The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Season 2, Episodes 7-8 Recap

Episode Date: December 9, 2022

Juliet Litman and Jodi Walker are back to break down episodes 7-8 of ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Season 2. They open with a brief apology to Julia Louis-Dreyfus, before discussing Bela’s self-destructive nature, the two-episode weekly release structure, Leighton coming out to her dad, and a brief look ahead to next week’s final two episodes. Hosts: Juliet Litman and Jodi Walker Producer: Kai Grady Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, this is Rob Harvilla from 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, the world's greatest loopy and perverse and inaccurately named music nostalgia podcast. We're doing 90 songs now because there's too many songs. Pearl Jam, J.Z, Jewel, YouTube, Cher, Hootie. These are just some of the names people yell at me on the internet because we're back. More great songs, more rad special guests, more loopy perversity. Join us once more on 60 Songs That Explain the 90s every Wednesday on Spotify. Welcome to the Prestige TV podcast.

I'm Juliet Litman. I'm here with Jody Walker. Hi, Jody. Hi, Juliet. How are you? I'm great. Jody, you've been my colleague for like 10 months now, and I always want to call you Jody Turner,

as in the actress, even though your name is Jody Walker. I'm so sorry. I like that you also lean towards calling me my first and last name at all times. Maybe if you just leaned into it, it would click. We are here to discuss episodes. seven and eight from season two of the Sex Paisal College Girls on HBO Max, and we need to begin with an apology. We need to begin with an apology to Julia Louis Dreyfus.

We need to apologize to her family. Last week, we talked about Whitney's new love interest, and we talked about, which I thought was noteworthy, that the character didn't have a name. Well, we learned it. It's Andrew, and he is played by Charlie Hall, the son of probably one of the most beloved actresses of all time, Julia Louis Dreyfus.

So Charlie Hall, we see you, Julia Louis Dreyfus. We apologize to you. I don't really care about it just not as much. But I just felt like we needed to note that. So. And people who slid into our DMs to let us know that we missed that fact. We also see you. Thank you.

I will say, you know, we're watching these episodes a little early sometimes. And so like all the information is not always available. But when we were, Juliet, Juliet uncovered this fact immediately and gave it to me. for which I was very grateful. Because immediately, the moment you told me, I was like, that's where I've seen him. I saw him in Veep. He was in, like, one episode of Veep

as another tryhard character. He's got a beat. And I really think he's great in this. I'm really enjoying this. I think it's kind of funny that he's playing tryhards because he does not necessarily, like, he's the opposite of a tryhard, I think.

I mean, someone I could gleam from his social media and the fact that he's a Division I athlete and also that I just find him very cute, and it makes me uncomfortable because I feel like Julia Louis Dreyfus is someone I've known a long time, though obviously I don't know her. And I'm like, oh, I shouldn't find him cute, but I do.

I don't think you need to worry about that, Juliet. Julia Louis Dreyfus does not know us, and she will not care if we find her son cute. Also, all the things that you just named are like not representation that he is not a tryhard. But the fact that he's cute helps him out a lot. I mean, we'll get to more of the Whitney stuff later, but having just found this information out,

thinking about the fact that I think the only other thing I've seen him on is glee, I could not help but think he reminds me so, this character of Andrew reminds me so much of like a young Dan Egan from VEP as just like a total suck-up, total try-hard, like asshole that you kind of can't help but want to sleep with. And I love it.

Yes. I love it as well. Side note, did you see that he went to the state dinner with Julia Louis Dreifis last week? I did see that. Someone sent it to me. Thank you again for my education in approved nepotism. At least it has my approval. Also, Julie Louis Dreyfus and her son, Charlie Hall and her husband, Brad Hall, all went to northwestern, to which I say, go cats. Go cats. Okay. In fact, Julie Lue Dreyfus and I were in the same sorority as writer of this television show, Sarah Tapscott. So I'll call I mean, once again, as much as I relate to this show, I say that this is really your show, Juliet. It is telling your story. On that note, let's get into what happened this week.

Episode 7, the Essex College Food Workers Strike, Kimberly and her colleague strike, Whitney's mother shows up, and there's a breakup and a museum. Quite a bit goes on. It's always a happy episode when Sherry Shepard is there. thank you to Senator Chase for showing up. What was your favorite part of this episode, Jody? She's great. I liked that Sherry Shepard and her character, Senator Chase showing up, like, brought together a few storylines.

