The Off Campus adaptation has arrived on Amazon Prime, and Nikki and Meg watched all eight episodes in five days because once it started, stopping wasn’t really an option.

Their verdict? An 8 out of 10 (Meg holds out for an 8.5) with some genuine craft praise and sharp criticism for where the final episodes lost the thread.

Listen in for:

* Why Meg thinks the Justin-as-musician swap was actually the right adaptation call

* Dean’s consent speech that every person on earth should have to watch

* Where the final two episodes lost the thread and what the show needed to deliver for Garrett that it didn’t

* The adaptation choice that replaced the blackmail plot and whether it lands with Bad Hockey Dad

* Music as a character: how the show used song to do what the book couldn’t

* The internet’s circumcision discourse, which was not on anyone’s bingo card

The full frontal was unexpected. The feelings were not.

Books:

* The Deal by Elle Kennedy

* Don’t Eat Your Human Boyfriend by Lily Mayne

* Rope Me Down by N. Slater

Meg: Welcome to First Dates and Soulmates, the romance podcast that really didn't think the full-frontal nudity we were gonna get would be a locker room scene.

What?

Nikki: Nikki McKnight.

Meg: I meant Casebolt, and I definitely sent you a text to be like, "Heads up." That was not what I was expecting in that moment.

Nikki: y'all, we are talking about the first season of Amazon Prime's new series, Off Campus, based, of course, on the Elle Kennedy series. Uh, and I just finished watching it last night. You watched it, finished watching it a couple days ago. Meg, what are your overall thoughts on this adaptation and this season?

Meg: Well, you know that I was, like, a little hesitant going into it because it's a big commitment. It's eight episodes, each of which is at least 45 minutes. We had five days to watch it before we sat down for the pod, and I was like, "Ooh, that's, like, that's more than one a day. That's like an hour a day. I gotta just, like, really sit down and do this."

And then I started watching, and I was like, "Oh, this won't be a problem," because it was so well cared for. And I know I've seen some threads about people complaining that it wasn't faithful to the books, but I think personally, and I'm sure we'll get into all of this, um, I think every adaptation, every adjustment was merited and was a good decision for the overall structure of the series as a, a way of putting it onto TV.

What about you, Nikki? What did you and Jen think?

Nikki: overall, fan. I

Meg: really enjoyed

Nikki: it. I think the first couple episodes are really good. I do find that the last two episodes kinda, I think, lost their way a

little bit in the middle, and some of the adaptation choices, I would argue, I don't love. I wish they had kept some things from the book. But it was also nice that I had only read this book one time, and I had only read it for when we did an episode on it, I think, last September.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: going, Jen was asking me, like, "Is that how it happened?" I'm like, "I don't remember. Maybe? I think so. I

Meg: Maybe.

Nikki: But, like, overall, I really enjoyed it. I had a great time watching it. Um, I thought the cast

was really great. I love so many of the characters. have not read the rest of the series yet, so can't say if, you know, this was a good, uh, adaptation of Allie or this was a really good adaptation of

Meg: For Logan.

Nikki: from what I saw in this, I really try when approaching adaptations to just take them at their merit,

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: watch-through.

And then if I wanna like nitpick afterwards and see like, oh, you know, this didn't make sense, this didn't make sense. But I think people have to realize that it is, it's different. not the same thing. It's allowed to be different, and there's some character choices I wish they hadn't made. But the

Meg: Yes. There were

Nikki: overall, I'm

Meg: some of those.

Nikki: eight out of 10, I think. Like, I'd watch it again.

Meg: Yeah, I would go with,

Nikki: Season

Meg: an 8.5, but maybe you can talk me down to an eight like you did with other things where you're like, "But this is broken," and I'm like, "That is broken."

Nikki: hate this more. I have so many things to say, but overall, very much, uh, enjoyed. So for those who are not familiar with the work, one, go back and listen to our episode that we did on Elle Kennedy, uh, not only The Deal, but on him. I believe it was last September. Um,

Meg: And that is a co-write with Sarina Bowen. I don't wanna make everything attributed straight to Elle Kennedy.

Nikki: Yeah, but if you are not familiar with the series, Off Campus is the name of the series, and it follows several hockey players at this Boston University-esque type of environment, and all of the various friends, family members, and things around that college.

And then each book follows a different couple. Book one is called The Deal, which is Hannah and Garrett's book. Um, I kinda wanna go maybe like a little bit episode by episode here because I think there's some really cool stuff that happens in the first kind of episodes.

Meg: Especially because I think they do lose the thread a little bit at the end, so that way we can front-load the things that we loved for our listeners.

Nikki: You say that, and I'm gonna start with something, and I was like, "What the fuck is this?"

So the...

Meg: Why is she alone in the hockey rink?

Nikki: Why,

Meg: Why are these kids... These kids have jobs and some- somehow they are all key holders to very expensive institutions.

Nikki: But also, like, why is Hannah working in the laundry at the arena, and that's why she sees Garrett naked? It

Meg: There's absolutely no reason for that scene. Zero.

Nikki: to be a little bit shocking at the beginning, and I was like, "Oh, okay, like this is a vibe," but then they never go back to that

until the other surprise nudity at the end of the

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: just kind of like a funny thing to go on, uh, to, to start, to start o- the show with. Okay.

Meg: I,

Nikki: then,

Meg: think they just wanted to have some co- some sort of, like, oh, this is the two characters that you're gonna see for the next eight hours. But it... none of it made sense. She never worked at the hockey arena again. Like, it, it felt like it was out of place, but okay.

Nikki: I saw, like, comments saying, it was like, "No, it's her work study job, and because of it, she works in different departments all the time, so she just happened to be at the arena in janitorial or something that day." And I was like, "Odd. Sure." I don't think I really care, but it was a weird

Meg: It was a weird choice.

Nikki: the season. Um, but then we get into... I know we said we were gonna front load it with good stuff. I'm gonna get there.

Meg: I said that. You don't have to. You be as critical as you want to, bitch.

Nikki: next decision was also kind of interesting, and it's the recharacterization of Justin.

Meg: Mm.

Nikki: say, I loved this actor. I really enjoyed him. Um, Josh Houston, I think is how you pronounce his name. Like, really cute. I enjoyed him as a musician. But the choice to make Justin a musician rather than a football player, I don't think it doesn't work, because Hannah is a musician. They can bond over that. But one, uh, like, it, it... The mirror I really enjoyed in the book is that one of the reasons she agrees to this with Garrett is not only because, like, oh, guys want what they can't have, et cetera, but it's like she needs to learn how to talk to a jock.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: Garrett's a hockey player, Justin is a football player. So not having that, it struck me just a little bit when I first saw him, 'cause I was like, "Wait, isn't he, isn't he an athlete? Isn't he, like, he does something not hockey?" made him a musician. So I, you know, at first I was kind of thrown by it, 'cause I felt it was gonna miss that little bit of the reason why Hannah goes in on this a little bit more than just, "You're gonna make me look good." But again, like, I ki- I kinda liked it. I don't know, how do you feel about Justin's, like, change in character?

Meg: I preferred it to the original

Nikki: Ooh, tell me more.

Meg: because one of the things that happens when, when Garrett finds out about Hannah's past, about her, you know, being sexually assaulted and raped, is she was hurt and maligned by an athlete. And so I think the decision to protect herself from future athletes would have been a coping mechanism and a self-protection mechanism that she may have chosen.

And the decision to say she's a musician, she's attracted to a musician, she wants a relationship with a musician because she doesn't want to be in the toxic masculinity of college sports or male sports. And yes, it's hockey versus football, but like they're both pretty high-intensity, high-contact, high-aggression sports.

Nikki: ag- yeah, have that violent aggression note to it.

Meg: So to an extent, I see like, not that, not that music is soft and sports is hard or anything, but like she was choosing a, a angle that wouldn't put her in danger.

Nikki: Yeah, you know what? As you say that, that really makes sense, and then it also allowed, we always talk about, like, narrative economy when you move into

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: something turns into a screenwriting or a screenplay, that, um, Cass and MJ, who in the

Meg: Gone.

Nikki: um, for the

Meg: Like duet partners, yeah.

Nikki: Cass was the male singer, MJ was this composer, the writer of the song that they were going to do. So it allowed you to kinda also get rid of them as additional characters,

which I think made sense. We didn't need two extra characters, and to kind of collapse the collaboration and the difficulties Hannah was having in collaboration into Justin, I think it made sense,

Meg: I

Nikki: that kind of economy to it.

Meg: completely agreed. I think that putting Justin into ... And then you also have the tension of, okay, now she's finally dating Garrett, like episode three or something, and she's still working with Justin, and Garrett is aware that she had feelings for Justin, and the whole point of this was to get her with Justin, and he sort of pushed her to Justin, and now he has to

I think there's a moment where she's like, "Okay, I broke up with Justin," and he's like, "Not what you want to hear a girlfriend say about somebody else,"

Nikki: Yeah. Yeah.

Meg: that tension too, that even when, you know, Garrett fell first and Garrett fell harder, I think, and, um, he still wants what's best for Hannah, and what's best for Hannah is to have her be with Justin, and I liked that tension.

Nikki: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And this brings us into when Garrett and Hannah actually meet, even though he thinks her name is Mona or something else. It must be an M, which is funny, and it's because in their philosophy, ethics, whatever class it is, uh, Hannah's the only one that gets a good grade, and this is where we get Garrett asking her to help tutor him. And I gotta say, like, Cameli plays Garrett. Holy shit, he was good.

Meg: He was so good.

Nikki: on screen. Like, he's, he's cute, he's good-looking, he really, I think, struck that beautiful balance between Garrett as being, like, that, that really smart, really fucking charming guy who's not too chatty, like, too much of, like, a Chad, like a sports Chad. But, like, when he has to have those vulnerable moments, I thought he was so fun. So even as he's, like, calling Hannah the wrong name or he's, you know, saying, "This is, uh, I need help," and he starts calling her Wellsy, I was like, I just really enjoyed him.

Meg: Oh, he was like ... He did so much non-verbal acting, especially in the final episodes where you just got so much of his reaction and his facial expressions

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: he was so locked up. The dialogue didn't need to be there, and he was just so, so stuck in himself. I loved that. I thought he was incredible 'cause he was so outwardly charming and so inwardly broken, which is like, how much more do we love a romance hero who's outwardly charming and inwardly broken?

And the woman pulls him back together and makes him a better person.

Nikki: I think, I think I said this when we did the episode on The Deal that I d- Garrett is written in such a way that I totally understand why people like him. He's charming as hell.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: funny. He's witty. Like, it makes sense that people like him, not just because he's captain of the hockey team.

. I think the show does a great job of introducing the rest of the team and the supporting characters pretty quickly. Um, we get to see all of Garrett's housemates. We get to see Ally and Sean and Hannah's other friends. But we do get this really quick moment of Garrett and Kendall hooking

Meg: I can... Oh, God.

Nikki: is like, "I wanna be your girlfriend." And he's, you know, Garrett has this moment of being very explicit, like he is in the book, of, "I'm not looking for a relationship. I think I was very clear about that." " He goes, "What's my

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: color?

Meg: 'Cause she actually sees him.

Nikki: 'cause you've never asked me anything about myself. You just want Garrett Graham." And I, I love that they established that really early as well, so that later on it makes total sense why he's gonna fall for Hannah.

Meg: She doesn't give a shit about his name. She doesn't care... She doesn't even know who his dad is, let alone think, "Oh, that's Phil Graham's son. That's where his life is going." She wants to be attached to him. She wants to ride his coattails. She doesn't care about ho- she barely knows how hockey works. She's never been to a hockey game.

She's not a puck bunny. So it's very much like she sees him for him,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: who she falls for, and that's so important.

Nikki: I do like during this introduction process of kind of setting the scene of this is the college, this is the hierarchy, these are the friends, is we get a montage of sweaty

Meg: Of

Nikki: players.

Meg: course we do.

Nikki: I really struggle with the new adult thing

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: this is, granted these actors, I think, um, Ella Bright, who plays Hannah, I think she was 20 or 21 when she filmed it, so she'd be the closest to actual age of these characters. But I think Belmont, who plays Garrett, was 27. And I think most of the characters were kind of in that range. Um, you know, actors are never gonna play the real age of the characters. They're pretty much always gonna skew older.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: But that is something to your point about, oh, they're all key holders of the arena.

