Sweet/Vicious Review: The Writing’s on the Wall (Season 1 Episode 2)
Sweet/Vicious Season 1 Episode 2 “The Writing’s on the Wall” is the birth of a partnership. Jules and Ophelia are on a mission to write wrongs for completely different reasons that just happen to fit together like two Lego pieces or peanut butter froyo on a warm night.
It’s simply meant to be.
Throughout the episode they find that they don’t have to hide from each other because the other person already sees them for who they are and not what they present the world with.
Ophelia sees Jules. She sees how her disarming qualities make her look odd, cute, and awkward. And she also sees how much Jules is hiding from the world with her fists and cut throat kicks.
Jules lives with her best friends and is surrounded by so many people, but only Ophelia (someone’s who’s practically a stranger) can see the hurt, fear, and resilience that this woman holds inside of her, day in and day out.
That’s why she doesn’t get angry and push away Jules when she kicks her out of her room after presenting their next target. Ophelia knows that Jules fears someone seeing her assault, her hesitation, as weakness.
What Jules doesn’t understand, until the end, is that Ophelia thinks that she’s one of the strongest, most badass women out there, and she believes in her and what she’s set out to do.
Jules is helping the people who have never been given a chance, been ignored because their wasn’t enough evidence, or because he was too popular to ever do something like sexually assault someone.
Ophelia wants to be part of Jules vigilante mission because she’s done hiding her anger at the world, her disdain for her family life, and because she wants something more than stealing test papers and hitting her monster bong. She wants a purpose.
Luckily for Ophelia, Jules sees the determination in her to do something about the wrongs around them because it’s the right thing to do. It isn’t born out of a need for violence or as an outlet for her anger.
She’s a trustworthy person who hides how scared, overwhelmed, and helpless she feels by overcompensating with her word vomit and brash attitude. Jules sees Ophelia.
Both of these women are lost and have been beaten down by life. And what they’re building with each other will define them as people, as friends, as women. It will change everything and they’ll leave Darlington University in a better place because of it.
Just to clarify, everything is not going to be perfect. They’re going to stumble, they’re going to fall, and Ophelia is going to probably throw up again. Difference is, that they have each other now.
Jules will help Ophelia clean up her throw up (hopefully, even though that’s a gross job) and Ophelia will stop Jules from asking Siri questions about dismemberment in the middle of a sidewalk or coffee shop.
They’re each other’s Batman, now.
Additional Notes:
- Writing Nate’s name on the wall was Jules way of dismissing any power that he had over her. This is her life, her journey, and he will not make her cower any longer.
- Peanut butter froyo is beautiful and we mourn it’s loss.
- That Breaking Bad reference was made even sweeter by the fact that Dearden, aka Ophelia, is Bryan Cranston’s daughter.
What did you think of this episode of Sweet/Vicious? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Sweet/Vicious airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on MTV.
Lyra Hale
Lyra is a TV and movie enthusiast. It all started on a dark night when she turned on Fox and fell in love with the X-Files. It was all history after that as she got lost in Doctor Who, The Marvel Verse and most recently everything DC. Her love for Doctor Who lead her to study abroad, where she fell into live-tweeting and the lovely explosion of fandom life that Tumblr is. Her main love for the summer (with a mega re-watch happening) is Arrow. When she isn’t sharing her love for TV and movies she’s writing fan-fiction, taking care of her family, and puttering around her kitchen.