So much Maddie slander on Reddit lately.
Imagine how unbelievably lonely she is right now.
Fans love to bring up how ridiculous everyone is acting considering the amount of time that has passed is only a little over 2 months. Fine, let’s break down those two months.
3 months ago Claire was her nemesis. I’m not dragging Claire, shes a queen and we love her. But that’s the audience. Maddie can appreciate Claire, and even feel warmly towards Claire. But they simply have not had on-screen bonding time that is sufficient enough for Maddie to feel secure in the week (week and a half?) that she has been back in her body.
Then there’s Nicole. Sweet, kind, ride or die Nicole that the writers don’t really know what to do with for all 3 seasons. And if we’re bringing up the 2.5 month timeline, great let’s do it. Maddie and Simon literally considered Nicole a suspect in Maddie’s murder like 1 month and a half ago (canon timeline). Then, again, since being back in her body Maddie has had no bonding, vulnerable moment with Nicole.
Finally, Xavier. Our lovable pathetic ca-cawing boi. We, as the audience, love him, blue eyed king. I think Xavier is who Maddie feels closest to in season 3 among the living gang. He can see ghosts, reconnected her with Dave, they worked together to help Kyle, Xavier chased after her when a 150 year old ghost had a gun. Look I’m not an Xavier/Maddie shipper but I’m not saying it doesn’t make sense. I sure am best friendship Xavier/Maddie fan because he’s been arguably the only person in the living realm that Maddie has had even a semblance of vulnerability with. But again, 2 months ago she discovered he cheated on her and he was a suspect in her MURDER for most of s1 (or maybe at least half of it I don’t really remember) so again, even though she’s closest with him, there’s still some baggage there. If that awkward conversation between them in ep 5 is any indication, it’s that Maddie appreciates him and trusts him, but still keeps walls up, holds him at arms length a bit.
Maddie has literally taken it upon herself to save the lives of 8 people. And yes, I’m saying lives because she doesn’t see her “best friends” (her exact words, ep 6) as dead people.
Simon
Wally
Charley
Rhonda
Quinn
Yuri
Kyle
Mr Martin
Episode 6 she tells Xavier to his face that these people are her best friends (obvs Kyle isn’t her best friend but she still assumed responsibility to save him). Two months pass and these people have shown her a friendship like she’s never known, except of course Simon who is her constant since they were children.
This is huge. I love the living gang for who they are and what they do, but their friendship with maddie pales in comparison to the ghosts, and I think this is true even to Maddie’s perspective.
Give our girl Maddie some grace. She has never been so lonely in her life as she has been throughout season 3.
I keep seeing so many people judging her and her choices, she is not supposed to be rational right now!!! She is an 18 year old girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders. She had a deeply traumatic event happen *to* her. She is being haunted, literally, by her scar which is trying to pull her back into the ghost world. And tbh, I’m not sure Maddie could look you in the eye and honestly say she is 100% sure she does not want to go back to the ghost world. Again, she is not supposed to be rational right now!!!
If she wants to cling to the only semblance of happiness she has, then we let her. Wally offers her a quiet that no one, not even Simon, can. Wally offers her a peace and comfort that is so addicting that she happily leaves Nicole chilling in the school parking lot in the middle of the night so she can finally be vulnerable and walls down in the bed of that truck in the auto shop.
Our sweet Mads is hurting. She’s lonely. She’s scared. She feels guilty for missing a world that Simon flung himself into to get her out of. Saying the relationship with Wally is unsustainable and irrational is counterintuitive. Because duh, don’t you think she knows that. But in a world with not a living soul available to her that can understand her the way those 7 people in the school do, leaves her spiraling alone in her room until she falls to the darkness anyway.
And by the way, Peyton’s acting this season is outstanding. She is portraying every single one of these emotions with grace and precision. If all you’re focused on is Mally chemistry, or shipping wars, or keep! the! plot! moving!, or nO mOrE bOdY sNaTcHiNg! then you’re missing the nuance, the quiet, the spiraling torment that Maddie is suffering.
