Look at those little dudes, happy and dancing. That's it, that is all that happened. 🕺🕺 (Full calendar under the cut for anyone curious. clearly these are not spoilers for the eps)

So let's first establish some facts. Jennalee (JL) is... not the brightest. Every day that boy is walking into the slaughterhouse smiling. It's almost comical to me. Jane Patrick (JP) is an insidious master manipulator. He's the devil or whatever.

Up until this episode, I wasn't sure what the show was trying to do. I thought that while it never let us forget that JP was the baddy (cue the intro), it was also putting the audience in a position to root for him, to want him to succeed to an extent. Which is fine with me, this is a BL, and I'm not under the delusion that these two are not gonna end up together, so they need room to grow or whatever they decide to do. And again, that's fine by me. I was actively rooting for him all along, and up until this point, I didn't think he was all that bad. I mean, let's face it, we've all seen and rooted for worse.

Also, with this Dan storyline, they are creating an obvious parallel. It shows us that JL is a magnet for these guys. And also, no, Dan is not 'as bad' as JP, but he's also not exactly a saint or a green flag, as it were. Honestly, I think that could've worked well here as a foil for JP, making it even more obvious that JL really is into the toxicity of it all. But I digress.

This brings me to the stairwell scene and my confusion. I think that scene was a step too far for several reasons. First, because it makes it harder to root for him. Second, because it's so uncharacteristic. Yes, he's everything I said he was before, but he's never shown that lack of restraint before. He goes right up to the line, but he's always in control. He makes his moves, and they are calculated and never rushed. We've even seen him listen to JL before when they were getting intimate, and stopping himself. He was punched and only punched back once. Even during that ridiculous declaration of love masquerading as an art exhibit, he still held himself back. He let JL walk away, and he gave him the option of meeting him or not. He's definitely always around, but since they broke up, he only gets close in specific moments. So, that scene on the stairs doesn't track for me. From a character standpoint and from a show standpoint.

Unless that was the point, which seems crazy to consider, but let me for a moment. What if he, for some reason, needed to do the unforgivable thing? What if he needed JL to really cut off all connection to him? Right now, I can't really see how that would help, though. If he were just around, it would be more likely he would get JL anyway, and his blood or a contract or whatever it is he wants now. And we know that it's not like JL has forgotten him. So, I don't know the exact reason, but that actually makes more sense to me than him simply losing control and wanting to do that to JL.

Then there's also the possibility that he's involved with the loan sharks and the brother situation, although I don't really buy that for some of the reasons I mentioned before. They're supposed to end up together and all that.