Change is never easy. But neither are the emotions that come with that change, as our girls on The Bold Type learned in an episode aptly titled, “Lost.”
In this episode, Sutton deals with an unexpected heartbreak relating to her pregnancy, Jane still doesn’t feel quite like herself, and Kat is learning that change isn’t comfortable but sometimes necessary.
But The Bold Type is a reminder that, while these women are dealt some pretty rough hands, they can get through things because of each other and the others around them that are there to support them.
So even as they’re feeling lost, they’re not alone.
Let’s discuss The Bold Type‘s latest episode “Lost,” which had our trio dealing with the emotions that came with some significant changes in their lives.
Sutton’s Heartbreak
Like Sutton, when we found out that she was pregnant, I was shocked. I wasn’t expecting it. But then, suddenly, it was something that become intriguing, exciting. Richard even had a baby book set up. And, then, the unthinkable happened.
At their first ultrasound, Sutton and Richard learned that their baby had no heartbeat. Simply put, she miscarried. And if it felt like a blow to us, the audience, just imagine what it felt like to Sutton and Richard.
But that was the thing during the duration of this episode. How Sutton was dealing with her miscarriage. Waiting for it to happen. Waiting for the expected emotions to come. Especially when one of her freelance gigs involved dressing a first grade boy, who was the cutest thing.
For most of the episode, Sutton felt numb. She didn’t feel angry or sad, just nothing. And that was worse than feeling nothing at all. Which is why she went through with the freelance gig, willing the emotions to come.
After her miscarriage, an emotional Sutton admitted to Jane and Kat that she thinks she feels relieved that she’s not having this baby. And saying those words out loud, she believes she’s a horrible person. Which she’s not.
But let’s unpack this. Honestly, Sutton wasn’t ready for a baby. Her and Richard just got married, and she just started this new stylist job. She wasn’t ready for another big responsibility in her life. While she wasn’t upset about having a baby, it didn’t mean that the thought of it wasn’t stressful, as we saw last week.
Just because Sutton feels relieved now doesn’t mean that she won’t want kids in the future. Although, judging from next week’s preview, it seems as though Richard wants to push up the launch date, if you know what I’m saying, and Sutton isn’t about that.
Still, this entire experience hasn’t been easy on Sutton. Believing she was about to start a family, then having it ripped away, and then shocking herself by feeling a semblance of relief after the fact.
Jane Doesn’t Feel Like Herself
From the start of this episode when Jane admitted she was feeling more like herself again, I had a sneaking suspicion she wasn’t. After all, the kind of massive change that she went through isn’t something that can be resolved in a single episode. And, I was right.
Like everyone, Jane has had to deal with more than one significant change in her life. In this case, Jane has had to deal with having a double mastectomy and breaking up with Ryan, who she thought was her person. It doesn’t help that Jane has the hots for Scott, her new employee, who also totally has the hots for her. She needs help from her girls, but she’s not ready to date. Although, as Kat notes, that doesn’t mean her body isn’t ready.
So Jane goes on a blind date with a guy named Kevin, and the two are seriously feeling each other. Jane is ready to get it in, and she’s feeling it…until Kevin reaches for her boobs. And she’s done.
Obviously, Jane still doesn’t feel comfortable with her new boobs. Even if she was able to push it down for a bit, those feelings are still there. But given that Sutton and Kat are both going through some big changes, she feels alone in her feelings. She doesn’t want to burden them, so she takes it all on herself.
But Scott notices that Jane is off, and he’s there for her to confide in. And she does. She tells him about her mother dying, how she has the BRCA mutation. Of course, that stuff she’s written about. But what she hasn’t told the world is about her double mastectomy. Most importantly, how she’s doing after the fact. Because she’s not okay.
She’s happy she did it, but she thought once it was done that she’d feel like herself again. And she doesn’t. Scott somehow says the perfect thing in opening up about his father’s death, where he felt the same. What helped him was finding a grief support group, people that knew what he was going through. There are people out there that knows what Jane is going through. They just need to find them.
Which is why she finally writes about her double mastectomy and how she’s struggling. She hopes that some people that read her article can relate to her experience, which is why she arranges a meeting at Belle hoping they show up. And they do. Jane has found her people.
Kat’s Path to Progress
It’s been a jarring couple of weeks for Kat, who’s experienced change in several aspects of her life. What was once familiar is gone, and now she has to find a way to push on and acclimate to her new normal.
But if there’s one thing that remains the same about Kat, it’s her desire to affect change in the world. And, even as a bartender at the Belle, she’s going to find a way to accomplish that.
When Kat meets a woman at the Belle that wants to promote a domestic violence shelter, she’s reminded that she still wants to make a change in this world. And perhaps there’s a way to do that through her job. After all, Kat meets a lot of interesting women at the Belle, and a lot of their stories go untold.
So Kat goes to her boss with the suggestion of having this woman — and others — speak at the Belle. She suggests broadcasting the speeches to reach more people, and even men — given they’re not allowed at the Belle. It’s a way to allow these amazing women to tell their stories and, most importantly, be heard.
Kat is the perfect person for this job. And it’s not just because of her experience at Scarlet, which speaks for itself. She knows how to curate content. But Kat is someone that will allow these women to be heard, she knows the right questions to ask, and she’ll handle it with care.
She gets an opportunity for a test run, where she can create one episode of this podcast. Right there at the bar.
Here’s the thing, you don’t need a political platform to affect change. It certainly would’ve been nice — it’s a bigger scale — but there are other ways to make your voice heard. And Kat just found a way with this podcast.
So she turns to Alex for help, who winds up helping her in more ways than one. Kat has to adjust to a new lifestyle, which doesn’t only include a new job. It also includes a new problem of not having enough money. She can’t afford microphones for her podcast because she had to pay for three months of storage for all of the things that were in her apartment that she had to leave. And while Alex suggests selling her things, it’s not an option for her.
Here’s the thing, Kat already lost her job, her apartment, her 401K. She can’t lose anything else. And, as silly as it sounds, those things are hers. But it takes donating some clothes to the domestic violence shelter and learning that it’s not nothing, it’s everything, that makes Kat realize that she has a chance to help this shelter with her podcast.
So Kat decides to sell her stuff so that she can commence with the podcast. But that doesn’t make it any less hard on her. Luckily for her, Alex is there to remind her that it will get easier the more she does it. After all, he has past experience to draw on. When he was younger, he had to leave behind the desk that made him become a writer. And it wasn’t because of the Pokemon stickers. No, it was because there was a story with it. Just like with Kat’s things.
But just because most of her things are gone — Jane bought her old couch! — doesn’t mean that the memories that were associated with them have faded.
The Bold Type airs Thursdays at 10/9c on Freeform.
