#all the jeresa sets do though

[sietegotas]

ALICE BRAGA (and Peter Gadiot) Interview for QOTS 2016

+ bonus Peter

[calliopecalling]

QOTS Rewatch - Season 5 Retrospective

Man, I've been dragging my feet on working on this. I've spent almost a full year on this rewatch (it really took on a life of its own; I didn't go into it planning to write involved metas or reblog a week's worth of gifsets for every episode but I am just THAT over the top) and I don't even know what I'm going to do with myself now that it's over. Watch something else?!?!?! Like what!?!?!?! Seriously though.

Anyway, where were we? Season 5. It's an interesting season to reflect back on. Sometimes it feels like my second-favorite season after season 2, and other times it feels like my second-least-favorite season after season 4. It ends up being really difficult to place. Its primary problem really in my opinion is that it's rushed, and there's so much plot to get through that the writers and editors had to leave us with sometimes frustratingly short character-driven scenes and force us to fill in the gap. But it does feel more Teresa-driven than season 1 does and, Kote notwithstanding, the non-Teresa-centered scenes still somehow feel a little more relevant or engaging than some of the Vargas stuff in seasons 1 and 3 both. (Epifanio and Batman's story took up a superfluous amount of screen time in season 1, I realized on rewatch, and season 3 has soooo much Cortez and Isabela and Loya and stuff that is way more painful to watch than Kelly Anne getting an ultrasound, even if Pote's sexist quips do make me roll my eyes.) So I don't know. I guess you'll have to give me a few more weeks to think about it. But season 5 as a whole entity in my opinion stands up pretty well on rewatch. It's the Jeresa content in season 5 that doesn't hold up as well as season 2 or 3's Jeresa. (Again, largely because of how rushed it is.)

But as always, I'll do my ranking and things:

My Top 3 Episodes

My Top 5 Scenes

Season 5 Episodes Ranked

Teresa’s Journey

Jeresa, DUH

Top 3 Season 5 Episodes

3: 5x05, Mas Dinero Mas Problemas

It actually was hard to choose the third place episode. There are several other contenders for this spot. But this episode as a whole is really fun to me. It's Teresa-centric. It features Oksana (yay female characters). It's set in Berlin. It features awesome Jeresa teamwork. It throws back to earlier show canon (Rocco de la Pena! Oleg!) and Teresa even gets to break an asshole's nose. James's all-black suit is to die for, as is Teresa's high pony, and best of all? The non-Teresa-focused material is focused on George and Boaz in Miami which, while definitely feeling sinister, gives both of them great material to work with. George buying Teresa that boat? Lol. This is an episode that I gladly watch in full without wanting to fast-forward through anything (a rarity for me among episodes after season 2) and it's a queenpin-esque version of Teresa that isn't as painful as the previous two episodes. All great stuff.

2: 5x09, A Prueba de Balas

Listen, I am not going to pretend that this is here for any other reason than the love confessions and long-awaited Jeresa hook-up, though I love every single Jeresa moment in the episode, I love that it's down to the two of them against the world (just like it was in the beginning before Teresa even knew that it was the two of them against the world), and I love that she takes out Kostya like the badass she is. We won't talk about the raccoons and peewee soccer.

1: 5x02, Me Llevo Manhattan

OBVIOUSLY. I mean: this episode might be my favorite episode of the entire series. It's perfect, classic, angsty, electric Jeresa; they actually talk to each other about stuff other than business (several times); they call back in their dialogue to earlier seasons. They KISS and it's magnetic. They dance around whatever the fuck it is that's happening between them. And they both just stumble around incoherently attracted to each other but refusing to talk about it because they are imbeciles. On top of all that, there's James back to his going-all-out-to-protect-Teresa habits and Teresa back to her taking-crazy-risks-but-earning-mad-respect bs. Teresa's whole "you work for me now; when I call, you answer on the second ring" speech to Lafayette is literal fire and even the non-Jeresa scenes in this episode are good: Kelly Anne with Judge Lafayette's business partner; Boaz with the Judge; the pregnancy reveal. My favorite scene of the episode, though, the one that makes me levitate, is the balcony scene between James and Teresa in Manhattan. Wtffffff that scene was like, designed to personally destroy me. But more about that later.

Top 5 Season 5 Scenes

This was so hard for me. The truth is that there are two types of scenes, Jeresa scenes and non-Jeresa scenes, and they belong on parallel ladders to me. The Teresa who shows up with James and the Teresa who shows up otherwise is so different (I mean: compare literally any of the 5x02 Jeresa scenes to, say, how Teresa interacts with Oksana and Oscar and the Judge in that same episode). And I love both kinds of scenes for her. The way she almost coyly greets those real estate developers in 5x06, knowing full well she's going to slaughter them? *shivers* sooooo good. But when push comes to shove, it's the Jeresa scenes that all slide to the top, because it's the version of herself she gives him that is the one we're ultimately rooting for. So without further ado:

#5:

The scene: Episode 5x02, bedroom conversation

What I love about it: Soooo muuuuuch subtext here. After Teresa in the previous episode gave James literally nothing to work with, now that she's wrapped her mind around him being back she is completely unable to keep up the act. Watching both of them dancing around what they're actually trying to talk about is so delightful, and the icing on the cake is Chicho walking in right in the middle of a particularly intimate gesture.

#4:

The scene: Episode 5x09, the balcony kiss

What I love about it: Do I really need to explain myself? I love this kiss so much because it's written all over Teresa's face what combination of fear, desire, and love is driving her. It's no longer impulsive as it was in 5x02 or tenuous as it was in 3x09 or generous as it was in 3x05, it's for her, it's because she wants him and she's terrified of dying without him knowing it. And then he returns it so wholly and confidently and damn. To me it's the moment they catch up to each other and finally land on the same page. The I love yous that follow were made possible by this kiss.

#3:

The scene: Episode 5x07, the waterfront launch party heart-eyes

What I love about it: Again, so much subtext here. The intense intimacy of a moment in which relatively little gets said (and all of it completely innocuous). The verbal callback to the season 3 finale made the fandom's collective hearts jump to our throats as we wondered, with Teresa, if he was about to say he was leaving. Teresa's clear display of vulnerability in this single 90 second scene made up for the four previous episodes of distance between them. But really.... it's all in the subtext here.

#2:

The scene: Episode 5x10, the final Queenpin scene

What I love about it: It's the perfect Queenpin send-off. It's perfectly appropriate that she shows up one last time and the way it's done here is so beautiful. She looks so serene and her nod of approval closes the circle with episodes 2x06 and 3x10 where Queenpin seemed to be nudging Teresa towards James. And THEN, as Queenpin departs, James steps in. 'You ok?' Could it be any clearer? She doesn't need Queenpin to be her guardian angel anymore. She has James. God, I must be in a mood today because I'm literally choking up as I write this 😭 Excuse me while I go rewatch this scene 28 more times.

#1:

The scene: Episode 5x02, the balcony scene

What I love about it: Was there ever any doubt this was going to be my number one scene of this season? No, there was not. It is the perfect combination of classic Jeresa--James pining, Teresa being cool and unruffled, an almost visible electric current of tension between them, and oh my god the subtexttttttt. Yes, I'm predictable. I don't even think I have enough words to convey exactly how much this scene breaks me apart and I definitely don't have the words to confess how often I rewatch it. Literally I AM JAMES when she says "you and me can't happen" and I feel my entire body turn to jelly, and then when she says "maybe in some other life" I'm like EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE GO GET IT JAMES. This scene to me is their crowning achievement as actors playing this couple of idiots. That chemistry is crazy.

Season 5 Episodes Ranked

5x02

5x09

5x05

5x06

5x08

5x07

5x01

5x03

5x04

5x10

Yes, the finale is my least-favorite episode of the season. There's just nowhere near enough Teresa, or James. Waaaaay too much Pote, and Pote is just not an interesting character. Plus it's so dominated by men. I just could not care about the fight between him and Boaz. It all felt like male viewership fan service. Ew. So, looking at episodes in their entirety, it falls at the bottom. Really though I think this speaks to honestly how strong the season is overall, when it comes down to it. I loved it on rewatch and looking back at this list I even feel sad about having 5x03 and 5x04 so low! I've grown to like even those, despite how painful some of the scenes are.

Teresa's Journey

So, this is the season that obviously brings her as close to Queenpin as she'll ever come, the season in which she faces the ultimate choice: fully abandon herself in a quest to become untouchable in her power, or fully abandon that quest in order to save her soul. Both of these are different sides of the "survival" coin. And both involve incredible risk. Having taken out Kostya, she came as close as really was possible to that untouchable power that the Queenpin visions throughout the series evoked. She would have been protected by the American CIA and would have run the largest and most powerful drug empire in the world. Of course when you're at the top, someone is always ready to take you out, so the risk of staying--despite the promise of safety and protection--was huge.

On the other hand, disappearing. So much risk there, too. So simple in concept: shed your identity, go somewhere remote, and start over from scratch. But when you're in the cartel world that deep, obviously it's not just possible to get out. Your continued existence is too threatening to everyone who stays in; you know way too much. And SO much could go wrong in the process of trying to escape.

So both of these choices offered the promise of safety and both came with a heaping side of risk. But the Teresa we were introduced to in season 1 would've had absolutely no difficulty picking between them, right? So in retrospect, her full character journey was to slowly and gradually become someone who would believably struggle with that choice, someone we would believably worry might make the "wrong" choice.

And I think they really did pull that off. Already by season 2, it's less clear that she would choose to disappear rather than become all-powerful. She'd already lost everyone she'd loved by then and felt herself to be alone, and I think loneliness was one of the biggest drivers for her in seeking power over feeding her soul. It was always loss and trauma that pushed her further into the business and, even though season 5 didn't super explicitly link her rapid power grabs to Tony's death the previous season, it was clearly the darkness of that loss (maybe combined with the unsettling reappearance of James) that pushed her over the edge.

