, God, he seems like such like such dad energy already. And I'm like, Oh my God. That's so true, I love it so much. So yeah, the fact that first of all, Tori immediately, like, Charlie is like, did he stay over? Tori's like, yeah, I'm allowed to have friends over, too. First of all, Tori is wearing the sweater that Michael wore to the party last night.

Sure is. Which I think if I remember right, in solitaire there's a point where she does maybe? I think so. So my question is, could this be the night that is, that is Canon to this to the show when they would have when Michael would have come over and they watched Disney movies? I think yes, I think this was their Beauty and the Beast night. We'll say, is this, Yeah. Is this their? Is this that scene? That's really cute. I want to see it bro, I know I. Wanted to see it.

We've been robbed. We've been robbed. I love that scene, but I agree with that. OK, so then all right. So then he asks to continue with this Tori Charlie conversation. So after he asks, did you know, did he stay over? Then Charlie's like starts teasing Tori and he's like friends, huh? And then Tori gets really pissed off and storms away. Like she doesn't say anything. And OK, like I understand that we do. Since we read Solitaire, we know that Tori's going through some stuff right now.

And so I kind of feel bad for Tori that she's getting teased right when she's like making a friendship that's important to her or whatever it is. So like she kind of gets embarrassed. And but but from Charlie's point of view, like I'm sure he's been dying to like tease Tori about

anything. And so he finally can like tease her about her love life and he's like, finally you've been teasing me. Like, so it's one of those like perfect sibling things where one of them's annoyed by the other one and the other one's like, finally I have something to tease you about. And it's not malicious, but like, you know, it's just it's peak sibling relationship stuff. I know that this is from Charlie's point of view. That's why you don't really see that Tori's having issues.

So like everybody really needs to read solitaire because it just gives you so much a better understanding of what is happening this season that is completely lost. Like you're just like, who is this random dude who shows up who's in a few scenes? But there's so much to. Them and it's. Adorable, and I love it. So if you haven't yet, go read Solitaire. So good, just a second. All right, anything about Tori and Michael before we head over to something that pisses me off.

And I'm sure it pisses. Me off as well. Seriously. Can't stress enough that Tori and Michael need their own show, their own movie, anything or even just anything. I think I said this last episode. I just, I would love to see another thing with Derek and Jenny together just regardless if it's. Obviously I'd love it if it was Michael and Tori, but regardless. As long as it's a comedy I really want. To as long as it's them giving each other shit or or or

fighting crime together. If it was like a. Yes, yes. Oh my God, could you imagine if they did? Like a psychic and a cop. And Michael's the psychic. Kind of, Oh my God. Basically. He's the psychic. He's so funny. It would basically just be a sprawled in fan fiction come to life. But like, I want it So what? It sounds that sounds amazing. I was trying to think, do I want a spin off of Tori and Michael or Imogen? It's a har more and I think I'm actually leaning towards Tori and Michael.

Me too, because I think they could do some more with like representation in that show. It'll be very interesting. Also the dynamics, great. Their dynamics. I do love Imogen is a harm, but I think there's some really great things we could explore because we know more right now about yeah. Two I would love. But you know what? Oh, sorry, both. Yeah, I would love if Sahar got the Alid last treatment.

For those who haven't read the comics, Alid is the the best friend of Charlie that Isaac kind of fills in the spot for in the in the show, Alice like had actual artistic decisions that she made with not having Alid in the show because Alid has like his whole own story. I would love her so hard to get the same treatment where she gets her own novel basically because she's got so much depth to her. I'd love if Alice eventually wanted to write a Sahar novel.

What did she do with Alice or Aled? Can we have a novel for each character like Alice? You can keep going, yeah, if you really want to. Like Heartstopper itself can stop, but like, give. Each. Character their own like dedicated story and then continue writing Tories because she deserves better right now. Yeah, Tori gets a whole series. Yes, that's just needed. OK, but we've been stalling. We need to go to the scene where it's, it's not really great for

the characters involved. But before we get to even that part, we're going to go to Elle arriving at Sonic's radio station and with Tao and her parents tagging along. And I love that. Tao, of course, tags along because he has to. He is filming the great Elle documentary, so he's obligated to be there whether he wants to or not. But he 1000% wants to.

And Elle immediately gets separated from her support because they said that Tao and her parents need to stay out here while she goes in for the interview. And like I get that for sound wise at least there is a place that Tao and the parents can watch. Which this would be terrible if they were fully separated. Oh my God, could you imagine that? But at least she gets to see them and have that support from afar. She's a minor though. Could they legally do that? I don't even know.

I, I don't, I think they have to at least be able to see them because. I I don't know if they could sign like a consent waiver or some shit like to let her do it without them watching. I don't know. I think, I think she's old enough where if her parents didn't even have to be there, I think they probably could have signed something. Yeah, that's what. I was like, I don't know the law. I mean, with minors it's. I don't know the laws in the UK,

but it's like obviously like. Yeah, I don't know the UK. The parents would have to. In the US, the parents would have to be the ones to sign the waiver. I know that, correct. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, funny use bring up UK laws. We'll get there in a little bit. I'm scared, Caitlin. I'm scared. Yes, always be. Scared. With Caitlin, yes, but first we have to get into the interview, and the interview starts out with a couple brief basic

questions. And the interviewer, if you notice, doesn't actually seem interested in the answers to this. Like she's bringing over the paper, probably with questions, looking around, not fully focused on Elle until the interview viewer starts saying trans identities are the hot topic of the moment. And first of all, this line is so insulting because it not only does she now know that I'll know that she was brought here to talk about being trans, not her art.

