The Devil and the deep blue sea

We spent eight years getting a redemption arc teased for Nick, only to finally find out - definitively - that he's team Gilead all the way.

He could have turned around! He'd made such progress! That's what makes it so tragic.

I guess it just goes to show that the "nice guys" are capable of committing the greatest acts of evil. I both applaud and hate the writers for this because yes, they've played the long game with this character and it's devastating - especially so to have June standing right next to him when she finds out what he did - but they've also written themselves into a corner.

We've been given hints - some subtle, some less so - about sapphic Eloise for four years. Hell, we got more "Eloise might be a lesbian!" articles this season than ever before thanks to her closeness with Cressida. The groundwork has been laid for three seasons, the hints have been dropped, and with the Cressida "friendship" (which is giving "and they were roommates!") AND bisexual Benedict confirmed canon, it seemed like maybe now was the time to get her wlw storyline that the show has been teasing since the pilot on the road.

And instead of doing anything with that, which was out there on a silver platter for the writers to work with, they introduced a whole new, totally canon-divergent plotline with no warning, in the last five minutes of the season.

Let's be so for real; they're probably not going to make THREE of the siblings queer. Meaning it is highly unlikely that we'll ever get to see a sapphic Eloise. And if that's the case, why tease it? Why all the PR articles talking about it and interviews with Claudia Jessie where she's like "hmm, maybe" if they're not going to do anything with it? That feels a little queer-baity. They've been teasing for years, and this is the third season in a row where they've done nothing with it. If they continue to do nothing with it and don't make our girl El a little fruity, then that'll feel like a betrayal. Don't hint at stuff you don't intend to explore further.

Bi Benedict made total sense. All the signs were there. It tracked. Sapphic Eloise would make total sense. This??? I mean, yay for rainbow representation on the tea party dancing show, but shoehorning Michaela into the very last few minutes of the show while again doing nothing to act on any of the El queer hints feels... well, it feels like a bait and switch. With so much PR and so many articles and videos and speculation about Eloise being a lesbian this season, that was a big part of what lured me in. We kept getting "Eloise might be gay" and "looks like there's an LGBT character this season!!!" teasers back-to-back. They 100% knew what they were doing with that. So, to then be given Michaela is like "oh... umm, okay." It's great, but it's not what was teased at all and so that is disappointing.

But if I, a sapphic, claim it is disappointing, I am called homophobic. Can't win out here.

There was also no reason to introduce Michaela so early, unless the writers were setting that up to be THE wlw storyline among the Bridgertons.

And that is what is pissing me off. Like, we know that you were drawn in by our hints at an LGBT love story, and we know that a bunch of the teasers and PR we put in front of you made it seem like that would be Eloise. But we're not doing that, actually. Here's something we just pulled out of our asses with minimal to no foreshadowing instead. Happy pride. uWu🌸

Can you blame me for feeling a little led astray by that?