You know, she's there visiting her daughter, Whitney, but she's also helping out Kimberly, budding union representative. Because as much as I enjoyed Seven, I always think this show is funny. It always entertains me. The storylines were a, especially disparate.

Like, especially Bella, I think. I was noticing that. I've heard you say that. I think Zoe said it, too, that like Bella is just in her own show. And that really hasn't been my personal experience watching it. But in this episode, I was like, man, I don't even know if she's talked to anybody else this whole episode.

And it felt kind of notable. So I was glad Sherry Shepherd was there to bring it all together a little bit. Yeah, let's talk about Bella. So we were shocked at the beginning of the season. Not shocked, but I guess surprised by how quick. the will they or won't they was resolved between Bella and Eric and the answer was they will and now they won't follow up won't he found out that she slept with Dan O'Connell which happened last week so in the way that he found out was because of that character what's that actresses name again

uh John P. Reynolds John P. Reynolds thank you John P. Reynolds as Dan O'Connell was telling his staff that he slept with a woman at Essex College. So first of all, I totally, I totally believe that he would tell people, but would he tell his staff about that? Well, I just think that last week we asked the question, is this guy a creep? And we kind of waffled on our yes. And now we can officially say this guy is absolutely a creep. He's a creep. This information has made it back to Eric, a college student, because this adult runner of a show told his whole staff that he slept with a freshman in college, and then he described her in detail by saying that she was like an Indian young woman who couldn't stop quoting 30 Rock. That's messed up, man. Very messed up, thought it was

funny. The delivery of that was funny. One thing about that actor, can you remind me his name again? I keep wanting to say, I keep almost saying John P. Reynolds. John P. Reynolds. I can't remember his name, and I also can't remember his face, because it turns out I actually have seen him on a TV show before, It's like I never saw him, but he was on Mindy Kaling's four wedding and a funerals. Four weddings and a funeral on Hulu. Yes. Yes. As Duffy or something.

That show is objectively terrible and I absolutely loved it. Same. It was really bad and I watched the whole thing. It features one of my favorite actors, Nakash Patel, who is also on Starstruck, also on HBO Max. Also recently featured on my favorite podcast, Table Manors with Jesse and Lenny Ware. Wow. I still love him. He's so, so hot.

Let's get him on this show, except I don't want him to be turned into a creep. Maybe he could be the one adult man in the sex lives of college girls that doesn't try to sleep with a college freshman. I would like unlimited rom-com content with Nick Hache Patel. Like, I would watch something with him every day of the week. I love Starstruck, if you haven't. Absolutely. Anyway, I was like, I've never seen this man before, but I just have like face blindness for this. John P. Reynolds because I did not recognize him at all. And like, I think if I saw him in the street,

I still wouldn't recognize him. Anyway, the specter of his character, Dan O'Connell looms as Bella and Eric have broken up. And Bella handles it about as horribly as one can in that like none of her behavior afterwards is defensible, like at all. What would you say was the nadeer for Bella this week, in this episode, at least? I just, I can't get over how self-destructive Bella is. I, I think Eric really reads her for filth when they're kind of like truly going through the breakup. And he says, you work so hard to get people to like you. But then when people actually do like you, you push them away. And, you know, that was a pretty mean and direct thing to say.

But it's accurate. And he has just experienced it. And I don't know if they're doing this on purpose. But even within the group of girls, even within the four roommates, she seems to be the least invested in, like, truly knowing these other girls who are her friends and also truly being known. I actually think it's, like, a pretty well-drawn character of someone who is, who reads as extremely confident, but has kind of, like, a deep insecurity that they won't be liked and they have to prove themselves with their talent. And so it was interesting to see that stuff

come out in this episode, but it was also deeply sad because Bella had a really good thing going with like her magazine and her cute boyfriend and she just blew it up and she had to look at his gorgeous gay dads in the face and listen to them say get out of here. I thought the worst part was when she saw him and she was him being Eric and she was like, you need to forgive me. And he was like, I need to forgive you. Like he correctly called her out on just focusing on how she was feeling and not him. and I'm sorry, but she deserves me broken up with.