So was it believable that, in the end, she chose her soul? Yeah. They made us worry about her for the first half of season 5, pushing away everyone she cared about and seeming like a hollow shell of herself. But by episode 5x08 her vulnerability is palpable again. Like George's loss, combined with pregnant Kelly Anne's kidnapping, and faced with the possibility of dying herself, and losing James in the process, that she gets her wakeup call. So to me, her final decision feels very earned. I just wish they hadn't wasted a full episode trying to convince us she wasn't going to make it 😂

Jeresa

And all inextricably tied up with Teresa's character turnaround in season 5 is her relationship with James. This is another thing the season didn't make super explicit, at least in the written dialogue, but on rewatch it feels exceptionally clear that his presence allowed her to make what no doubt seemed like an impossible decision to turn the train around that was fast hurtling towards a cliff. He:

showed up mortally wounded trying to save her life

stuck by her side even when she made a disappointing decision that showed how much she'd changed

tolerated her snapping at him and pushing him away because he wasn't going to just give up on her after the huge way she'd busted into HIS life and changed HIM from the inside out

gently challenged her, wherever possible, despite having had it made clear to him that doing that was risky

backed her up 100% and went the extra mile to show his loyalty (beating up Navarro's connect), care (delivering an entire army of ex-Mossad for her security), and competence (stealing the painting)

And then, when she'd sent Pote and Kelly Anne packing and it was just the two of them again (the symmetry to the beginning of the series is so lovely there), his steadiness in the face of her emotional undoing is such a visible factor of her turning everything around. Yes, she's scared for Kelly Anne and her baby. Yes, she's upset about George. But in 5x09 after she's sent Kote away and it's too late to save George, those aren't her motivators anymore. James is. You can see it in her eyes on the balcony that it's not her own death that she fears but the possibility of dying without having loved.

Teresa is a lover. We knew that from the very beginning. She essentially told us that in her own voice over in the pilot. Her drug of choice was Guero. Comparing Guero to a drug is so apt (and foreshadows all the events of the first three seasons and how Guero's actions underlie so much of what she had to go through) so that her fear of love also becomes understandable. She was so slow to fully trust James because of the betrayal she'd experienced before; she was slow to open herself up to him as a lover because the risk of that vulnerability was too devastating. But when she stares down death and realizes she's held real love at arm's-length, its pull and its promise is way too great to turn away from.

I think the writers and show runners of this season struggled with this because the love story they'd created was so powerful and yet they knew (and I agree) that this show wasn't intended to be a love story. The book that it's based on is not a love story. It's the story of a woman and her incredible journey from life on the streets of Culiacán to becoming a powerful druglord and then her final escape from that life. But Jeresa is so powerful that even without explicit efforts on the part of the writers this season it's clear that it's a story in which love wins. She gets out, because of love. She makes the choice to disappear, because of love. Yes, platonic and familial love play into it, too; and stacking up the losses of those she's loved over the years and the risks to those who remain are explicitly part of the story. But by 5x09 the only ones who remain are her and James. She's lost or sent away everyone else.

I guess I forgive the writers for leaving much of their relationship this season to the imagination. I would've loved more conversations between the two of them that were 5x02 or 3x08 caliber, but I think the writers were trying to strike a balance between the people who clearly watched the show for Jeresa and the people who clearly cared less. Do I think they should've just written the show the seasons 2-3 writers set up? Yes. Do I blame them for trying to please a broader base? No. I don't, because I think it's ultimately so obvious anyway that James helped Teresa out of the cave in the same way she did originally that it still ties together beautifully in the end.

So. Now what?

As I said yesterday, I have saved many hundreds of gifsets in my queue still to reblog that I didn't reblog as part of the "official" rewatch. And I'm sure I'll continue to find more, and will reblog any others that get created. I'm also a huuuuuge Alice fan (in case that's not abundantly obvious by now) and will stick around to reblog whatever Alice content I consumer and maybe even Peter content from time to time. I'll post a full series retrospective eventually, but I doubt it will be quite as comprehensive as these season metas because I think I've kind of covered a lot of the analytical ground by now!! But I still want to do my rankings and all that. All that to say: I'll be around. And I hope to continue to see some of you around too 🥰 Thanks for sticking with me.

[mymostimaginaryfriend]

5x07 Reaction Post

The Fox in the Hen House...or you know, that Fox you convinced yourself was a pet despite repeated reminders he preferred to bite your face off, bites some faces off....

Love that the getting ready montage wasn’t just for the ladies.  Holsters and ties should be like an entire accepted dress code IMO.

I also love that Teresa emerging in full Queenpin regalia for the first time (low bun/all white/everything) was to mark her entrance into legitimate business and that the aspirational Queenpin we’ve seen over the seasons represented that sort of freedom, not her cartel ascension.  

“Teresa doesn’t take no for an answer.” “Especially not from us.” This is the Wonder Twin interaction we deserve.

Kelly Anne inviting Dumas to their safe house.   Girl what?  WHAT? That’s putting a lot of faith in an armed man with a grudge but okay.  

Also I’m with James on this one: too many eyes on them now.  They’re in this limbo between legit LEGIT and kinda sorta legit while participating in a shitload of illegal activities that is just ripe for federal charges.  Speaking of which, remember the feds? Did Kelly Anne forget to invite them too? :P

The Jeresa toast scene was lovely.  Loved Teresa asking James how he was, the light flirting, the way James heard her footsteps and KNEW it was her.

And L M A O at James’ whole ‘are you legit enough we can bang’ vibe check.  Honestly HOW did something not happen.  Those heart eyes were BEYOND intimate.  When they jumped to the next morning I full on booed. Listen, there’s a lot of unrealistic stuff on this show but that might have been THE most unrealistic lol. There’s just no way they didn’t have victory sex in view of her waterfront diorama, I do not believe it. Nope.

SO glad to see Marcel and a Marcel (albeit subdued) Suit back.  Loved that he got a condensed Queenpin arc in like three scenes, (I feel like only Alimi could sell that and sell that he did).  Though I have to wonder if by having Marcel come to these realizations about what you give up for power and rejecting it, they won’t go a different route for Teresa in a few eps? 

Although in a way, Marcel choosing to leave was the same thing driving Teresa to stay: she chose her people.

Teresa saying “you’d have done the same thing” to Marcel....okay but wasn’t it just like a few weeks ago in show time that he chose Teresa over the Judge wanting his help to either kill her or send her to jail?  Also perhaps give him a full 24 hours outside before expecting him to re-join the group text ya know??

And not sure you want to repeat almost word for word what Pecas said to you right before you shot him for setting you up, T.  As comparisons go that one is not ideal.

James telling Teresa to cover him in a gun fight??? That is what Action Couple dreams are made of, friends. The only thing that would have been better is if they had run inside the building for a 2x04/3x02 style emotionally fraught life and death conversation too but I have come to accept the writers do not agree with me on the need for those scenes this season and I’ll take what I can get.

The Castel not being on screen thing is unfortunate but are we finally circling back around to Teresa getting too big for the Devon/Castel deal?  My dramatic ass has been sustained by that potential drama (especially the idea that Devon could leverage James in that situation) since S3 finale, could it actually finally happen?

Boaz and Teresa both doing coke several times on screen this ep...Also Teresa of all people thinking Boaz’s childhood friend might be her ally.  

Pote a) saying “pee pee” in reference to his unborn child and b) pausing to take a final drag from his cigarette before running off to warn Kelly Anne?  It’s scenes like these that make his inevitable death less heartbreaking, show.

(And I know reduced sets/production and travel guidelines this season affected this but having Loya/Taza/Castel etc mentioned off screen while randos get face time is annoying.  All I know is they better not kill Camila off in a line of dialogue or I will sue.)

And finally, the rating system is ridic, I know it’s ridic, but getting week after week after week of gory closeups of head wounds (not to mention a boob shot this ep) and drawing the line at characters swearing at 10pm timeslot???  COME ON. Let Teresa say fuck already. She DESERVES IT.

[283livesforone]

Opinions on 5x08

• James I love you but please give him enough screen time to work through everything they just threw at him (Devon coming back, Teresa acknowledging him protecting her and then just cutting off before any actual development presumably because they have a big scene for them planned later?)

• So much happened in so little time and I really hope that’s just so that the last two episodes can progress smoothly without any messy plot holes. I get them wanting to pack everything they wanted to do into one and in that sacrificing the character aspects of the show so I’m really hoping the crazy 5 line conversations and two hundred confrontations one after the other is just for the benefit of the finale.

• Kelly Anne and Pote. I like them. They’re awkward and lack the right kind of chemistry but scenes like when he found her on the road worked well and look we need one happy relationship. Wasn’t a fan of how they rushed Potes decision. They really said massive conflict of his inner beliefs and moral code but then make Teresa chose for him and then five minutes later everything is fixed and he doesn’t lose anyone? Rushed but I’ll let it slide because as I said, I’m hoping the crazy pace was to move us to where we need to be in time for the finale. Also not a fan of how they rushed them having to leave. Hopefully they’ll cover that next episode, I can’t see them not doing but we need to see Pote furious and not knowing what to do with himself living like a normal human.

• Next week I need:

Jeresa power team going up against everyone and being hot as normal and either the emotional climax we’ve been waiting for or the set up for it to happen in the finale

Pote coming to terms with being a normal person so that he can actually be a father including the frustration of feeling like he’s useless and doing nothing to protect his family.

KA dealing with the trauma of almost being sex trafficked, being thrown around between a load of shitty men and feeling helpless, killing a man to save herself and her child and feeling like the won’t be a good parent because of the world she’s put herself in.

I’d LOVE to see KA and Pote have a heart to heart about how they both think they’ll be bad parents because they’ve done bad things and then realizing what matters is that they just TRY to do what’s right for the child. That would be the perfect ending to everything they’ve both got to deal with and force Pote to accept a life without murder.

I absolutely need some push back from Teresa. I can’t have her ending be she gave up to a load of men. Absolutely not. It would be a more satisfying ending if she died trying to keep the business but after the whole amazing feminist message of the show up to now, giving up would destroy everything she’s done before now. This was just episode 8 though so I doubt she’d go the direction she’s planning this early.