But this is a way that they're basically saying that she only matters right now because it's good for ratings. Like she's a hot topic. That's the only reason why she's here. And then the interviewer continues to dig her own grave. If we didn't hate her enough after else because so this whole thing is going on and the interview is basically trying to get her to talk about like the current topics of what's happening in the world with people basically being transphobic.

And else says trans people aren't a debate. We are human beings first of. All. Yes, girl, do we need a pause for a dog or? OK, she's. Trying to break it really hard. Is this interview really makes me mad? That's why. That's why I panned over to Ringo. I'm just like here during the mists of this conversation. Have a cute sleeping cat. OK. You chose this. Go chew your bone in the corner. Oh my God, it almost went up my nose. You chose this dog.

You're forced here. Luckily mine has calmed down. I'm actually quite surprised. Julie, is the vacuum going? Are you skirted to vacuum? Oh, Julie's not here. Your bad girl collar on. That explains it. OK. All right. Yeah, you can hang out in here. That's OK. She was like, I'm not being alone. Yeah, she doesn't want to be alone. OK, we can hang out in here. OK, That's fine. Tash, you don't want to be alone. It's OK. Now go lay down.

I. Want to just smooch his little head but I know he would hate it. Yeah, she's being more persistent than normal, so that something's wrong. I got you. OK. OK. OK, so first of all, yes, girl, like I the lines that Elle has here, it's just amazing. It's it's so, so powerful because I people don't realize that they're talking about humans, not just a concept like these.

These are people whose lives are directly affecting by saying these things, by making these laws, by having these debates that really shouldn't be debates. It's just people. It's just OK. I another time, another time. Anyway, the interviewer's response to this is, well, I mean, our speaker last week believed that the presence of gender neutral bathrooms will increase cases of sexual assault against women. I'm very interested to get your thoughts about that.

I'm sorry, what has does this have to do with art? It it doesn't what they're doing is they're trying to do the both sides of the issue media thing, which like in America, there's some kind of law, I forget what it is. Basically, we're like, news has to do that. They have to show both sides of an issue, even when like the other side is completely ridiculous. So like they're trying to be like, hey, we had the guests talk about the other side of this issue.

Now it's your turn. Yeah, journal. But like the fact that you didn't like tell for any of these questions is like gotcha journalism, which is really gross, especially a minor. But like that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to be like, hey, give us your side of this thing we talked about with somebody else, like. That these are the worst

interviews. And unfortunately that's that is what happens to people, which is why, I mean, I know people don't see this, but when we do interviews, I'm like, you have control because really the person being interviewed should have control over what's being put out there. Yep. But I mean, like news organizations that they're profit driven. So like, what's going to get more like rage bait clicks are like a thing. So like, yeah. Anyway. Anyway. It's annoying, it's annoying, but.

It's very annoying. Throughout the interview, we cut to L and just her reactions to everything that's happening and everything that this interviewer was saying to her. And we get this slow zoom in to like closer to her face. And I was thinking about like why they chose to just like slowly zoom in every single time we go to her. And I think it's meant to make it feel like she is suffocating in this interview in this room and feeling trapped.

Like, yeah, you're you're she's not locked in there, but you're in a room with one other person. You feel trapped when you're supposed to be. I don't know if the interview's live or not because that would be even worse if this is happening live, I think. And usually it is with radio shows, which is terrible and even worse for her. So I can totally understand her being like, well, can I leave?

Like, is that even allowed? And we also get shots of her through Tal's camera and it's most of the time it's after we see the support system. It's like she looks to her support system behind the glass. And then we cut to footage of her through Tal's camera and it's basically showing that she's being treated as entertainment and not a person. Like she's just there for show. She's a person on a screen, per person. Just she's a voice, but there's no human element attached to her right now.

In modern politics trends, people have become a scapegoat. Like we learned about that in school, right? Always remember learning about that word for the first time in like, history classes in America. And they're like, who is the scapegoat in World War 2? And you're like the Jews. They blame the Jews for everything. Now that's just trans people. They're just politicians use trans people to rile people up to get them to vote for shit. And like they've become the

scapegoat group. And it's really sad to see this through. First of all, through Elle's point of view as the person who's like, I just came here to talk about art and you're trying to like, get me to talk about politics as a minor. And then Port and then Tao, like who's just so proud of his girlfriend to like, and he's like, I came here to film this and we're all here.

And it's just like this. He's watching her shrink also through the camera and like become small and like to him, like Elle's this big, bright, beautiful presence. And to like see that diminish, like it's just heartbreaking. It's just. Especially when he uplifts her at every chance he can get and he can't even get to her right now. That's the other thing. And Elle is visibly uncomfortable right now. And, like, tells the person, oh, the tell says, oh, my gosh,

sorry. Says that the person last week must have been transphobic because yes. And the interviews, like, yeah, I know it's a heavy topic. We can just move on to something else. OK, so let's move on to art. No, we don't do that. Can I just. No, let's talk about. Yeah. Just go to say like how dismissive that the way she said that was almost like like such a typical adult trying to talk to a teenager who is like trying to

say something genuine. There's like, oh, you're a teenager, you don't know any better. Such it was so dismissive like that. I think that's what set me off was how dismissive it was. Like it's too advanced of a conversation for you to. Have Then why are you asking this teenager these questions? Yeah, it's a heavy subject. You're getting emotional, so we can't have this conversation anymore, kind of thing is what it sounds like. It's like. Yeah. Rose, right. Ringo, Right. Yeah, Ringo.

