MTV just handed us a doozy of an episode with last week’s ‘Sweet/Vicious’ as Jules flashed back to the night her entire life changed. How could the show manage to top that heart-wrenching and fantastic episode? By showing the audience how Jules continues to deal with it: sometimes, you have to go backwards to move forwards. I’ve got a few hints at what’s to come.
Two steps forward and one step back
We all saw Jules head to Group at the end of the previous episode, and her getting angry and talking seemed like it would be cathartic for her. That might not be the case.
There are a lot of moments in this episode that set Jules back. I can’t give you details because I’m not into spoiling the story for anyone, but let’s say at one point, she even goes back to something that gave her comfort in freshman year, but it’s not doing the job anymore.
Harris and Barton have a plan
You didn’t think Barton losing his job was going to stop him from investigating the vigilante, did you? Of course not. He and Harris have a plan to figure out who the vigilante is once and for all. Given that it’s Barton and Harris, you know that their plan might not exactly go according to, well, plan, but it’s still a pretty solid idea. You’ll have to watch to see if it’s successful for them, or even just one of them.
There’s a whole rom-com movie homage happening
Nate’s a life-ruiner, right? We’ve established that. Even when Jules begins to think she can deal with what has happened to her, just the idea of Nate creeps in and stops her; we’ve seen it happen over and over again on the show. He does, however, genuinely care about Kennedy and wants to make it up to her for “cheating on her” with her best friend, as he still doesn’t think he assaulted Jules.
What follows is Nate going to one of his frat brothers for help who is a really, really, big fan of romantic comedies. See if you spot all the references.
Jules goes a step too far
Its been obvious that Jules is barely holding herself together during a lot of her vigilante activities. She’s using the mask and the “ninja skills” as an outlet for her anger, but in “Back to Black,” it’s not just an outlet anymore.
She takes things a step (or three) too far, leading to a confrontation with Ophelia where some hard truths are thrown about that Jules doesn’t want to hear.
Kennedy never backs down from a challenge
Many fans have been saying since the beginning of the series (myself included) that Kennedy needs to wake up and see what Jules has been going through. For a lot of us, it’s unthinkable that your best friend won’t notice when so much of your personality has changed because of the events of one night. It’s even more unthinkable to watch someone choose to believe their boyfriend’s version of events over their best friend. As the audience though, we’ve seen what really happened, and Kennedy hasn’t, so it’s not crazy for her to be stuck in the middle and confused.
Kennedy though, as she says to someone in the episode, never backs down from a challenge. In fact, Kennedy, not unlike Ophelia and Jules, has a few confrontations with other characters tonight that will give you hope that her friendship with Jules isn’t broken beyond repair.
I’ll leave you with one bonus tease: by the end of the episode, someone else might know the identity of the vigilantes! Guess who?
Catch “Sweet/Vicious” when it airs on MTV at 10PM on Tuesday.
