i wanted to post about this last night but it was so late & i was too sleepy to say anything coherent (no promises that this will be actually coherent)
but i wanted to clarify that the reason i was so happy about jester taking the flask wasnt because i thought it was a Good Idea, or that it would somehow cure notts alcoholism or in fact fix it in any way. but it was, finally, SOMEONE doing SOMETHING.
jester has been the only one so far to treat notts alcoholism as anything but a joke. shes been quietly worried over it for some time, but the past couple episodes you can see her concern growing as nott doubles down on the drinking and the alcohol induced recklessness. i mean, nott REALLY could have gotten ALL OF THEM killed this week with that fireball trap.
so jester sees the drinking is going too far. she knows something needs to be done but we know shes not going to confront anyone about a problem like this and risk them getting mad at her, not liking her anymore. the other party members that are more willing to have these Hard Talks arent stepping up. and its not like jester has any experience dealing with addiction. so she tries to fix it the only way she knows how, which makes sense from her perspective, which is to take the problem away.
once again, not a smart/good way to deal with it, but you can see why she did it, and that it came from a place of compassion and a genuine desire to help. and, to be fair, jester just recently saw nott doing fairly well without drinking at all! jester knows she can be fine without it, shes witnessed it, why would it be any different this time?
(the difference being, obviously, that last time nott quit of her own free will and this time the choice was robbed from her)
which also brings me to caleb? of anyone he has the least excuse for letting this go on and continuing to enable nott, right? i mean it makes sense in the beginning. the whole time shes been clearly using it to cope with her anxiety and the two of them being constantly on the run didnt facilitate anything besides that short term solution. it wasnt a great situation but it made sense.
but now theyve got a support system, theyve got safety in numbers, theyve had multiple instances of downtime where the subject could have been brought up. but caleb, like everyone else, ignores it as an actual problem. he even encourages her to drink at times. whats his deal?
i genuinely dont understand what his plan is with making a point to go buy her liquor (and attempting to buy LOTS of liquor) and then.... keeping it from her? it would make sense if the idea was to have some to tide her over until they get to a safe stopping point where they could address the issue properly, or use what he bought to try and wean her off of it, just in general a temporary solution until they are maybe back at the xhorhaus or something and can dedicate the appropriate time and attention to this. but he just? bought it and didnt tell anyone? whats the plan caleb?
same with fjord! while im here im gonna call his bullshit too! what was the point of buying the whiskey in front of her in order to just, make a point to not let her have it? what purpose does that serve? what could that possibly do but make the problem worse? ik he and nott have a bit of an antagonistic relationship atm but damn fjord that is very wis 7 of you
this is getting off track but my main point is that this has been a long standing issue that the whole party has been turning a blind eye to for a long time. even now, with jester finally doing something to draw their attention to it, they were still fairly dismissive of notts freakout when the flask turned up missing. the whole party needs to step up their game in supporting her! which includes tough love where necessary!
i think its a step in the right direction that jester has finally done SOMETHING about it, even if its not really the right way to deal with it. this could be a great jumping off point for them to actually start working on this to make a positive impact in the future, given that they finally start taking it seriously.
i just worry about the eventual fallout when nott inevitably learns it was jester that stole the flask....