All in all, didn’t love this episode but I understand why it had to be the way it did. Mad about how they keep killing good characters in shitty ways but I shall hold in my anger for another two weeks

[jerepars]

Throwing Copper Extended Chapter Notes

1 / 5 Reinventing Your Exit

Hyperlinks appear in blue (underlined on mobile). The story is posted here.

Teresa could see the stress James carried in his jaw and the dark circles under his eyes. She recognized it because she’d seen it in herself before, the restlessness and slight delirium, when she wasn’t sleeping.

The first sentence is an ode to the opening lyrics of Remo Drive’s “I’m My Own Doctor”: I’ve been self-diagnosing all of my problems, carrying all my stress in my jaw.

David Lee Autry was one of many aliases James had over the last few years but one he maintained with close attention because the so-called Autry had a credit card in his name. James hadn’t exactly had time to pack a bag when he broke out of a CIA facility to warn Teresa about impending doom. He showed up in New Orleans in a stolen car, the clothes on his back, contents of his pockets, and a bullet lodged in his chest.

David Lee Autry is the name written on James’ fake passport in 2x03 (around 20:54 in the episode); Pete from the militia group reads it.

James felt a lump in this throat. Whether it was because there was something very domestic about letting someone else do his laundry or because he worried the warning he’d come with wasn’t enough to protect Teresa every time she walked out the door, he wasn’t sure. But he swallowed his feelings down and didn’t put up an argument to her laundry suggestion. He appreciated the clothing George had lent him, but oversized tracksuits and brightly patterned button-down shirts were far from James’ aesthetic. And he absolutely refused to put on King George-branded attire, aerodynamic or not, so he’d been going commando while waiting for David Lee Autry’s online order to show up at Teresa’s PO Box.

When Teresa and James meet King George for the first time in 2x01, we get the lovely scene where he yells for someone to get Teresa a King George bikini (1:12) and later points to the speedo he’s wearing, saying “aerodynamic as shit, will make you feel alive, I trust” (1:18). And, like, who am I to not bring up aerodynamic speedos and going commando?

The doctor had come back and after patching him up, again, prescribed bed rest for the patient who seemed to be doing everything to keep aggravating his body rather than help it get better. Teresa had been furious, asking if he had a death wish after all, so he’d spent the last two days bored out of his mind in bed from inactivity, barely sleeping and reading Faulkner. Or maybe he’d barely slept because he was reading Faulkner. Either way, James knew it best to tread lightly where Teresa was concerned.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t sit in a chair at a desk though. Anything would be an improvement over laying on his back and waiting for his thoughts to float up to the ceiling.

So, listen, since they’re in Louisiana, and given their close proximity to matters of death and dying, if James is going to be reading anything at all, it just feels fitting that he’d be reading Southern literature, specifically William Faulkner. As I Lay Dying is an obvious choice, but personally I think he’d be reading The Sound and the Fury. Not that it matters.

The last sentence in the second paragraph is a reference to “Dreamspace” by Glacier Veins, and the line that goes I’m on my back so I float up to the ceiling to feel different.

Teresa had cried herself to sleep that night thinking about everything that could have gone wrong, if he hadn’t made it in time, or if he had but if it had been too late for him. It wasn’t just anyone—it was James, and he would’ve spent his last dying breath to tell her to chase safety if that was what it took.

Never did I think I’d manage to make a nod to and with my one last gasping breath I’d apologize for bleeding on your shirt from “You’re So Last Summer” by Taking Back Sunday. To be here, in 2020, as an adult, and finding a way to make that reference is...strange yet somehow satisfying at the same time. Also, the chapter title is in reference to a song off the Underoath album They’re Only Chasing Safety, and it looks like I found a way to work that in as well. I don’t know why my musical inspiration for this version of Jeresa seems to come from music that peaked in the early 2000s?

There was a time when James had been her mentor to the underworld, always keeping her from sinking to the bottom, even when he’d been the one who had to make the tough calls and take the brutal actions. She didn’t think he’d ever be able to rid himself of that balancing act, of showing her the ropes but strongly advising her to untether herself from the line completely, to walk away. Teresa could still hear his voice in the back of her mind, from the night after the party at the Birdman’s when he told her in a matter-of-fact fashion why he’d sent her in: your job was to learn. Since then, and especially in his absence, it seemed there’d been only tough lessons to learn and bitter pills to swallow.

I have so much appreciation for the early dynamic between James and Teresa. The car scene in 1x05 outside the warehouse is a highlight because when Teresa gets out, all indignant, she thinks she has the last word (0:15), and James comes right back at her (0:21) to tell her how it is. He’s kind of smug about it. I love it.

And I know that there’s trouble all the time. But it’s interesting that when they get away from this dynamic (especially in S4 where it doesn’t exist, because James isn’t there), it seems that’s where the real trouble comes in.

The balance that they create is delicate.

They were so far removed from the time he’d said I’ve got a plan for a future and it doesn’t include getting killed by crossfire meant for you. But he’d chosen crossfire—sought it out, really—that was what his future devolved into. And like he’d said back then, she was trouble. More and more, Teresa had begun to wonder if there was anything the James she’d first met in Dallas wasn’t right about.

I know this scene in 1x04 is often reblogged and quoted. After watching it several times, my only question is if it’s just the lighting of the scene or did they forget to apply James’ tattoos on set that day? I can’t watch it or see gifs of it now without that bothering me.

It only took Teresa a day to get the cat to venture inside and it only took George a few minutes to declare its name: Peach. God damn, we got ourselves a grumpy cat on our hands, George had exclaimed as she sunk her claws into his flesh before escaping from his embrace like a magic trick, she’s got the same personality as Giant Peach over here. She’s little Peach.

So I guess I rolled with that bts picture of Peter from Alice’s story and wrote the cat into the story. I bet this cat makes zero appearance in S5 and at no point do any of them ever have a pet but I did it anyway. The first thought when I saw it was “Peach and Giant Peach”. Would James be a cat guy? I think he would.

George suspected there was much more to the exchange than the parting words voiced out loud, noticing there was a sense of thanks in her eyes, too. The looks Teresa and James gave each other exuded the tension between them and always made it feel at least ten degrees hotter than it actually was in any room. They had their own way of communicating that only made sense to them, that no one else was privy to. There were better odds throwing copper down a wishing well than trying to decode their language of silence.

The story title comes from “Throwing Copper” by Touché Amoré. Like throwing copper in a well. You’ll never know if wishes work only time can tell.

This is not really the part that made me decide to name the story after the song, but I was still happy to find a place for it in the narration.

“Think you might need to reinvent your exit strategy, Giant Peach,” George said with a frown, nearly in disbelief with himself over what he was about to reveal to James.

“Reinvent?”

“Reinvent. Rethink. As in don’t make one. Methinks the last thing Little Principessa needs right now is more people leaving.” George spoke without his usual puns, so James didn’t have to question if he was being serious.

As mentioned earlier, the chapter title is from a song off of They’re Only Chasing Safety, “Reinventing Your Exit”. I think this might be the biggest Underoath song there ever was? Just listening to this makes me feel 14 again. This was such a gateway to other music that I ended up loving.

Teresa’s evolving thirst for vengeance, to even the score, was foreign to James. It was part of Teresa that scared James a bit. Before he left Phoenix, he’d seen tiny red flashes of her anger, questionable decisions so far removed from when she’d stood within shooting distance on a train car and said we can do a different way, where none of us has to die. Her vision had seemed clear then; she wanted to move product without the same bloodshed as Camila. When James worked for Teresa, he’d never wanted her to lose herself in the business, and never thought she should stay in the business—those were things she’d said she never wanted, too. But being at the top in the business, like she was, it changed people. It was inevitable. It pulled them down into the fire until there was nothing left but scorched earth.

I get the sense that we are never ever getting this kind of James in canon, who is not totally cool with the part of Teresa that she shuts off in order to be queen. I think we probably get another yes man. And for canon, for the sake of Teresa being the queen, I get it. That’s fine. But, in any fic, I always find myself trying to humanize characters and not just leave them as archetypes. The reason this story got so long, the reason there was no way I was going to get through it in 2500 words or less (lol, who am I kidding, I can’t write anything of that length), is because I realized this is the James I want to explore. I want to see him push back at Teresa and not just let go, not just get shut down. Because Teresa is far from perfect and she doesn’t always make the right decisions (tbh, I think she makes a lot of dumb decisions). It’s a delicate balance between the two of them that gives the best outcome.

James’ thoughts in this first chapter are the setup for the exploration of the Jeresa dynamic in the next two chapters.

James used to see a blinding light when he looked right into Teresa’s eyes, a moral compass of sorts, always willing him to choose the humanity he’d buried so deep. But now it was light mixed with dark, integrated too well to be separated. Now looking into her eyes was like staring at a flickering light, not sure if it was going to illuminate the cave or burn out.

Here is the part of “Throwing Copper” that resonated with me for this whole thing: Like staring at a flickering light, you don't know when It'll burn out, or how much time you have left to let it light up your life.

So relevant.

I don’t want to lose you. Maybe that had been a proclamation of love in her own way, and maybe that was the last honest thing Teresa had ever said to James, after she’d realized she’d been wrong to doubt him. Those words had gripped him and followed him. He’d found solace and comfort in them even after he left, because he’d wanted nothing more than to stay, but he left to protect her because of what Devon had hanging over his head.

One of the lines in Tegan and Sara’s “This is Everything” is baby, this is the last honest look I’ll ever give. But by the end of the song it turns into baby, this is the last honest love I’ll ever give.

Teresa and James so obviously love each other but they never say that out loud, right? I feel like that moment in 3x12 when she says “I don’t want to lose you” (around 23:05 of the episode) is the closest we’ve gotten thus far. There’s a silent moment before she says it, and a silent moment after, before James answers and I swear all of it is so telling. The silence. The way they look at each other. The body language. Everything. They know.

