Carrie Season 1, Episode 3, “Social Studies,” feels a lot like a filler episode. There aren’t any big moments per say, but Carrie gets to know her new friend Emaline and experiences her first high school party. What is most important is what happens with the CarrieRed_ account. That, we need to talk about.
Choose The Right Ones
Credit: Robert Falconer/Prime
Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC
Description: Alison Thornton, Siena Agudong
High school has been a rough experience for Carrie so far. But she finally gets a stress-free moment in “Social Studies” when she’s invited to a high school party. I know that’s probably crazy to say that she’s having a stress-free time at a high school party. But she’s been under a lot at home and at school. So this is a nice change of pace. And it’s also the first time Carrie sneaks out of the house while her mom is working late.
The invite comes from the most unlikely person. Chris Hargensen. Granted, she only invited her because of Sue. And that was after delivering a disingenuous apology for the locker room incident and creating the CarrieRed_ account. Of course, Carrie doesn’t know any of this so she thinks Chris is genuine. That speaks to Carrie’s naivety.
Carrie wants to see the good in everyone. Unlike her mother, she believes people are inherently good. This is part of the reason I was nervous when she accepted Chris’s invite. I figured Chris would use the party as another way to trick Carrie. Surprisingly, she didn’t. That doesn’t mean Chris still isn’t a snake.
Our lead ends up having the time of her life at the party. She had some drinks, danced, and hung out with Emaline for a bit. But I want to note that it’s weird how Emaline appears out of nowhere. And she doesn’t hang around for long. I still can’t get a read on her because of how little screen time she has. She sees that Carrie is excited and having fun, but she advises her to make sure that when she makes friends, she chooses the right ones. On this, I agree. Carrie has no idea what is going on behind her back.
Why Are Teenage Girls So Evil To Each Other?
In Carrie Season 1, Episode 3, we meet Tina (Josie Totah), who is a jealous messy try-hard who wants Chris’s attention. She uses Chris’s home situation and her hatred of Brooklyn to start an argument between the two girls. What Tina didn’t plan on was Chris learning in front of everyone at the party that her mother had filed for divorce.
I don’t know what Tina sought to gain from doing this, but it was shady as hell. What kind of friend does that to another friend? I don’t like Chris, but even I thought Tina was wrong. And I feel bad for Brooklyn because she’s been trying so hard to get along with Chris, but she dismisses her at every turn. This newest revelation sends Chris into a spiral.
One of the things that stands out to me the most about seeing all the perspectives of these various girls is how each of them is jealous of the other in some way. Chris is jealous of Brooklyn because she feels like she’s taking her mother away from her. Tina is jealous of Carrie and Chris. I say she’s jealous of Carrie because the catalyst for her being messy at the party was seeing Carrie in her T-shirt. Yes. You read that right: Tina was mad at Carrie over a T-shirt.
The reason is that Carrie upcycled the shirt. It was given to her at school after the locker room incident. She didn’t know who it belonged to. It was just given to her because her clothes were wet and she needed something. Carrie’s a talented seamstress, and she made the T-shirt more stylish. That made Tina angry. And for whatever reason, that anger made her want to start drama between Chris and Brooklyn.
These girls have a lot of issues to work through. And it’s sad they can’t just be friends. They would all get along well if they saw past petty nonsense. But it’s high school, and high school girls can be evil to one another.
Chris Hargensen Is The Worst
Chris has poor impulse control. Plain and simple. And therapy would be good for her because she does not know how to control her emotions and her parents are too busy in their own world to see that something is bothering her. As a result, Chris is so in need of attention she seeks it anywhere she can find it. Even if it means dating loser drug dealers like Billy Nolan. And when that isn’t enough, she gets her high from destroying someone else’s life.
After Chris’s crash out she does quite possibly one of the most reckless things. She goes public with the CarrieRed_ account. I mean I think we all knew it was inevitable that the account would not stay private. It is a big plot point in this season. When she realizes the next day what she’s done, she says nothing. And she doesn’t delete the account. There’s a brief moment where she seems concerned, but it quickly disappears.
I’d like to think that Chris really didn’t know what she was doing at 4 am… but she made the account. And if she was coherent enough to post pictures at that time, I assume she knew exactly what she was doing when she slid that button from private to public. And now, because of her actions, Carrie is about to learn what it means to go viral.
Carrie Season 1 is now available on Prime Video.