Like, there's no way to defend it. I'm grateful to Bella for bringing us back to what I thought was one of the funniest parts of the episode, which was the quote, mid-century biodome, which is what Senator Chase called this, like, wellness tent in the middle of campus. It's like the mental health dome or igloo. I don't know. It was like a mental health igloo in the middle of campus. Well, she goes there at the end.

It's like a COVID eating situation, but it's bigger. It's like, you know how restaurants have like the fake igloos or whatever? It's that with West Elm furniture and it's what the university is doing for mental health. It was a really funny moment. Sherry Shepard is such a great part of the show because whether, both because of her own like comedic chops and also like the writing for her character as being like a, just a really like sharp-witted, a. amongst all these, you know, young adults. When she's on, it's just like magnetic and so funny. And so she was absolutely hilarious about what she called the mid-century biodome.

And I was just glad to see it to be able to talk about it. I think she said what white nonsense is this. And I mentioned to you in the doc that at my college, as my student job, I basically worked in the like what was our equivalent of the mental health igloo. Like it was this all-gly. I used to work in the student center, and there was this all glass room that they decided they were going to spend a lot of money turning into like a hangout spot for students where they could unwind and chill. So then I got transferred to like being the desk attendant there. It was the best

job I ever had because I didn't have to do anything because no one came inside. It was crazy. You know what angsty teens and 20 somethings want when they're feeling shitty is to sit in a totally transparent space so that everyone can see them crying or moping. Yeah, that's what everyone's interested in. Exactly. Also, it's like a university-sponsored place. That's where you feel safest. It's just Canaan rightly says when that is presented to them as some sort of solution to something or to nothing, he says, if you have the money to do this, don't you have the money to pay us? Right. And that gets to the strike, which we should talk about. So in this episode, Kimberly and Canaan and their fellow Essex College food workers are on strike because

Canaan explains that they found out they're getting paid much less than the other schools. Is that supposed to be like the Ivy League? Like what are the other schools he's referring to? I bet that there is some like there is some monitoring or sanction of, I mean, like the student job I had in college was like a sanctioned student job. Like you have those jobs for certain like reasons. You have to sort of like qualify for them in a financial. way. And so I imagine throughout college campus, I mean, it's like minimum wage, which for the

record is what I made at my student job. So I imagine there's some sort of student minimum wage that Essex College is not reaching. If they haven't changed it since 1978, I think union rep Jody said, not Jody Turner. I wasn't, I wasn't sure if he meant like other like parts of the Essex campus or other colleges. But I think he meant other colleges. I think that's what he that. But anyway, that's sort of. I assumed other colleges, but it was very specific to the food workers. So maybe it was other Essex student jobs. Which would be so rude because food working, like working, that is the hardest job. So hard. And people are like definitely rude to you and really, really hard. Anyway, Kimberly gets really involved in this. She's really excited, though she's probably not

necessarily cut out for organization. I wouldn't say she's like the most galvanizing organizer. Nevertheless, she had Senator Chase to come to campus. And then she has Senator Chase, quote, the founder, who it turned out to be a slave owner, and the quote was about labor. So not great for Senator Chase. I have to say, like, though this episode, as you said, was like really disjointed and I didn't particularly love it, there were some, like, funny beats to it. And, like, a lot of the ideas were funny.

It just, like, lacked, it lacked, like, execution, I suppose. I don't know a better way. to say it. I do think what we're seeing over and over, though, and it's interesting to think about the structure of the show and the way they've decided to release it is like, episode seven, I enjoyed, but it was a little disjointed. Then I immediately watched

episode eight, which brought all the girls together and was like a much more communal effort, and those two episodes are released together. The sort of two-episode structure that HBO Max has adopted a number of times, especially for its

comedies, is kind of an odd one that I've never understood, but the show itself does seem to be working within it. Like, I do think when they're writing it, they're thinking about that these are going to be released in two episode chunks. Would you rather have five weeks of 45-minute episodes, or do you like 10 episodes two per week? Basically, do you want five chapters or 10? I think I want to cruise through 10 episodes of this show. I mean, I think it is highly bingeable. I do think that that would make it a very different experience, a different show. And it's

fine how it is. Like, I like watching it week to week, but I think if it was going to be anything else, it would be drop all 10 at once. I always preferred to have it parceled out. Like, I really, the shows that, like, I remember and that stick with me are the shows where I have to watch them, like, on the release cadence versus over one weekend. And so I'm not sure I would like this show would have the same impact for me.

