#Camilie | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bonjas · 5 months ago

Text

blf: la historia continua

having been one of the fans that was counting down the seconds until the new series started, i have a lot of thoughts on the show now that 4 episodes have aired. i've seen each one a few times now but my thoughts will still be a little scattered!

first of all, i LOVE the production quality, and the stylistic choice they took with the aesthetics of this series. it's sharp, artsy, quick, colorful, and very much giving Mode magazine vibes from Ugly Betty! the on screen graphics are a cute touch, Mila's are a little bit extra, but so is she so it's okay. i especially loved the comedic timing of the graphic from the bathroom scene (XL 😆).

for being 20 years later, everyone is FANTASTIC at getting right back into character. having witnessed other shows that were rebooted years and years later and seeing some people not being able to get back into the swing of things, the ability of this cast just really goes to show the caliber of actors they cast in the original. everyone effortlessly slid back into character, mannerisms, voice inflection, chemistry between characters, honestly i have no complaints. i know some people think don hermes wasn't tough enough on mila in his scenes with her, but do yall have grandparents that love to spoil you and let you get away with things they wouldnt let their kids get away with? i'm not surprised at all he's softer with her than he would have been with betty.

so after all that, my problems with the reboot...

episodes 1&2 are bad. just straight up bad, and it's unfortunate that it took 2 out of the precious little 10 we have to find their footing. episode 1 is filled with "dramatic pauses" which honestly just feel awkward, and having come from Gaitan's never ending monologues, it felt like empty air that should have been filled. Gaitan's silences were strategic and emphasized the emotions of the scenes, and actually set up to be pregnant pauses, where this series feels like they just dont know what the character would say, and not heavy with drama like they think it comes across as.

the writing, ohh the writing...

betty's diary was always used as a tool to give us background, give us insight into what betty was feeling/thinking, and give us context or extra info we didnt see on screen. with so little episodes and so little time to explain things, HUH.....WOULDA BEEN HANDY.....

good writing shows and doesn't tell, and what these early episodes do are NEITHER. something mysterious and bad is happening at ecomoda....too bad you dont get to know! camila and betty's relationship is in tatters, betty abandoned them, camily went to ???? for five??? years!! nahhhh, dont tell us anything about it, just jump right to the resentment!??

"mystery is an intellectual process, like in a 'whodunnit'. but suspense is essentially an emotional process. you can only get suspense going by giving the audience information."-alfred hitchcock

the writers made many VERY strange choices in not telling us more about:

what armando and mario did

who exactly is marcela's dude and what he gets out of helping marcela (idfk his name)

giving us background on armando and that lawyer

giving us more background on betty and mila other than just "you abandoned us!" "she's so distant now" where tf was mila and why was she out of the country for 5 years???

why are mila and marce so close??

think back to OG blf...when things were mentioned in passing like the "horrible thing that happened to betty", those werent things that were of importance for that scene/storyline/moment, thats why they were in passing, they just added to the layers of complexity of betty, but it was gratifying when we later found out what it actually was. or think about all the important events that happened because we knew what was going on! imagine if we didnt know what armando's evil plan was, and we saw betty read The Letter and we're not told what it says, and we see betty go through all her trauma and emotions and never finding anything out until she tells armando she knows. there would be no pay off because we didnt know what was happening in the first place so we're not invested! whereas in this series they are just leaving out huge gaps of information needed to feel the anxieties the people we're watching are feeling. we finally find out what armando did during his second time as president at ecomoda in episode 4, and knowing that information from the beginning would have been so much more impactful! we'd be stressed knowing armando fucked up AGAIN, is lying to betty AGAIN, put the company in financial ruin AGAIN, then we would feel the emotion of him finally coming clean to her and telling her he's planning to take full responsibility! there's not as much pay off when learning at the exact same time as betty.

with mila and betty, yeah we can fill in the blanks with what happened to them, but without hearing betty's thoughts or seeing through her eyes how their relationship fell apart, the (majority) of the audience went straight to hating mila and resenting her for their shitty relationship. if we had context around it, the audience would understand her and how everything turned out that way.

episodes 3&4 really found their footing, the humor was back, armando's characterization and development was so nice to see! callbacks to the OG show were awesome, i DIED at sandra yelling at freddy "you're disrespecting the community!!!". i'm worried that mila is manipulating betty with their happy reunion but idk! there's not enough context/foreshadowing/knowledge of mila's character so idk that one's a wild card. but if the rest of the show continues like episode 3&4 i'll be a happy camper, because 1&2 honestly had me really worried.

