you, me, jim

I love your takes and your opinions very much and wanted to ask: what do you think about tabitha and jim’s relationship? As in: after getting to fromville, do you think they’d get divorced? Like they always had this vibe of couple about to get divorced and i think they loved each other very much but just not enough (even if tabby said that he was ‘her person’). Anyway, i know you love the throuple and the potential is delicious tbh, but do you prefer tabitha with jim or with jade?? 👀👀👀

Hi thank you for the ask!! I will be honest, words cannot describe how pro-Jade and Tabitha I am. I call the ship JadeTabby out of habit because I had been shipping them for years (since season ONE) all by myself under that ship name. I had both mutuals and anons asking me to reconsider shipping them before it became clear that the show was going for it at which point a lot more people progressively joined (second half of S3) and it became "safe" to ship it without receiving hate, because I'm guessing people who were that opposed to the ship as to send multiple long anon hate messages per day probably stopped watching or gave up on the ship war with the past lives revelation at the end of S3.

In any case, my understanding:

In seasons 1-3 Tabitha had to fight to get out of Jim's control and take the lead in solving the mystery of the town. Eventually Jim came around and became supportive, but that was only possible because Jade intervened in support of Tabitha first, giving her leverage in the relationship with Jim and encouraging her to grow more secure in herself and in her ability to solve the mystery. Heartbreakingly enough, the cost of this was Jim's own life. Knowing what we know now, I don't see how things could have turned any other way. We know from the first few episodes that Jim and Tabitha had already decided to get divorced at Tabitha's request (interestingly enough this wasn't so in the original script for the pilot episode, which also didn't have Jade* - Jade and the divorce plotline were introduced together, hah). I think Jim and Tabitha were likely happy together until their baby, Thomas, died, but it was still a pretty unequal relationship, as any standard nuclear family with a "breadwinner" husband and a stay at home wife will be (specially with a white husband and nonwhite wife - you can see how the heritage from their mom's side is practically absent in the kids, hell during S1 before she stepped out of Jim's influence many fans thought Tabitha was also meant to be white). In the scenes where they get along, you can see they have a deep love for each other and a lot of chemistry, but there are so many scenes where they don't get along, and they all skew in the direction of being terrifying for Tabitha as her husband tries to apply more and more "gentle, loving" control over her to stop her from pursuing a solution to the mystery and from leaving him. Since this situation was only fixed by the inclusion of Jade as a counterpoint to Jim in the dynamic, I don't think the relationship between Jim and Tabitha is viable on its own.

But will the relationship between Jade and Tabitha be viable on its own? What kind of life would they build together if they managed to escape the town? Would Tabitha even want to be with anyone romantically after all that happened? That still remains to be seen. Jim's death (as a punishment for their actions, no less) was understandably heavily traumatic for Tabitha and now colors any interactions between the two of them. To actually get together with Jade of all people would likely feel to Tabitha like an extreme betrayal towards Jim and her children, unless maybe Jim was able to somehow give his blessing (which he already sort-of did towards the end of S3 when he admitted Jade was the one possibly equipped to protect his family - but obviously, these are two different things). I want to believe Jim is the kitchen poltergeist and that he is still trying to protect his family in any way he can. I also want to believe they will manage to bring him back in some form. It would be really funny if even after all that Tabitha thought about it and still decided to go through with the divorce. Hashtag feminism.

Needless to say, I am super intrigued to see how they handle this plotline to its resolution in S5, honestly given it's a horror show I hope whatever happens continues to be weird and unforgettable, my ideal ending would be somehow happy for the three of them and the kids but also "was that fucked up or what?" at the same time, haha.

- clara twist: okay sure we'll go with that. could it have been planned from the beginning? i'm trying to remember all the clara scenes. she's always been optimistic that they're going home and uplifting to the others, so it holds, even though it's sad that this was the reason for that belief. i'm glad clara's actress got some scenes to shine in, i think she's amazing, i'm always happy to see more clara

- sophia: i feel bad that i don't really dig sophia all that much, maybe because she and the MiY don't really feel like the same person to me even when she's alone and making the evil expressions, i guess for me it's not hitting, but i can accept it, i hope for others it's hitting because i really like the concept of the plotline

- jadetabby: we have never been so back. the hands. the "you are lucky". the way they work so well together. writers, please don't take them away from us again

- the bones: i had such little faith i need to be bonked, i thought digging up the bones would be the final sequence of the season, so we get a whole episode post-bones to see how it all turns out. nefarious sophie with the ladder, i can see tabitha going up first and then it breaks for jade, or if i get my wish it breaks for tabitha a few steps in and jade catches her when she falls and they're holding on to each other for at least some moments. if it breaks for both i believe they will find way out, if it breaks only for jade i will start sweating... if jim was there he would've snapped a safety harness on them which im sure sophia wouldve also sabotaged but welp

- the children: ok so we have the "free the children that are trapped in the tower" thing but the bones are in the caves, so the question would be, in what way are they "in" the tower, and what is exactly the tower, at this point i think the show confirmed the lighthouse is the tower so maybe that's where all the "souls" of the dead are kept trapped and screaming which marielle hears, and freeing them might mean the christian understanding of going to heaven if the show ends up being christian but it might also mean they are free to roam the place and "live" there if they want, like when the children show up to communicate with tabitha but permanently

- the miy: the thing about being only able to take the shape of the people who died there, i wonder if he will take the shape of someone we know eventually. elgin... elgin my beloved... he reminds me so much of my dear friend who is so pure of heart he would do exactly that with the picture. i think he is deads, i would think maybe sophia will take his form but then everyone would be asking where did sophia go so maybe she will stay sophia through and through. i kind of want to see other actors try to do their version of MiY so i hope he takes more shapes just for the fun of it

- police brutality: too realistic and kenny tapping his gun as he ran to join boyd, i felt so awful there... im actually glad they did a scene like this because i think it's better than having soldier/cop main character but pretend like the problems with army/police from irl magically don't apply to him, hurts as fuck to see victor like that though, and i have no idea what's going to happen with the tree, i have no idea who is in the right here ultimately about what will work, i have no idea what season 5 will be about

(spoiler warning)