They all just get to go in this. Like, I don't know. I sometimes struggle with, like, these kind of big emotions. I'm like, you're 21. You have no idea what the real world

Meg: No, I don't struggle with the big emotions. I struggle with they think that they know what they want

Nikki: Also true.

Meg: I, I think they absolutely have big emotions. They just don't know how to handle them or focus them. But,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: the, the poor, poor little babies with their undeveloped prefrontal cortexes,

Nikki: That's so

Meg: and the big emotions,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: and the fact that they just go...

And I, I found myself, like, itching to scream at the TV, and then have to remember like, " just because she doesn't answer her phone doesn't mean that she's a bad person. She is having a developmentally appropriate at- uh, reaction to trauma."

Nikki: Very true.

Meg: Hmm.

Nikki: uh, yeah, speaking of trauma, I wanna talk about bad hockey dad.

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: one, I love Steve Howey as an actor. Like, I loved him on Shameless. He's awesome as, um, the lieutenant or whatever in High Potential. I love him as an actor, and it took me a sec when he showed up as bad hockey dad to be like, "Is that Kevin from Shameless?"

And I looked, and I was like, "Yes, it is. He is Kevin from Shameless." I don't think he was evil enough.

Meg: Yeah, I think he could've been meaner.

Nikki: They really kind

Meg: He was, like, so restrained, and I wanted him to be more like... Uh, a- and I think what they were trying to do with it was, "I've changed. I'm reformed. You remember me

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: when your mom was alive as being aggressive and abusive. And then your mom died, you went off to boarding school, life stopped.

Now w- he, I'm trying to reestablish this relationship, so I'm going to show you that I've changed." Um, I wish that he had been more like, "You need to talk to me. You ne- I pay for this college. You're my son and you'd..." You know? Like, I wish that he'd been a bit more aggressive, because I think then if we'd seen that and then gone to Thanksgiving, and seen him be, like, kind of kind to his fiancée, um, it would've landed better for me.

Nikki: was going back and forth on it 'cause, like, I don't want him to be cartoonishly

evil. I think w- I kinda like what you were saying, like, he needs to show the r- the reformed aspect because then I think if he, if they had gone with that direction of Garrett still responding to his dad as abusive asshole that he was when he was growing up and how he treats him, and now he's a little bit more, not hands-off with his career, but he's not as, I'll say, violent or, or aggressive in their relationship.

And then Garrett going, "Maybe he did change," and then showing up to Thanksgiving and seeing that Cindy does have bruises all over her arm and having that be the, "Oh, he hasn't changed at all. He's just hiding it better."

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: might have been interesting, but I f- I felt like it was a little bit too much in the middle, that they couldn't decide is he- Really aggressive, like Garrett talks about, like, you know, the, if I, if I lose, he doesn't say anything.

If I win, I just get the nod. But we

Meg: Yeah

Nikki: meddling enough to be like, oh, this totally explains why Garrett feels the way that he does. then I, I wanna jump ahead just a little bit in talking about his dad. We don't get the blackmail scene.

Meg: Well, let's, let's, before we get there, I think what they could have done to make this work is to have his dad putting on the pressure of, "You're my son. You need to carry on the legacy. You need to get drafted. You can't get distracted." And that way we could have heard that outside perspective that then Garrett is relating to Kendall, where Garrett is saying to Kendall, "I can't be in a relationship because it's too distracting, and I need to focus on career.

Like I, I, I'm not gonna get drafted if I get... you know, if I have a girlfriend, I'm not gonna get drafted." And like, then we could hear his dad repeating some of that back to him, and I think that would've been really powerful if it had been like, hockey is who you are,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: um, instead of what I just said about like, "I paid for this, and you have to," you know?

Like that, that way it wouldn't have been evil. It would've been like a parent who's helicoptering and pushing

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: instead of like trying, and, and maybe trying to take the credit for it. It

Nikki: Yeah, 'cause I think that definitely was

Meg: would've

Nikki: more in the book, that thing of like, you only have this because of me, so that when Garrett starts to struggle with, am I doing this because I love it, or am I doing this because this is the only thing I have done and can do? That might have made that

Meg: landed a little harder.

Nikki: But I, I do like that, again, I feel like I wanna say that Belmont as Garrett kind of graduated, or they went to the same school as the, um, School of Microexpression Acting with Connor Story. So much of this shit is on his face that

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: that this episode, first episode, with at the fair or carnival or whatever, and Ally and Sean get Hannah kind of up, and like, "Let's go, let's go," so she'll go flirt with Justin, and then she goes over, and then someone bumps into her, and like, uh,

Meg: has beer in the white shirt with the b- purple bra, which is hot. Yeah.

Nikki: I gotta say, I said this a couple times while watching, I'm like, El- um, Ella, right, not to objectify you, but

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: that's brought up multiple times in the book. Um, but then Garrett comes over and, jacket over, and kind of arm around, like, "I'm gonna rescue you."

So Hannah's like, "What is happening right now?" this, the, uh, the episode winds up with them striking the titular deal of you tutor me. Justin has now said it's Hannah, right? And is like looking at her, is talking

to her, and he's like, "See, I just proved to you my value in this situation." And she's like, "Okay, it's a deal."

And I was like, that's the title of the

Meg: That's the name of the book!

Nikki: name of the book.

Meg: That's who you are.

Nikki: all you. Uh, roll

Meg: You gotta throw in those Malanie Nick Kroll references when you get 'em.

Nikki: done. Um, what are, have you, how many of the books have you read?

Meg: Just this one. I thought about reading Elle & Dean's

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: before we recorded, but um, I didn't.

Nikki: Mm-hmm. I

Meg: And there's only so much college brain I can take. I

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: I just can't.

Nikki: Because in episode two is where they really start to expand relationships, right? We get a lot more of Allie and Sean in episode two, uh, Allie being Hannah's best friend, Sean being her boyfriend, and her wanting to spice it up. You can kinda see Allie straining a little bit, um, within their relationship, and then we get Dean's costume birthday party. Um, what, what are your thoughts on Dean?

Meg: He's such a himbo, and I really like him.

Nikki: I loved him. I thought he was so fun

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: he's, he is that kind of like that good-looking doofus. You know, he's having girls over and not closing the door, and they're like, "Dean, close your door." He's like, "I'm just doing this. I'm happy-go-lucky." He has this party where he's dressed as Maverick, like Tom Cruise in

Meg: Of course he is.

Nikki: and in walks Allie as J.Lo in that dress. We all know that dress, and he's kind of like, "Ooh, I am interested," and she's like, "No, no, no, no. a boyfriend." Like, go off, sir. Go off with

Meg: Which, uh, it was Ben Affleck, and he was like, "You have to carry the, the Dunkin' cup." I'm like, "Come on."

Nikki: Otherwise they don't know that you're Ben Affleck. You don't have your Duncan. Um,

Meg: Which, like, he could just be any bro in Boston.

Nikki: yeah.

Meg: they're on the Cape for this party, right? Like,

Nikki: Yes.

Meg: That's okay.

Nikki: is very true. But I did really enjoy this party because now you have Allie kind of coming in a little bit more. just prior to this, we have a little montage of all the ways that they are trying to get Justin's attention. You know, in class, pushing the water bottle over by accident, like, "Oops, we're doing that." Um, trying to get on The Fifth Line, which is an Instagram account run by Logan's sibling, Jules, that's kind of like the gossip site. Um, then there's the weight room kissing scene. What are your thoughts on this scene where, uh, Garrett's like, "You can't blush." in walks Logan in the, in the series, and she's like, "Okay, uh, I'm gonna kiss him too.

See? Not blushing."

Meg: I thought it came too soon.

Nikki: Mm.

Meg: I wish it had come slightly later. I thought that their, their progression... And actually, I remember thinking when I read the book, they, it felt like they got together too soon because I was expecting the fake dating to happen for longer. I think we talked about that in that last episode, is like they got together at, like, 30%, and I was like, "Oh.

Oh, okay." Like, so that, that worked out for you, Garrett. And then, uh, so often with fake dating especially, it's like you're fake dating till 70 or 80%, whereas this is, "Okay, fake dating. We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. You got him. I got my A, but actually let's date for real. Okay." And then the rest of it is the struggles of being in a relationship, which is very different structurally from what most of the books of that particular trope do.

Um, but I also did feel like it was, it was quick.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: that to be in episode three or even later on, where I wanted her to be still a little blushy, a little bit like, "I don't wanna kiss you. I don't wanna do this." But I did love... And I remember that moment from the book. I think it may have been not in the weight room, but in the house.

Um, I liked it in the weight room 'cause it sort of gave it that, like, public energy. Um, but then it also sort of gives you the, why does Logan have a crush on Hannah? Oh,

Nikki: Yeah,

Meg: reason for it.

Nikki: that made more sense because in the book she kisses Dean, it's not Logan.

Meg: should- I- it makes sense that it's Logan.

Nikki: that they have a couple of moments. Um, it, it comes in episode three when he, like, runs into her on the porch and

Meg: Oh yeah, and he's like, "I..." Yeah.

Nikki: we have the, this relationship. But going back to episode two,

Meg: I

Nikki: got Hannah and Garrett doing their fake dating, trying to get Justin's attention, doing the weight room kiss scene. We've got Ali and Sean, and then Ali going to the costume party. Because, um, Hannah and Garrett, and Dean and Ali's book kind of happen in the same timeline. A lot of their relationship is crossover, which specifically in one episode that I really wanna talk about when we get there, 'cause it was one of my favorite episodes.

Meg: loved the way that they did this, yes.

Nikki: that we get to see the difference in starting points for and Dean, like how they're coming into it. Because at first glance, they're kind of the same character, right? Like, they're that, that Chad hockey player,

Meg: jock

Nikki: kind

Meg: meathead.

Nikki: But we're seeing really early that they are very different, um, which I just like seeing because it, it gives, it gives a reason why these girls, these women, I guess they're, they're in their 20.

I'm gonna call them women 'cause it feels weird to call them girls.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: Um, where these women, like Ali and Hannah, start liking them. Like, it's a reason. It's not, to Garrett's conversation with, uh, Kendall in the f- in the earlier episode, like, it's not just because they are them.

Meg: Right, it's not just because they have the certain jersey, or they're on the team, or they have a certain future, or they have a certain amount of money in their trust funds, but they like their personalities, which is- which makes sense, which you would want i- in an ideal situation.

Nikki: Yeah, and this is also the episode that lays pipe for some of, I'm gonna call them love triangles even though they're not fully realized, is,

Meg: Mm.

Nikki: like, Ali dances with Dean. Um, it's like, "But no, I

Meg: They're

Nikki: uh, we know that Hannah doesn't drink in public, and Garrett is in the kitchen a drink.

He's like, "Oh, she doesn't really drink." And Logan hands him a closed can of beer 'cause he's just like, closed drinks are, like, they're better,

Meg: safer, yeah.

Nikki: to see that Logan is putting that, he's seen this.

And I was like, this, again, is laying pipe for why- You know, w- he has a crush on Hannah, or we see that it's not

Meg: Yeah

Nikki: been there for a while. But we do get a really cute moment at the end of this episode, which is everybody's done, the party is over, Hannah goes upstairs to the room with Garrett, and he's just like, he lies on the bed and she's like, "You're, you're taking the bed?"

Meg: I loved this scene so much.

Nikki: It is really cute, and then, you know, they're fighting who's gonna get the bed, and

Meg: And they're both so stubborn, and so they both end up on the floor, but they can sort

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: each other underneath the bed and, like, sort of not see each other. And oh, God, I loved it. It reminded me of, um, People I Meet on Vacation had something similar, where they're both speaking to the ceiling. I can't remember which one of the...

I know Poppy was on the floor. Maybe he was on the bed. Um,

Nikki: it's, um, w- in the first ... It's in the flashback when they're like dri- on

Meg: yeah, it's like their first road trip, and, like, something happens to the car, and they have to stay at a hotel. But I liked it so much better with both of... Maybe. But yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right. I think she takes the bed. But the fact that Hannah doesn't take the bed when Garrett's like, "Great, well, I'll sleep on the floor," and Hannah's like, "I can sleep on the floor, too,"

Nikki: Yeah,

Meg: most, characters don't do that.