Yeah, Ringo. Ringo agrees. Yeah, Ringo. Ringo's digging his claws into my shoulder, so he agrees. I saw Ringo start trying to attack you there. I'm like. What do you want? He wants attention so bad. So does this interview her? So they move the next topic that she tries to ask. Elle about is. Schools being required to basically out students to their parents, which again, we're not here to talk about that right

now. But again, it's another terrible issue, but also not something that Elle should be here to be talking about. And Elle immediately excuses herself and was just like I need to get out of here which rightfully so. I am surprised she lasted that long like it has to be because she felt trapped there. And the interviewer has the nerve to say I'm sorry if I

offended you. I'm like, ma'am, you clearly did and you are saying it's her fault by not taking responsibility for what you said cuz like, if no, you can visibly see that you made her uncomfortable. Yeah. Like no part. Like her face immediately fell like the first sentence in. OK, so now we're gonna have to get into the big thing that needs to be addressed. And Theor has already brought it up because it's the thing that Theor has been ranting since we

first saw this episode. Ella is a minor and luckily her parents were there with her but not they weren't even able to protect her like they're able to fight the station. Like you see the mom fighting in the audio engineer section while Elle is in this interview and she is fighting. She's like you told us when she was going to be here to talk about art, what is happening. This is not right.

And like, kudos for mom for immediately fighting, not being like, I don't know, I, I know some parents might be like, oh, we'll just move on. It's fine. But no, like this, this is not OK. And I'm glad that Ella has so many people in her corner that are uplifting her and helping her like, not overcome, but just like stay confident in who she is and not let these people get her down because these, what these people are doing are terrible. And even Tao is like, do we go

in there? What do we do? How do we stop this? And I think he would 1000% run into a burning building for her. Like anything, if she is in trouble, he is getting there. It's like this interview is predatory. Like very predatory. Yeah. So like I mentioned earlier, me being me, I did some research. So there are long guidelines in the UK that govern the interviewing of minors to ensure that they are protected. Because I like facts.

And I wanted to know like what the actual thing was like what they're obligated to do. So legally, the Children Act 19 of 1989 places a duty on parents and guardians to safeguard children, Meaning like their consent is necessary for minors to participate in interviews. We've already talked about that. It means that they need to clearly explain the purpose of the interview, how the recording will be used and any potential public exposure to the parents so they can consent properly.

They need to know what's actually happening. And ethically, like legally, minors don't have to consent to this interview, just their parents. Ethically, it's good to have the minors consent, which we'll get into in a second. So the other part like Section 17 of this Children Act, requires that even the organizations promote the welfare of the children. Section 47 mandates that investigations are done if there

is suspicion that there is harm. So it this is to ensure like the interview does not place a child in a vulnerable position such as discussing topics that could distress them without appropriate support, and it takes steps to protect the child from exploitation. So basically what we saw. And then we have something called the Ofcom's Broadcasting Code, and this is UK's communications regulator that enforces the Broadcasting Code which outlines standards for

television and radio broadcasts. So Section 1 is all about protecting minors in broadcasting. So whether it be TV shows or radio. And Rule 1.28 requires broadcasters to exercise Duke care over the welfare and dignity of individuals under 18. And this applies even if the parents have given consent, like the minors have to be thought of first it rule. Sorry, there's a lot going on here.

Rule 1.29 prohibits causing unnecessary distress or anxiety to minors due to their environment, involvement in the program, or content. So basically the interview topics must be suitable for minors. Age and maturity. Ella's mature but she's still a minor and was not told about this. And again, these this radio production should not have placed her in a situation that where she was feeling distressed and visibly, it's not like they didn't realize it.

So basically just Long story short, they should have really they were required to make sure that they both parties understood the purpose of the interview, what was going to be asked and for L side they thought they did. They thought it was just about art. And this was definitely non compliance on the radio broadcast point of view part. OK, So if they fail to adhere to these requirements, there's a couple things that could happen. There's investigations, there could be fines.

Basically the big thing that happens with these like allegations, like when there is an investigation it, it damages the station's reputation, which I feel like is definitely not enough, especially with cases like this. Like the reputation that's it's going to be there for like a couple weeks and then it blows over and people forget because

that's just what happens. So if it's like really bad, there could be legal action and they can get there like license or ability to broadcast taken away from them. But from the little bit of research I did, it doesn't seem like the cases that have especially involved minors, it was most likely just like a slap on the wrist, like reputation damage. And that's definitely not enough. But there are guidelines out there that just did not follow them.

So that is my roundup of UK law that I learned. Hopefully I did not lose anybody there. I mean that makes sense. This was a predatory interview and hopefully oh mom sues them or whatever. I know that's insane. I mean, the mom did say you'll be hearing from me. So right, Hell yeah. I got I got to say I I love that the mom is the one going off in

the scene. It makes me really happy because so like in season 2, we had seen the dad be like, obviously he was joking, but he was being protective of Elle mostly to Tau and it was mostly just teasing. But in this moment, the mom especially is just like, you don't touch my kid. And that just warmed my heart. But like, it broke my heart, simultaneously warming my heart seeing this mom who like genuinely just wow. It's always great to see a parent fighting for their child. Yeah, yes.