But on the other hand, I do like a Netflix comedy. Like, I don't know. I lament the loss of friends from college, and I regret watching that so quickly. Another bad show that I watched all of. I love that show. It's just, it's, the characters are so hateable. But the show, I do like the show.

I think Starstruck is a good example of that, though. Like, that is one that sticks in my mind of, of watching the first episode and being like, I can't believe I get to watch five or seven, however many of the first season was, like more episodes of this right now because they released it all at once. And it was just like such a treat. But then I also think that that show is not as well known as it should be. And that could be thanks in part to the release schedule. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced

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in that her hookup buddy Jackson with whom she's having very loud sex at the beginning of the episode still patronizes. the various, he crosses the picket line, basically. And he doesn't really get why that's a bad thing to do. I thought this was just sort of like weird. Like, I just like, the whole thing didn't really like play. I guess they're building up to what happens in the next episode, which is they DTR and become officially dating.

But like, I just didn't really care about if Jackson is respecting the union and their strike. Not because I'm like, anti-union or anti-strike, but because I'm just like, I don't really care what Jackson thinks or Jackson's politics. He just didn't seem to understand. understand that he was doing something wrong. And then the moment that Kimberly told him he was, he was like, oh, I'll throw this box of shrimp away.

No problem. There was no, like, real tension in the situation. I also, though, it's a tricky situation. I'm not crossing that picket line. But it's kind of tough to ask your friends not to eat. Like, I think they're on a campus where most of them don't have cars. And, like, the dining hall is the only option to eat. What if you're on scholarship and your meal plan is covered and, like, you can't afford to

get food elsewhere? Like probably Kimberly or Kimberly before she lost her scholarship, except I did really love the ongoing joke of her like pulling boiled eggs out of her pockets. So gross. Very Napoleon Dynamite. She's so gross. It got me every time. I just like don't really care about Jackson, but whatever. He's hot.

I don't mind him. He's so hot. Yeah. I like seeing it. I liked that even Senator Chase was like, that is a wide young man. It's like you can't really help but comment upon his like sheer stature when you see him. He's just, he's, he's, he's Paul Walker Jr. to me. We're going to come back to Layton in a minute because she has got a big storyline in

episode eight, but we'll just say this week she's trying to, in episode seven, she was trying to seem cool to Tatum, which was just sort of like total latent filler of like her working through her relationship. I didn't really love it. I think that that was actually the downside for me. I like seeing Layton kind of at her worst, but it was hard to believe that Tatum would like the girl that Leighton was presenting to her, like, as someone who's always kind of talking themselves up. Although I will say her flirting style of being like, I'm going to ignore this text for exactly four hours, unless it's a question, then I'm going to ignore it for 24 hours, was deeply relatable. Me too. Oh, totally. I was like, great strategy. And Leighton, we agree. That was a sleigh.

And it was a sleigh. And then Whitney, I'm disappointed in this Whitney situation. Whitney's storyline, both of these episodes, was about a man. And while I find him hot, I want more for Whitney. Whitney's mom comes to campus, and her main thing is that she doesn't want to take an internship that her mom gets for her, which is great. And that was, you know, commendable. But then it very quickly just is all about her.

And I keep on to call him Charlie. He looks like a Charlie now that I know his name, Heron Andrew. And they have sex. at the end of the episode. Okay, but that was pretty exciting. It was. It's a very attractive couple. I really liked her outfit when she was wearing a skirt,

and he was, like, mad that she was wearing a skirt because it was not, like, science safety. I thought that was funny. I like them, but I was just like, oh, I thought we were moving past Whitney's storyline being about a boyfriend. I felt like they balanced it okay with, like, her continued pursuit of the science arts.

Like, I did like how into her lab she was. And, and I mean, I just, I can't help it. Like, I love an enemies to love her storyline. And that is what they're doing. And I was the, you know, top complainer about all of her storylines being about men. But to me, like, Andrew is not really becoming a character. He's not like this fully realized thing like Canaan or that coach were. but I don't want her continued storyline to be all about Andrew.

