#obx analysis

john b is supposedly loved by the cut but we barely see him interact with pogues outside of his friends and family (and barry and his teacher). show us him being a helper yk? maybe he’s known for his kindness or the way he stands up for people.

jj seems to be more of the cut’s IT boy. he knows everyone, has so many resources, and the courthouse riot speaks for itself. maybe he gives them hope, makes them believe that things could get better, lights the fire in them idk.

barry’s worked every job in the cut so he’s well known he’s probably got a long ass list of clients. rafe runs drugs for him but i know he’s not the only one, he’s probably his only kook runner but he definitely has pogues under his thumb. maybe girls that work at a strip club in the cut. maybe some of these girls are freshly 18, young, impoverished, and impressionable. maybe the older women tell them to watch out for certain guys. men that throw thousands around like it’s nothing. preppy assholes who scratch their nose too often.

1. Pope was at school or somewhere studying, which would make sense because he’s the only one who has plans to continue his higher education.

2. JD couldn’t film that day for whatever reason.

3. It was intentional for the plot.

Focusing on the third reason, it makes no sense for Pope to not be in this scene because he was the one who came up with the idea of Poguelandia 2.0. He suggested that JJ buy a new boat and start a fishing charter. It would have been great to see his reaction to JJ dancing on the dock expressing pure happiness. Also if they wanted to show that Ji-error is endgame and Pope has completely moved on with Cleo, he would have been standing with the others cheering them on (could have deaded JJPope right there).

However, that’s not what happened. Paired with the fact that the pogues are at risk of losing the property in part 2, I think this would be a great opportunity for JJ and Pope to work together as a team.

In a show where it's all about the ensemble, about the group surviving, conquering and losing together, there's not a lot of room for individual wants and needs — unless a certain type of love drives the character.

It sparked between John B and Sarah in season one and now, Kiara took a leap because she knows on some level that their friendship stretches further than 'we're Pogues so we stick together'. It's more personal.

Only she wants to join him, she doesn't want the others to.

Which is why JJ looks so taken aback. He chuckles at first, because it's never 'one more', but when Kiara remains serious, he quiets down. You got room for one more?

And I bet almost dying after indulging in a sweet fantasy made them both more certain about their wants.

and, while that might be just me, i don’t think other characters are as well-written as these. that’s one of the most important things for me. if they don’t seem real, if they’re too shallow or too cliche, i’ll get bored. 

(this ended up getting lengthier than intended, so i’ll just put everything under the cut.)

figure eight residents have more of a northern accent than anything. there are some outliers though like ward, mike, and rafe. ward and mike grew up in the cut and the accents is definitely there but it's like barely noticeable, only apprarent when upset then you can hear those Rs HARD (sorry) and the drawl comes back.

idk what rafe's deal is cause he grew up in the deepest part of figure eight but he still has a little twang from time to time (could just be a drew thing)

the cut is filled with all types of southern accents, the deeper you get the more pronounced it becomes ie; barry who lives on the literal edge of the cut, near the swamp, having the most southern drawl out of all the main characters, or jj and luke who are not nearly as deep in the cut as barry. he's not the farthest from the other pogues (kiara lives in figure eight and pope seems to be smack dab in the middle)

luke's accent is the second most apparent after barry but jj has a "casual" southern accent. it's there but its at its most obvuous when he's talking fast or highly emotional (excited, anger, desperation, sadness)

john b, sarah, and kiara don't have southern accents. this is especially weird for john b cause hes just about as deep in the cut as jj and big john has an accent. i can't remember if kiara ever lived in the cut but it's not that uncommon for kids to pick up their parents accents. she also used to go to kildare county high school and spent most of her time with the pogues.

like think about it;

rafe wants to be better and create a legacy of his own while still honoring his father’s

jj is the opposite of rafe in the way that he doesn’t wanna be like his dad. though just like rafe he finds himself falling into the same destructive patterns and has his propensity for turning to violence as a solution

kiara doesn’t wanna be like her mom and lose a part of herself which is why she clings so tightly to being a pogue but she also refuses to waver in her morals and standings even when proven wrong time and time again. like her mother she’s stubborn

john b loves the thrill of treasure hunting and finding gold like his father but he doesn’t wanna put treasure hunting above all else like his (HE’S LITERALLY SCARED OF BECOMING HIS DAD THIS SEASON) he wants to live a normal life but the action adventure and treasure keeps calling out to him.

sarah looked up to her dad so much but after finding out who he truly is and seeing his dark side she realized she doesn’t even know him and feels disgusted having ever looked up to him. she loves him but unlike rafe love isn’t enough to keep her under his illusion of being a great man and wants to break away from her family name by doing good both because she’s a good person and to balance out the awful shit her family has done

boy am i glad you asked!

before we get to the okay so there's a certain way white men flirt with black women and when i say black women i mean monoracial, darker than a paper bag, unambiguously black women. this distinction is important so buckle up cause we're #learning.

the way white men flirt with black women can be broken down into three categories; food comparisons, code-switching, aphrodite incarnate.

you've probably heard the food comparison flirting before without even knowing it. "skin like chocolate" "mocha goddess" "cocoa queen" etc etc. it often got some aphrodite incarnate tactics mixed in there was you can see (no pun intended). the chocolate doesn't have to match their exact skin tone but it usually does.

"but courtney why is this bad?" "isn't it a compliment?" "other women get compared to food what's the problem?" many things but I'm gonna give the big two. the first one? slavery. there's this book called 'the delectable negro' and in it, it describes the practice of slave owners sometimes eating their slaves so when a white man compares a black woman to food, not the greatest look considering the context™️. the second one is because it's fetishistic, lame, and lazy.

code-switching is flirt tactic number two. aka putting on a blaccent, using "slang", trying to prove they're "hip" just cringey as hell.

aphrodite incarnate is exactly what it sounds like. "oh my god you're so beautiful it's unreal." "my nubian goddess." "my queen." basically just acting like the woman in front of them is so out of this world they can't even comprehend imo it's got the same energy as fans pulling the "this beautiful strong independent black queen doesn't need a man." when they think she's getting in the way of their ship. anyway tldr; it's othering

now onto the reason you came here, rafe moving like a mixed race fetishist.

the way white men flirt with black women is slightly different from how they flirt with biracial women. only two modes, if they're ambiguous, lots of "ooh what are you/what are you mixed with?" and "imagine what our babies would look like?" (this happens with monoracial black women too).

rafe is very much the former, the talks to/flirts with kiara is weird and strange if you pay attention. not gonna go into depth about how she says he's weird to her in her book cause i didn't read the full thing But at least we know he's been a freak.