So. They are. Do you need a break? I need a minute. Yeah, go take it. I'm going to pause. Should I pause or should I keep going? OK, so we're next scene. OK yeah, OK. So kind of in between this whole part, where else is going for

her interview? We kind of cut between this and the other part of the scene where at the same time we assume that Nick and Charlie are at the classic seminar for Jack Maddox, the author that Charlie is obsessed with and has a crush on. So that kind of alternates between this and the interview that Elle is at. So we kind of get to this point where they go to the seminar and Nick immediately says ready to meet the love of your life.

And Charlie immediately catches on and is giving Nick some some shit for it for being jealous. He's like, I'm allowed to have a crush on a celebrity. He's like teasing him because it's like, look, we're secure in this relationship. You know, there's no way in hell I'm going to leave here for this guy. Obviously, first of all, like he's famous. I'm, I'm me. I'm a person who is not famous. This guy's a celebrity.

Not that that matters necessarily, but in his mind, he's like, he's a celebrity completely distant from me. Never met this guy. He's not an option. Why are you jealous? It's just funny. And Nick immediately just goes, I can't believe I'm about to be replaced, which you can tell is completely joking, but there's definitely still a hand of jealousy there like that. Charlie is infatuated with somebody else, if you will.

Well, it's like also like for Jack Maddox as well, like for Nick it's like, oh, he's also got the intellectual thing going on that I don't have. So it's not just the looks. He's like he shares one of Charlie's major interests. Like in a, he's at the top of his field kind of way.

I think there's also that little bit of intimidation that Nick even not that there's a competition, if Nick is mentally trying to compete with him, he's like, I can't compete with the classics cuz like we see it in this interview, like he says stuff and Nick's like, I don't even know what's happening what what they're talking about. So. Yeah, that is very true. Yeah.

So on that note, I definitely at some point need, I need a scene about Nick fawning over David Tennant and then Charlie just being like, look, see, you can have crushes too. It's fine. I need this. I need Nick. I I want that. Seriously I need the scene of Nick watching Good Omens and going Oh my God David Head is hot Charlie. I know why I love Doctor Who because David Tennant's hot. Also I actually need to see where Nick discover or Charlie

basically discovers. Which I think this is also in the comics is that they discovered that Nick has a type. Nick likes his dark hair and bright eyes. I think in the comics he is cannot. It's Canon that he has a crush on Zooey Deschanel. Like Zooey Deschanel is one of his crushes. Celebrity crushes which again? Dark hair, blue eyes.

Yeah. I know there's another example in there that I can't remember, but remember Zooey Deschanel because I remember hearing that and I was just like, yeah, me too, Nick. Me too. Zooey Deschanel for God's sake. Next guy. Good taste. Go good taste. Yeah. So in this moment of jealousy, in walks Jonathan Bailey, AKA the gentleman who is playing Jack Maddox. But yeah, look, if he's gonna if we're going to give Olivia Coleman this treatment of we don't even call her by her character name.

He's she's just Olivia Coleman. I I I do it with Jonathan Bailey. Jonathan Bailey walks in. I love, I love this band. I've never seen Bridger Tin but I love this band. Is that? Where he's that's like I think kind of where he's got a lot of his big break specifically like with Netflix because he's in Bridgerton. Especially like season 2.

He was like one of the main characters again, never seen Bridgerton. I don't really know much about it except that he's in it. And apparently he has like this whole enemies to lover storyline in season 2. So I'm like, good for him, Good for him. He apparently does play a straight man really well, even though he's not. That's like, his reputation, I guess, which is really funny. Yeah. In walks Jonathan Bailey. Naturally, Charlie has to reiterate. Oh, my God, he's so hot.

And the look on Nick's face. Oh, look on Nick's face. Just pure jealousy. Pure jealousy. It's so funny. Yeah. So then we cut back at some point to Elle's interview. And then after that scene in Elle's interview, we come back to the lecture and Jack is now mid lecture and he makes this joke and he says, you know, you can't trust a Mesopotamian to source your copper ingot, which makes the whole audience except for Nick laugh. So I this bothered me.

I was like what does that mean? Because I don't remember anything about Mesopotamia. I felt so left out of this joke. So I googled that shit. I was like, I literally just googled Mesopotamia copper and I got something like this whole feed of just like this thing called the complaint tablet to a Nashir or something. I have I have no idea how to

pronounce that. So apparently according, especially according to the Guinness World Records, this is the oldest recorded customer complaint in history that we that we know of what? So it's a tablet. It is currently on display at the British Museum. And it's this tablet from ancient Greece or ancient, sorry, ancient Mesopotamia. Some merchant from Mesopotamia stole some. Like substandard is what the article said. Substandard copper to this

customer. Customer hated it so much, was so mad about it that they carved it into a whole ass tablet to complain about it. There's also an entire subreddit about it called Really Shitty Copper. It's just a bunch of memes based on this story. 100% Charlie will be on that subreddit by the way. But apparently this is like this went viral back in 2015 and I'd never heard about it before. And so I'm like, I'm I've totally missed out on this whole

thing. Hilarious. But so I. Definitely go viral on Tumblr. Tumblr. You know, Tumblr and then the Reddit? Probably. Probably on Reddit and Reddit, yeah. Well, I I saw something, yeah, I saw something like when the Karen thing was big, like the first, the oldest customer complaint, but I never learned anything about. It yeah, My favorite one that I saw I just kind of like scroll through real quick. My favorite one was somebody photoshopped the tablet on like the display at the museum.

