The Bold Type Review: Betsy (Season 2 Episode 7)

On The Bold Type Season 2 Episode 7, “Betsy,” the series falls into some old story-telling habits.

Instead of weaving in the complexities of gun violence into multiple episodes, they tried to create the problem and then fix it in just 37 minutes that left a lot of the audience unsatisfied.

How does Kat and Adena’s conclusion to have an open relationship get a 4 episode arc but gun violence gets 37 minutes to wrap up?

Although The Bold Type tries to remedy the time constraints by having Jane and Sutton’s stories intertwine, both women still have some growing to do to meet in the middle so the result is the same: scraping the surface of important and complex, multi-faceted issues.

For those who are unfamiliar, I wrote an article last summer where I identify some foundational issues The Bold Type Season 2 needed to rectify. Their pattern of trying to force in too many complex issues in one season led to rushed story-telling and underdeveloped themes.

Overall, their stories were still good. However, with amazing leading actresses like Aisha Dee, Katie Stevens, Meghann Fahy, and Melora Hardin, who have such a wide dramatic range, this type of storytelling becomes an injustice.

The story would be 3x better by just sowing the seeds of issues so they can grow throughout a couple of episodes and ripen when the drama comes to a head.

For the most part, The Bold Type Season 2 has remedied this issue. All of the big problems throughout this season have been woven into multiple episodes so they could be fully developed.

However, this gun episode — “Betsy” — did not.

I know what you may be thinking: “Sutton’s loss of control is a huge part of her characterizational arc this season. Even you mention this in your review of The Bold Type Season 2 Episode 4.”

However, that’s the only thing that was introduced before “Betsy,” and in order to make the conflict happen, Jane has to backtrack on all of the growth she had just received.

A huge part of Jane’s privilege issues lead to her jumping to conclusions and deeming all opposing views as wrong.

This is seen when she has the breast cancer episode in season 1. This is seen when she feels her editor at Incite gives her specific lines to read off on the news. This is even seen when she butts heads with the most pacifist person ever, Ben, on religion.

Lastly, we see Jane do this when she takes Jacqueline’s initial rejection to heart instead of trying to see where Jacqueline was coming from.

We see this shift in her temperance when she interviews the woman who partially blames Jacqueline and instead of immediately cutting off the woman’s voice, Jane includes her insights in the article — even though she knows that Jacqueline doesn’t deserve an ounce of the blame.

She does this because that’s the story. That’s the truth. It’s never one-sided.

However, just one episode later, Jane backtracks and immediately rejects everything that Sutton is trying to explain to her.

Jane has spent 6 episodes shaping into the woman who has “finally turned a corner,” as Ben puts it. So it’s disheartening to see her backtrack once again — just like what constantly happened during The Bold Type Season 1.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved this episode.

It angered me in some places. For example, Sutton spouting the mantra that “people don’t kill people, guns kill people,” bothered me.

This response is ridiculous. Obviously, the guns are inanimate jobs that can only do work when work is done to it.

However, laws are in place to save people from themselves. Murder isn’t just instantaneous; people have to murder others. That doesn’t stop a law from being in place for repercussions of this action.

It’s easier to ban objects and actions than it is to ban people — hence banning guns or at the very least increasing restrictions on who can have them.

However, I also understood (later) that Sutton was predominantly speaking from a place of fear. I understood why she felt that way, even though I didn’t necessarily agree.

And that was the entire point of the episode: empathy.

A lot of Trump supporters are against any sort of gun regulation. They’re also against immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, and women having the right to choose what they want to do with their own bodies.

All of these things have one thing in common: change.

This is why Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” had so much impact.

The fear of change twists itself into this hatred that is so blinding a lot of Trump voters voted against their own interests, like the end of Obama-care and tax cuts for mostly the rich, because they saw an easy answer to their fears.

This is what Jane has to coerce Sutton to realize, and the result is beautiful. Both women come to a compromise that benefits them both, and both are the better for it.

So, yes. I did thoroughly enjoy this episode. Even though The Bold Type slipped into old bad habits, like a certain tiny, brunette *cough* *cough*, the message is so important.

The result of the episode was a moving ending that exemplifies empathy and compromise, something America truly needs right now.

Stray Observations:

• Kat going full dominatrix is hilarious.
• WHERE IS ALEX?!?!?!?!?!
• I’m absolutely loving all of the Oliver we’re getting. He’s such a King.
• I called it last episode that Kadena would try an open relationship instead of breaking up… for now.
• The Kadena moment at the end of this episode is absolutely everything. I love them so much.

What did you guys think of The Bold Type Season 2 Episode 7? Whose side did you subconsciously take? Jane’s? Sutton’s? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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The Bold Type airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Freeform.

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