And I don't believe that it will be because this is not about to Eric and Bella itself. Like, he's not becoming a boyfriend. He's becoming like a full-time competitor. And Canaan is making his way back because in the next episode, she, well, first of all, Canaan and her mom interact, which like, it's impossible to have Canaan and the mom interact without that, like, coming back up. Like, it can't just be, like, random. Even if it's next season, it has to, like,

it has to be something. I'm sorry. And then Canaan catches Whitney and Andrew having sex in the stacks in the library. Like, isn't there a room or a slightly more secret place? It was completely out in the open. Like, the campus library

at Northwestern had rooms. I would say that exhibitionism seems to be a big part of their interest in each other. I think that everywhere they've had sex has been, like, deeply public. But at least with the lab, you could, like, lock the door or something. They were just there.

You could, but they didn't. There's no suggestion that they did. It was so public. And when he was like, Whitney, I was like, man, this is so intimate. I mean, they were like, it was happening. Midcoitus. They were midcoitus.

And then they jumped apart. I was like, well, that's not helping the situation. Things are everywhere. But I did. I really love Charlie Hall, aka Andrew, pretending to read a book while his pants were still at his ankles. Just like excellent college boy work of acting like nothing is going on. Also, Canaan being like, I just came to get a book about Ronald Reagan. It's also very, very funny.

And then when he sees her at the party and tells her that casual looks good on her, she liked the compliment. But Whitney, it can't be casual with Canaan. and just stay away. I also thought it was kind of a strange compliment, like, because the kind of the suggestion was like, you looked good having that casual sex with another person. It was like a very strange compliment.

Also, the, like, casual looks good on you. Like, another person looks good on you. Like, what is that exactly mean? Or, like, should we be casual again? What is the suggestion? No, the answer is you should not, just to be clear. I like most of them in on this show, Canaan can just get away with like not very good flirting because he's hot.

Yeah. I absolutely agree. My favorite thing about Andrew is his water bottle. And really it's my favorite thing written about Andrew. He carries around one of those giant like it's like a water. It's like a keg of water, like a mini keg of water. It's like hydro jugs. It's like it gives you like times of the day.

Yeah. And he's like constantly drinking it and it's pretty funny. It's just a great touch. Yeah. I think, yeah, I think everything about his character is really well drawn in, like, a very short amount of time for, like, how pretentious, but also, like, driven and focused he is, and how he does not need to be liked. Like, he is not like Bella. When she says, you're just playing on your phone, he says, no, I'm shopping for Swiss or for swim shoes. Like, he does not need to be seen as cool.

And I like that about the character. Also, I think to your point, though, like, he's not long for this world because he's such an archetype. Like, he's not like a different, he's not like a character with depth, which we don't need for him. So it's totally fine. This episode was called Pre-Frosh weekend because Bella's friend from home, a family friend, and Layton's cousin, who we don't see, come up to campus to visit before deciding where to go to school. And let's talk about Layton first because Layton in this episode, as a result of her cousin, coming up to school. Her father drives said cousin, and it gives her the opportunity to come out to him.

And I thought it was a pretty sweet moment on this television show. What did you think, Jody? Oh, yeah, I thought it was sweet, too. I love Rob Heuble in this role. I just think that he's great and they're really good and natural together and you really buy him as this dad who's like obsessed with this college and is so glad his daughter is there. But I thought it was like a super interesting, choice to have her. She's sort of planning to come out to him in this private moment, and then he tells, he starts unloading about all these stressful things that he and her mom are going through, so she ends up not doing it and waiting until it turns out that Tatum's dad and

Layton's dad are old friends from college. Unexplained why Tatum's dad is there that weekend. I guess he just is. But, you know, they run into each other at the club or some sort of like leather chair. Alpha side till I die. Classic frat bros. And, uh, end up all eating dinner together.

