#qots asks

Hi there! You don’t think so? I do! 

After 501 Teresa now knows he left for her not because he wanted to, James has irrefutably proven his intentions are to save her yet again and because of his actions KG was able to warn Teresa about who she was potentially walking into a meeting with, saving her life. And this was all accomplished without Teresa and James getting a patented Jeresa one on one convo....

I admit Teresa’s behavior is kind of shocking in how Queenpin-like she is already this season but I for one (angst ho that I am) cannot wait for James “let me in” Valdez to approach her with softness only to realize how much has changed and get to work using the light he has left to get her out of the cave. 

Hey anon! One of my pet theories about all the queenpin scenes at the beginning of each season (and the visions that Teresa has of Queen!Teresa) is that they are from a possible future (or several different possible futures). I feel the show focuses a lot on different kinds of choices and how those choices impact who you become (and the ongoing struggle of survival vs keeping your humanity), and so maybe the story depicted in those scenes is from or represents a timeline where Teresa chooses to go a certain way. But not necessarily what will happen in the show. There may come a day when Teresa just says no to the Queen whispering in her ear, and then all that goes up in smoke. But that’s just wild speculation (and my obsession with alternate timelines).  

I was LITERALLY just making a post about this Lauren lmao.  Idk about wiser (your galaxy brain smoking scene meta AHEM), but - and I’m fully aware my clown shoes are squeaking here - 

I was thinking all of these mirror shots in 502 - especially the Jeresa ones - might be a visual metaphor for:

“maybe in another life”

(later, just the two of them)

He watched Teresa as she stood at the end of his bed, agitation evident even in her stillness. As much as he’d had good reasons, he’d still kept the truth from her, something he knew she’d need time to process. Still, when she didn’t immediately follow Pote and the rest of them out the door, he couldn’t help but feel a sliver of hope. 

Hey anon! Oh, I hope not. If you’re worried about the coldness, I take heart in the fact that Queenpin in Teresa’s visions and “flash forwards” or whatever they turn out to be, still has some warmth. 

If you’re worried about Jeresa, I think there will be tension for sure, especially with James back expecting Teresa’s “different way of doing things” and finding Teresa conducting more of a cartel business as usual approach, but I don’t think it will be that raw, lashing out hurt that Teresa was experiencing in 3x07, especially not over a full season. 

And TBH, after S4 I’m looking forward to the tension James introduces into the story. The relationship between Teresa and James is the most dynamic relationship she has on the show.  He’s the only one who can get through to her on that level, especially if it’s stuff she doesn’t want to hear.  What I loved the most about Ryan’s IG chat and the EW article is the confirmation that as much as James has been all “this is your life now” to Teresa in the past, he is also the last line of defense for her soul.  I think his return for the final season gives Teresa the best chance of a happy ending. Hopefully for both of them.

Hey anon! That was so hard to watch! Even logically knowing that the story and Queenpin arc in particular required it to be a painful betrayal didn’t help me cope much lol. But if it didn’t hurt we wouldn’t care, right? We wouldn’t feel the loss of our Teresa.

Teresa has always been about SURVIVAL though. The more powerful she has become, the more this has skewed toward seeing her business as key to her survival rather than her soul being key to survival in this business. Both can be and are true but the balance that was there before has shifted to favor the former. I think with the recent reminders of her and her loved ones’ mortality, she likely senses the walls starting to close in a bit and she’s starting to take some risks she might not otherwise to get to her phantom idea of safety (hence the mad rush to get the money for the waterfront property etc).

As for choosing Boaz instead of turning him in, was anyone else alarmed at just how much control he had over her bottom line? No one else knew anything about the day to day in Sinaloa—the only location in Teresa’s empire that absolutely needs to run smoothly or else has the ability to grind her entire organization to a halt. Like Kelly Anne said, Boaz has made himself a very valuable asset to Teresa and I don’t think that’s by accident. I found his “I’m impulsive ...but you’re not” both insightful and a little manipulative maybe? Boaz has said something to Teresa along the lines of: “you should have killed them the moment they [acted out]” several times this season but because he was so un-Boaz-like in his delivery it’s been easy to not hear what he’s really saying in both his words and actions. Instead he calmly appealed directly to her sense of logic, business and revenge...combine that with Teresa’s business = survival mindset and Boaz lives to act out again another day.