i wanna know what everyone else thinks! i have tons of thoughts that i already forgot because i dont write things down in the moment lol so i'm sure i'll be back to write some more down the line maybe after a couple more episodes! (new thought i just remembered–why tf is patricia in HR, let alone working? is her old man not rich enough to support her lifestyle? if that's the case, why aren't we told this to have more background on why she's back at a place she very dramatically quit from so we can invest more feelings when she's being "bullied" for having an old husband etc? it's the little things...i dont think i'm asking too much of the writers because other shows do more and more effectively with the same exact run time as this show)

#betty la fea #yo soy betty la fea #ysblf #armando mendoza #beatriz pinzón solano #betty la fea la historia continúa #spoilers

26 notes · View notes

felicitysmoaksx · 8 months ago

Text

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for sticking with this story! Not much to say except this is one of my favorite chapters I've written and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed it coming together. Remember, comments fuel the author!

Rating: Mature

Summary: Her eyes squeezed shut before she dropped her head. Borrowed time. It was meant to be her…It was meant to be-

Word Count: 3.1k

Warnings: mentions of a little bit of everything in this chapter. Nothing goes to horribly into detail besides Sarah's grief following Camilie Voight's death. But here's a list of everything mentioned in this chapter. Please take care of yourself. (Suicidal thoughts, PTSD, grief, cancer, survivor's guilt.)

Read On AO3 | Fic Playlist | Fic Playlist but Less Shippy | Want to be tagged when I post a Rheese story?

“Sarah, it’s starting to feel like you’re auditing a class again.” Dr. Richardson tried to gently goad the other woman into saying…something. Anything. Like the first time, but unlike that time, the brunette just kept silent, staring resolutely at the wall.

“We don’t even have to discuss why you’re here in this session. That can come later. We can talk about something else.” Dr. Richardson offered. Anything to get the ball rolling. Her patient remained staring at the wall.

“Okay…let’s try this. Who is Hank Voight to you?”

[line break] [line break] [line break] [line break] [line break]

Hank studied the man who had brought his daughter to her physiatrist appointment. A man he hadn’t known about until he had sat by her side while she was in the hospital. The man who had come to his son’s service and memorial to support his youngest daughter. The same dark-haired man looked like he wanted to say something right now.

“You got something you want to say to me?” His daughter’s boyfriend looked up, startled at Hank’s question. Hank shrugged, “I’ve been a cop for over twenty years, I know what someone looks like when they want to say something.”

“It’s just…don’t you think you’re pushing therapy on Sarah a little too soon? For the record, this isn’t me against her seeing someone, but It hasn’t even been a month yet. Maybe you should’ve given her some time to grieve?”

A ballsy move from his youngest daughter’s boyfriend, whether he knew it or not.

“How long have you been dating my daughter?” Hank asked, after sucking a breath through his teeth.

“Six months,” the words were said confidently and Hank found himself sitting in surprise, though he didn’t show it, because he had only clocked Sarah having guy troubles the day before everything happened. It was unusual. When his youngest was in a relationship, like Erin, he could usually tell.

Hank nodded like he already knew this piece of information and asked, “Has she ever told you about my late wife?”

[line break] [line break] [line break] [line break] [line break]

“What?” Sarah shifted her gaze to Dr. Richardson, her resolve to not speak, breaking because she had been expecting questions about Justin…what was going on with her life.

What she hadn’t been expecting was her psychiatrist to question Hank’s place in her life.

“Who is Hank Voight to you?” The older woman smiled placatingly. Only instead of soothing her, Sarah felt herself stiffen. Because she was a psych resident and was quickly approaching her final year of residency. She knew what Dr. Richardson was trying to do.

Just like she knew calling the older woman out on her tactic wouldn’t help. If anything, it would make her seem defensive, and closed off. More unstable than they probably already suspected to be. After all, that’s why Hank pushed, prodded, and nagged her into therapy again.

“You already know who he is,” Sarah said with a shrug, “I’m sure Erin’s already told you who he is and what he did for us.”

“From Erin’s perspective during one of her sessions, not from yours.” Dr. Richardson corrected gently.

