Change. Some people have a hard time with change, especially when they don’t understand it. The worst part of change is when you’re a teenager and everything seems so finite. After all, you don’t even understand change when you’re a teenager. Hate to break it to anyone, though, you don’t really always understand change when you’re an adult either. But for all of the characters of My Life With The Walter Boys, Season 2, Episode 1, change is happening everywhere.
As we walk back into New York and Silver Falls, one has to wonder who knows what. It’s been the summer, and a lot of things change in the summer. If you’re a fan of The Summer I Turned Pretty, you know that life when you’re a teenager is measured in summers – good or bad, as they may be.
The summer has passed quickly, and it’s almost time for school. However, for Katherine and George, it’s the time when they have to bring their family back together – Jackie included.
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A NEW YORK MINUTE
New York is weird. Everything is changing all the time, and you have to try and find a way to keep up with things and not lose yourself. Jackie has been back in New York, finished up her internship, and has been doing it alone. Richard has been in Europe.
To not be alone, Jackie decides to attend boarding school, but that means that she needs Katherine to sign the application. Am I surprised, though, that Katherine went to New York to talk to Jackie about it? Nope, because after all, My Life With The Walter Boys, Season 2, Episode 1, is all about showing up and pushing through.
I am surprised that Katherine made it seem like going back to Silver Falls would be easy. Yes. I saw that as a move to manipulate. Regardless of what has happened, Katherine loves Jackie like her own. She’s made a promise that she would take care of Jackie.
We quickly find out that New York isn’t home to Jackie anymore. Her friends have changed. She’s changed. Nothing is the same as it was. Coming back to New York, Jackie only misses her family more.
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She just misses feeling like she belongs and feels lost. Katherine wants her to come back to Silver Falls. You see, the place that she does belong is back in Silver Falls, with the Walters.
Did I like how it switched really quickly, and the viewer wasn’t able to see Jackie make that choice? No. But, I do understand that it wouldn’t have made anything change. It wasn’t an important thing to see to move the story forward.
But seeing Jackie come back to Silver Falls was.
SHE’S BACK
The Walter kids find some sort of joy in being together. They’re all out enjoying the last bit of summer. Alex is in the stables – alone and someone completely different than season one. Cole and the boys are playing football when Katherine returns, and Jackie steps out of the car.
Silence hit that ranch quickly. As Katherine tells Jackie that it will be okay, you just know it isn’t.
It’s going to be hard.
However, people are entitled to their feelings and to their pain. What is hard to remember sometimes is that I am so focused on the love triangle that there are a lot of secondary storylines that I am overlooking. This family opened their hearts to Jackie, and she left. No explanation.
But, I do believe that Jackie is thinking that all of them will feel the same way as Alex. She’s got to cut herself some slack and allow grace for herself. What I do wish that that all of these kids would remember that Jackie was grieving, and that does cause reactions.
Sometimes that reaction is running.
Alex did it too – heading off to Montana. Cole tossed himself into school. There is no wrong way to run.
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What was telling though is that it was as if they were standing in a triangle – Jackie, Cole, and Alex. Symbolism, my peeps. If I have learned anything from being a Swiftie is that there are choices that can be made everywhere, and a lot of people are very intentional with their clues.
A PITY PARTY FOR ONE
Alex has come home, and he’s changed. He’s changed in a not-so-nice way. He’s throwing a pity party for one, and his ego needs to be deflated.
I do understand that Alex told Jackie he loved her, and then he felt rejected because she said nothing and left. Maybe part of it was about him. Maybe it wasn’t. But until he knows he needs to cut his crap out.
When Jackie goes into the barn to try and talk to him – he’s so cold and rude – that I wanted to fly through the screen and tell him to stop. I know, I know, we’re all allowed to feel our pain, and it is valid. But like, confront your pain, Alex.
I think that one of the injustices in this show is just how all over the place Alex seems. I can’t figure out why he doesn’t just tell her that he’s hurt. Does playing the brooding victim work better? Cause Alex is not a victim. He’s a human being, and his heart got broken.
He’s neglecting everyone and everything – determined to keep up his walls – and in that, he doesn’t realize that he’s going to end up alone.
With no one.
No friends.
Nothing.
DRIVERS ED
At breakfast, the family is trying to figure out how they are going to get all of the kids everywhere they need to be. George and Katherine want to be flexible, but the truth is, they need more drivers.
And who needs to stop getting the short end of the stick is P. She’s fighting to be seen, and that’s not easy when the house is in chaos.
Jackie is listening to everything that everyone is talking about. She feels the need to do as much as possible – to feel as though she’s contributing. It’s something that she feels that she needs to do to belong.
Listening to everything that everyone is saying, she feels that her next thing to do is to get a license so she can help out everyone. Driver’s ed is full, so she gets stuck in woodworking class.