They both laid there, and then they ended up together, and then Garrett leaves. And I loved that choice of them sort of having the, the ability to speak into the darkness and to tell some of the truths that were uncomfortable because they weren't looking at each other. Like, the way that you trap your kids in the car to ask them questions because then they're not looking at you, and you're like, "Oh, you don't...

Well, there's a..."

Nikki: Clearly I'm not a parent, but this

Meg: when you want Finn to talk to you, t-take him, take him dri- take him for a drive because especially now with kids, like, not being able to sit in the front seat. Like, my kid's in the back seat, I'm like, "So how was school today?" And he'll just start talking 'cause he ca- he can't see my face.

He can't escape. Like, it's almost like that. It's not quite forced proximity in that case. She could have left. But, like, the, the ability to speak without being seen is a... And to be in the dark and to feel like it's safer. It's n- not pillow talk. You're not in an intimate situation, but you are. Like, I thought that was such a beautiful decision to have them have that intimacy without the visibility.

Nikki: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then we get that moment when they start talking about music, and she's like, "Oh, do you know this version of this?" And, "This is a song that I wrote." And then she gets the laptop, and they both come up onto the

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: have a conversation, then fall asleep that way, and Garrett wakes up first, and he's like, get back down on the floor."

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: that And I, again, I think this is really showing why I loved Garrett so much when we talked about him in the book, is like he's not d- he's socially aware.

Meg: He's so safe. He is so safe for her. Even before he knows he needs to be,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: he is. He's making those safe choices. He's taking care of her. Um, can I tell you how long it took me to figure out his costume? I didn't get that he was a magician and she was the bunny. I didn't get it.

Nikki: That's the joke in the show

Meg: No,

Nikki: shows

up.

Meg: even after she showed up, even after she showed up, I was like, I...

And everyone is

Nikki: say...

Meg: he was a vampire. We thought he was a vampire. He's not a vampire." It took me so long to figure out he's a m- a magician. I didn't get it, Nikki.

Nikki: I

Meg: is he then? I didn't understand."

Nikki: but as soon as Hannah showed up, I think it was actually Jen that goes, "Oh, he's a magician."

And then Jules

Meg: I didn't, make it. I didn't make the leap.

Nikki: Yeah. I don't know, like, if you... Okay, 'cause I, I like how the, the costumes were essentially, like, duos. It was couples or, um, like Dean and Bo

Meg: Was it Dean? Yeah, it was Bo.

Nikki: Goose and

Meg: We didn't know who Bo was very well at that point. Bo

Nikki: you just

Meg: showed up later. We knew it was just, like, a friend.

Nikki: said. Yeah, I don't even know if they had said his

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: loud up at, at that point.

Meg: Which I was fine with because I feel like they did a... Actually, we should talk about this. They did a really good job of introducing people slowly while also having them around, where it was like, you know, episode one, we got Ally's roommate, roommate's boyfriend, and just the housemates.

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: oh, and Justin. And then the world slowly expanded. And so by the end of it, I could be like, "All right. Bo, he grew up with, uh, with Dean, and Joanna's his sister, and she's a Broadway artist." The Joanna Maxwell. "Oh, and there's this other guy that he didn't like. We don't know why." You know, like, it, it expanded so slowly that I could keep those people in my head.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: But...

Nikki: of Thrones, and here's 25 different types of lineage that you have to remember.

Meg: I never watched Game of Thrones. I couldn't handle it.

Nikki: Um, okay, but here's my question for you. If you had to go to a costume party like Dean's birthday where you had to be in a duo costume, what would you do?

Meg: Oh. I, I mean, this brings us back to Bridgerton, season four, episode one, where they ha- they had their, their joint costumes, and we got, like, Antony and Cleopatra, and we got, what, what was it?

Nikki: Zeus, uh,

Meg: Is it-

Nikki: and her brother

Meg: Harry and Hermione. Bo showed up as Zeus. Um, Ben and I, back when Parks and Rec was a big thing, we went as April and Andy to a, a costume party that required it.

Um, when the kids were little, little, we did a whole family, um, costume where it was... The kids were, I'm gonna say, Batman and Robin.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: And so we were Superman and Wonder Woman.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: Um, and we've done Toy Story, too, where I got to be Jessie.

Nikki: That works. That

Meg: I think,

Nikki: it.

Meg: fam- family costumes aside, I don- I don't know, 'cause we never really did it before. I think I tr- I think I tried once for a Hermione and, and Harry, and he was like, "I'm not doing that."

But I was like, "No, I'm nerdy. I can wear the cute little cape." And he was like, "No, you, no, we're not doing that." I was like, "All you need is, like, glasses and a scar. You can do

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: this."

Nikki: It's very easy. It's

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: Okay.

Meg: I was like, "I'll just frizz out my hair. It'll be great." But no,

Nikki: it

Meg: a, it was a no.

Nikki: All right. I'm into it. I'm into it. I think I would go for, um, in Never Been Kissed, when the prom theme gets turned to, like, um, romantic couples through time or whatever it is, and the, the popular girls a- all show up as different variations of Barbie. I'm Disco Barbie. I'm Malibu Barbie. I'm like, "That's what I would do." I would, I would be a Barbie, so I

Meg: And then you would have Ken,

Nikki: to have a Ken. But

Meg: you'd have Ken take you out and

Nikki: the gay Ken with,

Meg: play Matchbox 20 for you on the beach. Yeah.

Nikki: Okay, so this episode ends with, um, buses going back to campus.

Garrett is on the team bus, and who

Meg: let's also talk about the fact that, like, the buses didn't go back after the hockey game. They're just like, "Oh, we'll stay overnight so everyone can go to this party, and then the campus and the college will pay for everyone to go back in the morning." No, that's not how that

Nikki: That's hilarious. I did not even clock that, yeah, they were school buses, and this was, like, a trip out to play this away game.

Meg: Yeah, I...

Nikki: here

Meg: I went to college in Philadelphia, and so we would ga- have games in Jersey, and, like, people would, like, take the bus out and then have to take the, like, PATCO bus back from the shore. 'Cause, like, the school wasn't gonna just wait.

Nikki: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. It's back... Yeah, I'm just like, I, I've been on buses like that for team sports, and I'm just like, that's not, like, a romantic place to talk or

Meg: No. Well, they were in separate buses.

Nikki: no, I'm talking with Hannah and Justin.

Meg: Mm.

Nikki: is gonna smell like Fritos and, like, weird Clorox bleach for the on-bus bathroom.

Meg: Yeah, but that's just how buses... Like, that's charter buses in general. I, I think a bus could be, like, a nice place to talk.

Nikki: Yeah, do you know about the Greyhound bus incident that happened in Canada, like, many years ago?

Meg: Please enlighten me.

Nikki: Oh, no, it's bad. It's not a

Meg: Oh.

Nikki: Um,

Meg: d- should I not ask?

Nikki: No, this, uh, I don't remember the exact details, but basically this person ended up attacking this other passenger and decapitated

Meg: Holy shit.

Nikki: yeah, no, it's, like, very famous, like, Greyhound crime story.

So anytime I see a charter bus, other than the smell, unfortunately, that's where my brain

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: Cool. Now I'm gonna always think about decapitations.

Nikki: very welcome. I like to ruin buses for

Meg: And now we're at the point where, like, my kids are starting to take buses to, like, cool places.

Nikki: I'm sure they won't decapitate people.

Meg: I hope not. Jesus. As if I'm not already worried enough about, like, lockdown drills and school shootings. Now I'm like, "Oh, cool, decapitations. Thanks, Nikki."

Nikki: you're very welcome. Uh, don't ask me about why I don't like dolphins anymore. Um,

Meg: not. Let's just not. Let's not.

Nikki: okay, episode

Meg: It's a

Nikki: funny how quickly we clocked that this was a dream. 'Cause like, oh, they're playing, and then of course, as they started getting closer, we're like, "No, no, it's a dream.

Meg: dream. Mm.

Nikki: And then you start to hear the, the vibration, and I was like, is that an alarm clock or a vibrator? And then she wakes up. We're like,

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: showed one on screen, 'cause I was really trying to think of show or another movie where they actually literally show a vibrator on screen, and the only thing I could think of was Sex and the City.

They show the Rabbit, but more

Meg: it's not

Nikki: It's not in

Meg: of use.

Nikki: Um,

Meg: And they, they do one in the, um, the Elle and Dean episode too.

Nikki: Yeah, I wanna get to that. But no, I'm thinking, um, outside of the show, the only other one I can remember is Not Another Teen Movie,

in the opening sequence where the Laney Boggs alt, um, is using a vibrator and then, like, her dad walks in, her priest walks in, kids in the neighborhood walk in, and it's a very funny scene.

But that's the only other time I can think

of

Meg: do, we need to say like dildo, dildo, dildo, so that way we show up in search results for Off-Campus Dildo in addition to Heated Rivalry Dildo? I am just doing the marketing work here. You're we- you're welcome. You're welcome.

Nikki: so this is where we get to see a little bit more of Hannah and Garrett's, um, relationship. She changes a study time on him to go song write, and he starts responding in two to three-word sentences, and she's like, "Dude, like, what is going on?" Uh, we start to see Ally and Sean's relationship continue to crack in that he's talking about going to Vermont and how she's not really gonna make it as an actress anyway. Um, we get to see a little bit more of Logan's crush on Hannah by talking about the Boo Baroo and putting her bike on the porch. Um, we get Hannah walking in on Garrett and Zoe hooking up in his room. So we have, like, all these weird things happening. This is where Justin sees Hannah's playlist that is literally all him, and it's called Crushing, and she has an awkward moment. Um, and then, but then this is the episode where we get to see a fulfillment of 50% of the deal, and it's Garrett giving an oral presentation about ghosting via the philosophies of Kierkegaard. Um, and we're like, "Cool, that half is done. You got, really gotta ramp up getting Justin."

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: And then we get karaoke night, which is so fucking fun. I loved this scene so much.

Meg: And I think, you know, I was, I was concerned about how are they gonna fill the time?

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: How is this filler going to work? Um, because that's a long... It was a 300-page book. How are they gonna turn it into eight one-hour episodes or 45-minute episodes? And it was these little moments where, yes, there was the moment in the book where Garrett took her out to a bar and let her drink, and he drove her home.

But turning it into a karaoke night where both Elle and Hannah could express themselves in some way- was such a smart character choice because I think also, like, one of the big shifts that h- that you're able to do in a TV adaptation that doesn't quite translate as well in a book is to, like, have the actual performances, have the songs be meaningful.

And the choice to take Justin and turn him from football player into musician was a choice that gave them the chance to play, great, here's three live music sets where he gets to perform and she gets to ogle him, and it gives... She's not gonna go to the football game, so this gives her a reason and a connection point with him.

But then also she gets to go up, she's a cl- a compo- a composition major. She's not a performer. She doesn't want to perform, although she has performed, but she stopped performing after high school. Um, and so she gets to go on stage and be in the spotlight, and Garrett gets to see her performance and see her flirtation, and see how fucking sexy she is.

Nikki: She was so good when she sang "Sweet Cherry Pie," also inspired choice since that was the song that I think Garrett

Meg: He was going down on J- Zoey, yeah.

Nikki: Um, so that was really funny. Um, Ella Bray did all her own singing and most of the playing, like the guitar and the piano. She did most of that herself, and she's fucking phenomenal.

Meg: I could tell it was her real voice.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: It was just so clearly hers, but I didn't realize that she was also doing the guitar. I mean, she was strumming correctly. You know, like, you, you sort of watch, but the way that they cut it, it could be anybody's hands.

Nikki: like learn this, to one or two strums with your fingers on this chord and then

off you're... And I was like, she did it all herself, which I thought was so fun.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: this was a scene...

Meg: It's, it's like five years ago I would've been like, "Wow, that's a big acting thing," and now that I have a kid who's like, "Oh yeah, this is a guitar," I'm like, "Yeah,"

Nikki: Yeah. I really... The, the one thing I wished for this scene is I wanted to see prior to this, Hannah be a little bit more closed off,

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: she discovers that she really likes piña coladas and she sings "Sweet Cherry Pie," we as the audience are surprised because we haven't seen this from her yet.