They photoshopped out the tablet and it said in another universe he was actually really good at selling copper and so the tablet existed. I love that so much. That was my history rabbit hole I went down. That was. I just thought that was now that I know that joke now, or now that I get what that reference is, That joke's actually really fucking funny. Oh. My God, that is really fucking funny. But I basically was Nick in this scene where that shit went right over my head the first time.

I'm like what? If you ask me what Mesopotamia is, I wouldn't even be able to. Answer I remember learning the fertile present. That's all I remember. I don't even know what those words. I don't even know what it meant. I just remember that's what it was. I was like, yeah, and Mesopotamia is a fun I. Probably would have told you it was a made-up land and a story, and that's Hugo Potamia. I'm not good at history. Let's continue. That's Hugo Potamia, which I'm realizing.

Maybe that is a playoff of Mesopotamia. That's unfairly Odd Parents. I don't know. Yeah, she goes. What planet are you from? You go Potamia. Anyway, I watched way too much cartoons as a kid. So yeah, that joke goes over Nick's head. He's the only one in the audience that doesn't laugh. Same, buddy. I was confused at first, but now I get it. Now it's funny and it isn't funny. And so he asked another, he asked hers to answer another question. And Charlie is selected.

Lucky boy. He asks a question about if Jack has any recommendations on books in Queerness in Ancient Greece, which I had to go back and watch this with captions because I didn't quite catch what he was saying. I just said, heard something, something, something Greece. And I was like, huh, so queer. He asked about queerness in ancient Greece, which I thought was kind of neat. Jack immediately his response is, now that's a wonderful

question. Like there's such enthusiasm, which would make any fanboy's day to ask your celebrity crush something and then go. That's a wonderful thing. Charlie must be dying on the inside. I think it's. I think the would have recommendations too. Yeah, I think it's really cute that Nick even smiled and, like, went to hold Charlie's hand because he just like, I think he could tell how excited Charlie

was in that moment. And I think he also kind of saw some of Jack's charm now throughout the lecture. He's probably just like, OK, I can kind of see why you like him. He sees cool. Also, just like, the fact that he is, like, sharing in Charlie's passion right now. I think it's really sweet. Like it is me and who when I need somebody who does this?

And also at the end of like this little, the end of this little scene, how freaking dare they cut to the next scene before we find out what the hell this enthralling book he read in Milan was. Because I want to read it seriously, this enthralling book about queerness in ancient Greece, I want to know what that is. How dare. So if anybody in the comments knows any books about queerness in ancient Greece that are enthralling, are enthralling that Jonathan Bailey would 100%

read please. Leave it in the comments. I need more book corrects because you know. So after the lecture, we head to the book signing where Charlie actually gets to come up face to face with his celebrity crush dying. Oh my gosh. He starts with his signature little shy high, which we haven't seen in a hot second. I don't think we've seen like this level of him being kind of shy since season 1. First of all, our sweet and quietly, quietly confident boy has come so far. I'm so proud of him.

That's a good point. Yeah, that's such a good catch. It's true. Because it's like his iconic hi, hi. Yeah, he's been more conscious, which means his highs, Yeah. Yeah, which means he he really likes Jonathan Bailey. I mean, that's fair. Jonathan Bailey Yeah, I'll say all all of the gays and the bot, the gut gay men and the bye girlies, they get it. So, yeah. So he tells Jack he's like a huge fan and he wants to study classic literature at his

university probably. So it's like his absolute passion. So Jack basically is a huge inspiration for his passion. And when Jack science Charlie's book, he tells him study hard. Don't ignore your Latin vocab, which I thought was really cute because throwback to season 1, there's a conversation, you kind of you miss it if you don't pause. It's in episode 2 of Season 1.

Nick and Charlie have, like, this text conversation that you see Charlie scroll through before Cal immediately says Charlie, he's straight and in the text conversation. Yeah. Wait, God, talk about does it ever drive you crazy how fast the night changes? Oh, my God. Oh. My God. Jesus. So literally in that text conversation, Nick finds out that Charlie's studying Latin. Nick flat out calls Charlie a nerd. He says you have been exposed as a nerd. Charlie goes rude.

So what? Talk about full circle that we've we've got. Nick's not only here with Charlie at the lecture. He is supporting his partner in his passion, letting him nerd out and embracing him as a nerd. But Nick's an enabler in this sense because he bought the freaking tickets. Mind you, he also he didn't just buy Charlie's ticket, he bought himself a ticket to come with Charlie, which is sweet. It's so cute. So this is like, Nick, Nick Nelson just setting the bar

every single day. Like, so like, support your partner and their passions. Hell, yeah. I just thought that was the cutest thing. It's just like, yeah, your boyfriend's a nerd and you love it. Admit it. You love it. He does so after Jack. This is the part that made me cackle. So Jack? Asks Nick. Oh my God. If you can do anything for him, like can he sign something, get a photo, whatever.

And Nick just suddenly gets so flustered because now he's being addressed by this very attractive man who is right in front of his face and is full of charm and he just is like gets so flustered, gets stuttery. He doesn't even say the word Mesopotamia, right? He says and something I don't remember. And that part just made me laugh. But first of all, kids acting here, top notch because I got full on second hand embarrassment watching this scene.

