S01.E03: Don't Forget the Sea

[ElectricBoogaloo]

BBC1 is airing two episodes per week while HBO is airing only one episode per week. If you enter this thread before the US air date, you may encounter spoilers!

Quote

In a flashback, Terry visits Arabella in Ostia, where she is living large. After procuring party favours from Biagio, Arabella and Terry each have a wild night.

Original UK air date: 6/15/20
Original US air date: 6/22/20

Edited June 15, 2020 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Ha, how high do you have to be to think that the DJ is going to play Hamilton at a club?

I guess the rules have changed since my barhopping/clubbing days. If I came here with my friend, I"m leaving with my friend. I would never just leave without them, especially if I knew they were not sober (and definitely not in a foreign country where we didn't speak the language and weren't familiar enough with the neighborhood to get home without google).

Wow, Giovanni wasn't kidding when he said he loved Mountain Dew. I thought that was just a really bad pickup line.

I was surprised that I ended up liking Biagio in this episode. Based on the first episode, I thought he would be a jerk but he ended up being a pretty nice drug dealer.

I couldn't tell what Terry's reaction to having a threesome was. I mean, she texted Kwame about it right away but then she lied to Arabella after the guys left. Interesting that she told Giovanni she was a writer. I know it's not uncommon for people to fib when they're on vacation, but essentially pretending to be Arabella?

Edited June 15, 2020 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Corgi-ears]

13 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I couldn't tell what Terry's reaction to having a threesome was. I mean, she texted Kwame about it right away but then she lied to Arabella after the guys left.

I think Terry felt ambivalent after she realized that the two fuckbois orchestrated the threesome. Hence the sequence you noted: they leave, she texts Kwame happily, she sees the two guys out the window (and the sexy music gets cut off), and then Arabella knocks on her door, whereupon Terry is no longer as unreservedly excited about the experience. The whole episode seems to be part of the series' interesting exploration of the degrees of sexual agency and autonomy. Terry didn't get assaulted, per se; she presumably consents to the threesome. But once it dawns on her that the two men already knew each other, what she "consented" to becomes very different, since the situation was under false pretences.

Edited June 16, 2020 by Corgi-ears

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Thanks! I must have blinked/looked away and missed Terry looking out the window at the two guys.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Drugs. Not even once. I don't get being so high you can barely function.

Eiffel-towered in Italy. Sounds like a bad porno.

Things I wish I'd never seen. WTAF? Arabella must've had hella cramps if she was producing clots like that.

So it turned out those guys Terry got with weren't really strangers. Hmmm. Whatever, I sure hope she's conscientious about her contraception.

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The whole episode seems to be part of the series' interesting exploration of the degrees of sexual agency and autonomy.

Yes, and even though they're doing it from the women's perspective I keep getting this annoying feeling that the women are lowkey being being slut-shamed. I'm trying to reserve judgment until I see the whole series though.

[Enigma X]

Does anyone know what time this show is coming on tonight on the east coast?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

9 hours ago, Enigma X said:

Does anyone know what time this show is coming on tonight on the east coast?

HBO has moved US airings to Mondays.

[Enigma X]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

HBO has moved US airings to Mondays.

Thank you.

[scrb]

On 6/15/2020 at 9:23 PM, Corgi-ears said:

I think Terry felt ambivalent after she realized that the two fuckbois orchestrated the threesome. Hence the sequence you noted: they leave, she texts Kwame happily, she sees the two guys out the window (and the sexy music gets cut off), and then Arabella knocks on her door, whereupon Terry is no longer as unreservedly excited about the experience. The whole episode seems to be part of the series' interesting exploration of the degrees of sexual agency and autonomy. Terry didn't get assaulted, per se; she presumably consents to the threesome. But once it dawns on her that the two men already knew each other, what she "consented" to becomes very different, since the situation was under false pretences.

 

On 6/20/2020 at 11:36 AM, Joimiaroxeu said:

Drugs. Not even once. I don't get being so high you can barely function.

Eiffel-towered in Italy. Sounds like a bad porno.

Things I wish I'd never seen. WTAF? Arabella must've had hella cramps if she was producing clots like that.

So it turned out those guys Terry got with weren't really strangers. Hmmm. Whatever, I sure hope she's conscientious about her contraception.

Yes, and even though they're doing it from the women's perspective I keep getting this annoying feeling that the women are lowkey being being slut-shamed. I'm trying to reserve judgment until I see the whole series though.

She seems to feel ambivalent.

It seemed odd that after her ordeal with blacking out that Arabella would go on another party trip but it makes sense that this was a flashback, though I must have missed them referencing it in the previous episodes.

Biagio the drug dealer who’s lost his mother and sister to ODs tells Arabella not to do drugs.

Arabella keeps going to the bathroom, ditching her friend to get high repeatedly.  She takes something from those girls, whom she doesn’t know.

Then she goes back to London and on her first night gets spiked.  It seems like she’s either had first or secondhand experience with women being given something unknowingly which makes them black out.

But this doesn’t seem like some cautionary tale or these characters being judged for taking certain risks.  More like this is how things are like out there — but maybe some consequences though not necessarily in a PSA kind of way.

Though they do show a PSA with some link after the credit sequence.

Okay, imdyresources.com has links to a sexual assault hotline but also a calendar of virtual events, including the cast.  Some of the subjects in these virtual events are about relationship, the “politics of intimacy” and cannabis effects.

Maybe it is more cautionary tale and PSA than I thought.  Or maybe this is more an HBO thing than the show creator/star thing.

