Honestly that Niall/Mona dynamic goes CRAZY for me. People were like "omg he is such a villain and dick to her" and they're not wrong but she is also a legitimately shitty person AND imperfect victim x2 and I adore her for that.
(Like, it must be addressed that girl had a fully willing and active role in molesting Niall with Ruben back in ep1, but at the end of the day they were all kids and not one of them conceptualized it that way and that's kinda On Society more than anything. Can't stay mad at her for it! It's not like that's why he hates her! A truth captured horribly well in this series is sometimes trauma happens without the traumatizer even really knowing what they did.)
Idk, I love their weird sisterwife shit! Love her calling Ruben "our boy" to him and whatever nonverbalized Thing was going on there. Love the shared understanding and semi-sincere pity that curdles so *instantly* into blame and resentment. Love that they arguably have the Worst Sex in a show that is chock full of really bad sex and then look at each other like a shot out of a horror movie. Love that the circumstances actively mirror Alby in the trashed apartment in ep2 'cause time is a flat circle.
Love that he shows up at her house like "that meant nothing we're gonna put this behind us" and she's like "you're right we should put this behind us š" and he immediately gets pissy that she's agreeing with him and not stressed out about it. Love when he makes the insane leap of trying to shame her like "omg but you slept with his brother" and she has to go YOU ARE THE BROTHER, wtf are you judging me about?!?
Love that "it's not gay sex if you don't fall in love" and "it's not cheating if your novel is just really really good" are two ideas that have coexisted in Niall Kennedy's brain. Love that him being gay and smol and crying every 10 minutes does not stop their whole relationship from being nice-guy⢠misogyny poisoned.
Love when he tells her to stop drinking and take care of her kid while he's on cocaine and not taking care of his kid! Love how she talks about Baird needing a Masculine Figure in his life even if (or because) it's the guy who keeps putting people in comas and Niall is halfheartedly like well what about me and she's like what ABOUT you lmao. Love that they got into a loud ass argument about their bastard child AT A FUNERAL with their faces 3 inches from each other and it was the least heterosexual thing to ever happen.
Love that somewhere in both of their lizard brains, they keep circling around and back to a single, mutual, implicit threat that is at its core: Do you know how fast I could get Ruben to kill you. š















