#also how is the fruit bombs NOT the most insane thing that happened this episode???

[new-haven-psych-ward]

Kamen Rider Geats episode 20 poorly summarized via memes with as little context as possible:

[lorna-and-nicky-complex-love]

Summary and Analysis of Nicky Nichols and Lorna Morello’s Relationship Season 1-5 SPOILER ALERT FOR SEASON 5!!

Season 1 Nicky and Lorna have a casual sexual relationship, even though at the time, we are led to believe that Lorna is engaged. As far as we know, Lorna identifies as straight and Nicky is a lesbian. From what we can see they are best friends who have sex until the fifth episode of season 1 titled “The Chickening.” After having an orgasm in a chapel, Lorna announces that she wants to stop having sex with Nicky because she feels it is unfair to fiancee, and that Nicky is “making her feel like a cave.” For a split second, Nicky looks a little hurt, but proceeds to say it’s cool and that she’s fine with it. This is our first sign that Nicky may actually care more about Lorna than just friendship. Then throughout the rest of season 1, Nicky seems slightly annoyed and bitter about the fact that Lorna “broke up with her” She makes small comments about Lorna being coy. Then in episode 10, she yells at Lorna about being delusional and believing that her fiancee, who hasn’t come to see her since 3 weeks after she got to prison is still in love with her. Even though this was brutal, it shows that Nicky is one of the very few people who is not afraid to be brutally honest with Lorna. (Which due to her fantasies is exactly what she needs). Then at the end of the season, we see Boo telling Nicky to start sleeping with Lorna again to which Nicky replies that “you only get one chance to break her heart” implying that by ending their casual sexual relationship, Lorna broke her heart. Along with this comment, for Christmas, Nicky makes Lorna an adorable wedding poster, which included her in place of the groom. When she shows it to Alex, she claims that it is a joke, to which Alex responds, “is it?” implying that other people are aware that Nicky may have feelings for Lorna that are not entirely platonic. The season ends with them as best friends, but the audience, is left to believe that Nicky may have feelings for her. Season 2 So this season includes Lorna flashbacks that show us that Morello is in jail for stalking Christopher, and putting a homemade bomb under his wife Angela’s car. We see Nicky comforting Morello after she finds out that Christopher is getting married, and comforting Lorna in one of their most heartwarming scenes on the staircase. After Christopher shows up to confront Lorna about breaking into his house (which she did do) he destroys the fantasy she has spent the last 2 years creating. He calls her a psycho, who has been stalking him. Nicky overhears and comforts a weeping Morello on the staircase. While Morello does acknowledge that something is wrong with her and that she does in fact have a mental illness, Nicky states that she even though she is batshit crazy, that she is beautiful, sweet girl and that so many people are going to love her. Lorna acknowledging her own insecurity says no one is ever going to love her to which Nicky tenderly responds that she does. This alone implies that Nicky does in fact love her even though she does suffer from a mental illness, and is obsessive she still sees her as a beautiful sweet girl, that she fell in love with. For the rest of the season, they are on good terms, as they had been during early season 2, but this time, Lorna decides to stay away from romance, and accept reality because of Nicky’s acceptance. Season 3 So in the beginning of season 3, Nicky and Lorna seemed to have resumed their flirtatious friendship with Nicky saying that she is happy that Lorna is keeping up her appearance and that she looks like juicy ripe fruit and they are seen sitting together during Mother’s Day. When Nicky is ratted out by Luschek, and dragged off the Max, Lorna along with Red are seen hysterically crying, and when Nicky says that she loves the both of them, Lorna tearfully replies I love you too. This spoke volumes about how they both truly felt about each other. Lorna finally admitted something that all of us already knew, she loves Nicky. In the following episodes, Lorna was seen crying, and being lonely without Nicky proving that Nicky is a her rock, and the one person who cared about her, not because she was beautiful, but for who she was a person. We then see Morello marry Vincent, but I believe she did this out of loneliness as opposed to actual love. 

