Everything’s Gonna Be Okay: Season 1 Episode 9 “Monarch Butterflies” – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

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With Matilda and Genevieve starting to falter at school, perhaps in life, Nicholas decides it is time to get real and stop trying to be the girls’ friend.

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Directed By	Rachel Lee Goldenberg
Written By	Jess Meyer, Josh Thomas
Aired (FreeForm)	3/5/2020

Plot/ Recap

An Experiment Or Something Real?: Drea, Matilda

For half of the episode, “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay” becomes an artsy queer film focused on Drea and Matilda. Two people whose relationship seems rooted in Matilda wanting to experience all that it means to be with a woman, one who gets her, but she seems uncomfortable with them being public. If not, at the very least, while Matilda knows she likes, even exchanges “I Love You” with Drea, she can’t let go of her privilege.

Matilda being high functioning, beautiful, and able to interact with both the kids with autism and those like Luke, it means a lot to her. Heck, sometimes it seems she is both shamed of her community but happy to fall back on it when she gets rejected by atypicals. And between wanting to go to the prom with someone popular and then reality hitting and her returning to Drea, it seems Matilda has a lot to learn if she ever expects stability. Though, who knows, this could be all about checking off life experiences. Similar to when Matilda wanted to get white girl wasted.

Are You Average?: Genevieve, Nicholas, Barb

With Tellulah caught up in Leonard’s orbit and Genevive stuck with Barb, there is this idea being floated that Barb being average is the reason Genevieve is becoming a C student. An idea pushed by Nicholas, who you’d think liked Barb, but seems to think her being a basic C is the reason Genevieve is no longer pursuing any form of excellence.

Genevieve’s retort? Well, she is dealing with her dad dying. This leads to Nicholas feeling that, between Genevieve and Matilda, his approach needs to change.

Prepping For The Future: Genevieve, Nicholas, Matilda

As shown through his interactions with Alex, Nicholas can be very harsh, to the point, say things with minimal consideration for the other person’s feelings. Which he thinks his sisters need to see and experience for with him trying to be their friend, he hasn’t been prepping them for the real world. If anything, like the bugs he adores, he has allowed them a safe shelter where he provides all and doesn’t leave them vulnerable to the outside world.

But, with it being noted that isn’t working and relying for them to operate on their own is dangerous, he gets aggressively honest. Meaning, he calls out both of their shortcomings and how that can impede their college plans. And while he does make an effort to build them back up, it isn’t without everyone recognizing there is still a major adjustment going on. One in which the girls, who may never have really been as close to Nicholas as he may think, struggle to say they love him. And overall, there is a realization that for them all to thrive, they can’t just navigate around one another but need to hold each other accountable and start acting like a family.

Review/ Commentary

Highlights

The Drea/ Matilda Romance

It isn’t necessarily clear what may come of Drea and Matilda or what the overall goal was. However, in the time we spent with those two, watching their relationship grow, rich, brilliant highs, lows, and reconcile, it was like a truncated movie. One that further reminded us how complicated Matilda is and honestly selfish as well.

Likely because, if there was a caste system or hierarchy in terms of autism, she is at the top. Making dealing with the fact she can’t easily intermix with the atypicals, especially in romantic or sexual ways, frustrating, and yet being treated as the queen of the kids with autism not fulfilling either. And it is being stuck in that middle that is perhaps the heart of Matilda’s story and in next week’s New York episode, that might determine whether Matilda can function or will succumb to the lowly expectations she has been trying to dismantle most of her life.

Nicholas Getting Real With His Sisters

Thus far, Nicholas hasn’t filled any real paternal role in the girls’ lives, besides handling bills. He helped Matilda get drunk, approved of a threesome, and while he has tried to curtail Genevieve from Tellulah’s influence, despite knowing the trouble she is, he bashes Barb. So Nicholas truly committing to his role as a parental figure and getting real with the girls feels overdue.

Now, was he a bit harsh? Yes. However, their home family is privileged, and while their dad’s kindness and patience is why Matilda is high functioning, it is also why they aren’t necessarily ready for the real world. At least the world through Nicholas’ eyes. And as shown by Genevieve trying to keep her sister close and lessen expectations of her, the one with the most mouth probably has the most to fear.

I mean, considering how Genevieve would brush off Tellulah, you’d think she was her own person who had some realm of ability to not care what people think. But, with Tellulah having a boyfriend that is Genevieve’s former crush, it is shown to us that Genevieve is all talk. In fact, she is the worst kind of person who is all talk: Someone who can go off on family but for the things she really wants? The people she’s love to have in her life or develop an aversion to her – silence.

And with Matilda, one could submit she has coasted on being high functioning and the praise which comes from that. Especially with a teacher like she has who might be prepping her students, and is very engaged with the parents, but doesn’t represent the harsh realities of people who aren’t going to seek to understand or bend over backwards. They have no obligation to, and the weight of the moment will fall on Matilda and her peers. All of which Matilda hasn’t been focused on since it seems she knows the challenges ahead and rather do her checklist at home than be frustrated by the exclusion which may come in New York.

Which isn’t to forget Nicholas’ sisters getting real with him. Be it the reminder he wasn’t necessarily chosen, and probably was the best of the slim pickings they have, or that he tries far harder than necessary. For the whole idea of the private family chat wasn’t to tear down one another but, as said in the recap, introduce and enforce accountability since it is becoming clear the fun is becoming a distraction from what’s needed and required for everyone’s next chapter.

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