It was so freaking funny the way that he wheels around and like full on smacks into this other poor random dude. This guy's like so caught off guard. That was my favorite part. He says nice, yeah, nice to meet you. Thanks. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Like says it multiple times and then smacks into this guy and he's like trying to run away so. Cute dude you. Poor thing. Nixon mood Charlie's also Charlie's face the whole time during this interaction is just

like baby good. He's, he's just watching like. This. Happening right now. Like he's just amazed. I don't, I don't know if Charlie's ever seen Nick get this flustered slash, like, right, like speechless about anything. Not that we've seen, at least, no. And Nick? Nick just going, yeah, he's really hot. You walk away, like, so much the way that Charlie's probably feeling like, so smug, yes. Like, he's probably feeling a combination of things.

Like he's probably so amused. He's probably overjoyed. First of all, the fact that Nick is, like, sharing in the passion with him and is embracing. And he can see, like, why Charlie loves it so much. So Charlie's probably so happy about that. But he's smug as hell because there is no way in hell that he's ever letting Nick live this one down, even if it's only ever mentioned between them. If they just keep this between them, they never tell anybody else. You know, he's going to bring it

up at some point. He's he's not going to let Nick live that down because I was so. As you shouldn't. This was hilarious because like Nick was being jealous AF at the beginning of this and then Charlie's like yeah come around to my way of thinking. Have you Nick, by the end of this? Yeah, he's really hot. Yeah, duh. Yeah, I. Told ya well, Charlie. AM. I getting replaced. Yeah, right. Well, now it's something they can bond. Over right? I mean, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that was hilarious. Everything about that was really funny. Such a funny scene. It's amazing and such a cute scene. Amazing acting by everybody honestly. Yeah. Oh my God. Anyway, I love that situation. OK, so like, all right, so then we we we leave. The. Sexy nerd man seminar. And then we head over to Charlie's room and like, OK, when as to your point, when you and your partner are fanboying over the same man, naturally

that sets the mood, right? So Nick and Charlie just roll with that literally in Charlie's room and start like making out aggressively in Charlie's beds. It's kind of like where we started the episode. Plus, you know, Jonathan Bailey or is his influence the ghost of Jonathan Bailey's in this room? Not that he's a ghost, but like his essence is in the room. It came with the book, right? So they start making out and then Nick starts getting super handsy because they're alone

allegedly. And as this like kind of happens, we start getting animations into Charlie's mindset. OK, so we start seeing his anxiety spiking when Nick starts like getting handsy basically. And when I like about this scene, it's hard to watch because just cause Charlie's anxiety.

But Charlie you can see like is fighting his anxiety his the best that he can and he's trying to just like get past it to like keep going because like deep down he does want to like keep going when it comes to Nick, But like his anxiety is fighting him. And so like, it's really hard to watch Charlie be like, no, I can push through it. I can push through it and it's just like it's not working.

And then it like gets to the breaking point when Nick tries to or he asked to take Charlie's shirt off. And that's like when Charlie's like, Nope, anxiety wins. Anxiety wins. And Nick, to his credit, being a good partner who's very good at communicating, does like, notice at this point that Charlie is like, not OK. And he tries to talk to Charlie about it. But the theme of this episode is them boys get interrupted.

So Jane comes in, which is like the worst person to like walk in on this because she induces anxiety in everybody in this scene, not just where Nick is like scarred for life after this. So Mama walks in and they spring apart, but they're on the bed and they're they get visibly panicking and Mama ain't blind. So she's like, you guys good. And then she like awkwardly like talks to them and then like leaves but leaves the door open because them boys were getting

handsy. But it's a nice subtle way of like saying knock it off without being like, what were you doing, having a conversation? Because maybe she's learning that, oh, if I say anything right now, it's just going to make things worse. I'll suddenly do it to get my point across. But also, these are Waspy people, they're not going to talk about sex out in the open. That's just that, what white Anglo Saxons do. She's going to be like you. Good. Let's leave. Door open.

I'm down the hall. Just so you know, You know what I mean. Yeah, I think also part of if I remember from the comic side, I don't remember, I don't know how much it's true to Cannon in the show, but in the comics, I think part of why she really tries to enforce the bedroom door open policy is like just like because of him, like with his relapse and everything a few months ago, like just just trying to make sure that you know, like whenever he shuts the door that

everything's fine. Like, you know, just it's mostly just for her sake of like feeling at ease, I think. And that's. Totally fair. Like if Charlie had suicide ideation in the past, like, and he's still on his recovery, like, that totally makes sense, yeah. Yeah, I don't know how true it is to like the show like in this camp in their minds, but. Yeah. So.

That's a good point. Yeah, the the animation, I love the way that it like it's so complex with there's the sparks flying, but then there is the the stag that's like surrounding Charlie. It starts to engulf him. So it's like you can tell he's trying so hard to be present, trying to like give in to the desire that he has for Nick in the moment. But the static does continue to kind of engulf him and he just can't quite get past it. And I think, I think it's an interesting touch.

They modified from the comics how this scene is done, just very slightly. There is this moment in the comics where Charlie gets so deep into his own head that it's just a single shot of him by himself, like curled in on himself. And obviously, like the animation is a little different to the comics because in the comics there's a lot of specs are all around him that we see where is in the in the show, it's more of like actual fuzz

and static. I think it's just to kind of help demonstrate what's going on in his brain a lot more. But we don't see that moment of Charlie wrapping himself like or curling in on himself in the in the show. And I wonder if it's because, like, I'm not sure, honestly. I think maybe it's just because, like, it didn't seem necessary for the sake of us understanding what's going on in Charlie's head. Because we know we get it.