And Layton tells Tatum that she's not out yet. And so she can't, she's not like ready to discuss the fact that they're like casually dating each other. It's an awkward. The fam, the awkward family dinners in this, in this show always hit. I love that. I mean, it's always, it's always great. And so then she uses the dinner just to be like, to cast.

casual is the theme of this episode, to casually say, well, I'm gay. I'm just going to keep on living my life and being gay. And it was funny. I thought it was really sweet that like both Layton and her dad are watching Tatum and her dad have a very natural conversation about dating and about he says like, you should find a smart girl like Layton to date. And I thought it was sweet that they were both having the same experience of like, I want that with my dad. I want that with my daughter. And so then it winds up that, uh, that Leighton just, just tells him right there at dinner with the girl that she's casually dating. And it goes fine. He like needs a minute. I ultimately can't totally remember what for it wasn't anything bad, but he said, he said I needed a minute to think about,

he's basically, I need to think about my parenting. Like, how did I not know? Um, yeah. And then she was like, well, what does it say about me that I was able to hide it so much? And it was ultimately like a sweet moment. I also thought that it, like, made me understand Tatum and Leighton a little bit more. Like, for everything that, like, let the previous episode laughed. This kind of showed that, like, clearly, as Tatum's dad says, she smiles with her teeth when Tatum's around and, like, that she really feels comfortable around Tatum so much. So, like, she, like, got the courage and maybe, like, the comfort to be able to come out this way.

And I thought it was, like, a real testament to, you know, her feeling comfortable. And then her dad very sweetly is, like, are you happy? And Leighton's like, well, that's a really loaded question about like in terms of my sexuality and dating. She's like, yes, I am. I just thought it was just really nice moment on a show that's like often, you know, kind of sometimes slapstick, sometimes gross out, which is like a lot of sort of like broad humor. This was just a real moment of sweetness. And I love sweetness. So it was really nice. I love sweetness too. It was great. And then of course, it was all dashed and ruined or at least potentially ruined when at the end of the episode of episode eight when she is finally.

like hooking up with Tatum, I think, for the first time. At least to that extent. Seems like they're having sex. Yeah. Her ex-girlfriend, Alicia, text to hit her with the old thinking of you text. Nothing to ruin your well-established happiness like a thinking of you text. The actress who plays Alicia is now on Grey's Anatomy. And so she's still a part of my life.

And she's great on Grey's Anatomy. So I doubt she's coming back because she's got a full-time job. What do I know? Maybe you can do both. I think I saw a preview that it suggests she will at least be back for one episode. Interesting. All right. Well, we'll have to find out. Elsewhere, Bella's hosting her family friend, Priya, who used to be a dork, and now she's hot.

That's sort of, like, all you need to know. Bella, like, forces them to have a dorm party to impress her. And the Priya goes to a different cooler party to which Bella was not invited first and then shows up and, like, explains that she doesn't want to be known. as like the dorky girl. And it was just, again, not a storyline I cared for. I think Bella's gone awry here. She's wayward.

She is spinning into like an untenable insecurity. I mean, that's what's going on in this episode with Priya. She keeps talking about Priya in a way that makes her, they were both dorks together. And now Bella feels like she's established some level of coolness in college. Here's a question. If Bella wanted Priya to continue to see her as cool, why was she wearing like a full-on zoot suit in this episode?

She was wearing the most insane pink suit and tie I have ever seen. I think she was wearing a tie for 100% of these two episodes. She was getting to be too much. It's sort of like this weird, like, are you going for like a Michael J. Fox commentary? is this like something, I don't get it. I don't know if I'm supposed to be reading into it in the way that like Portia's character on the White Lotus is intentionally dressed like Lizzie McGuire.

Like, am I supposed to understand that Bella looks worse than ever because she is in kind of a worse than ever mental state and that's why she's wearing her very largest suits? I don't know. It just felt like a strange choice when she's trying to be cool when not three episodes ago

was she wearing a toddler top to show off her, and I quote, titty. So it was just deeply weird. That's a good note. I do wonder if the suit, as it relates to Priya, she was wearing something a little bit softer with Eric, where I think she was wearing like a skirt with like a, like it was more of like a, I don't know, like college girl kind of look.

Like it wasn't like a Catholic school girl, but it was a little more like college girl. And now to your point with the Zoot suit, she's sort of like trying, I think trying to like look older. or trying to impress that she is somehow different than Priya. So maybe that was a piece of it. But I think it's a really good note on her fashion.

