#upp2

okay so first and foremost, i think its important that on the surface, this is the same Isaac we all know and love. He cracks jokes with William, tries to rope Norah in on their antics, and isn’t fully thinking through the consequences of his actions until something goes wrong.

and then we very quickly see Isaac 180 from being playful and not thinking things through, to saying things like “my dad is going to kill me,” and “we can’t feed people that” small things, but they’re things that are much more likely to come from Norah than Isaac. Even when William tries to make the best of the situation through continuing to crack jokes, Isaac is freaking out in a way that is usually so unlike him. He’s fucking terrified of his dad getting angry at him, so much that it literally overpowers all the things that normally make Isaac Isaac. The fact that one small mistake like that caues his front to disappear so quickly just goes to show how much his strained relationship with his parents is affecting him (i mean if it wasn’t already obvious they put fucking bars on his window 😭) Its such a small moment, but to me it really stands out as the moment I realized that Isaac is permanently different from the kid we met in episode 1.

I also think its important to point out that in the first episode, his strained relationship with his parents was implied through snide comments from Isaac, guilt when talking to his mother, or anger at his dad, but never fear. The fact that he’s afraid of what his parents will think of every single mistake he makes may not be a new thing, but before it wasn’t something that he acknowledged out loud. It implies that either their relationship has only gotten worse in the past months, or that the incident with the church permanently changed the way Isaac feels fear, and thinks of consequences and mistakes (after all, its mistakes like going to the church alone, trying to fight the streiga that nearly got him killed.) Personally I think its a mix of both, and the two kind of feed into each other if that makes sense.

I don’t know if this is intentional but another thing I noticed is that when they’re discussing the specifics of how Lui’s grandma died, Isaac is uncharacteristically quiet. I don’t know if this is an intentional acting choice on Condi’s part, or him just letting Norah and Lui have that moment to shine, but either way it really works for the scene, and makes sense when you think about what Isaac’s been through. Like, if we think about it Norah may have heard what happened, and been there seconds before Lui’s grandma died, but Isaac is the one who was closest to dying to the exact same sickness and the exact same creature. If they’re trying to figure out specifically how she died, Isaac is the obvious person to have the answers but he doesn’t say anything, even though he has significant information that could help them defeat Lui’s grandma.

I don’t remember how much he’s told William and Norah, but based on how quickly he tries to move past it in the finale of upp1, I feel like its safe to say Isaac doesn’t bring up what happened much, if at all. I doubt Lui even knows the full story. I don’t think he would even think to ask Isaac about his experience with the sickness or the creature. Not 100% sure where Im getting at with this, but I think it goes to show that Isaac’s trauma from getting kidnapped and nearly dying is severe enough that it is actively hindering the group, and might in the future?

Lastly, not sure how relevant this is but it does make me so sad near the end when William’s mom doesn’t even give Isaac a chance before calling his mom, and Isaac just accepts it. This poor kid cannot catch a break, even his best friends mom thinks he’s a troublemaker/delinquent, and something about Isaac just accepting this idea that he’s bad news throughout every single episode is so fucking devastating man.

anyway I feel like not enough people talk about isaac when he’s imo one of the most complicated and well written characters on the show. Family trauma is a really hard topic to portray in any media, we see it done a few times in Jrwi history. in Riptide with Jay and Gillion, troy in wonderlust, and a few other examples im drawing a blank on. But because of the horror genre, and “show it as it is” approach, Isaac’s story feels like one of the most grounded takes on it in jrwi so far (not to say any of their other angles on portraying it are bad!! I just think the way we see themes of family trauma in Isaacs story are especially good).