We've seen it. We've seen it earlier on in this episode, So. But yeah. Yeah, yeah, That's interesting. I'm not. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because we did get the the mirror scene where Charlie was kind of like closing himself off physically by grabbing his arm across his chest. So like, yeah, maybe that was supposed to be the replacement scene because for this scene, it just kind of like goes from Charlie's anxiety to mom interrupting to like them actually talking.

So maybe it just wasn't. It didn't flow. Or maybe it just seemed like it was too intense for this moment, honestly. Because in the comics too, in the comics, they have just come home from school when they have the scene happen. So in this moment, obviously, like Charlie's probably still on a high of like, I just met my celebrity crush. And also my boyfriend also thinks the Sky's hot. So they just had like a lot of

fun where they just were. So maybe it wasn't, maybe it kind of takes away from that because it's not as intense, but they're still like the anxiety and the nerves. Yeah. So. Yeah, it definitely makes the transition into the rest of the scene, like, less dark, less, you know, less heavy, even though, like, I mean, big topic they're about to talk to. So after Jane leaves, Charlie and Nick finally do talk about like, the body dysmorphia a little bit.

And Charlie basically admits he's nervous about taking his shirt off because he has scars and he doesn't have a six pack like Jonathan Bailey does. And Nick, as always, the best boy has the perfect response, which is I don't care about any of that. And it really boils down to like, you're the one that I want, Charlie, like it's you. It's it has nothing to do with any of that stuff. And that really eases Charlie's anxiety more than anything.

That was basically word Xanax, what Nick just did. And it was so perfect because like in his head, like Nick, I mean, Charlie was definitely like compare, just compare himself to Nick a little bit. He's like, well, Nick's like rugby fit and all this stuff. And I know why I I'm into him physically. What the hell does he see in me? We're so different body type wise. And so to hear it directly from Nick to be like, it's you,

everything about you. Like basically is what Nick was saying like was the perfect response for some for Charlie truly in that moment. So now finally they're on the same page about like, you know, the physical things so that we'll we'll get to that in another episode. But first we have to bookend this episode with therapy with Jeff because that's how we started and that's how we're

going to end. Except this time I love that we end with basically Jeff doing relationship therapy for him because in the beginning they joked about that and Charles like snack like what do I feel like I'm in relationship therapy right now? Jeff's like maybe in like 10 years. But then they end the episode basically with relationship therapy, which the irony of that is hilarious to me. And then we get some shots like of like, basically Jeff's office.

And we get this one really cute, like glimpse of like what's on his desk or a shelf. I couldn't tell exactly. But like, there's this really cute little card that somebody made him, obviously that's like a thank you card and he's got like the pride flag and like Jeff is so cute and just Oh my God. I love it, it's I've seen the progress pride flag there which just gives acceptance.

But it also tells it just like he's a beloved therapist by like all his clients, not just like what we're seeing with not that what we're seeing with Charlie is like a one off thing. It's just like he's a very good therapist, which is very it just a safe person. So I just love that about him.

So in this conversation, they get to the root of Charlie's anxiety when it comes to all the bodies dysmorphia, maybe not the dysmorphia, but like the what the block really is when it comes to, you know, physical intimacy with Nick. And it it has to do with the lack of control. Because given Charlie's OCD, that makes total sense. Like basically like having sex for the first time is something that's kind of out of your control in in a lot of ways. And, and it's very new and scary.

So for somebody with OCDI can't even imagine like, I think that's part of it with Charlie. He's like, I would have to relinquish a lot of control to Nick and like hope for the best. And that can be very intimidating and scary. Yeah. Plus, like back in Season 1, he had like, Ben literally assaulted him. So like, yeah, that is like as close as he's gotten to intimacy in the worst way. Possible that's really true where he had zero agency and 0 control.

Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. She probably has some PTSD from that. And I think Charlie said, I can't remember if it was in the scene of the beginning where he's like, I don't want that basically what happened with Ben. I don't want that to define me. And it's so true. But like, you know, he's still going to have these lingering fears that he's dealing with. It's just, you know, it will take him some time kind of

thing. I mean, Jeff Beck basically says, like, well, the key to trusting the key is trusting Nick. So like basically Nick is not Ben is the big, big bottom line. And like in order for that to work, you 2 need to communicate, which they do. And also like, and then he's like also as the dad in the room, practice safe sex and like, I love her immediately. He's like, there's free condoms outside. Go get them. They're in the lobby.

Like like important. Like insert the teenage urge to squirm during this part because like you look at Charlie and he's just like, oh God, he just becomes a teenager in this moment. He's like, I'm uncomfortable. You're adult talking about sex, which I think is really so funny. And Jeff reminds Charlie because again, it's a, it's a lack of like confidence too on Charlie's part. And he's like, listen, Charlie, like you have confidence and he runs through the list.