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: so I

Meg: But she already had the, uh, the bitch is back moment where she's dancing around in the green room, which, like, h- how often does he just walk away from games to, like, meander his way around the hockey arena?

Nikki: Yeah, like the intermissions aren't that long. They're,

Meg: Is she... H-

Nikki: intermission. Like

what are, where are they going?

Meg: how many musical places do they have at a hockey arena?

Nikki: Yeah, but also like, just with that one, um, he, you're in, you're underground, uh, at the arena obviously, but like how... Do you know how many people it takes to run a facility like that?

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: a big hockey game like this, me there was nobody in those hallways that saw him walk by? Mm.

Anyway, but like I loved, I loved

Meg: That's, like, m- one of my biggest logic gaps of this whole thing is, like, how often they're alone in the arena.

Nikki: Yeah,

Meg: It's just not realistic.

Nikki: it is to have an arena open

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: the facilities? Like, no, no, no.

Meg: The lights were always on, it was always... I... And then when they take a fucking turkey and they're like, "Let's just destroy it in the middle of this place, and no, we're not gonna have to clean it up."

Yeah right. Yeah the fuck right.

Nikki: Yeah, yeah. But we do get to see this really big moment with Garrett being like, "I will watch you. I will watch your drinks. When you leave your drink, I will watch it. I will stay sober. You have fun." Turns out she loves piña coladas. Um, we get Ally, like, word vomiting in the bathroom line, in the bathroom about her relationship with Sean

Meg: And singing Take Me or Leave Me. Yeah.

Nikki: which was not that good.

Meg: No, she was not that, not that impressive of a performer.

Nikki: No, like, at least not singing. I think 'cause she's an, she's an actor, she's

not a singer from... was what I could tell from that. But she was still very funny, 'cause also Maureen is meant to be kind of nuts in her performance

Meg: Complete drama queen, yeah.

Nikki: choice.

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: so this is, they go back after the karaoke party, and Garrett finds all of her clothes just, like, on the stairway going up after he puts Ally to lie down on the couch. Um, and she's l- Hannah wants to hook up. Garrett says, "No, you are drunk." Uh, and then the episode ends the next morning with a, a very, uh, impactful line that I think most of us saw coming just based on the sh- episode title, which is, "I need you to give me an orgasm." da-da, da. And credits

Meg: And not just, "I need you to give me an orgasm," but, "Justin texted me. He wants to hang out. I need you to give me an orgasm." It's not, "I need you," it's, "I need somebody to do this for me so I can do it with him." Like, it's still using Garrett, but I don't think that she thinks of it as using him because she's seen him hook up with people.

She knows what his reputation, and she doesn't think that he'll take it too seriously. Like, it, it makes a lot of sense. What, what'd she say in the next episode? She's like, "You're low stakes."

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: And for him to think of somebody thinking of him as low stakes is, like, a huge ego blow for him, you know?

Nikki: Yeah, but, like, she also d- does say, like, "I trust you,"

Meg: You're my friend.

Nikki: 'Cause in the next episode, this is where Hannah tells Garrett about what happened to her in high school, the sexual assault, and kind of what came after. And he says, "Okay. Yes, I wi- I will do this for you." Um, then we get this amazing talk he has with Dean in the gym, and why I love Dean, and he does really kind of fall into this himbo.

He's like, "Hey, I have this thing. It's totally not Hannah, but I wanna make it good for her." And Dean's just like, "Yeah, do all the things, bro. Take all the tools in your toolbox, but you know what the most important tool is? Trust. She needs to feel completely safe and relaxed. Consent is not consent unless she trusts you, so just do whatever you have to do to make this girl who's not Hannah you."

And I was just like,

Meg: Well done, Dean. Everyone needs the pep talk. Every, every 17-year-old boy should have to watch that scene.

Nikki: It's so good because then when, um, Hannah shows up at Garrett's house, like you said seven, right? And they are, um, going to have sex, uh, he, Garrett puts on, makes her choose, like, theme music, and she's like, "This is really corny," and he's like, "Yeah, I know. It's great." And, um, he's

Meg: He, he takes her off, like, yeah. He turn ... And when he, when she shows up in that dress, and then he turns around.

Nikki: Yeah,

Meg: And she's

Nikki: again,

Meg: about to see me naked anyway." And he says, "Yeah, but not until you're ready for me."

Nikki: Yeah, not until you want me to. Um, and, like, gets her all comfy, and then they start, like, just dancing around being silly, and it just makes so much sense that, you're like, "Okay, yes, I do see why she is comfortable with this." But also, they get, uh, like Hannah, she says like, "I lost it. Like, I got into my head.

It's gone." And then he's like, "No, no, no, nothing is wrong with you. You are not broken. Why don't we just do ourselves and see what happens?" And I was like, "I'm surprised at the amount of emotional growth from, from a boy in high school, or not high school, uh, by a, by this young man in college." Like, oh, he is really emotionally aware.

Meg: And the song choice too, like the Motown, << Baby, now that I found you, I can't let you go >>. Like,

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: and, and the callback to it later. I, I can't imagine how much they spent on, like, musical licensing

Nikki: The

music for this series.

was so

Meg: So good. It to- it was such an important part of the storytelling. I loved it.

Nikki: Yeah, but they spent all their money on music licensing and no money on fucking lighting in this scene. When I'm watching this scene, I literally say to Jen, I'm like, "What in the HBO Heated Rivalry lighting is this bullshit?

Meg: I was thinking the same thing. Can't see anything. It's

all blue light.

now you know what it's like to be an American. Hmm.

Nikki: That's because this is a Prime show, not Crave. Crave spends money on lighting.

Meg: I guess so. Well, that's, the sun goes down so soon in Canada, you have to spend money on lighting, otherwise everyone's seasonal affective.

Nikki: like, this, this is a turning point for both of these characters, but where I love that this picks up is that we could kinda see that Garrett was already feeling some kind of

way about Hannah, especially with his conversation with Dean, and like, "I want to make this good, and I don't wanna screw this up." then they've got these, you know, these moments on the, uh, when the hockey team is practicing, and he's just talking, and every single hockey player is like, "Yeah, you're into her. Yeah, just, you sh- talk to her.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: into her. You talk about her all the time." and I was like, I love, again, going back to the book, that he was the first one to really put and awareness around this for, in their relationship, 'cause so often it's the girl first.

Meg: But also, while that conversation is happening, they're passing this fraternity hazing banana back and forth down the line.

Nikki: the banana.

Meg: Watch Bernardo with your life, and then of course Dean comes, and he's the one who issued the challenge, and he just, like, eats it, and Tucker's like, "No!" And, like, having that comedic reaction and comedy relief at the m- the moment, I loved

Nikki: Talking about modern updates, um, yeah, I'm really happy that when, um, the guys start hazing Tucker, is that it's a fruit hazing and not like, "We're gonna do humiliating things." It's like, "No, here's a grape, and every time we- that gets destroyed, we're gonna give you something bigger," and then he immediately eats the grape, and we just see mango,

Meg: one point, there was a, a watermelon that he's holding. I'm like, this is just such a little, like, runner through the whole thing that just reminds you of how ridiculous college is.

Nikki: Yes, it's very fun. But you know what else about Ridiculous College that I clearly did not experience and wish I had? Drunk Shakespeare.

Meg: Oh, my God.

Nikki: I want drunk Shakespeare.

Meg: want to drunk Shakespeare now.

Nikki: I wanna put this on so badly, but also, where are the adults in this? Like, where are they renting these facilities from that they're also just serving alcohol everywhere?

Meg: It's just the theater department, Nikki. You have... The, the kid who played Puck was goddamn brilliant. Perfect.

Nikki: He was so good. Um, I guess that that does make sense if you think about it. Like, I was executive producer of my college drama society, and we literally had a line item in our budget for the cast party alcohol, which, shh, we weren't really supposed to do. Um, it was for marketing. Um, but we spent thousands of dollars on alcohol for our cast parties, so I guess it makes sense. We would just go to someone's house, whoever had an off-campus house, and

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: so many shenanigans ensued. But this, just as a, as a structure, was really fun 'cause drunk Shakespeare, the cast, and the audience is just getting shit-faced.

Meg: And the Midsummer Night's Dream, where you have these couples shifting around and oh, it's so well done. It was not in the book at all, and I loved the, the shoehorning it in there to give that tension of like, oh, Hannah finally gets Justin,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: who's she looking at? And Garrett finally has the conversation with Cassidy?

Nikki: Kendall.

Meg: finally has the conversation with Kendall where he's like, "Oh, now I see how hurtful that would have been. I'm sorry." And

Nikki: when you like someone who doesn't like you back.

Meg: yeah. And

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: he was also correct at like, "You liked me, but you didn't know me,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: have been gentler with that, or I could have, you know, shared my expectations sooner or let you down more easily and not been quite so harsh about it," and like he recognizes that.

I mean, I would say like Hannah has a lot of growth over the series, but like if, if you were to say who's the protagonist of this, it would be Garrett. Garrett has a much huger self-awareness journey in the process.

Nikki: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I like that he does have to have a pole dancing battle, um, with Justin, which is really fun, 'cause he's got no rhythm for being an athlete. Um, and then that's when Hannah and Garrett, he kinda says, like, "I got you the guy," so he goes off to the arena. Again, don't know how he has keys and took a strong light. And then Hannah

Meg: And he's alone in the arena, but then Hannah, who maybe works there, but also has keys to it because Garrett would lock up behind himself, but she can get in and she can get into not just any room, but the PA room, the, like, the media booth, because there's not a ton of really expensive equipment in there.

Nikki: Mm-hmm. and then, uh, she gets to sing that song again, and is like, "Hey, it actually is you, 'cause I don't wanna go out with Justin." .

Meg: Um, I liked that there was this connection point of what are the lyrics that Justin wrote, and it was this, like, "Yellow, yellow haze," which, like, definitely woke up with that in my head this week. Very catchy, but also really doesn't mean anything, and I think that's okay.

Just because Hannah didn't get it doesn't mean that it's wrong, and her song that she wr- sang at the end was, like, zero subtext whatsoever, and okay.

Nikki: know. I thought Justin's song was horrible. Those lyrics were so bad.

Meg: the p- like, the fact that her... So I liked Hannah's advisor a lot, and her advisor saying, "You need it to mean something. You need to feel it," and that was a huge part of her growth. And then she says to Justin, like, "What does this make you feel?" And he says, like, "Like it could make money." Versus asking Garrett, like, "What does...

Now that I found you, I can't let you go." I can't remember the name of the song. Like, "What does that make you feel?" He goes, "It makes me feel bold. It makes me feel brave." And so then when Hannah does get the guy, she gets Justin. They're out. They're talking about it. She says, "What does this make you feel?"

And she's like, "No, I wanna feel bold. I wanna feel brave." And that's why she goes and pursues Garrett.

Nikki: It's, it's interesting to me in terms of plot

Meg: Not

Nikki: together, um, in the good time. Because we do get a little bit of, like, um, after they have this moment at the arena, the next episode, this is episode five, the Thanksgiving episode, like, "Yeah, no more Justin.

It's just us." And then we have a montage of their relationship. I was like, I actually

Meg: their relationship. We have a montage of sex. That's it.

Nikki: But then the very next thing they do is they have to go into something heavy, which is Thanksgiving at his dad's place with

his fiance. Like, we didn't get enough of them the good part

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: to make the breakup feel worse. Because, like, she... He invites her to go to Thanksgiving with his dad, 'cause he doesn't really wanna go, but feels like he kinda has to. He's like, you know, "Yes, would you come with me?" And he's showing her around the house. It's kind of like a shrine to his dad, and all of the merch, and, like, this seven-foot-tall cardboard things.

