Update 9/22/16: This was the episode Tatiana used as her Emmy submission and won with.
So my fave ship from Season 1 is finally reunited. Propane (Rachel x Windows), how I've missed thee. Never part again.
And, of course, if something is given, something has to be taken away, so apparently this is goodbye to my dear Beth. I have to say that this season's Beth arc was easily one of my favorite things that has happened on this show. It gave this show the much needed boost it needed after last season's Castor debacle. Sarah seeing Beth again while on the bridge near the train station broke me. When Beth said "We need you." I almost lost it.
The main two questions I need answered now are: Where the hell is Helena? I can understand why she left, but that doesn't explain why we haven't seen her. The woman is pregnant with twins and I need to know she's okay. And of course, is Delphine alive or not? It's been 7 episodes since she was shot and all we know is that Krystal saw someone pick her up and she was still alive at that time. If she is alive, I bet she shows up in the last seconds of the season finale or Cosima gets some phone call from her at the end of the episode.
This season is jockeying back and forth with Season 1 in the favorite season department. Actually, I think when the season is over, I'm going to watch Season 1 and Season 4 back to back.
It breaks my heart that Eric wasn’t able to move forward in life like Claire was. Really wish he could’ve healed but this is the reality of being taken advantage of at such a young age. I know this is how it usually happens in life - the predator moves on with their life, while the victim is left trying to clean the mess someone else made.
Eric was right – Claire just wanted to see him because she wanted him to forgive her so she wouldn’t have to carry around the guilt anymore. Ten years later, and she was still convinced that their relationship started because of Eric kissing her. But she set the stage for everything that happened. Claire was obsessed with Eric from the very beginning, she flirted with him and then acted surprised that a 17 years old boy would act on that flirtation.
It’s quite sad how many people don’t see the layers of toxicity this show presents. That's because of 3 reasons in my opinion:
The biggest problem is that actors look their age, Nick Robinson (25) and Kate Mara (37) look like two hot adults who can be in a relationship if they want to. If the show could have used an actual 17 year old, maybe less people would question if what Claire did was wrong.
The teen is male, so for many people it's super cool that he had sex with the hot teacher. But would these people feel the same if it was a 30-something male teacher and his 17-year-old female student? Probably not, right? So, it's no different with the sexes reversed.
The show spends more time on the sex scenes between the two main characters, instead of showing how Claire took advantage of the young kid and what that did to him. I’d love to have seen where Eric goes after their relationship. See if he raised a family. See him in therapy. But this show lacked context entirely.
Grooming is not black or white, it doesn’t seem wrong all of the time (even when it is). But I can’t with people being like, “The age of consent in Texas is 17” or “Eric wanted it”. Adults can manipulate teens in doing all kind of things because teens are dumb while thinking they are the smartest people on Earth (Eric thought “he is the man” for sleeping with the teacher). It doesn’t matter if he was not forced into it because Claire groomed and manipulated him for her own pleasure (she was a broken adult who took a 17 year old boy down with her).
Eric was too young and was not mentally prepared to handle a relationship with an adult with 10-15 more years of relationship experience. Younger people are easier to control, won't say no/defend themselves. And we saw that in the show Claire was the one with the power – she decided where and when they meet, even their relationship got public because she wanted to brag about her sexcapades. And in the end, Claire was like, “And now being a mother...” during their last meet (which for me is the female version of the, “As a father of daughters I'm still learning”) because no parent would want their kid to be groomed by a teacher, even if their kid had just reached the age of consent. Things can be morally and ethically wrong without crossing the boundary into illegality.
Oh, and the wigs in this episode were shockingly bad. :no_mouth:
Reading all the comments is depressing. This show is not about drama or being interesting to watch. It is about making a comment on society.
The build up was obviously to get us attached and interested in the characters. Maybe even make us question if this kind of "relationship" is OK. They made it purposely vague by making him right at the edge of the age of consent.
Climax was obviously when Claire gets caught. We are now at the point where they are exploring the consequences of this kind of trauma. The point of the time jump is because sometimes you don't always realize the effects of the trauma until much later, especially when the trauma occurred when you are young. We are seeing Nick be glorified and focused on because of his trauma because unfortunately society does not look at it as a trauma, hence why they made this show to begin with. He is OBVIOUSLY struggling and being re-traumatized over and over. He doesn't actually miss her, its a form of a trauma bond. He needs to talk to someone but he also needs to be ready to talk to someone. I'm just hoping he is ready before he gets hurt more severely.
And everyone out there thinking he is loyal, envious of him, or thinking this show is boring is obviously missing the point of this entire show.
