We knew the kiss between Elle and Miles was going to change everything. What we didn’t expect was for Elle Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Trust Me, I Can Handle Anything’ to place that secret against the backdrop of grief. This episode it’s about what happens when life refuses to give you the right moment to do the right thing. Every time we thought someone had finally found the courage to make things better, something else got in the way. So maybe there wasn’t a way to stop someone from getting hurt. Ready?
Here we go!
Elle Refuses to let her Feelings for Miles Come Before here Friend
Everything changes the moment Shannon loses her mother. Suddenly, in Elle Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Trust Me, I Can Handle Anything’ the kiss isn’t the biggest thing weighing on Elle anymore. It’s the fact that she’s standing next to one of the people she loves most while keeping a secret that could shatter her. And every hour that passes makes carrying that secret even harder.
We could see the guilt all over Elle’s face from the beginning of the episode. She throws herself into helping with the funeral because that’s who she is. When someone she loves is hurting, she shows up. But we also know there’s something else driving her. If she can’t undo what happened with Miles, then at least she can be there for Shannon now.
Every time Shannon thanks her for staying by her side, for helping with the funeral, for giving the speech… we can feel Elle wishing those words would stop because she doesn’t believe she deserves them.
Elle is ready to tell Shannon the truth. We never doubted that. The problem is that there is no version of this moment that doesn’t feel cruel. In Elle Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Trust Me, I Can Handle Anything’ Shannon has just lost her mother. How do you look someone in the eye, while they’re trying to survive that kind of loss, and tell them that two of the people they trusted most betrayed them?
You don’t.
That’s why Elle keeps putting distance between herself and Miles, even though we all know she doesn’t want to. One kiss didn’t make her stop caring about Shannon. Elle isn’t trying to convince herself she doesn’t have feelings for Miles. But she knows exactly the kind of friend she wants to be, and she refuses to become someone who keeps hurting Shannon just because following her heart would be easier.
And, honestly? That’s one of the things we love most about her. In Elle Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Trust Me, I Can Handle Anything’ Elle’s choosing the harder path because she couldn’t live with herself otherwise.
And then we have Miles. The frustrating thing about him is that… we get it. In Elle Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Trust Me, I Can Handle Anything’ he feels guilty about what happened with Elle. Of course he does. He also knows Shannon deserves to know the truth. But after that kiss, something changed for him. Once his relationship with Shannon was over, he stopped seeing reasons why he and Elle couldn’t finally be together.
So when Elle starts avoiding him, he’s completely lost. From where he’s standing, they’re feeling exactly the same thing. They both care about Shannon. They both hate what happened. But they also care about each other. Why pretend otherwise?
The problem is that Elle isn’t thinking about what comes next. She’s thinking about the damage that’s already been done—because she’s a good friend. That’s why every time Miles tries to get closer, Elle takes another step back. She’s trying to stop herself from adding another betrayal on top of the first one.
Madison and Dustin Discover They Have a Thing in Common
We’ve been waiting to see Madison in Seattle since the beginning but her arrival in ElleSeason 1 Episode 5 ‘Trust Me, I Can Handle Anything’ couldn’t have come at a worse time for Elle. She even forgot she was coming. And that’s another reminder that Elle’s life is changing faster than she can process it.
She’s trying to be there for Shannon. She’s trying to avoid Miles. Elle’s carrying around enough guilt to last a lifetime. And then, all of a sudden, the person who knows her better than anyone else arrives expecting the Elle she left behind in Los Angeles. Except… that Elle doesn’t quite exist anymore. Seattle helping her discover another version of herself. One that Madison has never met.
We couldn’t help feeling for both of them. In Elle Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Trust Me, I Can Handle Anything’ Elle isn’t choosing her new friends over Madison-even if Madison thinks she does. Elle’s trying to hold together two different parts of her life, and she ends up feeling like she’s failing everyone instead.
Meanwhile, Madison walks into Seattle expecting to feel at home with her best friend and ends up feeling like the only outsider in the room. Even worse, Elle’s new friends barely know who she is. And that hurts. So we understand why Madison starts wondering if she’s losing her best friend.
That’s what makes what happens with Dustin even more heartbreaking. Because he is hurting too for the same person: Elle.
The more time Dustin spends around Elle, the harder it becomes to ignore what’s right in front of him. He can see it now. He can see the way Elle looks at Miles, even if she keeps trying to bury those feelings. And once he realizes that, he also realizes there’s probably no place for him in her heart. So in Elle Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Trust Me, I Can Handle Anything’ Madison and Dustin end up finding each other for exactly the same reason. They’re both trying to escape the pain Elle has left behind without ever meaning to.
Miles Proves that Telling the Truth isn’t Always the Same as Doing the Right Thing
We knew this secret couldn’t last forever. What we didn’t expect was for Miles to choose that moment to confess it. Shannon deserved to know what happened between him and Elle. There’s no debate there. She deserved the truth from the two people she trusted most, and the longer they waited, the more painful that conversation was always going to become.
But not during her mother’s funeral. In Elle Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Trust Me, I Can Handle Anything’ Miles was selfish. He can tell himself he confessed because Shannon had a right to know. He can tell himself he couldn’t keep lying to her another day. Maybe part of that is even true. But if we’re being honest, it’s clear that this confession wasn’t really for Shannon. It was for him.
In Elle Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Trust Me, I Can Handle Anything’ Miles couldn’t live with the guilt anymore, so he handed that guilt to someone whose heart was already in pieces. Shannon isn’t just mourning her mother. In the space of a few minutes, she also discovers that two of the people she loved most have betrayed her. The people she should have been able to lean on hurt her, and it’s impossible not to ache for her.
We also couldn’t stop thinking about Elle.
She wanted to tell Shannon, but she also wanted to wait until Shannon could actually process what she was hearing. Miles took that decision away from her. He decided when the truth would come out, and he also decided that Elle would have to live with the consequences of a conversation she never agreed to have in that moment.
Shannon’s reaction to the truth says everything. She doesn’t want to see either of them. Right now, all she can see is the betrayal. Honestly, can we blame her?
Eva Still isn’t Listening to what Elle Actually Wants
We were relieved to see Elle and Eva finally find some common ground. After everything they said to each other, it would have been easy for the show to leave their relationship exactly where it was. Instead, they both acknowledge their mistakes. Elle knows some of her words crossed a line, and Eva seems to understand that trying to control her daughter’s future pushed their relationship to a breaking point.
For a moment, we really believed they had turned a corner. Then, in Elle Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Trust Me, I Can Handle Anything,’ Eva makes the same mistake all over again. Elle has been incredibly clear. She’s happy in Seattle and wants to stay. Eva hears all of that… and sends Elle’s application for the Cosmo internship anyway.
And yeah, maybe a small part of her is thinking about Elle. But let’s be honest. Eva is doing this for herself. Because she wants Los Angeles back. She wants life to return to the version that made her happy. The problem is that the life that makes Eva happy isn’t necessarily the life that makes Elle happy.
That’s why what Eva does in Elle Season 1 Episode 5 ‘Trust Me, I Can Handle Anything’ is so disappointing. She didn’t learn the lesson their fight was trying to teach her. She just found a different way to ignore what Elle actually wants.
PS: We need to know what happened between Kimberly and Liz.
PS2: Kimberly is finally realizing that she’s prejudged Elle and that maybe she isn’t who she thought, and we’re celebrating!
Elle Season 1 is available to stream now only on Prime Video.
