People were being disrespected left and right in this week’s all-new Vida. Like seriously, I kept thinking about that Mulan gif where Mushu goes, “Dishonor! Dishonor on you! Dishonor on your whole family!” And even now, hours after watching the episode, I can’t get over how much people were tramping over each other instead of listening to the other.
First up, her so called friend that she was throwing a quinces for. How dare you come into Lyn and Emma’s house and let your party get out of control? How dare you show paying customers that came in for a drink that this is the kind of establishment that Lyn and Emma are running? How dare you have no respect for Lyn that you’d have sex in bar, without even being respectful enough to take it to the bathroom.
Oh and then there’s that Juniper dude bro. How dare he come into Lyn’s home and try to get her back when Lyn is trying to work on herself. I say trying because we’re going to get into that in a sec. Back to Juniper. He thinks that she’s his good luck charm, the light of his life, because everything has gone wrong since they broke up. But you know whose fault it is? NOT LYN’S! So, boy, bye.
Then there’s Lyn. Oh girl. I had really complicated feelings when it comes to you. But I still feel like dishonor is what your night and time on the episode was about. Dishonor to yourself. You toted this crap at Emma like you’re rising above the person you were before. Newsflash, this party you had still ended up like the crazy sex ragers you used to go to. And that brings up so many questions.
Has Lyn grown at all on Vida?
Is she stuck in a loop forever?
What is she going to do next?
So, trying. That’s what Lyn has been doing and kind of failing, yet succeeding at it. I told you, complicated feelings over here for Lyn. Oh, especially after how she treated Emma. You’re not a child Lyn. You can’t just ignore that your dad, the one you’re so proud of getting to know, beat the ever loving shit out of your mom. You don’t get to ignore that and make Emma feel less because she isn’t on the path of dignity that you are on.
That doesn’t mean I’m not proud of Lyn. She’s trying and that’s more than most people do in their entire lifetime. And at the end there, where she’s sitting on that swing and looking at her life, she understood that she is still living in some of the bad habits that led her to the bar. She also understood that the friends she made, well they aren’t that different from the assholes from before.
It’s time to shake things up when it comes to Lyn and her life. If not, she’s going to be stuck forever, kind of like Emma is.
Which gets us to the most interesting part of this episode, at least for me, my special goober Emma. I think she dishonored herself by not giving happiness a chance. She was just go, go, go, and didn’t care what she ran over, as long as she was ok. And that’s NOT ok. That’s fucked up and really destructive behavior when you yourself are trying to be better at this whole thing called life.
Taking those shrooms, letting herself go, was her way of gaining control in a life she feels like is spiraling out of control and where she’s alone. Twisted and all sorts of messed up? Absolutely. Understandable in a fucked up kind of way? Yeah, you’ve got that right. Emma’s not perfect, none of us are, and maybe this spiral is exactly what she needs to get her head on straight.
Because what Emma did with Nico? Totally not cool even if I’m in love with Emma and Nico. That wasn’t fair to either of them and I can’t wait to see how things change when Emma is sober and not high as a kite. They can’t stay the same way anymore. She has to fight for her life and what she wants as well. It can’t just be Lyn finding her way, especially with so few episodes left.
That brings us back to dishonor. You can come back from that. You can build from that. You can change from that. And I’m here for it, no matter how complicated my feelings are for Emma, Lyn, Nico, and the rest of the gang on Vida.
Vida airs Sundays at 9/8c on Starz.