Season 4 In this season we saw Lorna’s somewhat strange relationship with her husband, and their word sex. We also saw the return of Nicky and what she has been doing in Max. We find out that she is 3 years clean, and that she has had sex with Stella (Although this was most likely out of loneliness, and sadness than genuine feeling.) After seeing Luschek we see Nicky feeling depressed, alone, and see her hit her lowest point of performing oral sex on a CO for heroin. After we see her return to minimum security where she is warmly welcomed by Red and Lorna. During the party we see Lorna hugging her, caressing her arm, and leaning on her. Showing us that Lorna just wanted to feel close to her at all times. We slowly begin to see Nicky spiral out of control due to her drug addiction. She steals from Red to buy drugs, and begins to take her anger out on Lorna. In episode 8, she makes very strong sexual advances towards Lorna, even though she knows she married, proving that not only does she not take Lorna’s marriage seriously, but she also plays on Lorna’s attraction to her. Now one cannot deny that this was manipulative, but it also shows that Nicky considers Lorna the one thing in her life that she can count on.(She is consistently there for her). Also when Nicky plants the seed that Vincent is cheating on Lorna in her head, one can believe that she did this purposely. She wanted ruin Lorna’s marriage because on some level, she was aware of her feelings for her, and she hated that she was married. Nicky knew that Lorna would freak out, and possibly scare vinnie away, and one can deduce, that that is what she wanted. We see Nicky taking her anger out on Lorna again when she insults Lorna in the cafeteria by saying, “Friends is that what we are now?” and that “Lorna is a peanut brain fickle hearted whore.” Even though this is partly influenced by her drug use, I also believe that Nicky said this because she felt that Lorna had toyed with her emotions, and had moved on from her too quickly. (Sleeping with Stella for Nicky was not about emotion therefore in her mind, she had not moved on, but was simply trying to cope with her loneliness). After Poussey’s death when Red asked them to scout locations for the new garden, before pushing her up against the shed, Nicky had an interesting look on her face, like she missed Lorna, and being with her so much. (However I do not condone what happened afterwards, because it was sexual assault, to stick your hand down the pants of someone who says they do not want to have sex with you). Nicky then looks visibly hurt when Lorna calls her a junkie, an addict and a liar. She retaliates by calling Lorna a psycho, and forcing her to acknowledge her mental illness. After Lorna acknowledges her illness (possibly erotomania), and states that she cannot stop herself from doing this, and that she needs help, and that she is unhappy, and afraid that someone else is going to leave her. Nicky then realizes that Lorna is clinging to the delusion that she might be pregnant because then she won’t have to acknowledge that her marriage is falling apart because of her lack of treatment. (However I do believe that Nicky triggered this episode). Because of this, Nicky decides to no longer make comments about her marriage, as seeing Lorna unhappy makes her unhappy. Season 5 SPOILERS So in this season (well the first 10 episodes) we see Nicky making advances towards Lorna in the first episode that are firmly rebuffed by Morello. We see Morello genuinely caring about Nicky’s sobriety, ie -you are not taking any pills -I don’t think you in a room full of medicine is good for your sobriety -Taking the keys from Nicky and hiding them so that she wouldn’t have access to drugs.

Overall in the first 2 episodes we see Lorna and Nicky having the normal playful friendship that used to have. However, in episode 3, having taken over the medical cage, Lorna listens to the symptoms, and distributes the meds that Nicky tells her to. While comforting a grieving Soso, Nicky indirectly says that “you’ll realize that you’ve fallen hopelessly in love with an incredible, insane, beautiful woman who will never love you back” Making it clear that she is open to admitting publicly in front of Soso, and a line of strangers that she is in love with Lorna, and she is also aware of the fact that Lorna does not seem to love her back in the same way. Lorna seems shocked, and shaken, and continues to speak to the person on line instead of acknowledging what was just said. This shows that its not that Lorna doesn’t love her, its that she is not sure how that love relates to her heteronormative dream on what it means to be happy. All her life, Lorna believed that she needed to meet her prince charming, get married, and have kids (there is nothing wrong with wanting that). She never considered that maybe she would spend her life with a woman, who does not believe in marriage, and doesn’t like children. So I would say that Lorna does in fact love her but she is unsure of how to accept that love, and understand that it is okay because it goes against everything she had always imagined for her life. At the risk of spoiling episode 6 I am going to end there because, I am still trying to wrap my head around episodes 6-8, and understand the motives for the things said and done, one of them being why Nicky decided to sleep with Lorna knowing that she would freak out afterwards, and if Lorna slept with Nicky because she truly does love and want her or if she did it to push her away. 

Also another tidbit, I forgot to add, is that Nicky treats Lorna differently than anyone else. Nicky has a pattern of treating the women she sleeps with like crap afterwards. Ex. Brook Soso (ignoring her and saying she talks too much), Alex Vause (talking shit about her after she was released), “Hot girl” in episode 8 of season 5 ( not remembering her name) Stella (being an ass to her in Max) proves that to Nicky sex with anyone else other than Morello is simply a distraction from loneliness, or way to mend her broken heart. Whereas sex Morello is more than that and not something she regrets. That is why Nicky was so upset when she found out Lorna got married because she wasn’t just using Vinnie as a distraction, she was claiming to love him, which made Nicky feel like Morello had betrayed her. 