[yiangchen]

Tagged by @nightbleeder <3

Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. don’t cheat. tag 10 (or however many) peeps.

atla

the 100

gran hotel

awae

qots

1. who is your favorite character in 2?

bell obviously. 

2. who is your least favorite character in 1?

i don’t think there’s any character that i don’t like? i mean, i don’t like ozai as a person, but as a character i do. you know?

3. what is your favorite episode of 4?

hmmmm idk. maybe the ep in s2 when they have the play?? or when they go to the party and we first learn that cole is gay?? both of those eps were so good and the latter made me cry.

4. what is your favorite season of 5?

fuck, i can’t decide. every season is so good. i love how it starts in s1, all the tension between the characters in s2 is incredible, and then in s3 we get canon jeresa, but the buildup in all the seasons for them is insane, so i don’t even know if i can say that s3 is my fave. i really don’t think i have a favorite season. 

5. who is your favorite couple in 3?

julio and alicia.  

6. who is your favorite couple in 2?

blork.

7. what is your favorite episode of 1?

i love every single ep, but the final four episodes are insane.

8. what is your favorite episode of 5?

the one where teresa kisses james in her hallucination/dream. or the one with teresa and james in the desert. 

9. what is your favorite season of 2?

s2.

10. how long have you watched 1?

since i was a kid.

11. how did you become interested in 3?

my mom was watching it, and i was learning spanish (still am) and wanted to improve.

12. who is your favorite actor in 4?

i don’t really know much about the actors, so idk.

13. which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5?

if we’re talking s1 and 2 only, then the 100. but as a whole? atla hands down. i also love qots, but atla is just a fucking masterpiece. 

14. which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3 ?

i’ve seen the entirety of both atla and gran hotel.

15. if you could be anyone from 4, who would you be?

gilbert. 

16. would a crossover between 3 and 4 work?

holy shit, i think that would actually be possible. gran hotel is set during 1906-1907 and awae 1908. i guess maybe gilbert could have traveled to spain in that ship and wound up at the gran hotel??? i don’t really know enough about history though. would a ship like the one he was on have even gone to spain??? idk.

17. pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple.

ty lee and aang.

18. overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5?

the storylines in both are so good. i can’t decide.   

19. which has the better theme music, 2 or 4?

the 100.

Tagging:  @tyronndy @chants-de-lune @selflessbellamy and anyone else!!

[la-ermitana]

Do you think Bailey Chase’s new character is a love interest for Teresa? I hope not!

I hope not! And not just because I’m a huge jeresa shipper. I think writers are big jeresa shippers and the fans, so I don’t think so. Plus they wouldn’t set up their relationship in s3 after all that time waiting for them to finally do something about it. Of course also why James left her is a big gesture i don’t think would be forgotten just yet. Even though Teresa doesn’t know.

If anything I think his character, described as having demons who crosses paths with her, maybe relate to each other and bond through that, but as friends. Hopefully my guess. Not romantic. Maybe their discussions lead her to admit she misses James and thus sets off the potential rescue. Or maybe he is a hook up. Anything is possible!

[teresa-moyocoyotzin]

Things i would like to see in the finale, though i am not expecting very many to actually happen (AKA me literally not tempering my expectations At All):

- teresa coming “back to life” before the last 5 minutes. like give her at least. a solid 10 or 20 minutes for a big last adventure with her gang!!! plus i wanna see her rip boaz into pieces, don’t let the boys have all the fun! (jk i can never watch the super violent parts lol but i still think she should be there to get revenge) and she just really deserves some screen time and some full circle moments for her character arc!! and some time with her crime husband to enjoy the non-crime life!

- flashbacks to earlier in the s5 timeline to help explain the set up for the fake death plot, rather than just telling us what happened. i wanna see teresa and james late at night planning exactly where she was gonna step on the balcony! james making sure she picks a mansion with the perfect spot for his rifle nest! james making sure he knows Exactly where her organs are okay anyways i’m getting carried away but esp. if the coke has been laced w something to slow her heart all along, i wanna see them talking about it!!! and if james had a feeling devon was gonna make him do this all along i wanna see flashbacks to moments where it dawned on him! ik this might be asking a lot & they’ll probably just have james say it in like 1 line but i have hopes okay.

- ...more james than pote and kellyanne.. is this unrealistic? i feel like it shouldn’t be because james is supposedly. our second main character after teresa. but like. they don’t always treat him as such so who knows!! but i feel like james has a lot of things going on right now (just confessed to the love of his life, then had to shoot her, now has to go on the run from the CIA & possibly every single person in his life, set up a new life for his lover whom he just “killed”, also getting out of the business when?) so i think he deserves more screen time than pote being pissed about teresa (provided he’s not in on it which i don’t think he is) and ka doing whatever she’s gonna be doing now (i like them both but they aren’t supposed to be the main characters come on) but like i know... this isn’t actually super realistic because as we know, this has at times felt like the Kote show. i’m seriously praying that’s not the case tonight tho

- just. one. callback. to one of the classic jeresa sayings. the cave, being in it together, not leaving, questions of what they deserve, not hiding from each other, there’s so many to choose from just give me SOMETHING okay

- teresa getting to make her own choices about her life!!! please give her some agency!! she’s been under the thumb of so many gross men for literally the whole show. if they could give me like ten minutes of her actually having some free will and autonomy and it not going horribly wrong that would be Great thanks

- what we all really want: a happy ever after for our girl teresa and ofc james too ❤️

HAPPY QUEEN OF THE SOUTH FINALE EVERYONE 🎉🙏🏼🥰 GOOD FUCKING LUCK TO US ALL!!!!

[calliopecalling]

QOTS Rewatch - 3x08 - El Carro

This episode gets overshadowed by some of the more obvious "Jeresa episodes" of the season (3x02, 3x05, 3x09) and yet I think it's one of the strongest episodes for them, stronger even than 3x09. I would actually put it right up there with 3x02 and 3x05, where the thing those three episodes have in common is Teresa and James actually communicating with each other, about something other than business. (Hmm, come to think of it, maybe that's a uniting feature of ALL my favorite episodes??) Anyway, their communication evolves from Teresa giving James the silent treatment at the beginning of the episode to they-totally-would've-made-out-if-Pote-hadn't-interrupted-them-heart-eyes towards the end. The BEST kind of progress.

Plot-wise, this episode is all about trying to take down Pecas and Camila by outmaneuvering them, though of course it's not what Teresa set out to do--she only wanted to use their corridor to smuggle her drugs in for distribution on the web; she wasn't trying to cut into the local market (which Camila apparently now supplies; I guess she conveniently expanded to Phoenix while Teresa was growing her business in Europe?). Anyway, with Pecas and Camila gunning for her, she either has to fight them, or give up, and of course she doesn't want to give up. Not after all she's been through. So this is the episode in which that first step away from the type of business she wanted to run--one that was clean, safe, free of violence--has to be taken. She has to take out Pecas and Camila and supplant their product with hers in the local market. So anyway, here's the rundown of events:

With Taza on her side, she devises a plan to report Camila's incoming shipment to the authorities and then smuggle in her own product right on its tail, forcing La Comisión to have to do business with her.

Unfortunately, it turns out Sheriff Mayo is actually alive, and one of the members of Taza's tribe tips him off to Teresa's plan. Mayo waits for them and then creates a roadblock. A gunfight ensues and Teresa and James barely get away with the product.

In fact, the transpo van catches fire and they have to pull over and try to pull out as many kilos of coke as possible before it explodes. James narrowly misses getting caught in the explosion as Teresa tackles him to prevent him from running towards it.

Lil T and Tonto go to Pecas to corner him into having to accept their product, but Pecas--spiteful asshole that he is--turns them down, kills Tonto, and nearly kills Lil T, branding her with "Return to Sender" in the process.

As a last resort, Teresa, James, and Pote pay Mayo a visit and bribe him (at gunpoint) to betray Pecas. James then tries to shoot Pecas, but doesn't have a clean shot, so he holds off.

Meanwhile, George and Bilal have been intercepted by Cortez's army. 😩

And Cortez has brainwashed Isabela into thinking her mother ordered the kill on Kique (and that he had nothing to do with it) and appears to have turned on Camila.

In between all these events, though, is where the good stuff happens. The relationship and character development. As I said above, this episode is a big deal for Teresa and James. After the "events" of 3x05 were immediately followed by Guero's death, James was obviously left pretty much in the dark about where he stood with her, and she, I think, honestly might not have known how to answer if he'd asked in the mental place she was in last episode. She was so distant, so distraught and caught up on the clanging inside her own head. It's not that I think she didn't care about James or didn't want him... if anything it's that she couldn't let herself care about him or want him, for the reasons I laid out in that meta.

But by the time this episode starts, she's moved through the most paralyzing of the grief--I mean, in some ways, Pote and James locking her in the cellar was effective, because it distracted her, gave her something else to be upset about lol. So when the episode starts, she's pissed at James, and being pissed at him is a far cry better than not acknowledging he exists, which is basically where she seemed to be at the beginning of last episode. You know, not that I think he did the right thing by locking her in the cellar, and it didn't help her in the way they intended it to, but it at least shook her loose a little.

There are so many great moments this episode that it's hard to rank them, but I love the opening exchange between them where she blows him off, it's just so funny. There's nothing deep about it or particularly meaningful, but James looks so freaking good and Teresa's just like "I don't care bye." 😂 She's a liar. She cares. She notices. Lmao. Because then in the garage picking from among Taza's cars she's all "we have the tail" *meaningful glance at James* and he grows about a foot taller right then and there.