And I, I like how they negotiated beforehand, like, a signal to leave. 'Cause Hannah's like, "I know this is a lot." And it's this idea of like, you know, "Squeeze, squeeze my hand three times. We're gone." And then they're at dinner, and it kind of, yeah, has that weird, like, in between you talked about earlier with bad hockey dad. Like- He's kind of being nice. Like, he's kind of saying complimentary things. He says grace, uh, before they eat dinner. And

Meg: W- we don't know how much of it is a performance, but we also don't have the context of like, this is unusual or ... Like, it would've been more interesting, I think, if he'd said grace, but also if he'd been critical of Garrett when they were watching hockey together, just the two of them, and be like, you know, "That's your future team," 'cause that does play into it or whatever.

But

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: getting more of that like, your future relies on this, and it relies on me, and it relies on my name, and this is what your, your bedroom became the shrine to me

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: because that's what you are to me, is just the legacy of my name and my performance, and like the, the next generation and the lineage is there.

And I, I liked that, but I don't feel like it was clearly articulated by the character of Phil Graham. I think that if Phil had said more, it would've come across harder as, is Garrett feeling this external pressure from the media, or has he been growing up with this feeling of I don't get to be anything but Phil Graham's son?

Which he says, but you don't see it from the dad.

Nikki: Yeah, you don't see it from the dad. If anything, you see it more from his friends

saying like, "Oh, it must be so cool." Um, later when they have the fundraiser, it's like, "Why can't you ask your dad for these things?" Yeah, that I wish it had come a little bit more from his dad,

so that we understood how bad it really was, so that when he sees at dinner that Cindy has bruises on her wrist, and he leaves, like we see that as yet another straw that broke the camel's back, but probably the biggest one now because he has Hannah with him to kind of hold him through it. And then when he breaks down in the car ride home, was again, again, I was like, "Fucking Garrett, man. He's so good."

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: Yeah. And then they get... Then there's, uh, the, in the back- the background of this episode is the, the friends giving. I feel really bad for Tucker, y'all. You're showing up to a house and not bringing food with you?

Meg: Nobody brought food, and then Jules is like, "We're just gonna steal the marshmallows 'cause our mom's in rehab." And I was like, this doesn't ... I ... Even though it, the, it did come around, I was like, that's just a dick move.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: if you wanna go see your mom, go see your mom. That's fine. But don't like ruin all of Tucker's hard work just to like be f- think that you're being funny.

It made me dislike Jules, which I really liked Jules the character. It just felt like, yes, they're 19, they're immature, but like that was rude. That was

Nikki: that

Meg: self-serving. I don't know. It was weird.

Nikki: like, I don't know what it was meant to say them or the people in the relationship. Like, I do like that we got to just have some fun casual time with a group of friends, but they were just so mean to Tucker.

Meg: I mean, he did sort of put everyone to work. I do also wanna point out, there was a moment that we missed, which I think comes out later, which is before Garrett gets his dad showing up and saying, "Come home for Thanksgiving," and he's thinking about going to Friendsgiving. You get that FaceTime call with Hannah and Hannah's mom,

Nikki: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Meg: which I think is important that that's when she introduces his, her mom to Garrett.

And, you know, the mom is so warm, so welcoming, so everything that Garrett wanted. And she says, you know, "We watched the game last night. We were so proud of you." And they're like, "But he lost." "Doesn't matter, we're still proud of you." Like, that's what Garrett needed to hear. That's the relationship he needed to have.

Um, and so I think that that was also a key component of, like, I don't wanna say like, oh, he was able to walk away from his dad 'cause he had Hannah's family, 'cause that's not where they were.

Nikki: No.

Meg: but the recognition of families can be like that. Hannah has that. I would rather have that than what I do have, is an important recognition for him in that moment, too, I think.

Nikki: I agree. Um, I wish, the, the one thing I wish with this storyline that had been more resolved by the end of the first season was Cindy leaving Phil.

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: I wanted Garrett to have that win. I

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: that win, that he did

Meg: Yeah. Yeah.

Nikki: 'cause he didn't know her.

He couldn't protect her. He couldn't protect his mom from his dad, and then she died. And he made this overture with Cindy, which is like, "He will keep doing this. He did this to me. He did this to my mom. He's never sorry." when Cindy shows up again at the game with his dad, and she's still with him, I was like, I really wanted that to happen this season, that he finds out that Cindy left. 'Cause I think he needed that win to feel like he did protect someone

Meg: And that he's not the same as his dad, that his dad would continue this pattern, and he is breaking the pattern. And, and if I recall correctly, and you've read the book more recently than I have, doesn't Cindy call... Like, she gives, he gives Cindy his phone number and says, "Call me if you need to get out of there," and she does, right?

So it's not just like she leaves him, it's like she leaves him with Garrett's support and help. And that, I felt, was a key component of Garrett recogn- Garrett's recognition that he isn't turning into his father, that he is a different man than him,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: that I think would've been a great conclusion and, like, should not happen next season, 'cause people will forget by then.

It should have happened this season.

Nikki: Yeah, I really wanted that win for him.

Meg: Yeah

Nikki: this is where we get into the next episode, which we get to see a little bit of a side plot line that's been happening in the background. Because after, uh, in the Shakespeare, the drunk Shakespeare episode, Elle and Sean, she breaks up with Sean again, and Sean's like, "You're gonna call me in 36 hours.

Like, I know you're gonna do this. You go through these cycles of Elle, all these Elles." And she's like, "No, no, no. This is, this is absolutely it for real." And she is really drunk and emotional at drunk Shakespeare. And we see her pick up the phone and call someone where the number says, "Don't call this person.

Don't call." And I'm like, "Oh, fuck. She's calling Sean." Well, at the end of the Thanksgiving episode, there's, like, a group FaceTime, which I thought was so cute, all the

Meg: So cute.

Nikki: Garrett and Hannah, and they bring in Dean. They're like, "Happy Thanksgiving." And Dean is there, and he's lying in bed.

And they're like, "Why are you, like, shirtless and in bed?" He goes, "Tryptophan, motherfuckers. I had turkey." I was... I immediately said, I'm like,

Meg: He's with Elle.

Nikki: back in. Ally is there, and he says, "Don't worry, they didn't see you." And that's how the episode ends.

Meg: Yeah,

Nikki: We pick

Meg: as soon as, they had the, the Hannah and Elle at Malone's, and Elle's like, "No, I don't need a ride. I'll just take the bus," I was like, "Oh, she's going with Dean."

Nikki: Mm-hmm. Yeah, we see her get into, like, a mysterious vehicle. So when we get to episode six, we flash back

Meg: Love this.

Nikki: Ally and Dean after the karaoke party, which this is when, um, Ally's asleep on the couch on the main floor, and Hannah had started leaving her clothes up the stairs to find. Well, Dean comes in with these, these two women, um, and he sees Ally there, and they hang out around the bonfire

Meg: No, he doesn't see Elle there. He makes out and falls onto Elle's face while she's sleeping. Poor Elle.

Nikki: they go out and they, they hang out by the bonfire, and he's kind of talking to her about this relationship, and he's like, you know, "I'm a rollercoaster, people. You'll want a fun ride. Here's my phone number." And he puts his cell phone number into Ally's phone, and she's like, "I don't like rollercoasters.

I don't do those." And she changes his number to the do not call. And I was like, "Oh my God, was Dean." I loved this reveal so much that it was Dean, 'cause I, I did a happiness 'cause I love Dean. Um, then we get their sex montage. There's a lot of

Meg: I

Nikki: in here of, like, sex and shirtless hockey players, which expediency

Meg: they gotta... They know what they, what- they know what sells.

Nikki: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But we get to see how this has been in parallel to everything we've seen the last episode and a half. So it is,

Meg: scene where, like, we already saw Garrett kick the popcorn bowl, and then they just, like, pan over through the wall, and you see that Elle is there trying to be silent, so good.

Nikki: we have, um, Dean untying her corset after drunk Shakespeare that I was like, "Ooh, this is good. This is a good moment." And then we get that bathtub scene that you talked about earlier, which was very Friends coded, where Ally and Dean are in the bathtub, and they have a vibrator, and then Tucker knocks on the door, and is like, "I just have to get something."

And, Ally does that hold my breath, go under the bubbles, and then Tucker opens the door, and there's Dean just sitting there with this bright pink vibrator in his hand. He's like, "Hey, what's up?"

Meg: Such a great moment.

Nikki: um, get into the car with Beau and Dean.

and I

Meg: every time he says, "This is the last time," this is the last time, which I love that sort of, like, reminder of how this actually works is it's never gonna be the last time. Yeah.

Nikki: the last time. But this is, gives us a character trope that I really enjoy, which is the my best friend becoming really fast friends with the girl. Because Beau and Ally start singing show tunes from Legally Blonde. They start

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: of Dean.

And I

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: what I love, when a romantic interest and the best friend

immediately are like, 'We're good friends.'" This happened in Set It Up- The Zoey

Meg: Yes. Yes.

Nikki: right? When they, they meet and they're like, "No, no, no." She meets Pete Davidson's character, who,

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: Powell's roommate.

He's like, "No, no, no, you're not gonna be friends." She goes, "Oh, no, we're best friends.

We're best friends now." And they start making fun of him. I loved this so much because, again, I like it because it's showing a character's other side through their friends.

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: their best friend is this fun, well then they're a good person.

They wouldn't be friends with a shitty person. So it's

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: to show that Dean is a good person because Bo is.

Meg: And, like, they're meant to be in a way, that, like, Dean hangs out with Bo, Dean has been friends with Bo forever, and Bo and Elle have so much in common, so of course Dean likes Elle. Like, because Elle is the... not the female version of Dean, but they have so much in common, they're very similar in terms of personality, and tone, and vibe.

Nikki: Ally leaves her parents' place, or her family's place during Thanksgiving, goes to Dean's. I love that she asks him what his big move is, because it's very much like Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in Crazy,

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: your move?"

He goes, "I do the Dirty Dancing move." And I'm like, is that why Dirty Dancing is shown a lot in this movie? 'Cause they're talking about the move,

Meg: The watermelon.

Nikki: in here somewhere. Um, but I like that, um, she goes to his place, and they have their strip chess moment, um, which I thought was really

funny.

Meg: Such a great moment. Such a good scene.

Nikki: But then Ally leaves, like, really awkwardly. Um, so I was finding it really difficult to get a read on where Ally was at this point, 'cause she hasn't yet said to him, "You need to go sleep with other people." She hasn't really said to him, like, "We need to change what we're doing." So, like, where do you think Ally is at this point?

Meg: I am so... I loved Elle as a character. Loved her, especially as a best friend character. But I couldn't stand that she was still so attached to Sean when Sean was so shitty to her, and I think they should have done a better job of showing Elle and Sean in a good spot. I think that would've made me feel more empathetic to her.

But really, we just got like, "Oh, we have been happy before. I love you. I don't wanna give up on this, but you don't believe in my career, and you want something completely different out of your life," which is, like, very normal for new adults. You shouldn't change your life for this person. The fact that sh- they got- broke up and got together so many times is not an indicator that they're meant to be.

It's an indicator that something is wrong, that they need to have a larger conversation about. And the fact that you have feelings for him does not make him your forever. And then she gets into this, like, "Oh, well, I shouldn't give up on love, because we've already put in the work." And it's like, well, if you're not going in the same direction, then you should give up on love.

You should break up with him. And then you break up with him, and then you feel guilty about sleeping with someone else, but, like, you're broken up with him. And yes, he came over unattended and uninvited, and he saw you, but, like, that's your right. And so the f- the... I didn't really get it. Like, I do get it. I understand it.

Emotionally, I get, like, you're still invested in an ex even after you break up. But she kept being like, "I love love, and I still care about Sean," and I didn't care enough about Sean to, to be on board with her guilt. I think that was the biggest structural issue with that whole kind of B plot with them, is I didn't think Sean was worth pining over.

Nikki: Yeah, I agree. And that maybe in their book it gets stepped out a little bit more about how sh- you know, moving on from Sean. But yeah, like, we never saw her be happy with him. It was always, "Should we try this new sex position? Should we go be spontaneous?" Then they fight about Vermont, and then the breakup cycle type thing.

It's like, yeah,

Meg: And she gets an agent, and he's like, "Well, that's useless. You're never gonna make it." Like, uh, the, he was just such a sad sack the whole time.

Nikki: nice to her. And then for her to then come in later, um, she, she talks to Hannah about the never give up on love, you have to put in the work. But we haven't really seen her and Sean put in the work. We see her put a little bit more work into it to try and see what's going on.