[line break] [line break] [line break] [line break] [line break]

“Some, not a lot. She said she seemed like a superwoman when she was sick.” Connor told him feeling slightly confused at the way this conversation had pivoted. He couldn’t see what the police sergeant’s late wife had to do with him pushing therapy onto Sarah so soon.

“The first time, yeah.” Sarah’s dad nodded. Then the older man sighed and scrubbed a hand down his face. A heaviness filled the air. Even Connor could feel it as Hank continued in a quiet tone, “The second time... Not so much. The cancer was more aggressive or her chemotherapy was too strong. I’m not sure anymore, considering we put her oncologist in jail about two years year back now.”

“You put her oncologist in jail?”

“Her oncologist was Dean Rybole,” Hank answered, a dark look crossing his face.

“Fuck,” Connor breathed before he thought better of it because he recognized the name of the doctor that had dosed multiple women with chemotherapy and radiation that didn’t even need it…And he remembered the day of the trial. Peter Kilmiec had talked to him, Will, Ethan, and Nat because they might be called in to testify about their patient’s cases.

…And he remembered Sarah looking haunted that day, less put together, almost like a shell of herself. Like his mother…in some ways. The lights had been on in Sarah’s head, but that day, no one was home and she was a million miles away before she left work early. (None of the ED doctors had been called to testify after all, so they hadn’t seen Sarah sitting in the court gallery, clutching both Erin’s and Hank’s hands so tightly that her hands had been turning white and when Hank was on the stand, Alvin had been there, holding Sarah’s hand so she wouldn’t pick at cuticles till they bled because anxiety that the brunette hadn’t felt since Camile’s death and had pushed it down, down, down was manifesting itself once more. )

And he was ashamed to say that though he noticed, Connor hadn’t checked to see if she was okay because his ability as a doctor had been in question at the time.

“Hindsight now, I probably shouldn’t have let Sarah go with her to as many of her chemotherapy or radiation appointments, but we had medical bills we were still paying for from her first round of chemo, and the new chemo bills. On top of our other bills and I didn’t want Camillie to be alone…” the older man said, bringing Connor out of his thoughts.

Hank Voight shook his head again looking at his hands, “But Camille passed eight months after battling cancer for the second time and nearly took Sarah with her. Sarah just stopped…She became a shell of who she was. She didn’t do anything. She stopped going anywhere, including school, didn’t eat, or sleep, and dissociated more than normal for her. She didn’t even speak anymore. That should’ve been our first warning sign. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but when Sarah feels out of control, the first thing she does to try and gain control is stop talking…But I wasn’t thinking straight. I thought it was normal. She was grieving. She needed time. Everyone did. But then one month became four and she still wasn’t doing anything. She wasn’t getting better, she had lost weight and the only reason she ate at all was because we made her. Her hair was dull and starting to mat and fall out.”

And that in itself was telling enough, because as much as the brunette complained about the amount of time her curls took, she took care of them. She said they felt weird and greasy if they were left too long without maintenance.

Connor didn’t remember much about his mother's passing. He was ten after all, but he didn’t remember stopping like Hank was describing Sarah did, so much as the world stopping around him. It stood on its axis as he figured out what life looked like without his mom.

[line break] [line break] [line break] [line break] [line break]

“What does it matter?” Dr. Richardson considered Sarah’s question as she took note of the brunette’s rigid posture. The blank mask on her face.

The psychiatrist shrugged then, feigning a nonchalant reaction to ease Sarah. But the strategy didn’t work as well considering the patient was also a psychiatrist herself. “At the beginning of this appointment, you said you didn’t want to be here. But you were here because Hank asked you to be-to talk to someone about Justin Voight’s passing.”

And there it was. The slightest flinch. Justin Voight was one of her trigger points. Maybe the trigger point. But the older psychiatrist knew from treating both Sarah and Erin Lindsay, that they couldn’t just dive into this trigger point. They had to ease into it. So Dr. Richardson pivoted.

“Okay, we don’t have to talk about Hank. Then what about the other person in the waiting room? The one who brought you here. Who’s he?”

“You mean Connor?”

“Connor,” Dr. Richardson agreed with a nod of encouragement. Then she added, “Last time, I saw you, you were still dating Joey. Is that still not going on?”

Sarah slowly shook her head, “We stopped dating about ten months ago. Like I thought, he couldn’t handle that I didn’t want to go into pathology.”

