#thinking of filling the new void of Problematic Teen Drama with the pll reboot/sequel/whatever it is

[musical-chick-13]

Control Z: the Final Episode™

-Well folks, it’s been a hell of a journey. Thank you to the two people who enjoy hearing me ramble about this show.

-How did it take everyone so long to realize that the art had a QR code?

-Not the point, but Samantha Acuña (Alex) is beautiful. I wish more gay women watched this show. Maybe we’d have an army of Alex apologists instead of Raúl apologists, I’m sorry, I’ll stop mentioning Raúl. Or maybe gay women do watch this show and I’m just weird or something. Wouldn’t be the first time.

-The third or so post down on the forum (because yes, I paused to read the messages) says “Jails are full of people who don’t have money” which...yes, but we do not have time to unpack that here. Because I don’t think this show is the one to tackle classism and the prison-industrial complex through the lens of a trashy teen drama.

-Honestly? So many of these actors are good. Alex, Gerry, Sofía, Javier, Natalia, Isa (moment of silence for the best character to ever grace the show). I hope they get really good work after this; they deserve it.

-”You’re pathetic as a liar” less than a year after he (nearly successfully) lied to her about fucking up the lives of her and her friends and tried to pin the blame on Javier. How is this the Official Ship™ again??

-...Would you look at that. Raúl....APOLOGIZED????!!!!!!!! AND ADMITTED THAT EVERYTHING IS IN SOME WAY HIS FAULT!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!!!??!!!!!!

-Like, this is the barest of bare minimum but. WOW FINALLY IT’S ABOUT FUCKING TIME

-IF WE HAD GOTTEN THIS IN LIKE. IDK. SEASON 1, MAYBE THE SHOW WOULD BE DIFFERENT. BUT I GUESS WE’LL NEVER KNOW.

-NO DON’T TELL ME SOFÍA REJECTS HIS DESIRE TO APOLOGIZE AND THEN JOKES THAT IT’S HER FAULT BECAUSE HE DID IT TO GET CLOSE TO HER. NO. NONONONONONONONONONO. I HATE IT HERE I HATE IT HERE I. HATE. IT. HERE.

-*sigh* Okay, I know everyone’s tired of me hating on this ship, but NO TRAUMATIZED MENTALLY ILL PERSON WOULD ACT LIKE THIS. “Easy things are not worth it” sorry, literally every mentally ill person I’ve ever meant would love for ONE THING in their life to be easy. If there’s an aversion to things that come easily, it’s in the sense of “this seems too good to be true” or “I don’t deserve it.” NO. MENTALLY ILL. PERSON. Would earnestly, uncomplicatedly see prolonged struggle (interpersonal-relationship or otherwise) as an intrinsically good thing. PLEASE TALK TO A MENTALLY ILL PERSON IF YOU’RE GOING TO WRITE ONE IN YOUR STORY.

-Like, honestly, I don’t think I would hate this ship so much if Sofía was not written to be mentally ill. If she were a neurotypical character, it would just be another run-of-the-mill poorly-written m/f romance with a shitty guy, but there’s that dimension there that makes this relationship just...particularly gross. And for those people who have said that Sofía’s mental illness makes her inherently “just as crazy as Raúl is” and that “she’s never going to want to be/is not capable of being in a ‘normal’ or healthy relationship” .....know that I see your ableism and also I hate you. You owe me and every neurodivergent person $100. Just admit you like a “problematic” ship instead of trying to moralize it. It’s fine. You won’t explode.

-And it’s so weird because, despite being a queer girl who wants more non-violent queer characters and has MANY issues with the “closeted bully” archetype, I’ve come to the conclusion that character-arc-wise I do like Gerry. He did the soul-searching, he felt the guilt, he made consistent efforts to curtail his bad behavior, and he took explicit responsibility for what he did. I can tell that he is doing his best to honor Luis’s memory. And even when he was faced with a situation where being outed would put him in danger, he made a different decision. He didn’t go after Bernardo; he went about his life and dedicated himself to moving on. As much as I HATE what Gerry did (and believe me, I hate it a lot), I do genuinely believe he wants to be better, and that he will continue putting in the effort to do so. He’s atoning for his wrongs, rather than just...whatever the fuck the writers are doing with Raúl.

-It’s...the writers and characters seem to understand the seriousness of what Gerry and Natalia and Javier and Alex have done. They punish the characters for it. Their actions have long-term consequences. WHY IS RAÚL THE EXCEPTION TO THIS. I’M SORRY I JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

-It’s so important to me that Javier is the one who believes Gerry that something is up.

-It’s also important to me that Natalia, while a much better person, is still kind of a bitch (affectionate) sometimes.

-Tbh, I appreciate the fact that people don’t trust Sofía due to her continued association with Raúl. I hate that there’s ableism wrapped up in there, which. Again. They should have just...made Sofía a neurotypical person who’s a loner.......

-Okay, Quintanilla turning to Rosita to stall for Sofía’s speech is hilarious.

-”Javier, don’t you care about your cars?” “...They’re my dad’s.” This show is a comedy.

-Ohhh, so the plan is that Susana’s husband will see the video about what happened and attack the kids in retribution. That’s...that’s a lot.

-I’m not sure if the car ride and subsequent rescue attempt were supposed to be funny, but they sure were, lmao.

-(Also: this is the first episode where I felt like all the characters actually acted like teenagers? Their plans were mostly improvised, there was an authentic immaturity to the dialogue, the excuses were half baked, most of them went with the most easily-available solution rather than perhaps the most logical one, I wish we’d had more of this over the course of the show because I really like this.)