Like, what is she trying to tell us with it? Because it's not good. It's not great. I'm going to be keeping my eye on it. And ultimately, Priya tells her that she went to that other party because Bella couldn't stop talking about what a loser she was in high school. And much like Bella, she is coming to Essex because she wants to have a change of scenery and a change of perception.

and be able to be the person that she wants to be and not the person that she's perceived as being in high school. And it ultimately ends fine, and Bella apologizes, but it seems pretty hard to be Bella's friend, which unfortunately, I think, is also Bella's worst fear. And she's going through it in these episodes. A nice thing about her roommates, though, is, like,

because they all, like, they don't have anything in common with her except for, like, living together. and there's just, you know, which we'll come back to like, do you need to have stuff in common? But, you know, because I think Priya is similar and they, or like they used to be similar, came from the same place, both Indian American or at least South Asian American. I feel like there's a good natural competition there. And one thing that's nice about Bella and her roommates, so she doesn't seem to project the same insecurities onto them.

Like, it seems to be like much more like genuine, which is one of the reasons I think college also, like, is special because you get thrown together with people that you wouldn't necessarily to meet otherwise. And then when you find commonalities, we also just find fun together. And I think to a certain extent, that's one of the reasons why Bella is more likable

when she's interacting with her roommates. We can't go any further without asking, what the fuck with this party in their dorm? There's no way. There's literally no way. Juliet, the second she said we're throwing a dorm party, I was like, oh, Julie,

there's steam coming out of Juliet's ears. It's the most unrealistic show on a show filled of things it might not be that realistic. But the thing was the last time we talked about the dorm party, which I believe was in the premiere, they tried to throw a dorm party. And of course, it was a failure

because no one wants to go to a party in a dorm. And I think they had, like, you know, one bottle of what I assume was 99 cherries if they even still made that. That's what we were drinking in our freshman dorm rooms. This time, with no time to put it together, I don't know where Bella gets all of these, you know, golden balls hanging from the ceiling.

She throws a raging party. invites 200 people, a ton of them show up, and she gets a ton of alcohol. And it looks like a legit successful party that, as Juliet has well noted, would never happen in a dorm. It was outrageous. Thank you for thinking of me under those conditions. I hope that you won. It was so ridiculous. And like, who would want to go to that? I mean, the other thing about a dorm party that's just a non-starter, no one has a common room that big. Like, I know you can't really comment on the size of rooms on TV shows about college because they need that space for blocking or whatever. but like there's no room to party and like you've more than three people in a room and it's hot.

Like it's just not happening. It's just not happening. It was absolutely absurd. We just need, we haven't talked about Kimberly. That's because she doesn't do anything this episode except realize that she too has nothing in common with someone she spends a lot of time with. Except now it's her boyfriend Jackson who tells her that you don't need to have everything in common with someone that you're dating. And to his credit, he's trying. He'll listen to a podcast about erosion, which does sound quite boring. I'd rather read the article. Yeah, I definitely don't think that they need to have, you know, that much in common to be dating. I was just shocked by, like, the speed with which they're moving through this relationship.

He kissed her on the mouth in public in episode seven, like before he went into the dining hall. I was like, I'm sorry, he is publicly kissing. All we have known about him since he arrived on this campus is that he is having sex with a different woman every day. And Kimberly has just, you know, bewitched him body and soul, I guess. guess, and he is ready to publicly DTR and then privately DTR once they talk about that they don't, you know, have to have anything in common. They can just date. But I'm just surprised that he's her boyfriend.

But I guess I'm glad for her considering the way that her relationship with Nico in season one always had to be this like secret private thing and then ended in the fact that he had a girlfriend the whole time. So good for Kimberly. I hope it's not, it doesn't seem true. He's being very, but he is, you know, he did come from a different college, but he just seems, you know, like the perfect hymbo, which means that he can't stick around for long. There's not a lot of depth here. Whitney mentioned that she had to do her final lab of the trimester.

So I guess like, did she say that? Yeah. And so I just still don't know like what season we're in, but it did set up next week's last episodes because like something here is ending. Have we hit Christmas yet? I am so... I think we're beyond Christmas. Pre-frosh weekend, I think it's spring. So we just skipped a few months.

Yeah. After spending, I think, like 16 episodes in the first three months of college, we just skipped a bunch of months to spring. I think that we might be finishing freshman year soon. We'll find out next week. If it is the last thing I do with your help and probably only you are going to,

to figure it out. We are going to uncover what the trimester semester, six-masters situation at Essex colleges. Okay. I'm on the case, Jody. I'm going to find out for us. Thank you, Juliet. We will be back next week to talk about episodes 9 and 10, the last two of the season. Thank you so much to Kai Grady for producing this episode. And we will be back next week.