Overall, Nicky and Lorna have a complex relationship, with Lorna’s mental illness (erotomania), her having a heteronormative view on what happiness, and love should look like, and Nicky’s drug addiction, and self destructive patterns. Nicky is a wealthy woman who grew up with a neglectful and emotionally absent mother, and it was one of the contributing factors that led to her heroin addiction. She struggles with remaining clean everyday, as many substance abusers do, and still needs time to recover. Lorna is an “old fashioned” woman who grew up thinking she needed a man to be satisfied, emotionally, and sexually. She most likely suffers from erotomania, and acknowledges that she needs help for her illness but she isn’t getting appropriate care. Overall, if Nicky and Lorna both got professional help for the issues, they would be the perfect couple. However, even with mental illness, and drug addiction, they still love each other very much. ie Nicky’s “I love you so much Lorna” 5.06. and Lorna’s “I Love you too” 3.03. Lorna loves Nicky because she is a real, stable figure in her life. She is her rock, and is the only person who has showed her genuine care. For Lorna this is everything. Along with being mentally ill, she is also incredibly insecure, and believes that no one will ever love her. Nicky proves to her that she is wrong, and that she is a beautiful, sweet person, who can be loved by someone, and she is by Nicky. In return, Nicky loves Lorna because she is one of the very few people in her life that has never wanted anything from her in return. She accepts, and is amused by Nicky’s sarcasm, and up until her relapse in season 4 when she calls her a junkie, addict, liar, Lorna does not judge her for her past drug addiction. She sees Nicky as she is, and they have a light, happy banter with each other. Even though we will need to see a flashback on how Nicky and Lorna met and why Nicky felt she was different, it is safe to say that Lorna did something significant, and meaningful, which is why she fell in love with her. Once Lorna accepts that she does not need a husband, or even children to live a happy fulfilling life, and Nicky is willing to plainly explain that she is in love with her and wants to be more than friends is when they can have successful relationship.

Please feel free to leave your comments 

[vskpop]

July 2017 ⋅  It goes down down baby

Verse 2 - JJ Project

Ever since the return of JJ Project was announced, I’ve listened to their modern classic Bounce quite a lot. I didn’t think for a minute that JB and Jinyoung would go back to that kind of image after the role they have been carving for themselves in GOT7, but it was fun to imagine they would.

Verse 2 reminds me a lot of GOT7’s Fly and the rest of Flight Log: Departure, one of my favourite albums of 2016. At the same time it makes me think of my true JYP darlings, DAY6 - especially Tomorrow, Today; I was quite surprised that they had no credits in the album at all, because a lot of it really sounds like something they would do.

Honestly, what they came out with was exactly what I expected and at the same time beyond my wildest expectations - probably because I was terrified that they would release an album of ballads. Both the Js are incredible vocalists, and they managed to find a compromise between music that could show off their skills and something trendier that still had a connection to GOT7. I think this might be my album of the year so far.

The War - EXO

KoKoBop might be the comeback to finally dethrone Wolf as the worst EXO comeback of all time. Just the concept in itself is so problematic that I really struggle to watch a live performance (let alone the MV) and not think of how much SM messed up this time (more thoughts on the matter here).

Setting aside the controversial elements of the comeback, I thought that the production seemed strangely low-budget for EXO. There was only one music video (a step down from Monster + Lucky One), the styling seemed haphazard, the choreography not as well designed as usual, and even the teasers were just clips from the video (so long, Pathcodes).

I don’t think that KoKoBop was meant for EXO when it was written. The reggae-inspired verse has nothing to do with their musical style, and the EDM breakdown (which is instead very EXO) feels forced into the song. Even after dozens of listens, I can’t see how it relates to the ambiance of the rest of the song.

While there are a ton of catchy EXO singles, they were never as explicitly hook-y with their lyrics as they are with “Shimmy shimmy KoKoBop”, which sounds like it belongs in a NCT song (see “if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” in the recent Cherry Bomb).

All in all, I don’t hate it nearly as much as I thought I would, but it is definitely one of their weakest picks in terms of title songs, and not a very well composed track in general.