He's like you told Nick you loved him first. You asked Nick, you did all these things. It's not like you don't have confidence. Like it's the problem is like feeling confident sometimes and

he's like, and that's normal. It's basically a challenge that everybody goes through and you're going to go through every single day is like feeling confidence, but like know that you have it in you to like do these things because you do just like you have to like believe in yourself basically and feel it. Yeah, Charlie is such a quietly confident guy. I think he doesn't even agreed. Like you said, he doesn't even

realize it for most of this. Like to like queue back to season 1, which we get the freaking flashback to get my freaking feelings about that. Jesus where Nick and Charlie have their first kiss because Charlie literally gets the confidence to say like would you kiss me? Like what my 14 year old asking never never. But also like after that. Like standing up to Ben at the end of season 1 and then again in season 2.

Standing up to Ben shutting, slamming the door in Harry's face in season 2. This. Boy's got like flashes of confidence that we see that I don't even know if he realizes because he just has the emotion in the moment and he's just past the point of giving a shit. He's like, no, you've hurt me enough. You're we're done. And I love that. But it's clear that he hasn't seen like he doesn't see that. I mean, it's hard to see yourself sometimes.

It's the outside looking in from people around you that can say, like, you know, you've done this, this and this. And if you don't realize, oh, yeah, I guess I did do that, didn't I? So, yeah. And so when he does say, I guess I just don't feel confident. It's just like, I think you have it in you, Charlie.

Yeah, I mean, a good example from this, this episode is like when Tara was having the panic attack, like Charlie had all the confidence in the world in that moment to be like, breathe, do this, do that. There is like no hesitation to another. So like, you're right. He has these moments where he exhibits confidence, but he doesn't realize he's doing it is kind of the thing, like you said. So good pep talk from Jeff. Good relationship. I love how it ended with

relationship advice. Basically. He's like, no, I don't need that from you. And then yes, you do. But very cute. And then at the end of like the, you know, mock down memory lane montage, Charlie looks out the window and we see those animated birds from like the comics slash Paris. And that's where it ends. So like a hopeful like lovebird note. Which is cute. Yeah, that's where we end. That's where we end.

OK, so that was episode 6. So time for the big gay energy Award. This one's hard, actually. I'm going to give it to Sahar and Imogen for like having their like conversation being like. Let me be fun. OK, fun. I'm. Going to restart that. Section. My neighbors are also for some reason having a screaming match next door. I'm just like why? Why? Oh, my neighbors had like the home feeder going on and there was just like booming going on for most of today. It's just insane.

Like, you know other people live here, right? Yeah, the neighbors downstairs yell A. Lot OK. Sorry, Julie came home. So. She wasn't going to stop parking. OK. I'll just start that over. OK. Yeah. Big energy order. OK, I'm going to give the big gay energy order to Sahar and Imogen for their little confession scene and being like, let's just be friends and work on our friendship.

So that took a lot to confess that they like, we're basically each other's, like queer awakening in a way, and then are just going to like, work on their relationship with each other. I like that scene. That was mine too. But more specifically, even Imogen admitting that she was hurting Sahar. And just like admitting everything. Like Imogen has come so far. So she definitely deserves the big gay energy award. Yeah. Finally coming into her own. Going to give Michael the big

Dad energy award. Oh. My God, Michael, hold it. Yeah. That's a pull on that. Like he honestly like in the in the sweetest way. He reminded me kind of of my dad when we go camping when he said morning campers. I'm like, my dad would do that. Yeah, that's cute. He's. Such a dad. So are you changing your Big Energy award to Big Bad Energy? In this episode specifically, yes he is. He is big dad energy. I love that. I'll accept that. I accept that, Jane.

I, I like to think Michael will, at some point in his life, work with kids like either be a teacher or be a counselor or like or something. Could you imagine him being in charge of a bunch of children? That'd be a my. God. You're the best camp counselor ever. He. Really, wouldn't he would be in charge of like older middle like high school kids and then randomly get thrust into having to take care of like a group of elementary school kids and be

like, what is going on? OK, so wrapping up, if you made it this far in the episode, we want to know, use this phrase in a comment or review. Again, it'll be really funny if you put this in a review. Today's secret phrase is sexy Nerd man seminar. Is that what you said? I don't. Remember. I was going to be my runner up for the award was Sexy Nerd man. Whatever. Jonathan Bailey. Yeah. Sexy nerd man seminar. That's that is what theor is it was it went through.

It was originally supposed to be Queers Intense, and then it was going to be Mesopotamia, and then as soon as Theora said that and Elena couldn't stop laughing. She was like, that was it. We're. Trying to go into the serious talk about this next scene. I'm like, I can't stop, I'm sorry. I gotta be serious. Now I'm just cackling over here. That's funny. This is serious. Elena, it's so serious. Yeah, we know it's a serious hi. And this is so serious, but it's the end.

It is the end Sexy turn man seminars come to an end, so we'll be back next time to discuss Episode 3 O 7, which is the penultimate episode for season 3. And until next time, everybody hydrate for lesbian. Jesus and get it up all over the place. Bye. And with that, we've been big gay energy. Thank you for listening. We'd really appreciate it if you downloaded this episode and left us a review. No matter how brief, your contribution will help us reach a wider audience.

We would love to hear from you about everything and anything. You can find us on all social media platforms at Big Gay Energy Pod or e-mail us at Big Gay Energy [email protected]. Join our Discord server to connect with us and our friends who also love queer media. The link to join is in our episode description below if you'd like to support us. Check out our merch store on big gayenergypod.com or join our Patreon for early access to episodes, exclusive content, and

so much more. Until next time, hydrate for lesbian Jesus. And get it up all over the. Place.