That conversation they have in the car... I love it. Everything about it. How he starts out tentatively, how she throws him a bone by acknowledging she knows why he locked her in the cellar, how she then calls out that just because we slept together doesn't mean you get to make decisions for me and our brains collectively explode alongside James's because holy shit, did she really just say that out loud??? She is going to ACKNOWLEDGE IT??? I don't know, I find it completely captivating that she does that. She is a person of few words, who has been dancing around James for a while now, both of them refusing to say out loud what's clearly in the air between them, though she's always been the more forward one, the one trying to get him to take a step, I think (think 2x10 "is this about business or something else?" and 3x02 "why are you here? really?"). So it's not like it's out of character for her to be the one to call it like it is; in fact, it's pretty consistent with her character. But for her to call it out to James, who has been soooo obviously and futilely trying to avoid any kind of confrontation with his feelings since basically mid-season-1, is what makes it so shocking. We know and James knows that he's been unsuccessfully trying to keep his feelings for her in check for a while, and that, even when the keeping them in check became impossible, he still appears to have had no intention of ever acting on them because he feels unworthy of her. And she, on the other hand, is like, fuck that noise, we slept together, why are you really here, etc. Like it's a shockingly normal thing, like it's maybe even absurd that he thinks he's unworthy.

SO, ok, just because we slept together. And then he's like, omgggggggggggg *hyperventilating in his brain* ok but you don't regret it right?? Or do you???? And she's like NO OF COURSE NOT. I already flailed about this extensively in the tags of multiple gifsets so I won't rehash it all here but wow, I love it. AND I love how, later on, he not only meets her where she's at but also snaps back into his own sturdy sense of self and is like, respect goes both ways.

Yes. Yes it does. And she knows he's right. He was wrong to lock her in the cellar (and not just because it was disrespectful but because it put her at odds with him, alienated her from him, rather than bringing her closer to him). (And fwiw, I wish he had actually acknowledged it was wrong at any point in any of their conversations about it, or apologized for it. We never actually see James apologize for anything and that's honestly my one annoyance about the way his character was written. He would've apologized to her for that, given who he is. ANYWAY.) But she was also wrong to have been totally shutting him out, not cluing him in in any way to what was going on in her mental world. Not like she owed it to him or anything; not that in her trauma she should've been putting him first. But I guess I do think that, even when we're suffering the most, we should try not to totally shut out the people we love and who love us. Sure, it's a coping mechanism, and it's one I totally understand (and share). But it's also one that ultimately doesn't serve anyone. She could've instead just told him (back in 3x07), "I am struggling, and I don't know how to cope right now. It isn't about you, and I'll come back to you when I'm ready." Or anything similar. But--and I love this so much--she acknowledges that he's right. She doesn't have any problem validating that. It's so powerful. She's so non-defensive.

And then she says something super, super revealing, super important for understanding her--not just for James to understand her but for us:

"I don't know how to trust people. So when people make decisions for me, I don't know how to handle it. I don't feel safe. This is who I am."

I just... I love her so much for this. She's giving him really critical information. She doesn't know how to trust people. She doesn't feel safe. And not just that, but this is who I am. She's not pretending that she can change overnight, or falling over herself to shame-spiral. She's acknowledging it's a fault, but also letting him know as an essential truth about her right now. She's been through a lot, so that totally makes sense. And I think it's also a bit of foreshadowing for the mole storyline that comes up in two episodes. Sorry to bring that specter into this otherwise totally satisfying episode, Jeresa-wise, lol.

Aaaaanyway. It obviously plays right into the trust theme of the season. The main men in both Teresa's life and Camila's life are showing their true colors this episode; the parallel is actually kind of interesting. James is showing he is trustworthy, he can meet Teresa where she's at. They communicate with each other openly and they grow closer, bridge a gulf of lingering mistrust between them. Camila, on the other hand, despite claiming to not trust anyone, is trusting Cortez way too much, and he's meanwhile showing his true deceptiveness--and right under Camila's nose. Of course, the irony is that Teresa will end up mistrusting James at a critical moment when she shouldn't, and Camila ends up putting way too much trust in Cortez, when she shouldn't. Tsk. They both could use a page from the other's book.

I could say more (such as the fact that ok, Annie and I have BASICALLY decided that it is canon that Teresa and James hooked up between 3x08 and 3x09, because, for one thing, HOW COULD THEY NOT after those two loaded conversations, but for another thing, James in 3x09 when he comes to her seems like he's been laid more recently than 3x05, he just has that confidence that's a liiiiittle more practiced than it should be if 3x09 is the first time since 3x05, lol sorry don't mind me) but this has gone on quite long enough. Get ready for 3x09 and an entire day next week of sets of that last 20 seconds of the episode 😂

[calliopecalling]

QOTS Rewatch - 3x02 - El Colgado

This episode is one of my top three episodes in the entire series. I just love it So. Much. It's where all of the late-season-2 Jeresa dynamics actually come to a head. It has the incredible 1x02 car ride parallel, multiple instances of them saving each other's lives (most of the glory going to James, let's be real), them hashing shit out, and a good mix of tension, action, emotion, and humor. (Plus, I thought most of the other characters' arcs in this episode were good, too, especially Pote's.)

In some ways I feel like all of season 2 Teresa and James were like a pair of dice being shaken and this episode is where they finally shake out. Season 1, they had a stable, clear dynamic: Teresa was a captive of Camila's and James had a kind of dual role as her prison guard and her mentor. But Season 2 shook everything up and everything about their relationship became uneasy. This episode is the culmination of that, where, by the end, they've finally found their new footing again. Will it be smooth sailing for them? OF COURSE NOT. But at last now their hierarchy is clear again, this time with Teresa on top and James working for her. Season 1 up-ended.

Do I really even need to recap the events of the episode?

Car chase through Malta to escape Camila's sicarios

They get away and Teresa promptly has James tie himself up and puts him in the trunk of her car while she waits for Pote

Pote gets caught by sicarios, though, and then tortured and left for dead

Meanwhile the sicarios find Teresa and James manages to escape from the trunk and crash through a glass window to save her just in time

Then they get caught by police who turn out to be on Rocco's payroll and he protects them from Camila with the promise of 2% higher rate of Teresa's earnings

They go back and find Pote still alive

James tells Teresa the story of his work for Devon and asks Teresa to let him stay. She agrees, but makes it clear that he will be working for her, not with her (callback to their little 2x10 argument about working for vs. with Camila??)

On the Camila front, her approval rating is super low and she's hoping that opening this orphanage in Epifanio's name will help

Isabela is also out for Teresa's blood

And Cortez appears to be going behind Camila's back to start running heroin with Boaz and the Colombians

ALRIGHT.

I want to start by saying this episode (well, honestly, this entire season) looks a lot different in the rearview mirror than it does if you're a first-time viewer. As I said in my 3x01 recap, the entire premise of this season is trust. Who can you trust? Who might be deceiving you? How do you know? And in hindsight, we obviously know James is like, the number one slot in the 'people you can trust' category. But watching this live, he wasn't yet. And obviously Teresa is 'watching this live,' so to speak. She's not sure yet either.

So I want to talk about that angle first. The 'is James trustworthy?' angle. Almost this entire episode focuses on their dynamic. Even the Vargas story doesn't get too much screentime or plot development this episode. It's really all about James's explosive reappearance and what to make of it.

There are multiple little things over the course of the episode that, if you're Teresa, or if you're watching for the first time, might make you unclear about James's motives or intentions:

He doesn't immediately directly answer her question about whether he's still working for Camila

He evades the accusation about the tracker, neither denying it nor explaining it

He gives an incomplete story about the work he was doing with Devon that led him to want to work with her

Of course, in hindsight, all of this (well, with the notable exception of the tracker 😑) is resolved. Within the course of the episode it becomes totally clear that he is not, in fact, still working with Camila, and in three episodes we get the more complete and truthful version of the story of the Texas family. But the writers were definitely trying to set things up so that, when the mole comes up later in the season, the possibility of it being James isn't completely implausible. At least from Teresa's perspective.

And let's face it: her uncertainty is definitely understandable. Even if James hadn't put that tracker in the gameboy (even if your interpretation of canon is that he didn't use it to give up her location, he still did put it in there, and she found out about it under less than ideal circumstances), or hadn't switched out the coke on her, or hadn't shot at her in the abandoned train, I think her uncertainty would be justifiable. The last time she saw him, he had been working for Camila, and Camila is now trying to kill her. It would be reckless of her not to be extremely cautious. Mix in the complicated personal feelings, and the fact that she learned last season that her own intuition and instincts are muddy when it comes to James, and we have a perfect set-up here after this episode for some very tricky navigating over the rest of the season. Navigating of trust, in both a business sense and personal sense.

James is not and is never going to be a Pote, a simple body guard for Teresa. James is smart, he's analytical, he has many more layers of complexity than Pote does. This is what makes him so valuable to her in the long run--because he doesn't just take orders, he has his own ideas and values, too, that guide his actions. And this is also what attracts her to him on a personal level. It's what makes her heart feel that tentative stirring. So for these reasons, trusting him will never be as straightforward as, 'will he protect me?' In fact, I think in her gut, that is already pretty clear. When push comes to shove this episode, he's clearly got her back, and she clearly gets that instinctively.

But in a more personal sense, she doesn't fully trust him yet. 'I'd like to trust you, but I barely know you,' she says. She only knows how he shoots and how he fights. In other words: ok, she gets that he'll protect her and save her. But feeling safe with him isn't just about protection from physical harm. It's deeper than that. It's about emotional safety. With Pote, she only needs to trust that he'll take a bullet for her, so to speak. With James, she needs to trust a whole lot more than that, because he gives her a whole lot more than that, and because she wants to give him a whole lot more than she gives Pote. She doesn't just want him to serve her like Pote does, she wants actual companionship, friendship, and she wants someone to actually help her run the business.

Idk, I feel like I'm kind of talking around in circles here, but I just want to say I absolutely love the cautious steps they take here in this episode towards building that trust. I've talked a lot about this trust thing in my tags on the various episode gifsets, and James is going to spend a few episodes fumbling around to try to understand exactly what it is she's looking for from him, while she herself isn't very clearly articulating it. The only information he has by the end of this episode is that she doesn't know him very well (and he's like, ok, noted, gotta help her get to know me, but what if I don't even know me very well, like what if all there is to me is the violence and destruction anyway?) and that he can work for her but it's not a partnership (and he's like, woo wooooo!, I got the door open!). But what that actually means isn't explicit. He's her employee, but with personal feelings involved--and I mean, I think the flirtatious vibe can't have escaped either of them--he's also in a strictly personal sense her equal. And of course, there's their history of him being her superior. So suffice it to say, it's messy.

