Loveday Writing

While the reactions are initially negative, especially when her frenemy, Nina, comments that she is just looking for attention, Roxy gets an invitation from the producers of a sports show, GameZone, to tell her story. Tim then comes over and Julia apologises to him for not telling him about Edie and Amanda. He then confides in her that he joined a dating app but doesn’t know what he’s doing. When Julia mentions trying to find out more about her biological father, Tim offers to help her by getting an investigator who owes him a favour to do a search via DNA matches.

At Leon’s encouragement, Edie reviews Miles’ case after he reveals that he was sent to prison after being subjected to a trumped up drug charge after getting coke with his friends, who threw him under the bus when they were caught by the police. She later reveals to Leon that she fell in love with the concept of blind justice, only to find out how rigged the justice system is when she got her first clerk job, and decided that if the system is already rigged, she might as well make money off it by getting a high-paying job at prestigious law firm. She also tells him that she thinks she can do something meaningful for Miles.

Whilst she is dealing with Leon and Miles, Edie is also exploring her sexuality, as well as lesbianism in general, by her attempted flirtation with Skylar. When Edie admits to Skylar that she is exploring her sexuality and her place in the lesbian world at Amanda’s request, Skylar invites her to a kickball game to meet some of her friends and teammates. When Edie goes to the game, she lets loose and has fun, but quickly learns how unfamiliar the territory is for her. When Edie aggressively kisses Skylar when they have drinks with her kickball team, she apologises and Skylar tells her that what Amanda is asking of her is not a lesbian thing, it’s an insecure thing.

Later, when Edie goes back to Amanda’s apartment and she tells her about her experience with Skylar, Amanda tells her that the idea for Edie to experiment came from Margaret. Edie thinks Margaret made the suggestion to hold onto her. Edie also tells her that she would have been more receptive to experimenting if she knew where she was coming from and leaves.

Meanwhile, when Roxy goes to GameZone she finds Nina there as well. The show’s host, Marty, tells her that they have to present two sides of the story, so of course, Nina is there to frame Roxy as a lying, attention seeking, drug addict. Roxy predictability loses it and threatens her on air. When Roxy gets home and asks Julia to show her the social media response to her GameZone appearance, they end up fighting over the phone, a fight which ends with Julia throwing Roxy’s phone in the toilet.

Later, Roxy goes to see Nina outside her gym, and Nina apologises to her but also tells her that she can’t come forward, despite Roxy’s best efforts to convince her that doing so would protect the young girls that are currently training with him. Later when Roxy confronts Nick at his home and asks for an apology, he refuses but admits to what he’s done, and tells her to leave or he’ll call the police.

Meanwhile, Donovan comes to see Julia at work, thinking that she’s been ghosting him, only for her to tell him that she sent him texts that he never responded to. This makes him realise that Olivia blocked her phone number so he wouldn’t see the messages. They go out to dinner later, only for the date to end early because Olivia keeps texting and then calling Donovan because Luke is apparently sick from eating too much junk food.

Later, Tim tells Julia that his investigator comes through for him, finding a cousin of Sarah’s, Patty Fletcher. Patty tells Julia that Sarah was on the cusp of becoming a professional dancer, but she stopped once she married Leon, and that Sarah shrunk herself to fit into his world. Afterwards, when Julia goes to see Leon and tells him about her meeting with Patty, he says that he found her to be pretentious. However, he also says that Sarah had a world that he was never a part of and she was always different when she came home from the dancing studio.

Later, Julia goes to see Donovan and tells him that she wants to talk to Olivia. She tells Olivia about losing her mother and its subsequent affects, which appears to get through to her as we see Olivia tearing up. However Olivia dismisses her, pointing out that their grief is not the same, as her mother died recently and she’s a teenager, which admittedly is a fair point. Afterwards, Julia talks to Donovan and tells him that Olivia and Luke are clearly not ready for him to date someone else and breaks up with him.

The episode ends with Edie, Julia and Roxy at the diner. Julia gives Roxy a new phone with her old SD card saved. When Julia turns on the phone for her, it immediately goes off with multiple social media notifications. When Julia looks at the social media responses, it’s revealed that the tide has turned in her favour, with Nina and Natalie publicly supporting her.

The final moments of the episode shows Roxy out running, with voiceovers of women thanking her for going public, which encouraged them to do the same.

Overall, I felt that this was a solid episode with a good combination of humorous and serious moments. Edie’s subplot contained a lot of humour and also showed a fun and vulnerable side to her, which I appreciated. I also appreciated the seriousness of Roxy’s subplot, showing almost all aspects of going public, from internet trolls not believing her, to being ambushed on television, to the tide turning and eventually getting the support she deserved. Julia’s subplot raised more questions about Sarah and Leon’s relationship, as well as who Sarah was as a person. Julia’s breakup with Donovan wasn’t really that surprising as their story arc has been heading in that direction for a while.

Stray Observations:

–Tim joins the same dating app that Julia used, Footsie.

-Edie’s favourite colour is green.

-Roxy tells Julia and Tim that Patty Fletcher sounds like the name of a librarian with a bunch of cats. When Julia visits Patty, she is revealed to be a cat lover.

-According to Patty, Sarah got a tattoo and regretted it.

-It’s revealed that when Roxy and Nick “dated” she was 16 and he was 27.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “I have been challenged to try a hemp milk latte.” (Edie to Skylar)
• “I am getting my lesbian PhD to prove to my girlfriend that I know what I want.” (Edie to Julia)
• “How am I supposed to find love by answering questions about guacamole?” (Tim to Julia on dating apps)
• “How do you feel about floating candles?” “If they don’t float, what’s the point really?” (Julia-Donovan on the restaurant Julia suggests they go to)