Everything Now: Season 1/ Episode 8 – Recap and Review

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General Information

This section Includes information about the Director, Writer, and Cast.

Plot Recap

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You Gotta Stop Running – Carli, Viv, Mia, Dr. Nell

When Viv discovers that Mia hasn’t been eating for a week, she is ready to confront her, but Mia runs away. This leads to Viv alerting everyone but Carli, who is still too new to the friend group to be on Viv’s radar. But, with Carli cut off after the events of Mia’s birthday, it isn’t like she is part of the group chat to even learn what Mia intends to do.

Plus, knowing her friends or family could perhaps ruin Mia’s fantasy, she convinced Carli to ditch her job for the day and spend it with her. Which she does for a while, but as Carli realizes Mia is following a similar pattern to what her mom would do, Carli puts her foot down. She holds Mia accountable, and with that, Mia goes to see Dr. Nell and, for once, is honest about how she feels, both in terms of progress and setbacks.

We’re All Flawed A Bit – Will, Cameron, Becca, Mia, Jenna, Carol, Rick, Theo, Dr. Nell, Viv

In this episode, we properly meet not only Mia’s former roommate, Jenna but their mother, Carol, who seems to be mourning the loss of her daughter. Luckily, as we learn, she found Rick to soothe her, but Mia doesn’t learn that her friend’s mother is her dad’s new girlfriend. All she knows is that the one she saw as stronger broke, and with that in mind, she questioned how could she get better?

But, with being open and vulnerable, Dr. Nell is proud of her, and Rick hasn’t given up on Mia. It seems Viv still isn’t ready or desires to be part of the fight, just the success, but Mia already knows her mother isn’t strong enough for a long fight, and she accepts this flaw.

It’s no different for Will and Theo, as Theo forgives Will for his immaturity, and after Cameron confesses he loves Becca, she forgives him and herself. She forgives herself for everything that wasn’t said between her, Cameron, and Mia, and considering she ends the season single, who knows what may happen?

One Day At A Time – Jenna, Mia, Becca, Cameron, Will, Alison, Carli

You may wonder, with all that happened, how is Alison? Well, she is heartbroken and as destructive as anyone else. In fact, she may have hooked up with Cameron. However, things are vague, and beyond drinking together, we aren’t 100% sure what they did or didn’t do. All we know is that Mia apologized to Becca, Cameron, and Will to their face and wrote Alison a letter.

As for Carli? With all that has happened, it seems her place in the friend group is still on pause as Will and her haven’t healed their relationship, and there has been no reconciliation with Cameron and Mia? She recognizes they aren’t good for each other, so she puts a pin in who they are until they can evolve beyond being each other’s fantasy.

This leaves the question of what the friend group will do going forward? Well, in less than two months, it is Will’s birthday, and it is decided to make a new list. Not one with major things, even if as innocent as backpacking, but small things. For Mia remembers talking with Jenna at night about doing small things like family game night and eating at an Italian restaurant, and it appears Mia wants to focus on baby steps toward normalcy rather than leaps and large strides.

Questions Left Unanswered

1. Did Will quit his job at the store after his odd encounter with Gareth?

New Character Description(s)

Jenna

Jenna was Mia’s roommate, who she saw as the stronger of the two since she was far more disciplined about not giving in to bad habits. Yet, it seemed she didn’t do well when she switched to outpatient, like Mia.

Carol

Carol is Jenna’s mother and Rick’s current girlfriend, whom he met at a support group.

Collected Quote(s)

Your disorder thrives on secrecy.
— Dr. Nell

Hoping for you made everything brighter.
— Mia

Review

Highlights

Carli Setting Boundaries And Expectations Like Mia Has Likely Needed

I feel that, in the process of many trying to coddle and be understanding of Mia, she didn’t get the boundaries she needed. Hence her pushing people’s buttons, and yes, as Alex said, you can blame the illness, but I wonder if sometimes there is a need to firmly tell someone like Mia “No”. Especially when they are on the up and up, damn near manic, versus already lashing out and feeling like they have nothing to lose.

For, granted, why would anyone want to ruin someone’s good day, right? But if you are going to separate the person you love from their illness and push the idea when they are who you want and like them to be, that is the real them, that is when you have to strike. That, from what it seems, might be when they are the most receptive.

So, Carli making it clear it isn’t the Mia show, that Mia is triggering her, and as much as she may like her, she can’t be with her like this, might be what she needed and who she needed to hear it from. Because, clearly, from her mom and others, it seems Mia didn’t seriously fear losing them or access to them, but Carli? Even if it is because she needs her fix of being with her obsession, that is some kind of proverbial carrot that may have been needed.

Normalcy is too much of a long-term goal. From what Mia says, recovery can take over seven years to achieve. So, a day-by-day approach, getting consistent access to Carli, who has some capacity for Mia but isn’t trying to enable her or be her trauma landfill, that is an incentive to do better. Especially as Mia tries to find it in herself to intrinsically want to do so versus for seeking extrinsic motivation.

Alison Not Forgiving As Easily As Everyone Else

I appreciate Alison not being quick to forgive Mia. Beyond the letter, which feels a bit insulting, Alison really loved Mia, and I’d submit that only Cameron stuck his neck out and went as far to be there for Mia. Mind you, did Alison not have the conversations required to really have a secure relationship? No, but both sides need to be held accountable.

However, I still believe she had the most apt response, potentially hooking up with Cameron aside, since I can’t imagine everyone always being ready to give Mia another chance. Her illness makes her vicious and use personal information to attack people. Mind you, more often than not, in a public setting with people outside the friend group around.

On The Fence

Wishing For More Out Of Viv

I feel like, by the end, most of the characters you gained some sort of understanding that felt firm. Becca is overwhelmed by her academics and home expectations, but being needed in that capacity makes her feel like she belongs to something. Cameron, similar to Alison, doesn’t have a strong and stable connection to their parents, so they need their friend group to fill that void. Will doesn’t handle strong emotions well, whether negative or love, so he focuses on joy. He can produce and receive joy well, so he latched onto that.

Heck, even Alex, Carli, and potentially Rick, you get just enough to understand them, but Viv feels different. Now, it was hinted that she has lived a life where being what others perceived her to be has influenced her person. Also, based on what we saw with young Mia, she wanted this perfect doll she could dress up and likely has been continually disappointed by Mia not living up to that. But the problem is, while you can see something is there, we don’t get to explore the wound.

Viv’s mom is alive, we see her in two episodes, but we don’t explore that relationship. We don’t get to see or understand Viv beyond the dichotomy of who Mia and Rick see vs. Alison. More often than not, we’re stuck in other people’s perceptions of her, or our own, with her not really getting to present her own narrative. It is all a bit frustrating.

Almost to the point of wondering if this show had too many characters to focus on, and thus, it failed Viv in pursuit of making sure the young adults were given enough to work with.

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