But, like, we never see that from him. So I felt it was kind of, I don't know, like a dumb reason

Meg: It felt very, like, one-sided, and I wasn't invested in their previous relationship, and, like, I thought she should've ... I, I didn't understand why she'd been with him in the first place. So the guilt didn't feel founded in any, anything grounded in reality. And so therefore, when she's feeling guilty by being with Dean, who's much better fit for her,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: sexually adventurous and, you know, seems to care about her, and she's like, "Well, Sean, though."

I'm like, "I don't give a shit."

Nikki: And especially when, um, after, um, the fundraiser dinner where they've kind of had some witty repartee back and forth. I love when she requests that the band plays "You and Your

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: come over?" And she's like, "Mm, how about this song?" Uh, really, really funny. But w- when she ... When he goes over to her place, also, that red lingerie set that she's wearing, what college kid has matching lingerie sets?

But also, it is sold out everywhere, 'cause everybody online is like, "Where do we get Ally's clothes?" Because every single fucking thing she wears, I'm like, "I want it." I would never look that cute in it,

but holy fuck do I want everything she's wearing.

Meg: Uh, no, I could not pull off any of that. And I, I posted a thread about this where I was like, "I am so glad that I graduated 20 years ago," because low-rise jeans were hard enough. But,

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: shirt that would show a midriff on this apple-shaped body would just ... It would be a nightmare being in college right now with these fashion trends.

Oof.

Nikki: do it, but she looks so good.

Meg: She looks so good.

Nikki: like, fun, lighthearted moment with Dean. I love that Dean shows up, like, sunglasses, baseball cap, in disguise. then he, he leaves, and then there's a knock at the door, and she's like, she sees Dean's jacket.

And she's like, "Oh, you forgot your jacket." And

Meg: And you think it's gonna be Garrett because Hannah has just said to Garrett, "Go back to my house." And you think they're gonna get found out by Garrett, and then it's Sean.

Nikki: And it's Sean, and she's like, "Oh my God, I didn't mean to hurt you." And he kinda, like, slut-shames her. And

I'm like, I'm Why do I like th- why am I supposed to like this person? Like,

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: to your point, why Ally is conflicted about him, 'cause we haven't seen enough of the good for her to f- to f- to understand that, like, maybe she is feeling this way because he's familiar to her. We haven't seen her be unsettled by her, relationship with Dean really. Like, we see her get a little bit of emotional, but, like, we haven't seen anything from Dean make Ally feel a certain way. Like, we haven't seen Ally see Dean with multiple women, and

she's like, "Oh, I feel some kinda way about this."

Like, it, it, this ... Yeah. It, it ... I liked all the characters individually, but I felt like this plot line, didn't quite hit it for me.

Meg: It just needed more, like, foundation laid to be like ... Especially if, uh, if- There wasn't really a clear timeline. And, uh, like, I feel like four or five times I heard like, "I just broke up with Shawn," and I'm like, but it's been like three episodes for us, so I don't actually know how much time has lapsed.

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: like, how long were they together?

It's ... Are they, are they j-

Nikki: their first day in freshman year, and I believe they're either ju- they're juniors in the book, but I think they might be seniors in the show. I couldn't tell.

Meg: Yeah, it's really hard ... Well, no, 'cause Hannah wants to go back for another year.

Nikki: Okay, so they-

Meg: Otherwise, she wouldn't. She needed a scholarship.

Nikki: been o- I'd say one to two years that she and Sean have been together

Meg: And I think also, like, if Elle had said to Dean, "I've already been in a relationship for two years of college. I need to go explore. I need to sleep around. I need to not be in a relationship," and, and I think that that, just, like, setting that expectation instead of, like, "It's the last time. It's the last time.

It's the last time," I think if she had said, like, "I need to go be spontaneous. I need to try new things" from the beginning, just like you, because you are Six Flags, I think that would have dissipated a lot of my concerns about this, especially when Shawn shows up, and she's like, "Well, I don't care about Dean, but I hurt Shawn, and I love Shawn."

Uh, or loved, love. I don't know if it's present or pans- past tense there. Um, but she had that relationship, and she didn't wanna hurt him, but they weren't a good fit anymore. Like, that would ... That l- two sentences of, "I've been in a relationship so long, I need to be single for a while" would've gone really far.

Nikki: also don't believe Ally is a charac- is a character who would want to sleep around and do

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: a- and that's why I think when she realizes, like, she goes out with the Joanna Maxwell, and Joanna's like, "So you're sleeping with other people?" "No." "How long have you been just sleeping with this guy?"

"Oh, a month." She's like, "Babe, you're in another relationship."

Meg: Do you g- as, as long as you guys don't have, like, silly names for each other.

Nikki: they have that. It's Maverick.

Meg: I think, like, Elle might be demisexual and not know it. Like, she wants to have the connection with people, you know? And w- and when Jo- the Joanna Maxwell is like, "You know, that's what makes it fun, to have, like, no-strings-attached sex," and that guy is no strings. Like, and then Elle's like, "But h- I don't know if I'd wanna do that if I didn't know him," you know?

Like, there is ... She wants that connection with people. She doesn't want this, and then she gets that with Dean, and Dean doesn't want that until he does. I liked that tension a lot. I wish they'd leaned into that a little bit more.

Nikki: Yeah, I j- I just think, like, Ally just likes being in a relationship, and Joanna does call her on it. Shawn has said this to her a few times. Well, 'cause he, he... Shawn criticizes Ally later, like, "You just can't not be in a relationship." And if that is true, they should've showed it a lot more.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: it was a little wishy-washy, because when she's out with Joanna getting a drink, like, Joanna's really pushing her to, like, "See that guy at the bar? He wants... He's flirting with you. Go." And she's like, "No, I don't really want to." And she's like, "No, go." She calls him over, "Do you wanna

Meg: Yeah, I did not like that.

Nikki: I didn't

love that, but also

Meg: That wasn't just like being a wing woman, that was like being a little bit too aggressive, especially for someone you don't know. Like, they met that day. It's too much.

Nikki: Yeah, but, like, we haven't seen enough of, of Ally be either I'm a serial person in a relationship, or I actually do wanna take this opportunity to not be in a relationship and just hook up with people. Like, we haven't seen enough of either of those. It just feels weird in this

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: in this middle bit.

Meg: It felt a little just unresolved, un- like unstructured. Yeah.

Nikki: especially since, like, if we fast-forward a little bit to kind of the end of Ally and Dean's storyline in this first season, he says, "You know what? I, I do like her." Um, and he says to her, I, 'cause she comes to his, his room one night and it's like, "Hey, this that we're doing, we're having fun, right?

And when was the last time you slept with someone else?" And he goes, "Oh." And she's like, "Yeah, so this is the assignment. We have to go sleep with other people." So she hooks up with, quote-unquote, "Carter St. James," this guy she met at the bar when she was out with Joanna, and he comes to her, uh, Dean, and he's like, "Yeah, I really like you.

I didn't complete the assignment." And she goes, "No, you have to because I did." And he's like, "Oh." And she's kind of, like, not responding to his text messages. "You need to go sleep with other people. This is it." Um, and they ki- we kinda leave them, like, in this weird mushy middle, and then when we think they're about to start talking to each other again around Hannah's showcase, then we get the big ending of who Carter St.

James actually is. It's Dean's nemesis,

Meg: Big reveal. Yes.

Nikki: who is the love triangle from her book. But, like, it just, like, I feel like they're setting up them for the next season, didn't see enough of them, like, fighting against their relationship types of Dean always, always being the guy to do the hookups, and Allie supposedly being the one that's always in a relationship. It wasn't strong enough established beforehand so that when they actually end up, like, switching types,

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: felt the narrative impact of that, and I

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: a little bit more.

Meg: Could've been grounded in reality a little more. Could've just been like a little st-

Nikki: them.

Meg: yeah. I did really enjoy them, though.

Nikki: Yeah, and then to wrap up, uh, Garrett and Hannah's storyline, um, it is after the, um, fundraiser where we see, again, still a lot of tension between Garrett and Logan about his dad and how he's currently showing up. Uh, Hannah is leaving Malone's and hears some of the other guys on the team talk about this new player for St.

Anne's, who is their big rival they're gonna be playing, Aaron Delaney. And Hannah has a massive fucking freak-out. This is not fun. I was confused, though. Was Aaron... 'Cause in the book, Aaron is a friend of the guy who assaulted her and is the one who, like, talked in court about how she's a liar. kind of, thought in this they were making him her rapist, and I was a little confused

Meg: No, the way that they did it in the book was he was just like a, like a spectator at the game, and then the way that they did it here is that he was the rapist, and he was on...

Nikki: did make that explicit that

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: the person, 'cause yeah, 'cause in the book it's, it's not him either. It's

a

Meg: it's not him.

Nikki: yeah, it's a

Meg: Because she's from Indiana, it's not

Nikki: from him.

Meg: Yeah, no, this was, they, they made it he is the one who was the rapist who is also, like,

Nikki: On the

Meg: taunting Garrett. Which I, I thought that it was a more direct approach to be l- to have him do the reveal,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: than have it be like Hannah has to tell Garrett and then Garrett goes after a fan.

Although, to an extent, like, it sort of made more sense that Garrett would get suspended by going after a fan than going after a player. But

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: aggressive, like, situation, um, over the top, not just like a regular hockey fight. Um, but I liked that direct conversation between the two of them instead of, like, Hannah needing to say, "Oh, no, he is the one.

He was, he took the stand." You know? Like, Hannah couldn't do anything to stop it.

Nikki: Mm-hmm. I hated this whole handling of this plot line.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: Like, this is where, these last two episodes is really where the p- the story started to get messy, I think it lost a lot of the emotional weight by bringing in what I would call CW-type drama. This is really where it started going, right? So, um, you know, we have some more bad hockey dad moments, and when Hannah realizes that the team is gonna be playing Delaney, and she has this moment, and she drops out of the pop showcase 'cause she's like, "I can't feel things anymore.

Like, this is so vulnerable. How do you let yourself do this?" Um, and she shows up to the game 'cause she gets a voicemail from Garrett. It's like, "Where are you?" Like, "I need you. I need a coa- I need my Coach Wellesley to kind of help me through this." when he... D-Delaney says to him, like, "You know, I'm gonna enjoy beating you.

What, what I'm gonna enjoy more is beating you in front of that line,"

Meg: Yes, bad word.

Nikki: um, all of these things. And Garrett beats the shit out of him, all we see is him come off the ice covered in blood. And Hannah is angry that y- you know, "Every time I tell people about this, things go wrong. I didn't ask you to do anything.

I'm over it." No, you're not. but what I don't like here is this is where Garrett breaks up with her, 'cause he's like, "I'm too much like my dad," apparently. Or, "I'm not right. You should have better people." And he takes himself out of the relationship, which I was like, I don't like this. I much preferred the blackmail angle from the story and the fact that it was Hannah that broke up with him. I hate the impact that this, um, act has on the team about how, yeah, he gets a four-game suspension, but then that puts him in front of the NCAA, and they're like, "Actually, you had... You played, uh, you were at a practice with the Bruins. We're gonna reset your team's entire fucking season, so you're actually 0 and 17 now." Like,

Meg: I thought that part was stupid.

Nikki: It was

Meg: It was stupid. It

Nikki: It

Meg: it was excessive. It was stupid. I didn't mind the choice to have Garrett break up with Hannah to protect Hannah. I didn't mind it, and here's why. I thought that the, like, deus ex machina of the dad goes to Hannah and says, like, "Garrett's gonna lose his scholarship if you don't break up with him, and I'm not paying for anything," and Hannah thinks she's doing it for Garrett, felt so over-manipulative.

And I, I- even in the book, I thought, like, yes, now it's Hannah's decision to break up with Garrett, to pretend she never cared so that she can protect him. But it also felt, like, exploited, and it was a miscommunication thing because Garrett was like, "Oh, well, I have this trust fund." You know? Like, it was very easily resolved and almost too easily resolved in the book, and it felt like too much external pressure cooker situation versus Garrett coming up against his own self-concept, where he...