Who gets into driver’s ed is Alex. He was supposed to do all of the things with Kiley, but he didn’t. He sat with a girl instead of her. Forgetting his friend and treating her as someone less than isn’t who Alex was. But apparently, this is who he is.
I can’t blame Kylie for being upset over the way Alex is behaving and how he neglects her loyalty to him. He is infuriating. Kylie telling him how he’s acting made me stand up and cheer for her. She deserves to have good friends. She deserves to have friends who give her the same as she’s giving them.
So when Jackie asks if anyone will trade electives with her, and she says yes, I was happy for Kylie. Her finding her own way and protecting herself is of the utmost importance for her own peace. She’s been through enough.
TIME OF DEATH
Did I scream at my television and want to cuss out Alex watching this episode? Several times over. When he sat down next to Jackie in driver’s education and suddenly developed the worst attitude known to mankind, I wondered if we could ship him back to Montana.
The audacity.
I am aware that hurt people hurt people. But you know what, that is not an excuse for how he acted. Not even close. He may not want to talk to Jackie, but at a certain point, he needs to stop being cruel, and that is something that he doesn’t seem to know how to do.
When he’s partnered with Jackie in class, they are bickering through the exercise. It’s like an old married couple. She’s trying, and he’s rejecting those attempts at every turn. He doesn’t want to talk, and she needs to. Jackie and Alex are really annoying me at this point. HOWEVER, that changed quickly.
It changed when Alex decided that he would be the cruelest of the cruel. It changed when he said that he said what he said, she left, and so it was clear to him what was going on. That would be nothing. BUT – it was the next thing that he said that was WOAH. His voice changed to cruel as he told her that she was right, that they never officially broke up, so they should call it now.
“Time of death, September 6th at 2:45 pm,” he said before asking if she was happy.
Well, Alex, no one is happy with your attitude – please adjust.
IT’S NOT EASY
The first day of school isn’t easy. It’s actually the worst. For Jackie, returning to Silver Falls means a lot of rumors and confrontation. I think that she was presented with it as being easy, but it’s anything but.
And Katherine goes to her to talk about the day.
Jackie is doing what she thinks she has to do to be a part of the family, contribute. She tells Katherine that she wants to learn to drive to help with the younger kids. I don’t know why, but this breaks my heart because Jackie doesn’t feel like she can just be herself and be loved. Instead, she feels like she has to contribute to the family to fit in.
What is beautiful is that Katherine tells her that it’s thoughtful, but she doesn’t have to. She doesn’t have to be useful to be welcome. Katherine reminds her that she is already welcome. Katherine made it seem that coming back would be easy, but she is sorry for that.
I think that it’s really hard for Katherine and the rest of the crew to speak about Jackie’s leaving because no one knows why she left. Jackie knows that she’s going to have to do hard things to make up with everyone there. Like she was told, though, if anyone can do hard things, it is Jackie.
Yet, the hard thing for Jackie may be just staying in the same space that Cole and Alex are. Cole tries to help move things into the barn, and Jackie quickly wants to exit. He asks her to please stop running from him – to not go.
Did I stand up and cheer Cole on? Absolutely.
It’s time to stop running, Jackie.
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OTHER THOUGHTS
- Cole picking up Alex was awkward
- Alex needs to remove the corn cob from his backside. You are not a saint, sir.
- Love that Danny reminds Cole that Jackie being back is a good thing.
- One thing about George is that he loves his family, and he loves them unconditionally
- Right now, I have to admit that I don’t want Jackie to choose a brother – I want her to heal and choose herself
- Would have loved to see Jackie and Will talk. She needs a big brother
- Nathan giving Jackie a pic of everyone in the family together was sweet.
- Don’t understand why it is that Nathan thinks that joining the paper is a good idea
- Cole telling P that it was okay to miss Jackie – he’s grown, and I appreciate that he’s grown and is there for his sister
- I need more Danny and Erin in our lives
- Guidance counselor – she’s like toxically positive
- George needs to be nicer to Will about the expansion. He’s working his backside off
- Jackie getting jealous over Cole with Ruby – that was cute
- I can’t even with Alex and his consistent pity party
- Jackie telling Grace everything was a BAD idea. I bet money that she’s going to be the one to let it slip out that Jackie and Cole kissed
- Cole and Jackie in the egg coup – Jackie has to give herself some grace and know Cole really cares about her
- Family pizza night was a lot, but I also felt bad for every kid at that table
- Cole Walter and studying and turning down football coaching – WHO IS HE
- Jackie is trying to adjust, and it is definitely not easy for her
- Jackie telling P that she’s getting a license to be able to drive her places was everything, cause there was so much optimism in P’s eyes
Season 2 of My Life With The Walter Boys is streaming now on Netflix.
