Welcome back to Scarlet!
This episode of the Bold Type was packed with drama for our three favorite ladies. With exes returning, boyfriends going on tour and a new seminar, the Bold Type has been a mess of emotion and tensions are running high in the offices of Scarlet magazine.
So let’s just cut to the chase and dive in, eh?
JANE
The Pamela Dolen story is reaching its climax, as Jane and Jacqueline manage to convince the models to partake in a photo-shoot to accompany Jane’s tell-all of Pamela’s abuse. However, the problem is that all of the models have signed non-disclosure agreements, which Jacqueline convinces them won’t stand up to scrutiny once anyone sees that a whole team of women stood up against Pamela. They’re still freaked out, though, understandably. I kind of wonder what gave Jane and Jacqueline the authority to say the NDA’s are meaningless, without at least providing the clearly traumatized models some kind of legal counsel. But hey, I’m an English major, what do I know?
Also an English major, Alex, who is reading Ryan’s book and questioning Ryan’s loyalty to Jane because the voice the narrator takes on. Momentarily, Jane takes note of Alex’s doubts and is trying to reach out to Ryan to ask if he really does believe that relationships are meaningless and the only reason people procreate is to make something out of their scummy lives. Before she can, though, Alex admits he was feeling jealous of Ryan’s talent and unfairly took it out on his and Jane’s relationship. Jane realizes she just missed Ryan, and that the distance was kind of making connecting harder than she realized it would. This sets up pretty well for some Jane/Ryan drama next episode, as one of them either does something stupidly romantic, or just plain stupid. The lack of Jane drama in this episode kind of squarely determines there is definitely going to be some in the near future, after all.
However, in this episode, Jane proves to be a truly good friend. When looking for a photographer for the Pamela Dolin story, Oliver suggests Adena. Now, we all remember Adena’s back in town and it has kind of been an issue for Kat, but now with Jacqueline and Oliver both recommending her for the shoot, Jane’s in a little bit of a moral crisis. She agrees to let Adena do the shoot, and quickly rushes to ask Kat if she’s gonna be okay with it. Kat is fine, and Adena and Jane meet for lunch. At which point, Jane gives Adena a very firm talking to about how Kat is doing much better and how much the Paris trip had messed with her mind, throwing her completely off her game.
Good on you, Jane. And later, when Adena admits to Jane that Paris had been a mistake, Jane and Sutton rush to inform Kat that there might still be hope that Adena is the one. While the move might’ve been a controversial one, I firmly believe that we owe the people the truth. We can’t be the ones to decide what’s good for someone else, which is why Jane taking the truth to Kat was a ballsy, but ultimately, Good Friend move. I might change my mind about her.
KAT
I gotta admit, Kat has been my least favorite this season. But I think it’s the same way that Harry was my least favorite in the Half Blood-Prince. The annoying attitude and aggression is the after-effect of some kind of trauma, a pain that can’t be expressed other than in just being really frustrating. It all kind of comes out in this episode. Kat tells Adena she’s too busy to come see her, and it’s kind of obvious why anyone would refuse to see their ex. It’s still fresher than Kat is ready to admit.
At the end of the last episode, Tia and Kat took their relationship to the next level, which was momentous for both of them. However, as soon as Kat gets Adena’s text, you can tell something in her shuts down as the pain comes flooding back. And then Kat is faced with the eternal question: did I let the one I love go, or am I letting old feeling ruin new ones? Kat does what the best of us do: she forces herself to move on faster than she can. While she’s made herself believe that Tia isn’t a rebound, she kind of is.
I want to root for them, but as soon as you see Kat’s face when she runs into Adena by the Scarlet elevators, it’s painfully clear: this is a love that hasn’t broken yet. Jane and Sutton understand that, and as soon as they know Adena’s still in love with Kat, they do their job and tell her. Still, Kat refuses to see her at first, insisting that she’s not going to let herself ruin something good. Except, as soon as Tia goes home, Kat goes to meet up with Adena and in the final scenes of the episode, they go off for a walk.
It doesn’t bode well for Tia, but here’s hoping Kat lets her down easy.
SUTTON
I have a confession: Sutton’s my favorite person on this show. Her humor and ambition drew me in from the very first episode, but they are the absolute stars of this one. Sutton’s got a lot on her plate the past few weeks, with Richard’s grief, her job, and the design seminar. But this girl’s a lean-mean productivity machine, and she manages to look cute and be cheerful the whole way through. The only problem is that with having loaned her money to her mother, Sutton can’t afford a fancy new sewing machine, while all the other designers in her seminar have good machines and clearly no day-jobs consuming all their free time, which enables them to be better designers than her. Or so she thinks, as she still hasn’t won the Runway Award, which is just essentially her instructor’s approval over a piece.
She’s talking to Richard about how it sucks that she can’t afford a machine that would make things easier. Richard’s a bit shady about it, but Sutton dismisses that and sends him off so she can focus on her work. (There’s also a scene where they’re sharing a meal and Sutton insists on paying for her own food, which Richard clearly doesn’t like). When she gets home later, there’s a shiny sewing machine on their coffee table, which Richard apparently bought before he realized she’d be so against it. They have an argument about how Richard insists on paying for things, and how Sutton is so adamantly against it. There’s a spreadsheet where Richard has divided up all their expenses to kind of sarcastically point out to Sutton that everything in their life is evenly split, down to the fact that he owes Sutton a million dollars because she saved him from marrying, then divorcing, Jessica.
Very cute, very weird.
But Sutton gets annoyed, tells him that she’s going to use her old sewing machine to make an ironically classical piece, and storms off to Jane’s to ‘stitch and bitch’. Alex is there too and he listens to Sutton, before reminding her that a relationship is a two-way street that means she has to trust Richard too. Jane asks if he’d be okay with having a rich girlfriend pay for his expenses, and he admits that while it would hurt his ego a bit, he’d give in if that made his partner happy.
Score to Alex.
Sutton realizes she was panicking at the idea of being financially dependent on Richard because she didn’t want her life to fall apart if they ever split. She tells this to Richard, who reminds her that he depends on her too, and that’s just the way things are. They keep the sewing machine, and also, my heart.
Well. That was this week at Scarlet. With just two episodes to go, the writers have a couple of story-lines to tie up, so tune in next week for more!
The Bold Type airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Freeform.