The full-on shipper hindsight lens, though, makes this episode utterly delightful. Without any of the worrying about James's actual motives, and without any of the worrying that her lack of ability to trust him is going to permanently ruin things, it's really just lovely to watch them trying to figure each other out, each of them peeping out cautiously from behind their respective curtains. On the surface, James is the one putting a lot more on the line; his vulnerability in the balcony scene at the end is completely heartwarming and his total acceptance of the complete recalibration of their working relationship is a model for men everywhere, lol. But I argue that Teresa is putting just as much on the line, even though she doesn't seem to be giving him as much emotional vulnerability. I think she actually is. Her softness towards him, her willingness to give him a try, even her ability to level with him about the kind of working relationship that's on the table for her is brave, in my opinion, because of the rupture in their relationship at the end of season 2 and the ways her own trauma has led her to have to be *extremely* self-protective. Her softness, her heart, has allowed her to keep her soul but it has also put her at huge risk sometimes (for example, in refusing to kill Camila and Isabela at the same time as Epifanio, she saved her soul but now this entire season is her trying to survive Camila's vendetta). So opening herself up to James in this way is immensely vulnerable.

I think he understands that, honestly. He certainly doesn't blame her for her caution. What I think he doesn't quite understand is what it is that he needs to do--how exactly he should reveal himself to her--for her to fully trust him. The dance between the two characters this episode is both sweet and funny in hindsight. What I really want to know is what they were up to in that apartment together while Pote was out of commission. 👀👀👀👀

Just want to finish by calling out a few favorite moments:

Teresa's 'if you want to save [your life], turn left' followed by forcing him to tie himself up and putting him in the trunk is utter comedy but we also get to see Teresa's actual very real fear come through and we're reminded about where it was that they ended up last season and what she believed happened. Amazing acting from Alice.

And James trying to get out of that trunk, with his gradual recognition of what's going on outside of it leading to his mounting panic--again, great comedy, but really really great acting from Peter showing exactly how desperate he is to help her.

Both of their final looks at each other on that balcony are just so perfectly executed--his peaceful sense of hope mingled with complete reverence for her, and the soft, flirty break in her veneer with her eyes downcast as she smiles.

But this episode is truly full of so many great moments, which is why it is one of my absolute favorite episodes.

[calliopecalling]

Queen of the South 5x10 FINALE(!) Debrief

Well well well. WELL. Well.

I've spent much of today in a beachy daze. Like are we all living with our beloved QOTS characters inside a fluff fanfic? Or was that the actual end of the series? How did we get here? Are we happy about it?! Last night I felt underwhelmed, though that was I'm 100% sure tinged with just, that normal post-anticipatory letdown. That feeling of "was that it?" that the day after every favorite holiday brings with it. Like how could reality ever actually meet you where you swear you're not hiding your expectations?

As I've begun adjusting today to this New World in which QOTS is over (😭 it's only been my TV obsession since 2018 😭 what do I do now?!) I've settled a bit more deliciously into the hazy glow that the last 5 minutes of the finale brought on. Like wow, that long slow burn really paid off. These two people who've been dancing around each other for five years struggling to reconcile their feelings for each other with the world they're a part of -- finally giving that life the bird and deciding to lean into each other? When do we get TV that actually gives us that so wholeheartedly?! I'm digging it.

I'm also digging the many many opportunities this gives us to imagine new things into earlier scenes and seasons, and validate some of the things we've hoped we were correct in imagining all along. And I love that it's not shying away from romance in order to make some kind of depressing and cynical statement. Like there's this thing that "serious art" (of whatever medium) tries to do that can be all like, romance is "for girls." Like it's silly and unrealistic, demeaning, even. But what I love about Jeresa is that they didn't just have this electric sexual chemistry but they also saw in each other a mirror of their own values and strength; I so appreciate that the showrunners decided, you know what? That matters. That's important that two people crashed into each other's lives and made each other better people. Let's go with that.

So. I dig it.

AND, I don't think this season was well-written. I admit--I'm an academic--I like a well-written, even, consistent TV show, with a lot of attention to character development, and a keen attention to detail. Those things matter to me when I'm watching a show (or a movie, or reading a book, etc.). I'm not trying to be a snob; it's just that I take a real delight--like almost a physical sensation--in things coming together in a really cool way. I like word play and symbolism and subtle humor and body language. A lot of that, actors can pull off regardless of writing (and that's what I LOVED about Alice and Peter; they really do that so well). But a lot of my experience of this season, and this final episode, would've just been more delightful if it had been better written.

I really felt that the first three seasons of QOTS were pretty well-written. Yes, there were some scenes that required suspension of disbelief. (I will always wonder, for example, how the heck did Lil T get from Phoenix to Devon's mom at her church choir rehearsal in what I’m assuming was Chicago in the like, what, 45 minutes max lead time she was given, lol. Or are we supposed to believe his mom just happened to be in Phoenix?) There were some corners cut for the sake of moving the plot forward. But overall, those didn't outweigh the pleasure of watching Teresa's complex journey from the narco girlfriend who'd lost everything except her soul to the narco queen who was gaining everything but starting to lose her soul.

So the first three seasons I could just really buy into. If the first season or two had felt like the last two seasons have--rushed, inconsistent, and with way too many superfluous male characters (sorry/not sorry 😬)--I probably wouldn't have gotten as caught up in it as I did. (AS caught up in it, I said. Alice still carries it for me as Teresa just by herself, regardless of what crap they give her to work with, so I would have guaranteed still been a fan.) I think I liked this season better than Season 4 overall, because of how important James is as a mirror to Teresa's character, and because the tension between them creates a really interesting internal struggle for her. But it also felt even more rushed than Season 4 did and had way less Teresa screentime per episode than Season 4.

Especially this finale. I was discussing it with my coworker this morning (same coworker, unfortunately, who thinks Pote was "so stinkin cute" this season and loved his story line) and even though we will never agree on our favorite Teresa sidekick, we agreed that the finale should've given Teresa so much more. The writers set it up to try to convince us that James had killed Teresa, and decided to let that mystery be the final tension of the series, making us hold our collective breaths until the very end to finally collectively exhale when the 'big reveal' that she'd faked her own death was the big plot twist.

Only it wasn't that unexpected. I know there were people out there who legitimately believed James had killed her. And I definitely couldn't relax in utter confidence because TV SHOW WRITERS, MAN. They love to ruin good things. BUT. It just wasn't that shocking that it was faked. It was the right ending. Killing her would've totally ruined the show and while I couldn't put anything past these writers, most people I know were pretty sure it must've been staged. So what I wish they'd done instead of trying to force us all to believe she was actually dead and that everyone else was just trying to get out, was start the episode with flashbacks to when Teresa started forming her plan, and then let the central tension of the episode (and the final tension of the series) be: will they be able to pull it off?

And if they'd had Teresa be the one to kill Boaz, rather than Pote--or at least have her be the one doing the bulk of the work to track him down and stare him in the eyes one final time--then that "will they pull this off?" tension could've been pretty nail-biting. Then we would've found ourselves wondering OMG IS JAMES GOING TO DIE all episode rather than WHY THE FUCK ARE WE SEEING SO MUCH POTE. Plus, having flashbacks to the planning process start off the episode would have allowed us to actually follow along with Teresa's final transformation, the journey back to herself and coming to terms with what she really wanted.

Instead, we're going to have to fill in those gaps ourselves. You know what though? It's ok. Overall, I enjoyed myself this season. I am happy with this ending (though sorry again but I would've still preferred an ending in which Pote dies just because it's almost TOO happy). I am basking in the fantasizing about all the Teresa and Jeresa things they didn't show us that we now get to fill in--and the fact that we now know where they ended up!! And, I mean. THOSE SMILES. Smiles for days! Suggestive gazes! Sweet kisses! I die.

So it's the end of the series, sure. But I know I at least will still be around for a while, because I am a nutcase who is obsessed with these characters and now just has way more fodder to feed my madness.

[calliopecalling]

Queen of the South 5x04 Debrief

Well, we're seeing a different Queenpin than I expected, and sooner. This isn't the white queen of earlier Teresa's visions. That queen was calm, assured, powerful, but almost nurturing. This, now, is a queen who is edgy, defensive, struggling, scared. I am curious about this. Obviously the earlier queenpin visions were just that--visions; they were Teresa's inner leader stepping out of the shadows and taking charge. So, are we (and she, hopefully?) meant to now begin to understand that the white queen isn't possible? That she can't exist because this business won't actually allow for her to "have it all"? That calmness and assuredness and power can't be achieved while keeping her integrity intact?

Or, will we in fact eventually see the white queen of her visions manifest? Will Teresa find her way to that powerful, nurturing version of herself, and what will she have to do to get there? Certainly it's not what she thinks it is, because what she's currently doing--closing herself off to love, compromising her integrity, and making harsher decisions (and more quickly) than ever before--is not getting her anywhere closer to being the white queen. It's almost doing the opposite. It's getting her closer to being Camila, who, in season 1, was in many ways diametrically opposed to the white queen. Camila's advice to Teresa was always self-serving and competitive. The white queen's mirrored Teresa's own inner voice, emphasizing strength and integrity.

The black/white clothing choices in every episode so far this season seem to me to support either one of these theories about the white queen (that she either isn't going to be possible to attain, or that she will only be possible to attain--in a different way than Teresa expects--if Teresa comes back around to her values in the end). She hasn't yet gone full white and that duel between her old self and the self she's striving for manifests in every part of her character development right now.

Episode 4 Teresa wasn't evil. She still met Marcel in the eye when he called her a rat and knew that he was right; she didn't get defensive about that. She's still trying to figure out how to get him out because she promised him she would and because she knows it's the right thing to do. She isn't wrong about the importance of exposing the corruption of the judge and his cronies (and remember that Gamble was a villain just last episode, so, I mean, do we really feel THAT bad that he's dead? especially since the whole justification for killing him was to get that ledger which she so desperately wants in order to clear Marcel *and killing Gamble wasn't the first thing she tried; she first tried to accomplish a peaceful exchange until it turned out the feds were on them*?) and the sheer evil they've committed. She's still able to hold understanding for Kelly Anne and Pote as they confess the pregnancy, and confess that she too is scared about the future.