“And Connor? Is he your boyfriend?” The psychiatrist asked. That’s what it seemed like with how his arm was wrapped around her waist and his lips pressed to her forehead in a tender kiss.

Which was vastly different from Sergeant Hank Voight’s kiss to the top of her head, which screamed father energy, if the older woman could even use that expression.

“No,” Sarah shook her head slowly once more, “Connor is…Connor. We’re not dating but…I guess the most clinical term would be friends with benefits? For the last six months?”

Dr. Richardson made a note. Then her gaze found Sarah’s again. “Is it a healthy relationship in your opinion?”

Her patient merely blinked at her.

“It’s a legitimate question,” the older woman reassured her, “Not sarcasm or a snide comment.”

[line break] [line break] [line break] [line break] [line break]

There was a beat of silence as everything sank in. Then Sarah’s boyfriend asked, “How did Sarah recover? From her grief the last time?”

“Justin. You think I’m tough? You should've seen my wife and Justin has-had just enough of my wife in him to realize that just leaving her be, wasn’t working.” Hank explained and he couldn’t help the bittersweet smile that overtook his lips. Folding his arms, the sergeant shrugged, “He took matters into his own hands, and granted, he gave her full warning before he did it, but one day, he dragged her into the bathroom fully clothed and turned on the shower. Then he told her she was going to take a shower because they were getting out of the house.”

“Some tough love.” The younger man remarked, and when Hank nodded he continued, “Sarah did say he was her brother, protector, bully, and best friend rolled into one.”

“He was, and when Sarah declared she was going to medical school to become an oncologist…He stood up for her. Erin and I didn’t take it well,” he explained, seeing Connor’s confused look, “We thought it was a reaction to Camilie’s death.”

“It probably was,” Connor remarked quietly. Hank nodded in agreement as he said, “It’s not that we didn’t want Sarah to be a doctor. But we didn’t want Sarah to always try to save Camille with each patient. But it was Justin who pointed out, that at least she was trying to do something productive. Instead of wasting away or getting drunk every day.”

Sarah's boyfriend mirrored his bittersweet smile, “That seems to be a pattern with your daughter. We had a resident who threw himself off the roof. Since then, Sarah’s been trying to make a conscious effort to be the thing that pulls people away from that edge.”

“Everything feels like it did before. The only different thing is her anger at what happened. She told me she was the reason Justin was killed.” Hank sighed, bringing it back to what they were originally talking about. He shook his head, “And I am the kind of father that would step on a landmine if it meant his kids would land on their feet. But I can’t do that for Sarah. I don’t know how to stop her from slipping. And my son…isn’t here to pull her out of it. So even though it’s probably a little too soon for therapy, I don’t see any other way to prevent her falling into that state again.”

[line break] [line break] [line break] [line break] [line break]

Sarah bit her lip as she thought about the question. Justin asked her something similar before about Connor too. She nodded her head. “It’s actually the best relationship of my adult life. Compared to all of my past boyfriends…It’s almost like he’s Prince Charming.”

Dr. Richardson hummed, writing down a note. “But he’s not you’re boyfriend.”

“No, it’s-he just got out of a serious relationship and after Joey, I didn’t want to date for a while either.” Sarah started fidgeting with her fingers.

“How did it happen?” the older woman asked. The curly-haired brunette shrugged thinking about how to answer.

[line break] [line break] [line break] [line break] [line break]

“Are you married, Reese?”

Sarah moaned as he continued kissing his way down her neck. It was a tease because there wasn’t enough suction to leave a mark, (Did she even want him to mark her?) but just enough to rile her up in all the right ways. Not that someone would’ve heard her with the way his lips moved to hers and swallowed up the sound of her pleasure. Her stomach clenched as a warm hand drifted down her stomach, he slipped a hand under her shirt.

Sarah felt herself blink, standing up a little straighter. It was an unexpected, unusual question. Still, she answered, “No. Came close to it, but never made it down the altar.”

“Dating someone?”

Another unexpected question. Though the brunette probably knew it had everything to do with her former relationship with Joey because it hadn’t quite hit the Med gossip mill yet, so many people assumed they were still together.

“Not anymore.” She told him with an air of finality.

She whined as the lips left hers before she blushed deeply, feeling slightly embarrassed at the noise and how loud it was. But he just grinned and continued pulling her shirt up. Then he was on his knees in front of her, kissing his way down her stomach.