And to be fair, he says to Logan later on, "I blacked out. I don't remember what happened.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: And, like, that was probably terrifying to him, is blacking out, waking up covered in someone else's blood, not remembering being pulled off of him,, and then having his dad say to him, "That was great hockey.

You're just like me." And then having Hannah yell at him. I think he did the right thing by saying, "I, I don't trust myself with you."

Nikki: Yeah, maybe what I needed was just more of what we, like what we said earlier, I needed more of his dad

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: this omnipresent figure of violence

and pressure, so that, yeah, if he did black out, which when he gets ... When he watches back footage of the fight on Jules' Fifth Line account, and he's like, "Oh, holy shit," like he goes to Logan and like, "You pulled me off.

I don't remember any of this." Like, maybe it ... That would've made sense that he broke up with her if we had seen more of him fighting with that. But we never really saw Garrett be violent before, or even the stirrings of violence. Like, yes, after Thanksgiving he was doing his whole clenchy fist thing, but like, we never really saw him get too close to the edge beforehand, and him pulling himself back, and then this fight becomes the thing that he can't pull himself back for.

Like, he does black out. Maybe that would've made it

Meg: I think so too.

Nikki: bit

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: Um, but like,

Meg: But I think also the, the, then, you know, what worked incredibly well in the book worked... Uh, like I loved what they did in the book where Hannah breaks up with Garrett, Garrett doesn't understand why, so Garrett says, "Okay, I want you to be with whoever you wanna be with," and then he puts the moratorium on the campus that nobody can be with Hannah.

That worked. Without that, then the moratorium of nobody can talk to Hannah, and it's just, like, becomes this heresy thing, hearsay thing is stupid. It's stupid. It doesn't work unless... Yeah.

Nikki: Yeah, like a lotta people were like, "I'm really happy they got rid of the hands off," because, like, how dare Garrett. Like, that's

fucked up. You're controlling who she's with. But then the, the, it being hearsay and, like, a miscommunication, like, "Oh, no, I didn't say that. I

Meg: I would've just cut that entirely. Yeah.

Nikki: kinda weird, um, because

Meg: work anymore without that.

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: it didn't work. So yeah, and then you just, you had... And, and, like, the way that it worked in the book too is he is in the locker room naked, and she goes in and yells at him naked, and now she's just surrounded by other naked people, and everyone but Garrett is naked.

And I was like, this is supposed to be comedic, but it's also, like, a really serious scene, and then it, the bottom falls out from under it, and, like, it, it didn't work. That whole setup didn't work for me. Not to mention,

Nikki: weird.

Meg: I, I was... I'm fine with nudity in movies. I understand why the main characters don't get nudity, but, like, the, the secondary characters you can get nudity.

So you know, we get, uh, Kendall, like, not full frontal, but, like, just, you know,

Nikki: Yeah, we get to

Meg: waist up. We get full boobs. We get full boobs for her and no one else. Um, but then,

Nikki: get Garrett's butt a couple times,

Meg: Yeah, great. No problem.

Nikki: Yeah,

Meg: then they just, like, zoom in on, like, characters that don't have names, get, like, super full dick shots, and I was like, "What?

Why?"

Nikki: Sarah Marshall in

terms of, like, the fixation on it

Meg: Yeah. It was... It wasn't necessary. It was just for shock value, which is why I texted you to be like, "Was not expecting that."

Nikki: Yeah, 'cause when you said full frontal, I was like, "Oh, it's a sex scene between so and so and so and so." No, it was just a bunch of random dick in a locker room, which the... One of my favorite threads I saw about this is people going, "Why are they all uncircumcised?" And someone's like, "Guys, it's filmed in Vancouver.

It's probably just Canadian extras." And people were like, "Oh my God." Then, like, circumcision threads is just going on and on and on about, um,

Meg: zoom in that close to notice whether they were cut or uncut." That's funny. Oh, f- oh, the internet. Thank God.

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: the internet.

Nikki: Yeah, but like this, this... You know, they have this moment in the locker room, and he's like, "I didn't say that." And she's just like, off, and he's still feeling very soft and vulnerable, and they don't actually have a conversation. And I was just like,

Meg: Stupid. Stupid.

Nikki: was weird.

'Cause what I liked about the book was she broke up with him. He knows something is wrong, so he's giving her opportunities to, like, come back and space,

Meg: Talk to him.

Nikki: just fucking talk to me 'cause

I know you're lying?" That we didn't get that aspect of their relationship at all here, which I missed 'cause I

Meg: I missed.

Nikki: it.

I did like that a lot.

Meg: I didn't like... Uh, the blackmail worked in the book. I'm not saying it didn't work in the book, but it felt so pressurized.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: And like, it- to an extent, like, your parents saying things to you when you're 19, 20, 21 does hold more weight than if you were a full adult, and you were financially stable, and you had all these other, you know, situations in place.

And, and Hannah being threatened by Phil is a strong choice that Elle Kennedy made as an author, and I think it did work in the book. But I think here, being able to have the choice of Garrett the protagonist, he's pulling himself out of the relationship, was a strong storytelling choice, too.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: And you couldn't keep the other things that were dependent on the decision that you pulled.

Nikki: Yeah. Maybe it's even too, like, I like how you said threatened by. Maybe we actually just needed to see Phil threatening Hannah in, like, a non-threatening way, you know what I mean? Like, kind of keeping it under the surface so that she is kind of seeing that effect, and maybe Garrett finds out about it. I don't know.

I think

Meg: I

Nikki: the decisions make sense.

Meg: think also, like, one of the things that worked in the book is that Hannah breaks up with Garrett after he's violent,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: and so Garrett is wondering the whole time, "Is that why she broke up with me, or is there something else?" And so he still is having that reckoning, but we as the reader know that that's not the reason, that Hannah doesn't feel unsafe with him.

But we understand why Garrett would think, "Shit, I lost my temper. I hurt somebody. My girlfriend saw that. She broke up with me. Is she concerned for her own safety?" There's a legitimate, like, self-awareness that goes into that, that, that is missing from this version of it.

Nikki: We do get to see a little bit of that self-awareness come in when, um, Garrett talks to Logan, uh, 'cause they've been fighting

Meg: God, I'm so glad this conversation happened.

Nikki: But we didn't get to see it.

Meg: I know, but the fact that it happened-

Nikki: pissed because we had, uh, two conversations, um, in this episode. Hannah is playing a song. Allie's like, "That's really good."

And she's like, "Yeah, I wrote it when I was in high school. By the way, I have something really heavy to tell you." And Allie's like, "I already know. I was waiting for you to tell me." Like, that was so sweet. Like, I love that for their friendship. And then, um, Hannah has been telling Garrett for a while to, like, "You need to talk to your boys. Tell them about your dad because they keep pushing you on it, and they don't know that, why that's so touchy. They think it's you being an asshole." Um, but he g- he goes home, or he's at the arena after his conversation with Hannah, and he's like, "Okay. I don't know if I wanna play again." And she's like, "Hey, you said before that if you didn't have to play again, you'd feel relieved. You can't play right now, and look where you are. That probably means something." Which I think is a beautiful realization. I love that they had that scene. And then he goes on the fifth line, and he sees the footage from the St. Anne's game where he beat the shit out of Delaney, and he sees Logan pull him off, and then it flashes back, and he's like, Logan's saying to him, "I got you." And I love that Hannah, this goes back to what Hannah just said, like, "You're not doing it for your dad. You're doing it for the guy on your right," which is Logan. love that when he, Garrett goes back to the house, and Logan is there in the kitchen, and he kinda jokes like, "You know, Tucker doesn't like it when you're in here." Um, and he, and he's like, "I need to, like, tell you some things." And then it fades out, and we don't get to

Meg: I was fine with it. I was fine with it.

Nikki: to see it with them?" 'Cause

all they've been doing is bitching at each other for episodes.

Meg: with Elle, you see I knew all along and I was waiting for you to tell me. With Logan, it's I went home for Thanksgiving, and here's everything from episode five, and here's what happened in episode six. You know, like, it's, it's a recap of what we already know.

There's no additional ... No?

Nikki: No, I don't think he would've been like, "Here's all the things." I, I think he would've, like, in, in my mind, like what I would've loved to have seen is him saying like, "Look, I apologize for being an asshole when you pushed me on my dad, but here's the thing. Since I was young, my dad has pushed me to be this." Because he has this apology he does with the team on, "Hey, I thought because I was the captain, I had to do all of these

things." He, like after this conversation, he goes to the locker room, apologizes to the team about how he took it all on himself, and he makes Logan captain for the games that he's out of. So if we had seen before that, I... Not, "I thought I had to do it all myself," because he says that to the team, so we don't need to see that. But I think if we had seen him verbalize to Logan the pressure he had been under from his dad and how it made him lose his sense of identity, so then the next scene he's giving Logan a literal piece of his identity, being the C on his jersey. I think that would've been so good, and we would've had to seen men having vulnerable, explicit conversations.

Meg: Okay, you, you convinced me. Uh, but also, it hinges on we needed that identity piece to come from his dad that was completely missing from this. His dad was too restrained

Nikki: I needed to see all these pieces, and I think the dominoes would've landed a little bit

Meg: Yeah, I completely agree. I'm, I'm on board with your version of it now.

Nikki: I'm winning again. Uh, I know. Um, and then we, um... This is where we get, uh, Ally calls Dean and is like, "By the way, Hannah's back in the showcase. I love

Meg: A-

Nikki: advisor so

Meg: Elle calls,

Dean from Carter St. James' bed. Let's make sure that that's clear.

Nikki: yeah. By the way, yeah, she did

Meg: She slept with, I can't remember what his face's name is.

Nikki: Hunter Davenport is his

Meg: There you go.

Nikki: Um, and yeah, she, uh, she gets a text from Hannah, and Hannah's saying, "By the way, I'm doing the showcase." I love her advisor through all of this. She's like, "I know I dropped out. Can I drop back in?" He goes, "I- we didn't wanna spend the money to reprint the programs.

You're on after so-and-so." And she's like, "Oh, shit. Okay." She texts Ally, "I'm in." Ally gets the message when she's with, quote-unquote, "Carter St. James." And then she calls Dean, and she's like, "Hannah's in the showcase. You need to get Garrett's ass there now." And I love how Dean is immediately, "Yep, I'm on it." "Garrett, we're going." "Hannah's in the showcase." "I don't think she wants me there." "Fuck yes, she wants you there." And then the whole team is like, "We're going."

Meg: It's ... I do wanna also say it's Logan who says, "Fuck yeah, she wants you," there. And I think it's important not just because Dean wants Elle, but because Logan has a crush on Hannah, but knows that Garrett's who Hannah wants. Yeah.

Nikki: that moment. And then we get to see the showcase. It's, it's... I really like the song. Why is the keyboard so fucking low? And why is she wearing ankle boots with

Meg: The ankle boots and the dress was a terrible choice.

Nikki: It was a

Meg: That is not a dress that needs boots. That is a dress that requires heels, and also, like, that dress was too much for a pop showcase, but okay. And I completely agree, the placement of the piano being, like, her arms were fully out and were like doing ... On YouTube you can see, like, straight out in front of her body.

Like, it was ... I'm a piano player, I was so uncomfortable watching it. Yeah.

Nikki: like that's the height like if you're seated, but

if she's standing 'cause she's playing guitar, she's using her loop machine, she's singing, I'm like,

Meg: Was it so that way it was out of frame, so that way they didn't have to, like, do them at the same time? But they could just cut in.

Nikki: so easily. You could hide

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: like, it was just a weird thing to, to fixate on, but I

Meg: I fa- I fixated on it too. I definitely bumped on it too.

Nikki: Yeah. I, but I loved the song, I loved the message, and I love that when she looked out she saw not only Garrett and Allie there, but she saw fucking everybody.

Meg: All the hockey players.

Nikki: about how this incident in high school and her assault ruined things for her family, 'cause she does have this really emotional conversation with her mom about, "My bike broke, I can't fix it." It's not really about the bike.

Meg: her mom.

Nikki: her mom's like, "What do you have to feel guilty about?

What did you do wrong?

Meg: What did you do wrong?

