This episode was ... not good.
The Robyn CIA plot was poorly constructed. I actually like Fisk, or rather I like Donal Logue but why would Fisk put an agent to protect Robyn and the CIA guy and not tell her? Why not tell her the whole mission if he wants her to succeed? This withholding of information seems like a stupid reason to put them at odds. How did the bad guy survive a bullet to the chest and the fall and them harbour this revenge plot for 3 years? Why introduce an alternative love interest, one she has no chemistry with, that is going to go nowhere because Robyn isn't going to leave Dee and move to London to be with him.
The Mel/Harry plot also seemed stupid. I thought that they had a really good relationship, now I find out that they don't talk about something as big as buying a country house.
But the main plot of the episode was Dee's and that had the most problems for me. The biggest one is the selection of fashion as the place to draw the line. Fashion is an industry where you can be told what the wear because it's part of the job so it's strange that they picked this to have her rebel against the dress instructions. Remember The Devil Wears Prada? In a coincidence, I was listening to an interview with designer Aurora James who designed a newsworthy dress for the Met Gala in 2021. She mentioned an early job of hers where everyone had to wear black. So there are precedents in workplaces where you're told to wear something and it's part of the job. Go along with it, or find another job.
If Dee had always wanted to be a lawyer and turned down an internship with a New York Supreme Court judge to keep her braids, I would have been impressed because there was weight to that internship. Or being a researcher for a famous writer when she'd always wanted to be a writer, or helping a scientist find a new vaccine. But it's a job in a clothing store, and while it was valued, I don't feel like it was such a sacrifice to give it up and find another clothing store to give her a reference. (Admittedly those are my values not Dee's.)
On 5/7/2023 at 11:18 PM, ebk57 said:
I appreciate that Dee is willing and able to stand up for herself and her principles, but sometimes, depending on one's situation, that's not always possible. It seems that Stacey really needed that job. Hopefully this will prompt her to look for something else, but if she has no fallback, she's not able to just walk out the door of a job that's putting her through school and paying down her debt. It's not always that cut and dried. I wish it was
This also bothered me. For those people who have never had to compromise because they needed the job, I say Good for you. I wish that it were that easy. I know that I have stayed in a job doing things that I didn't want to do because I needed the job. I don't know anyone who hasn't. Welcome to the world of international professionals like doctors and professors who clean toilets (e.g. Anna Porter) or work fast food places because they need the job. Putting up with things that legally they shouldn't have to because they need the job.
Yes, it was admirable that Dee took a stand but that she was able to say no to the racist boss just shows Dee's privilege. Her treatment of Stacey when Stacey came to apologize and explain shows her lack of empathy. Not what the show was going for I'm thinking.
A lot of bad writing choices.
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