Blue eyes seemed to twinkle then as they eyed her from head to toe. Then he cocked his head to the side with a slight smile, almost a smirk on his lips. The smirk that probably had charmed everyone he used it on. “Then do you want to get a drink? Drown both of our long days in alcohol?”

He pulled away and the brunette whined again. Her shirt fell back against her skin. But the man in front of her merely chuckled as he stood up, but there was a dark undertone to it that made her shiver in anticipation. They started walking backward, lips locking once more. He sucked on her bottom lip and Sarah-

[line break] [line break] [line break] [line break] [line break]

“Sarah?” She blinked out of the memory. She straightened up as her psychiatrist eyed her, “You went somewhere just now? Where?”

Sarah was well aware that she had a flush running up her body that grew more the longer the older woman stared at her. She felt the heat flood her body. God, she probably looked like a tomato right now.

“A memory,” Sarah answered.

“A good one?” Oh, it was very good, but the curly-haired brunette wasn’t about to tell her that. Instead, she just gave her a polite smile.

“I’m sorry, what was your question from before?”

“How did you come to be in a friends-with-benefits relationship?”

“Organically, I guess? Is that a valid answer?”

Dr. Richardson shrugged and asked, “Do you feel like it’s a valid answer?”

She honestly didn’t know, but she was saved from answering by Dr. Richardson’s alarm going off, signaling the end of the session.

“Okay,” the other woman smiled warmly, closing her notebook. Then she stood and held out her hand to the curly-haired brunette, “This was a really good start, Sarah. We’ll continue this next week?”

It didn’t feel like a great start and Sarah wasn’t sure she wanted to continue these sessions. But instead of saying that, she tried her best to smile politely and said, “Sure. But I didn’t really talk that much.”

“You didn’t during your first session either.” Dr. Richardson reminded her, “Neither did Erin. You and your sister are like onions, you have layers and that’s okay. And besides that, you’re actively grieving. You should be treating yourself with extra care right now. It’s okay that you didn’t talk because this was your first session.”

[line break] [line break] [line break] [line break] [line break]

His youngest daughter’s boyfriend didn’t have much to say after Hank laid it out for him. The bad and the ugly. But that was probably a good thing because about five minutes later, the door opened and there was his youngest daughter with Dr. Richardson following closely behind. Both men stood up simultaneously.

“Everything go okay?” Hank prodded gently. The brunette shrugged her shoulders in response in answer to the question. “I went to therapy like you asked.”

That really didn’t tell him anything about her appointment and how it went, but his youngest daughter had already turned to her boyfriend. “I just got to use the restroom and then we can go.”

The dark-haired man nodded, pressing his lips to Sarah’s head. Hank watched her leave, watched how Connor Rhodes lingered, holding his daughter’s hand until she disappeared around the corner.

Hank turned to face the psychiatrist, “Doc? Can you give me anything?”

“You know I can’t tell you anything about our sessions, but she’s not suicidal from what I can tell. I don’t perceive her as a threat to herself.” The older woman reassured him, making the other man whip around to face him with wide sapphire eyes. (Connor knew Sergeant Voight was worried and now that he knew Sarah’s past with grief, he couldn’t deny that he had that right to worry. But he didn’t even know suicidal thoughts were a concern to be had.)

“But?” Hank pressed. The woman shrugged as a sad empathetic smile crossed her lips. Hank Voight wasn’t the first worried parent she had to deal with and he surely wouldn’t be the last, but it never got any easier.

“Hank, you’ve been a police officer for over twenty years,” the older woman explained, “We didn’t even talk about anything significant but when I tried to broach certain subjects with her, her body language and reactions told me a lot. My best guess is that Sarah is dealing with heavy survivor’s guilt. Most likely post-traumatic stress as well and I’m sure you’ve seen how quickly that can manifest into those kinds of thoughts if left to their own devices in victims you helped.”

“She doesn’t sleep much most nights.” Connor inputted and when the woman turned to look at him, he offered his hand, “I’m Connor Rhodes. Sarah’s boyfriend. She’s been staying with me and usually anymore, I wake up and she isn’t there. I usually have to coax her back to bed.”

(Connor didn’t understand the quizzical look that crossed Dr.Richardson’s face when he introduced himself.)

#one chicago #chicago med #chicago pd #rheese #hank voight #Sarah Reese #Connor Rhodes #Voight Family Values #my writing

8 notes · View notes