#anyway i'll be sure to keep a close eye on julia in future episodes

[youraveragecatastrophe]

The fucking. carulia in this episode. Carmen wanted to talk to Julia!! She is uncharacteristically serious because the situation is too, hence the absence of flirting and the going straight to the point, but she still seeks her out. Julia, however, doesn’t know about the “many innocent lives at stake”. She still has their last interaction in Milan in mind, and she’s thrilled at the chance of talking! In the town hall, she’s so eager to show Carmen she has figured her out - she’s almost playful flirty, trying to find out what Carmen is in Stockholm for.

And Carmen is tense and guarded, more than she’s ever been with Julia- just compare her attitude here to the one she had in Milan. She keeps the communicator, but she knows and trusts Julia enough to know she can talk to her frankly. She knows she can trust her more than the rest of ACME.

And then she thinks Julia ratted her out.

Their first shot at an open conversation, knowing each other’s identities, and it immediately falls apart. And Julia was so sure she could get Carmen on board. She understood her motives, she had Chief’s OK, of course everything would work out. Going in, she wanted for this to work equally for Carmen and for Chief (see “You can’t let Chief or Carmen down”). Julia wanted so bad for this mission to go well, to prove herself worthy of Carmen’s trust, and it blew up in both of their faces.

And don’t get me started on that look they share at the end of the episode. Fuck. Julia doesn’t even try to explain to Carmen what happened. Does she feel guilty for Carmen’s state? Does she think she doesn’t want to hear her apologies? That she won’t want to speak to Julia after that?