-NATALIA WHACKING A GUY OVER THE HEAD TO DEFEND HER BOYFRIEND FROM DEADLY PHYSICAL VIOLENCE THAT’S MY DAUGHTER GOOD FOR HER

-Also, that happening while Javier’s dad was giving a speech about “not letting anything get in the way of you and your dreams.” Like...is the implication that Javier’s and Natalia’s “dream” is being with each other? Because that’s kind of stupid but also. Awwww.

-Just following a Head Person, huh? IS IT MARÍA. IS IT HER. THAT’S BEEN MY CRACK THEORY THE WHOLE TIME BECAUSE NO BODY MEANS SHE’S NOT DEAD RIGHT. SHE GOT DRAGGED DOWN BY GUILT AND GRIEF AND DID ALL THIS RIGHT. SHE’S NOT DEAD RIGHT. RIGHT.

-...Oh, it was just Bruno lying about not having control over the group the whole time. That’s disappointing.

-Sofía talking about love while a scene of Javier and Natalia is happening, I Am Not Immune To Teen Drama Romance.

-OOH, THAT SHOT OF SUSANA’S BLOOD TURNING INTO THE BEACH WHERE MARÍA WAS, THAT WAS GOOD CAMERA WORK

-I...wait. Is...Is the show going to end with them all going to law enforcement and turning themselves in for Susana’s death???

-That’s...that’s a bold move. (Complimentary.) Like. I feel so many shows just...have this idea that “Oh, even though the protagonist(s) did this horrible thing, it’s not actually horrible because it was done by the protagonist(s).” These kids fucked up. I love (most of) them, but they fucked up. And they need to be held accountable for fucking up. I...genuinely cannot believe the narrative is acknowledging that.

-Sofía straight up told the truth DURING HER GRADUATION SPEECH, honestly, good for you show. I support that writing decision.

-And Natalia reaching for Alex’s hand, to signify that she’s part of the team again, FINALLY SOME SYMPATHY FOR MY GIRL.

-JAVIER’S DAD IN JAIL JAVIER’S DAD IN JAIL JAVIER’S DAD IN JAIL OH, LIFE IS GOOD

-So did they all have a few months of community service? Because they were all minors at the time and it was an accident and we don’t actually know who was responsible to what degree? I don’t know enough about law to say for sure, but that sounds fairly realistic? And I think the point is to show that however terrible you think facing up to your own misdeeds is, it will never be as bad as you think it will. Because even if you avoid punishment, the worst-case scenario is avoiding your mistakes and not allowing yourself to grow because they take over you. Which, again, is kind of an uncommon message for shows like this, so genuine kudos them for that.

-Aww, Sofía and Javier are still friends!! I’m glad to see it. Their relationship was an integral part of the show, and although I agree they shouldn’t be together romantically, it would have been a shame for that to drop off completely.

-(EDIT: I realized that Sofía never says she loves Raúl onscreen, or vice versa. Gerry never expresses a statement romantic love, Luis is mentioned as being in love with Gerry, but never actually says it, and Javier and Natalia, though a scene of them plays while Sofía is talking about love, they never actually say it. (I know Natalia says “Te quiero,” which the subtitles translate as “I love you” but it has a different meaning than “Te amo,” which is more in line with what the English equivalent of a declaration of romantic love is.) I can’t remember if Alex ever says she loves Gaby, and I don’t care enough to go back and look. Claudia says she and her theatre teacher are “in love,” but she never tells him that she loves him. The only direct, face-to-face declarations of love we get are platonic: Darío and Ernesto at the beginning of season 2, and Sofía and Javier-who have settled into a completely platonic relationship-at the end of the show. Friendships are the only love between the teens that get expressed specifically, and I think that’s neat.)

-JOURNALIST SOFÍA!!!!

-WAIT WAS IT ACTUALLY RAÚL THE WHOLE TIME LIKE I SAID EARLIER I PROMISE I WILL GIVE THIS SHOW ALL MY MONEY IF IT IS

-.......dang it. Why can’t I have nice things. *sigh* I hate it here. Would have been a much better ending if Javier’s conclusion was actually right and Sofía was like “wtf Raúl, die in a ditch.”

-I do appreciate platonic declarations of love, though. And obviously Natalia and Raúl (wow, his one redeeming quality) aren’t jealous of Sofía and Javier getting coffee to catch up.

-*a million disgruntled sighs* Sofía/Raúl endgame -_- Which, yeah, I expected, but I’m still mad. I just...I don’t get this relationship. If she doesn’t care what he did, then why did she expose him in season 1 in the first place? Either she thinks his behavior is despicable or she doesn’t.

-So I guess María really is dead. :/ That’s horrible, actually. If you wanted an ACTUAL corruption arc involving a depressed girl, the potential for one was RIGHT THERE. But alas.

-Maybe I should just write my own teen drama show, lmao.

-Tbh, though. I am glad that this season was mainly about all the shit the main cast has pulled coming back to haunt them, and for the main conflict arising from the fact that they never actually got held accountable due to Main Character Syndrome. Although I do think Raúl still suffers from Too Easily Forgiven Because Conventionally Attractive Pale-Skinned Bad Boy Archetype.

-I like the ending song. Going to add it to a playlist. I did that more than once this season, whoever was in charge of the season 3 soundtrack popped off.

-All in all: Season 1 was the show at it’s best, but season 3 was pretty great, too. Season 2 was in many ways trash aside from giving me Javier/Natalia. Team Javier/Natalia. Team Raúl/death. Gerry grew on me, so good for him. María being Dead For Real is bullshit, actually. I’m not going to say I recommend this show, exactly, but I sure as hell do enjoy it.

-I guess I have to find something else to liveblog about for my Brand™, now. I can’t believe it’s over! Don’t forget to drink your daily dose of Hating Raúl Juice! If I leave one legacy during my life, let it be that. :)