KoKoBop is a strange choice in every way. All the other songs on the album are coherent with what EXO did in the past; even the title The War, as ridiculous as it is, fits into the EXO brand - but there is nothing war-like in this comeback. If KoKoBop came with a matching album I would have taken it for what it was, but in this context it sticks out and, to me, it feels like EXO had an entire album planned and changed the title track and the concept last minute.

Literally any song on the album would have been more suitable as a title track; my personal choices would have been Forever, with a soaring chorus that makes me shiver every time, or Going Crazy, aka the song from the Exoluxion VCR.

Since Ex’act was amazing and the repackage Lotto was questionable, I hope that the situation will flip this time, and that the repackage will be everything I wanted from EXO.

Side note: I also hope that in the next few months we will get some clarity regarding Lay’s status within EXO. I know the Christmas single doesn’t count, but he really hasn’t been around for a long time now, THAAD and all.  

The Red Summer - Red Velvet

I don’t think I will ever not be suspicious about a Red Velvet comeback after Rookie and Russian Roulette. I thought I was more of a fan of the red concept comebacks, but at this point I find myself longing for a velvet concept album, even after The Red Summer, which is all in all harmless in comparison to Red Velvet’s previous production.

Red Flavor is a good comeback, as far as I’m concerned: the song is catchy without drilling the hook into the listener’s brain, none of the members is dressed like a preschooler, the lyrics border on nonsensical but aren’t too cringey. I still don’t think that this song gave enough space to the vocalists of the group, but it did confirm my theory that Irene is one of the best, if not the best rapper in SM.

The video was definitely the weakest part of this comeback. Large portions of it seemed to be taken directly from a fruit juice commercial, and the other segments were so mismatched they seemed to have been shot independently by different people and then randomly assembled. The weird fruit interviews, the girls dancing, the mega-random child-costume single shots, the dodgy party - most of these don’t even remotely go together.

As it’s been happening a lot with SM, I find almost all the b-sides more interesting than the title track. You Better Know would have made for a perfect summer single, provided Red Velvet had the chance to look a bit less whimsical and and behave their age. I love Mojito, and I love even more how Zoo echoes Red Velvet’s first single Happiness, but is way weirder.

Even though I enjoyed Red Flavor, I really struggled to enjoy this comeback’s promotion, mostly because of Wendy getting thinner with every performance (really, I double checked).

At the same time, Irene doesn’t even try to hide how much she hates what she was doing; I watched an insane full recording of a music show where she went through the whole performance six times and didn’t smile once (unfortunately it has been removed from Youtube and I can’t find it anywhere else).

I think Red Velvet will always be a weird group, because cute concepts will always be too silly for Irene and mature concepts always too out there for Yeri, but I think that if they went just a smidge more towards the mature side than Red Flavour, they will have something they can work with until the new girl group debuts and Red Velvet disappear into nothingness like f(x).

RAPID FIRE ROUND

Prequel - Dreamcatcher

While the (still really good) title track Fly High might be my least favourite Dreamcatcher song so far, this mini album is incredible. I appreciate so much that they are sticking with the ...metal-pop concept and didn’t just stick some random tracks in the album. Wake Up is a fantastic song that reminded me how much I want a pop-punk concept in k-pop.

 Summer Episode - AKMU

I adore AKMU. They always manage to bring something new to the table; even when they try to incorporate trends in their music, like with the EDM in Dinosaur, they make it fresh and unique to them. The pseudo-Stranger-Things-y video is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen this year.

Jelly - Hotshot

I’m a bit sad that Hotshot didn’t gain the immediate, roaring success that Nu’est did from humiliating themselves on Produce 101. It’s also true that Pledis has significantly different resources than Hotshot’s company, so I will take what I can get and rejoice that they got a decent song for their return to the scene after two years.

MORE SONGS OF NOTE

Forever Young - Bumzu & Han Dong Geun

Be Lazy - DAY6

Hello - Favorite

Sunday - GroovyRoom ft. Heize & Jay Park

Somewhere - GroovyRoom ft. Suran & ph-1

Gucci - Jessi

Hola Hola - KARD

Feel So Good - KNK

Black - Lee Hyori

Puzzle - LOONA Choerry

Newton - Monsta X

Why, You? & Moonwalk - Park Boram

The Star of Stars - Snuper

ABC - VAV

Kiss Me - WJSN

Anti - Zico ft. G.Soul

STRAYS

 I’ve been listening to this song obsessively; can Luhan do anything wrong?

Seventeen have been releasing a bunch of their concert VCRs and they are perfection

I love when Monsta X members put out totally random songs

EXO-CBX and soundtracks: the story continues