But at the same time, that fear and self-protectiveness is causing her to lash out in unpredictable and hurtful ways. Not just hurtful to her people (James, Kelly Anne) but to US! I don't know the first thing about writing for TV shows but I have to confess that I don't love the direction the show has taken in her character in the last two episodes; it's just not very entertaining. It's suspenseful but it's painful. It's not TV I want to re-watch. I think that diminishes my confidence in the writers and show runners just a bit (though I'm trying to hold on since I also KNOW that on some level a journey into darkness and back out again is part of her story). I want to look forward to the next episode, not dread it. I want to root for the main character, not start to hate her.

Still, though, there are glimmers of hope for me. Each episode has had some sort of (or more than one) Jeresa callback, whether subtle or heavy-handed. The pre-episode "previously ons." The Marcel/James convo in 5x03. And in this last episode the CIA reminder (because, duh, we all know that James only went to Devon to protect her in the first place) and the distress on Teresa's face when she's trying to tell James that Gamble's death is a good thing. They haven't stopped reminding us that there's a complicated love story there. If they're dangling that carrot just to remind us how much we want it and then snatch it away at the end in a big GOTCHA move, then they're even worse writers than I thought. Like that's not good TV.

And several of the show runners, and Ryan, and Alice herself have talked about her struggle this season as being related to love -- that love can't survive in this business. That she is going to have to grapple both with Tony's loss and with James's return. Both of those things are clearly at least partly at the root of what's causing her to be so on edge. The CIA comment: Teresa hasn't accepted yet, hasn't been able to accept, that James has changed because of her, that she made him who he is now, and that he now expects her to be the same person he was a year ago when he left. She has to adjust to the fact that he left to protect her -- that all along that's all it was -- while meanwhile she had long ago integrated his departure as yet another painful casualty of her rise to power and the mistakes she'd made along the way. She thought he'd left because of her. How is she supposed to come to terms with the fact that that story was never true when she hasn't even begun to let herself grieve Tony yet? Instead, she's snorting coke and lashing out, because it's safer. Season 3 Teresa told James, "I don't know how to trust people." She's known that about herself and has owned up to it.

Can we trust the writers and show-runners to give us a Teresa who ultimately decides to lean in to trust and love? I don't know. But I hope so. I sure friggin' hope so. Let's see a white queen transformation that takes place because she chooses love over fear. And a white queen who, in the end, surprises us because she--the one of Teresa's visions--is actually the one who was going to decide to leave the business all along.

Other thoughts:

I would like to see more of a story line for James, and right-quick, than standing in a pantry for an entire episode. LOL. I don't want things to deteriorate to such an extent that I just want him to walk away rather than lose more self-respect, and we're dangerously close to that point.

Pote is really not doing it for me this season. From his bad advice, to the triteness of his trying to control Kelly Anne in her pregnancy, to his talking down to James. It all feels a little stilted.

I did REALLY enjoy the Teresa/Kelly Anne sit-down with the FBI agent. That was a fun girl power tag-team, for one thing, but for another, it was really in line with the Teresa I know and love--the one who is two steps ahead of everyone else and knows how to get out of a tight spot.

PLUS the fact that she got to two-time Lucien who, you know, is the one REALLY to blame for Marcel being in prison. Like I said in my 5x02 debrief, why is the Teresa the one who always gets blamed for problems OTHER PEOPLE CAUSE? Not only did Lucien turn in Marcel to the NOLA police, he also exposed Teresa to the feds, which kept the pressure on her big-time and made it even harder for her to try to help Marcel.

Marcel/Alimi Ballard is on fire this season. He is just so good. Crackles whenever he's on screen. He and Boaz so far are perfection.

Speaking of Boaz, looks like we'll get to go to Miami next episode, eh? Seems like maybe he's causing some problems there?

I really want to know what else is in Teresa and James's text history. I guess living in the same house they probably don't need to text much... but... c'mon, can't we get a little flirting up in here?

All the mirror referencessssssss! I do love the symbolism this season. The white/black clothing, the mirrors and mirror references, the earlier season callbacks.

"You're going to be a great father." So, I know I said I wanted to avoid speculating about how things would end up, but it's hard to avoid it. [BOOK SPOILER COMING] In the book, Pote dies at the end, and I've always sort of hoped the show would do the same thing. Not because I like, want Pote to die, but because that ending really worked for me. A huge, hard-hitting loss, and one that doesn't let Teresa's ending be totally "happily ever after," but still allows her not to die herself (which, IMO, would be a terrible way to end). Frankly, it IS hard to imagine Pote as a father, and trying to figure out how to balance that new responsibility against the only life he's ever known as a sicario. So I wonder whether this story-line is one that will set us up for that particular ending to be sad, and again, allow Teresa to get out.

[jerepars]

Ape Dos Mil Extended Chapter Notes

1 / 9 Skeptics and True Believers

Hyperlinks appear in blue (underlined on mobile and the dashboard). The story is posted here. 

She knew she hated him from the moment she laid eyes on him. Teresa’s parents had died when she was a little girl and she’d practically raised herself, so she didn’t exactly have any role models to set an example for her and teach her to be mild mannered, or to teach her that hate was not the opposite of love. She was emotionally driven, and the things she felt, she felt deep in her soul. But anyway, it was a matter of principle. She hated him. Teresa was in Dallas, in Camila Vargas’ warehouse where the prostitutes and drug mules slept, and he was in the space that could be considered the bullpen. When their eyes met for the very first time, she felt the fire ignite and build inside her chest, her heart like a caged bird trying to escape her ribs, blood thick as lead in her anger.

I don’t...I don’t know why writing about Jeresa brings up so many Saves the Day references for me. Maybe because a lot of the imagery in the lyrics are kind of extreme? It’s not a direct reference but the last sentence, with the part about her heart trying to escape her ribs was written with “You Vandal” in mind: yeah my ribs have parted ways, said ‘we’re not going to protect this heart you have’.

James was the carrot Camila dangled in front of everyone—the girls and the sicarios—to get them to do what she wanted. He was the Taylor Vaughan in the world of the warehouse; everyone would either willingly fuck someone’s shit up to be him, or, they would lose their shit to be fucked by him. It seemed to suit him—looking good while doing bad things. He was who they could never be, or never be with, and that was exactly how Camila wanted it.

She’s All That is back on Netflix and I couldn’t help myself. In my mind, there’s this whole backstory of Teresa watching teen cult rom coms growing up, and that’s why she speaks English so well when she lands in Dallas, but this part of the story definitely wasn’t the appropriate time to elaborate on that (there may never be an appropriate time to elaborate on that, lol). But she knows who Taylor Vaughan is, from seeing the movie. The way James is likened to Taylor Vaughan (portrayed by Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) is because of a line said by Dean Sampson (Paul Walker’s character) near the beginning of the movie. Dean says, “Every girl wants to be her, and every guy wants to nail her” (0:47).

This is an idea I’ve been thinking about for a while. Because Camila is certainly not dumb. James sets the bar for everyone, and it’s a standard that they can’t compete with or for. It’s like putting James in his position is her slapping them in the face with a “you wish”. James and Camila both know that, and Teresa is smart enough to figure it out quickly.

But James was good at his job. Even after he got Teresa riled up, even after she called him an asshole, even after he told her she was going to die, he got her into the custodian’s closet and she threw up every last baggie of coke. He was so good at his job, in fact, that when she was barely hanging on, declared she could not possibly go any further, he’d decided, no, it wasn’t her moment to tap out yet. James pulled the bottle of soap out of the dispenser and poured it into her mouth until she heaved on her own gag reflex one more time and the last three bags came up.

This chapter is named after “Skeptics and True Believers” by The Academy Is... . The paragraph mentions that Teresa was barely hanging on because of the part of the song that goes: near death, last breath, and barely hanging on. It also seemed fitting because it’s a story about about soulmates, after all, and it is made clear that both Teresa and James believe in soulmates.

There’s one more song reference here. The part about James deciding it’s not Teresa’s time to tap out yet is because of PUP’s “Kids”: And I had it maxed out. I had a feeling, oh. Nothing is working. And everything's bleeding, oh. I should've tapped out. Given into my demons, oh.

This is a really interesting moment for Teresa, because we know how strong she is, that she’s a survivor and fighter. But she says she can’t do it, she can’t throw up anything else. She’s defeated, which is understandable because it’s not everything she’s going through is easy. It’d be easier to give in and give up, right? But James doesn’t let her tap out and takes over when he pours the soap in her mouth to make sure she can, makes sure she survives.

“What time is it?” Teresa kept her eyes on the groud, avoiding the light from the warehouse windows illuminating the dust motes in the air.

“It’s almost three,” James said flatly, then emphasized, “PM.”

Teresa let out a long sigh but didn’t respond to his badgering.

“Get up,” James muttered. “You’re coming with me.”

She finally looked up at him and made eye contact, squinting slightly against the afternoon light, but didn’t make a move to get up. James rubbed his fingers against his thumb impatiently. She sat still.

“Where?” Teresa asked.

Okay, listen, when I use dialogue from the show I turn on the closed captions to make sure that it’s all exact to what is said in the scene. That being said, I’ve seen and watched this scene so. many. times. I turned the volume to max in my headphones as I edited this to make sure I hadn’t been mishearing it this whole time. The Netflix closed captions claim that James says “come with me” but I just don’t buy that. I swear what he says is “you’re coming with me”. If I’m wrong, I’m sorry that I wrote it in wrong. (But I don’t think I am.)

“Mil gracias, Jaime.” Charger was already waving him off, typing out a message to the supposed professional cheerleader. “Quiet night in for you and the hot redhead tonight?”