Nikki: If you feel guilty, then that must mean you did something wrong, so tell me, darling daughter, what did you do wrong?" Nothing. So I loved, like, 'cause she talked about, uh, her

parents losing friends.

Meg: I was watching that episode... I tried to watch everything during the week as much as possible so that way I wasn't, like, missing out on family time, but that one I didn't make it until this weekend, so I was, like, hiding out from my kids. And as the mom is being, like, the most receptive, sweet, thoughtful, therapeutic mom, my kids are like, "Mom, can you make me pancakes?"

And I'm like, "No. I'm watching this moment. Leave me alone. I'll make you pancakes after the mom fixes things."

Nikki: Yeah. It w- oh, it was such a great scene. But I, I love that she gets to see people around her, and now some of those people know. Now, in the book, um, uh, uh, Hannah did give Garrett permission to tell and some of the players what had happened to her to explain why he was violent.

So in the book, a few more people do know, um, about

Meg: Oh,

Nikki: But in this one it's just Garrett and Allie that know. But I liked her being able to look out and see not only them, but everybody else, and I was like, what a fun moment for her to see, like, that support be there. She's being vulnerable literally in front of people, and they give her a standing ovation.

She comes in second in the showcase and, like, they get back together, and Garrett says, you know, "You should be with who you want, but I want it to be me." I was like, "Oh.

Meg: I love that. Okay, logistical bump also. If you have that many lights on you, there's no way you can see anyone in the audience. Theater kid moment where I'm like, "No way."

Nikki: are in the first row, so, like, you might be able to see

Meg: So they got there late, and she went on at the last second, and they got the first row? That's not real. No.

Nikki: to move?" I'm like, "No, they would be at the back of the orchestra

section to walk in that late."

Meg: I know, it's... Ugh. We're just being too picky. I get it. It's, we're d- we don't really care about this, but you gotta point it out.

Nikki: would be at the front 'cause she may have gotten there at the start, but, like, the team getting there late. No, no, I'm sorry, they would not get front row seats for this.

Meg: Right.

Nikki: you know, they're back together. Um, they have expressed themselves. They've had conversations with their best friend about their situations, and then we get them in the bar, and Dean says to Ally, "I didn't sleep with someone else. I like you." And in, in walks Carter St. James, and as soon as he walked in, I went, "Oh my God, that's Hunter." soon as he walked in, I'm like, "She slept with his nemesis," 'cause she already knew it wasn't his real name, 'cause she already knew it was a fake ID. so when he walks in and Dean is immediately, "Fuck no. Get out." Um, and then they start fighting, and Ally's like, "Who is that?" And they're like, "That's Hunter Davenport." End of

Meg: Great setup for season two.

Nikki: I knew it, it was him as soon as he walked in. Um, all right. Anything else we wanna say about this first season?

Meg: I thought that the choice to make it musical made it so much more fun to watch.

Nikki: Hmm, agreed.

Meg: I think, like I said, it may not have worked as well in the book, but it did have the, the inklings of it. It had Hannah, as, you know, working in the music department, majoring in this, having that sort of, you know, self-doubt- the whole way through, but to actually say she's a musician, not a music composition, or you know, she was a music composition, whatever.

Nikki: She's

Meg: a musician,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: Justin's a musician, consolidating that plot line so that way they could get there faster. Having the, uh, the music was just as much a character in this as the, the characters, which I loved. So having the karaoke, having the, the bar with the live music, having the moments where they were able to sing and dance around, like that made it so much more vibrant and like so much more college.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Which was why that was a great through line with Hannah, you need to feel. Like, what does a song make you feel? Uh, 'cause just when she's talking with her advisor, he's like, you know, "What about the song?" And she's like, "Well, if I do this orchestration or I do this arrangement..." He goes, "No, no, no, no, no, no. What do you feel?" And I love that they made Garrett a music fan, which wasn't really something in the book, but when he

Meg: I,

Nikki: quote-unquote, "the oldies" at the party, and people are like, "Oh my God, something from this century?" And, you know, he knows these musical references, and that's something they get to bond over.

I really did enjoy that as kind of in there. And then, like, even the introduction of playlists,

Meg: yeah.

Nikki: BRB, Wallowing, like, of course, that's what you do when you get broken up with. You listen to music, and you listen to sad music.

Meg: I remember burning a, a CD that I called my masochism album because w- because ... And it was like Constantine by something, w- was it something Corporate? Am I saying that right?

Nikki: Yeah, Something Corporate was a band. I used to listen to

Meg: Oh my God, that song.

Nikki: was my favorite song by Something

Meg: Totally. And like I remember being in that like wallowy emo stage, but that was also like when emo was emo, you know what I mean?

Um, and just

Nikki: was a

Meg: living in the wallowing, and it felt so age appropriate to where they are. And also like the book had like, oh, they, they watched the entire first season of Breaking Bad together, and I feel like using music instead of TV also prevented it from being dated.

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: It worked really well in the book to have it Breaking Bad, but like now having the music tie them together I think like brings out so much more.

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: What about you? What did you ship the most? And that was my ship, by the way. That was what I shipped the most.

Nikki: What did I ship the most? Garrett/Graham.

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: like, you know, all the actors were great. Like, I loved Ella Brae as Hannah, but Belmont Cameli as Garrett, like, it was everything I wanted from that character. It was the charm, it was the vulnerability, it was the physicality, it was the falling first and falling harder. Like, I just thought he was so good. I enjoyed him so much. So like, and I, and I loved Steven Ca- uh, Steven Cailen as Dean, too. Like, I think those two together, like, I liked all of them, but those two I just thought were so fun,

Meg: I also loved Mika Abdalla as Allie, and I loved her bangs. I... We had five days, we had five days to watch this, and I had a hair appointment on day three, and I was so close. I was so close to being like, "Give me those bangs."

Nikki: how many people are gonna get her bang shag haircut?

Meg: Oh, I loved it.

Nikki: All

Meg: I loved

Nikki: out online. I think that haircut is

Meg: it. Is the b- are the bangs coming back, like a, a straight across bang too?

'Cause, like, I have, like, side bangs, but, like, I didn't have the full straight across bangs, and I...

Nikki: c- I have curtain bangs.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: maintenance those. Ugh,

Meg: It's so, so much maintenance though, and I, I... That's what made me decide, like, I not only don't wanna have to straighten them every day, but too much maintenance.

Nikki: So like the cast was great. Um, some of the story beats, I was like, I wish they could've been different, but overall, I enjoyed it. Uh, it got renewed for Season 2 before Season 1 had even aired, and the showrunners have said that it's going to turn into more of an ensemble show. so it's not just going to be Book 2 is Season 2, um, like they kinda did with Season 1. They made Season 1 a little bit more ensemble, but it was still largely Book 1. Apparently, that is shifting. I don't know how I feel about that. I like the one season per, like the focus, 'cause that's what happened. we got to Season 3 of Bridgerton, Colin and Penelope were barely on screen, and it was their season,

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: that's why I think Seasons 1 and 2 was better, 'cause it focused on the primary couple.

They went back to that in Season 4, which was better. I'm a little nervous when they say this is gonna turn into ensemble. I think it might make it a little bit too CW teen drama, which is not what I want. But I'm gonna watch it. I'll watch it. It'll come

Meg: We'll watch together.

Nikki: out.

Um, beautiful. Well, before we get into the final question of what we're shipping this week, hey, go on over, Podcast Ride of Choice, rate, review, and subscribe 'cause it makes us feel special, and maybe one day we can be number one in Canada like this show is on, on Amazon Prime right now.

I don't know what it is in the States, but I imagine it's up there. All right. Meg, what are you shipping this week?

Meg: Um, I'm actually surprised. I m- I, I don't think that we've shipped this, but I think we've both read it, and I started talking to someone else about it this week, and I was like, "How have I never shipped this?" Um, Don't Eat Your Human Boyfriend by Lily Mayne. Yes? You, you... I knew you would.

Nikki: I had it

Meg: Okay. Yeah, we both love Lily Mayne, so this one didn't surprise me.

But it is a standalone. It is a ghoul-human m/m romance set in the '80s, and it, I. I think I wanted to put it in this episode 'cause it had some of that, like, new adult, not really sure what you're doing with your life, working at the mall, you know. Like, back when malls were a thing, 'cause it's set in the '80s.

Um, but it's also two people who work in food service, uh, of the same restaurant, but there's one window that goes to humans that has, like, real vegetable, uh, soup, and the other one that goes to only ghouls, and it has human meat in it. And, uh, they only sell it to ghouls, and so they have a completely separate kitchen where they can ethically source human meat for ghouls, and there's supposed to be this, like, uh, race split, if you will, that the ghouls and the humans don't really interact that much.

But they have a crush on each other. And so the humans are told that the ghouls have, like, a skin condition that makes them, their skin look really sallow and, like, all right, they're allergic to certain foods, so they have to have a special prep kitchen, and they don't want the humans to touch anything.

And, like, the setup is so ridiculous, but the actual couple themselves are so sweet to each other. And, like, just the, the '80s love for everything and all the, like, you know, the acid-wash jeans and the music they're listening to and the mall setup, it was just so delightful. It's a sweet little novella.

Highly recommend. Don't Eat Your Human Boyfriend by Lily Mayne. Nikki, what are you shipping this week?

Nikki: Okay, my ship this week, um, we have an episode coming on, coming out about it in two weeks, but I was just, I just spent, um, this past Saturday at Love and Romance in Toronto, um, an amazing book event where I got to meet and interview a bunch of authors, but I also got to buy so many books.

Meg: So many books.

Nikki: some of the authors I didn't know, so I would literally go up to them and say, "Hey, I'm not familiar with your work. What would you suggest?" And they would kind of say like, "What do you like?" So there was this one author that I got to meet w- who was, um, N. Slater, they were kind of walking me through some of their books, and the one I ended up getting, um, was like it's omegaverse betas who are also serial killers, and

Meg: Oh.

Nikki: in there named Mr.

Shit.

Meg: Yes.

Nikki: But then I saw on their table this little sticker that had a quote from another one of their stories, and I read it and I went, "Where's this book?" And they pointed down to the other end of the table. So I got this one on Kindle when I got back. So this book is called Rope Me Down. So here's a quick logline. ex left me on the side of the road. His father picked me up, and now I'm in his bed, his other sons. I've never loved life more."

Meg: Whoa.

Nikki: um, explained this to me as it's like a, yeah, it's like a ex's dad and his three sons where you get dicked down for two weeks. So basically, you

Meg: a vacation.

Nikki: who has like an abusive, um, boyfriend, um, who leaves him on the side of a highway after an argument, and his ex's dad finds out and comes and picks him up and says, "Hey, like you'll stay here tonight." Um, and then it turns, he's like, "Yeah, we share people." So it is a

Meg: Oh.

Nikki: MMMMM with his ex's three brothers, and their father take him apart like he's a prize to be won. It's really good.

Meg: That's delightful.

Nikki: If you just like, like kind of like a, a, a sub/dom free use ex's family, I guess, it's r- it's pretty good.

Meg: know, it's not a trope that I've read before, believe it or not.

Nikki: yeah, there's like a little bit of like primal play in there too.

Uh, there's like some size difference stuff. Uh, it is pretty good. So if you wanna go check out Rope Me Down by N. Slater. And then I will report back on the other, the serial killer book, which I think is Betas Unhinged, but I haven't read that one yet.

Meg: Okay.

Nikki: is, that is my ship for this week.

Meg: I love it.

Nikki: for listening, everybody.

Uh, if you wanna support the show, a couple ways you can do that for free. Rate, review, and subscribe on your podcast provider of choice. Give us a follow on our social media platforms. We are @1stDatesAndSoulMates pretty much everywhere. Uh, and if you have a little bit of money you'd like to send our way, you can check out our show sponsorships now available.

Meg has put together some most excellent packages for you linked in the show notes, or you can subscribe to the show on Substack. Do it for one month. Do it for many, many months. We're just so pleased that you're here. Tell a friend. We would love to discuss more things with them and with you. Coming up next week, y'all, it

Meg: Oh, happy anniversary, Nikki.

Nikki: anniversary, and that is coming up next week. You're not gonna believe what we rank for in Google search terms. . All right, we'll see you next week.

Bye.

Meg: Bye.

Oh, ​