[Blakeston]

8 hours ago, scrb said:

It seemed odd that after her ordeal with blacking out that Arabella would go on another party trip but it makes sense that this was a flashback, though I must have missed them referencing it in the previous episodes.

In the last episode, after Arabella realized she'd been drugged, she was talking to Terry and she briefly brought up a trip to Italy they took together. She said that when they're high, they should make an effort to stick together so that they don't wind up separated like they did in Italy.

It was clearly a sore subject, and Terry insisted that she'd told Arabella she was leaving the club that night in Italy, and Arabella was just so high that she didn't remember. We saw in this episode that Terry was right.

Terry started crying after that conversation, and she said it was because she'd bombed the commercial, but presumably it was really because of what she and Arabella had just been talking about.

[meep.meep]

This was really hard to watch.  Arabella is lucky to be alive.  And the "drug dealer scum" boyfriend is pretty awesome.

[qtpye]

I like the main actress and some of the writing is good.

However, I took this off my dvr record schedule. Something about this show is just not clicking for me.

On 6/15/2020 at 10:54 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Ha, how high do you have to be to think that the DJ is going to play Hamilton at a club?

I guess the rules have changed since my barhopping/clubbing days. If I came here with my friend, I"m leaving with my friend. I would never just leave without them, especially if I knew they were not sober (and definitely not in a foreign country where we didn't speak the language and weren't familiar enough with the neighborhood to get home without google).

Wow, Giovanni wasn't kidding when he said he loved Mountain Dew. I thought that was just a really bad pickup line.

I was surprised that I ended up liking Biagio in this episode. Based on the first episode, I thought he would be a jerk but he ended up being a pretty nice drug dealer.

I couldn't tell what Terry's reaction to having a threesome was. I mean, she texted Kwame about it right away but then she lied to Arabella after the guys left. Interesting that she told Giovanni she was a writer. I know it's not uncommon for people to fib when they're on vacation, but essentially pretending to be Arabella?

I was shocked that she would just walk off leaving Arabella in that state in a foreign country. I am beginning to think Terry is a bit of an asshole, who is a little jealous of her friend's success.

Also, those two fuckbois were so scummy.

[luckyroll3]

On 6/25/2020 at 12:09 PM, qtpye said:

I was shocked that she would just walk off leaving Arabella in that state in a foreign country. I am beginning to think Terry is a bit of an asshole, who is a little jealous of her friend's success.

This bugged me so much.  Arabella was clearly out of her mind.  She should have never been left alone.  I don't even like to leave strangers alone when they're in that state.  I get that Terry was upset, but make sure your friend is safe and then have it out with her in the morning. 

I have to say that the scene with the drug dealer dude being fascinated by the blood clot had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe!  

[PrincessPurrsALot]

On 6/15/2020 at 9:23 PM, Corgi-ears said:

I think Terry felt ambivalent after she realized that the two fuckbois orchestrated the threesome. Hence the sequence you noted: they leave, she texts Kwame happily, she sees the two guys out the window (and the sexy music gets cut off), and then Arabella knocks on her door, whereupon Terry is no longer as unreservedly excited about the experience. The whole episode seems to be part of the series' interesting exploration of the degrees of sexual agency and autonomy. Terry didn't get assaulted, per se; she presumably consents to the threesome. But once it dawns on her that the two men already knew each other, what she "consented" to becomes very different, since the situation was under false pretences.

Realizing they knew each other and had planned this changed the threesome from feeling empowering and owning her sexuality to feeling played.  Her agency was denied.  I felt for her in that moment. 

On 6/23/2020 at 6:38 AM, Blakeston said:

In the last episode, after Arabella realized she'd been drugged, she was talking to Terry and she briefly brought up a trip to Italy they took together. She said that when they're high, they should make an effort to stick together so that they don't wind up separated like they did in Italy.

It was clearly a sore subject, and Terry insisted that she'd told Arabella she was leaving the club that night in Italy, and Arabella was just so high that she didn't remember. We saw in this episode that Terry was right.

Terry started crying after that conversation, and she said it was because she'd bombed the commercial, but presumably it was really because of what she and Arabella had just been talking about.

I think you nailed it with the last part.  Terry was sad she bombed the audition and the casual racism in asking her if that was her real hair and to show it.  However, the depth of emotion came from discussion of leaving Arabella alone in Italy.  First, you don't leave someone who is that messed up.  She was lucky she ended up okay.  Second, Terry was reliving her feelings of realizing she had been played by the fuckbois she had the threesome with.  

I get that Terry was angry with Arabella for getting so messed up at the club.  However, Terry was sober enough to know that Arabella might not even understand that she was leaving.  

[SourK]

On 6/15/2020 at 10:54 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I guess the rules have changed since my barhopping/clubbing days. If I came here with my friend, I"m leaving with my friend. I would never just leave without them, especially if I knew they were not sober (and definitely not in a foreign country where we didn't speak the language and weren't familiar enough with the neighborhood to get home without google).

 

I had the same gut reaction, but I thought it was an interesting scene, in so far as it's asking that age-old question about what to do if you go to a party with someone and you never want to leave at the same time. We've seen that this is kind of a pattern for these two, and I can understand how it would start to feel frustrating if you want to go home and you feel like you're shackled to someone who refuses to leave with you. It's one thing if it only happens once, or if it goes back and forth, where one friend is the designated driver sometimes and the other does it other times. In this case, it seems like it's always Terry relatively sober and wanting to go vs Arabella totally wasted and wanting to stay.

I guess the answer is, "Don't be each other's buddy system in the first place," but it's a tough situation.