James has a lot of nicknames from George. Boaz calls him Santiago. There’s a quick moment from 2x06 where Guero is speaking Spanish and calls him Jaime. In the translated closed caption, he says, “look here, James” (0:23), but you can hear him say Jaime. I can’t have Guero being the only one to call him that (lol) so I decided that maybe a lot of the warehouse guys call him that when they speak to him in Spanish.

Teresa’s back was turned to him as he approached, making her bed. James meant to ask if she was ready to go but his voice got caught in his throat when he saw how she’d made the bed. Even though it was a thin foam mattress on a rusty frame, she’d made her space stand out. It was nice and neat, a clean line folded into the corner. It was the same way nurses made beds in the infirmary and the way soldiers did in the barracks. James believed there were certain skills from boot camp that could never be unlearned. It was how he made the bed.

When I said I’d come up with the weirdest soulmates fic ever based on the tiniest detail, I wasn’t kidding around. When Guero leads the DEA to the empty warehouse in Dallas, he knows which bed was Teresa’s because he sees the corner folded over. Then there’s a flashback scene to Mexico, with Teresa telling him she makes the bed that way because her mom was a nurse and taught her that way. 

James was in the military. He was a soldier. He would have had to have made it through boot camp. He would have to know how to make those hospital corners.

And that being a thing they have in common was screaming out at me to take it in a literal sense: it’s why they’re soulmates. And, even further, it’s how they find out they’re soulmates.

The gears kept turning in my head. Because what if they don’t come to the realization at the same time? What if only one of them knows? It changes everything about their dynamic and why they do the things they do for each other through the first three seasons.

James knew Teresa was trouble. He’d told her as much, with some snarl in his voice and his eyes narrowed, as the sound of bass from the speakers in Camila’s club thumped into their conversation the night before. Pointing out the dangerous nature Teresa possessed was a warning—to her and to himself—not to get too close so she didn’t pull him down with her. The feeling he couldn’t place when he was around her would land him in serious trouble if he wasn’t careful. And he had plans for a future, completely separate and away from the Vargas cartel.

Looks like I went in hard with the pop punk references for this one. There’s a song by New Found Glory called “Don’t Let Her Pull You Down” that made me go with the phrasing that’s in this paragraph. 

All things considered, it probably was an act of betrayal on the universe’s part. The odds of someone dying on their birthday were so much better than all of the stars aligning. It was why people made their plans and chose to love without the universe in mind.

One more pop punk song reference in name only. That’s just how my dumb brain works. I’ll write sentences because I think of lyrics or song titles (or both). This time it was Senses Fail’s  “The Irony of Dying on Your Birthday”.

[mymostimaginaryfriend]

QOTS S2 Re-watch Wrap Up

WE MADE IT THROUGH S2.  *kazoo noise* As always, my individual and sometimes extensive episode by episode commentary (along with my Jeresa spiraling) can be found in my “#qots rewatch” tag. Ready for some thoughts? Let’s do this:

Season 2 Favorite Reoccurring Trends:

Teresa + Math & Business: 2x01 (during KG negotiations), 2x07 (with the Korean mob boss), 2x09 (with Devon at the car show), 2x10 (with Devon while Camila is in prison).  Combined with “I have a deal to make” becoming her catchphrase, it was great to see her skills being put to use in her blossoming cartel career.

James being only mildly inconvenienced by weapons: 2x01 (KG holding a knife to his stomach), 2x02 (Teresa pointing gun at him when he walks in unannounced), 2x08 (Walking into the hotel room to find Devon’s crew pointing guns at him), 2x10 (KG pointing a gun to his head), 2x13 (the classic “idgaf I’m walking away” to Guero).  Combined with the trend of him antagonizing his captors (head butt to militia dude, high kick to Cortez) I think this says something interesting about James as a character.  Now if it’s not just him in danger, that’s a whole other story. James being kidnapped/held hostage three times after Teresa asks him in 2x01 “I’ve been kidnapped have you?”: 2x03 (tied to chair with militia men), 2x05 (tied to a chair by La Capitana), 2x09 (tied to the beam by Cortez in Chicago)

Teresa bonding with women thru men’s bullshit:  Camila telling Cartel guy at the horse race “Enough she’s with me now”(2x02), Camila and Teresa’s adventures at the car show with the sicarios and Cortez (2x09), Kelly Anne and Teresa vs Kelly Anne’s husband (2x10), Even Lil T and Teresa about Lil T’s uncle keeping her out of the business (2x12).  Obviously, bonding doesn’t automatically mean warm & fuzzy on this show.

James establishing an SOS signal and having to use it himself 2x05 (fire three shots), 2x08 (crushed sunglasses)

It’s Been 0 Days Since Jeresa Saved One Another Fandom Break Room Sign:

2x01: Teresa saves James by holding King George at gunpoint and “do I have your attention now?”

2x02: James saves Teresa by helping Pote with the guys trying to kill Teresa at the horse race, and then getting the money back to appease Camila.

2x03: James saves Teresa by splinting her leg in the desert and giving himself up so she has a chance to escape. Teresa saves James by coming back for him when he’s being held by the militia and talking their way out of it.

2x04: James saves Teresa by causing a distraction so Teresa can escape the warehouse and shooting the DEA agent when she’s occupied with Guero.

2x05: James saves Teresa by helping her through her overdose.  Teresa attempts to save James when he’s taken by La Capitana’s soldiers at the hotel.

2x06: Teresa saves James by giving herself up to El Santo and eating the poisoned beetle. James “saves” Teresa in her hallucination–actually in both her hallucinations.

2x08: Teresa saves James from the feds and Cortez in Chicago.

2x10 Teresa saves James by diffusing the situation with KG when KG is distraught with his men’s deaths and holding James at gunpoint

2x13: James saves Teresa by purposely missing her when he shoots at her in the train car. (I know, kinda a stretch to give him credit for saving her from himself but technically…..)  This kinda cancels itself with the tracker debacle and James withholding El Santo’s money from Teresa in the finale, but plot holes be damned.  I’m done thinking about it lol.

SEASON TWO TALLY: James saves Teresa 6 times, Teresa saves James 6 times.  Can’t help but notice that James doing the saving happens more heavily the first half of season and Teresa saving James is spread pretty evenly over the season.  Early S3 gets James back on the board pretty emphatically though.

James or Teresa asking after the other’s well being/caretaking etc:

2x01: I’m gonna count James offering the hug to Teresa

2x02: “Are you all right?” James coming across Teresa crying after Guero.

2x03: James making Teresa a splint, something to drink etc and “No, I can’t leave you” and “How’s the leg?”  Teresa “Are you ok?” and “I’m not leaving you.”

2x04: The mirrored “You all right?” with James asking Teresa as she sits outside with Guero’s lighter and Teresa asking James as they drive to Galveston.

2x05: Caaaaaaaaaretaking *echoes off into the void*  James during Teresa’s overdose and asking her “You sure you’re all right?”

2x08: “Where’s James is he okay?” Teresa after James is tortured by Cortez.

Speaking of which, Teresa’s version of “Are you okay?” this season was “Where’s James?” (2x02 at the horse race, 2x06 waking up from the hallucination, 2x08 Chicago).

Miscellaneous

James and Women: He continues the trend of sharing a majority of screen time with female characters although not as much as S1.  He does have some more extended scenes with male characters in S2 (KG, Boaz, Guero, Epi) but the scenes are usually either Teresa taking equal if not a lead part in the conversation (KG/Guero), or the purpose of the conversation is ABOUT a female character (James’ one on one convos with Boaz and Epi about Camila and Guero about Teresa).  Even though it would have made sense to have more Pote and James interaction, I really like how the show compartmentalized Pote as a Teresa Aligned Character foremost in S2. 

Speaking of Pote: Having him hang out with Tony after he MURDERED HIS FATHER, with no acknowledgement of that fact, stays wild to me.

Phoenix Foreshadowing? Guero mentioning a dealer in Phoenix and giving that info to Loya early S2 popped out at me.  How Guero would it be if he made life harder for Teresa by putting the feds onto Phoenix before Teresa even set up operations there.  Devon and Teresa also talked about PHX in 2x10, which ouch. Death Foreshadowing? Anyone else a little worried about how closely Guero’s vision death resembled 3x06? Guero does something foolish that he thinks is saving Teresa while James actually takes care of the situation.  His mortal wound is delivered by the soldiers of the woman in charge (Camila/La Capitana).  Guero bleeds out in Teresa’s lap.  Teresa wears a white shirt over a tanktop, Guero wears a button down over an undershirt.  He dies far from home. James is around to take care of the body.  Coincidence?  Or should James watch his neck?

Missed Opportunity: That we never got Kelly Anne Esq., lawyer to Queenpin Teresa remains UNACCEPTABLE to me.

Well, that’s all the rambling I have for now.  Thanks for following along, thank you to my QOTS fam for the asks and messages and THANK YOU to all the wonderful gif makers in this fandom that have made this re-watch much more fun and aesthetically enjoyable.  I’d never have gotten through hiatus without you all.  Only a couple months left!  Speaking of which... On to Season 3!

[la-ermitana]

Just wanna say thanks for staying active during hiatus and feeding us! I have a request. Can you make a gif set of Teresa getting ready in the beginning of 3x09? She so pretty there! And of jeresa escaping the safe house in 3x02? Do you also have any fics in the works too?

Aww hi anon thank you! Sorry for the late response, work got busy. But I had a low load at work a few weeks ago so I was just trying to entertain myself and hopefully some of you guys! I made a bunch of edits on a day I had nothing to do so those are all scheduled for every (QOTS) Thursday so be on the lookout! Thanks for the requests!

I thought there was that 3x09 set out there already but I didn’t see it. I did it just for you though in case it really doesn’t exist! She really is so pretty there! I love everything about it. Wish I could get her dress and shoes. POSTED!

The 3x02 one is made too and queued up to be posted one of these thursdays. And yes a fic is coming. Hint it’s about my KG and princess peach post awhile back. Just fluff I’m not even sure about yet but we shall see. Queued up as well.