#djh

- honestly i know unrequited crushes suck but it’s hard to feel that bad for joey when i’m pretty sure steph has expressed disinterest and said no multiple times this point. though i don’t think the writers Quite intended this, which is part of why i’m willing to cut him Some slack, his behavior in this day and age would probably be called out as harassment.

- man i still am having a hard time being on voula’s side in this whole conflict. i think it would be one thing if there had been a long history established/implied of stephanie not treating her well/taking voula for granted, but there’s not—in that first episode, the major emphasis is put on how new stephanie’s behavior is. and even then, the meanest thing she did was not thank voula for her help with the campaign, which she’s tried to apologize for. voula didn’t want to hear it, which is her prerogative, but makes it hard to empathize when she reacts to anything stephanie says to her with vitriol. so far stephanie’s worst crimes have just… not actually been that bad. she doesn’t have to forgive stephanie or be her friend if she doesn’t want but her reactions to stephanie reaching out just feel really disproportionate.

- frankly i feel like arthur has way more of a right to be upset with her lmao. literally pretending he’s not her brother and getting mad when he doesn’t comply is way worse than anything else she’s done imo. that being said “grade sevens are people too” “debatable” is jshshsh great dialogue.

- i have never understood these ‘comedic’ plots where boys watch porn together. is that an actual thing people do? it feels more like a trope playing into the idea that boys are constantly sex-crazed, often with a splash of “no homo” thrown in there, but in reality i think most people (especially as kids?) would find it awkward.

- awww i do like that voula hears the rumor and is genuinely concerned about stephanie enough to ask her about it. and i really feel for stephanie? she really wants this boy to like her and thinks she messed up so, like, owes it to him now — which is not at all true and voula is right to check in with whether it’s what she really wants, but it’s a very realistic mindset for an insecure teenage girl.

- being concerned that your daughter might be planning to have sex too young/for the wrong reasons is understandable but saying your daughter looks like a tramp for how she’s dressing Absolutely Isn’t.

- i do like that they showed that wheels was also unsure whether he was ready to be having for sex and that the show doesn’t just treat that like it’s a given because he’s a boy, even if most of the other characters do (which is definitely compounding the pressure he feels.)

- interestingly, i thought wheels’ father’s approach to talking to him was much better than stephanie’s mom’s. without sounding too judgmental or condescending, he still took it seriously when wheels brought up the idea of having sex, explained that there were responsibilities involved, and let him know that he thought he was too young to be having sex. while i don’t think steph’s mom’s approach of handing out literature, for instance, was inherently bad, it seems like she came down really hard on stephanie (though we don’t see the conversation.) stephanie says it felt like her mom was acting as though she murdered someone. while i think it’s understandable to be angry and concerned when your kid is lying to you, i also think as a parent it is your responsibility to try to make sure they feel safe and like they won’t be judged when they’re honest with you and to really examine why they might not feel comfortable telling you the truth. and treating it like stephanie was doing something moraly wrong for potentially being interested in sex does not set up a healthy mindset it.

- though i’m not quite sure what the smile at the end is meant to convey, i like that stephanie didn’t answer/left it ambiguous when voula asks if she really would have gone through with sleeping with wheels on their date. she admits she didn’t want to but they purposely leave the question open-ended and as sad as it is, i think it’s realistic/makes a lot of sense that stephanie herself might not know the answer to that question.