We’ve heard about what put Jules on her path to vigilante justice quite a bit in the first six episodes of “Sweet/Vicious.” She even called Nate out on his assault of her in the last episode. We haven’t, however, seen the full events play out onscreen - until now. The show flashes back to the party where Jules’ whole life changed in “Heartbreaker,” while also following the events of Harris and Ophelia’s friendship anniversary in the present.
The infamous party
We finally get to see just what went down at the infamous fraternity party that led Jules down a very different path in life. When Kennedy is sick, Jules agrees to go to the party without her and keep an eye on Nate to make sure he doesn’t drink too much. The entire thing is innocent enough with the two hanging out and playing drinking games together, but as we all know, Nate takes things too far.
We don’t just see the lead up to the assault, or the assault itself, but the aftermath as well. It’s all difficult to watch and if you can get through this episode without wanting to take Nate down yourself, I’d be surprised.
It becomes much harder to even give Nate a pass and allow for him to think the two of them cheated on Kennedy when you see the events unfold. Some audience members might have been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt (though not this one), but he’s so obviously in the wrong, you wonder why he doesn’t register Jules fighting back, telling him she doesn’t want to sleep with him, and saying no - all in addition to the fact that she was asleep before the assault even began.
“Heartbreaker” makes it clear that Nate is a creep and makes me hope even more for Kennedy to understand what Jules has been going through in the next batch of episodes.
Ophelia plans to party it up
In the lighter part of the episode, Ophelia and Harris have a day of drinking and debauchery planned to celebrate the anniversary of their friendship, though it now includes Jules.
What’s sweet is that Ophelia wants to include Jules so she doesn’t wallow, but what’s sweeter is that Jules agrees to participate with gummy worms instead of alcohol once Ophelia offers up the compromise.
Jules does get to cut loose in the episode, which features one of my favorite sequences since “Defying Gravity” in the pilot as Jules, Ophelia, and Harris all sing and dance together, but she does it to forget the problems that had her hiding out in Ophelia’s apartment to begin with. While we all know when watching the day go down that it’s going to catch up with her, it’s still a welcome bit of light-heartedness since flashbacks to her assault are sprinkled throughout the hour.
Harris makes a big decision
Harris looks for his article on the campus vigilante in the law journal, and shocker, it’s not there. Given how we see the campus counselor handle Jules’ assault, it’s a safe bet that someone decided to cover it up. Harris, in his “Edward Forty Hands” wisdom, decides to publish the article on the internet himself. Will he regret this once he sobers up? It costs him his spot with the law journal, so maybe. But it also makes me think he’s in this investigation for the long haul.
Jules is ready to embrace the darkness
Admittedly, she’s drunk when she does it, and as Ophelia points out, her reaction time and ability to fight are compromised, but the girl is ready to knife Nate in a bar bathroom!
We really can’t blame her at this point, can we? The rage seething just under the surface might just be a sign of things to come. The anger Jules shows when she finally begins to talk in group in the final act makes me think we haven’t seen the last of that darkness.
The verdict
This was essentially a perfect episode of the series. It gives us everything that “Sweet/Vicious” is about: assault, the aftermath, coping with it, and friendship that helps you get through day-to-day. It also has the perfect balance of drama and humor.
5 out of 5 stars.