Thinking about this scene where Ashley went on a date only to be a no-show. It's not dramatic or traumatic or tense. It's not a groundbreaking moment, nothing big is revealed. It's quiet and reflective.
We just spent the previous minute with Andrew going into Girl Dad Mode about to rescue his oh-so-innocent sister daughter from the guy with the douchiest hat in the world, only for that fantasy to be dashed by Ashley not following expectations. She ditched the guy before the date even started. She only agreed to it because her "friends" (she put friends in quotes) talk about boys all the time. She's not sad because her feelings were hurt, or that she feels guilty for ditching. She's sad because...I don't think she even knows why.
It also goes against a lot of presumptions about Ashley shared around. Folks imagined that if other guys have been interested a few thing would happen:
1 - Andrew would immediately put up a barrier before they even had a chance as the "protective" older brother/dad figure. This part's absolutely true, but here we see a scenario where Ashley didn't need to be protected. This goes completely against how Andrew often views Ashley as both defenseless and unable to make her own decisions without screwing up, especially in their current predicament where Ashley's hanging with the yarn ball demon.
2 - Ashley isn't interested in other men or anyone else for that matter, only Andrew, so she'd just off highhandedly refuse anyone else's pursuits or not even register them flirting. While she wasn't interested in the boy himself, she was genuinely trying to impress her friends by going out with one. And it didn't involve Andrew at all.
I think we forget that before the pandemic Ashley did try to be with other people. While Andrew wants to be liked by others for convenience and maintaining normalcy, Ashley wanted to be liked because she's lonely. She doesn't necessarily like them, but she prefers being with them over being alone.
We see Renee in Andrew's nightmares and flashbacks constantly telling him that he's all Ashley has, that no one else will care for Ashley like he does, and how this warped Andrew's feelings into only being able to love Ashley. But in this scene I think we see how this affected Ashley's own mindset. Because just as Andrew was told no one would care for her except him, so was Ashley. And this lead to her being unable to truly connect with anyone else, just like him. She tried to go on a date to impress her friends, but couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't care enough, and it upsets her.
While Andrew fought back against the feeling he could only ever be with Ashley tooth and nail due to his lovesickness, I think Ashley had already quietly accepted that she can't truly connect with anyone other than Andrew by this point. She just kept trying to have friends because she was aware she couldn't be with him all the time.
And then her so-called friends abandoned her to starve just like her parents, and Andrew was the only one left. Renee said that Andrew's the only one who could care for Ashley, and the world proved her right.
I don't know, unfortunately my brains currently frying in a heat wave so I feel like I'm not fully articulating why this scene is so impactful. So here's the baton, discuss how you saw this scene.
