Hi, lovelies. Welcome to another Love, Victor recap. This time around, Victor (Michael Cimino) and Co. deal with the glorious world of intersectional bullying.
As a refresher, Love, Victor is a Hulu show set in Becky Albertalli‘s “Simonverse.” It follows Victor Salazar as he navigates family woes, coming out and first love. This series takes place in the same Atlanta suburb and high school, Creekwood High, as Albertalli’s book Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Love, Simon, the movie based on said book. Those worlds collide when Victor reaches out to Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) for gay guidance.
In the season premiere, Victor dealt with the fallout of coming out to his conservative family. Also, Victor’s little brother, Adrian (Mateo Fernandez), got a turtle.
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Is Victor ready to come out at school? Does Love, Victor understand intersectionality at all? We’ll find out in Season Two, episode two, “Day One, Take Two.”
“Hashtag free the belly button.”
We open with Victor getting ready for his first day back at the famed Creekwood High. Simon messages him, congratulating him and Benji (George Sear) on deciding to come out as a couple at school. Simon’s a little too proud of himself for the pun “coming-outfit.”
Ohhh, I see. This week’s Gay 101 is also covering the pressure gay men face to be stylish. Which, if I remember correctly, was never something Simon concerned himself with (yah, I can drag my claws out too).
Mama Isa (Ana Ortiz) asks Victor if he’d like a side of homophobia disguised as motherly advice with his breakfast. She warns Victor that if he tells people about the … thing … he has with his … boyfriend, they’ll only think of him as The Gay Kid®. Ugh.
Obviously, obviously, obviously, we are all more than whatever census boxes we check off. The people who are actually in our lives know this. At least Victor and I are on the same page about this: being known as The Gay Kid® can be awesome? Hell, you can even make a career out of it!
While Isa’s giving Victor bad career advice, Felix (Anthony Turpel) is on the stoop offering expired ADD drugs to his landlord in exchange for continued shelter. The landlord has a sense that something’s wrong with Felix’s mom, but isn’t gonna go that extra step of actually checking on her or calling social services or something. Pilar (Isabella Ferreira) walks in on the tail-end of the awkward, which just makes Felix high tail it to school.
O’er at Creekwood, Lake (Bebe Wood) and Mia (Rachel Hilson) are discussing how to best deal with The Gay Kid® situation. Like, would these students have forgotten that Mia and Victor even dated? They’ve been gone a whole summer! Mia says any drama will blow over once #Venji comes out. Lake’s not so sure and worries people might think Mia turned Victor gay. Nope. Can’t even. Nope.
Meanwhile, at Victor’s locker, we learn that Benji’s first-day-back-to-school highlight is finding out who got boobs. All right. Also, I don’t understand why this Victor coming out has to be a whole announcement? Why are they all saying, “Tell everyone?”
Yes, everyone will know, once #Venji openly acts like a couple, and there is stress in that. But that’s certainly a calmer route to take. Seriously, they could just walk around holding hands and … Oh never mind. So, Victor sees Mia and tries to talk to her, but she’s not ready for that.
“Hey, Salazar, you still ‘Vic’ deep in that?”
Some of Victor’s basketball teammates come upon him and throw down a d*** joke, asking if he’s still with Mia. Victor tells the truth that, no, they’re not. The b-ballers wanna know why. Victor completely understandably doesn’t feel comfortable saying, “because I’m gay,” to the three giant jocks in front of him.
Benji’s not so thrilled, though, when Victor doesn’t come out. Even more unfortunately, is that the b-ball boys think what Victor’s not saying is that Mia cheated on him. “Camp brings out the tramp?” UGH.
And that’s how rumors start to spread on the famed Creek Secrets app. Oh Creek Secrets (née Tumblr), how I loathe you. I wanna say how would the school admin allow this horrid gossip machine to continue when it was used to blackmail and out a student (Simon back in his vehicles). But, also, like, let’s be real here. This gossip app is being used to target minority students, so…
At lunch, Benji’s staring at Andrew (Mason Gooding) and Lucy (Ava Capri) canoodling, but turns that stare into a glare when Victor sits down. Benji just wants to hold Victor’s hand, but Victor’s not ready. When the b-ball losers confront Mia — since when are these guys close enough to Victor to care — she refuses to out Victor to save her own reputation. So, of course, when one of the losers calls Mia a more w****, Victor shoves him.
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Ack. OK. Time out. There’s a lot to address here. I don’t like seeing Mia, a Black woman student, being put in this situation. Her choices here are A) accept slurs against her or B) out someone. No one is offering any alternative here. But like also, where is that awesome drama-teacher-turned acting VP (Natasha Rothwell) from Season One and Love, Simon?
She woulda knocked these bullies down a peg. There’s no mention in-universe about how race might be playing a role in any of the problems going on here, and that frustrates me to no end. It’s great to fill your cast with people of color, but if you’re going to ignore their lived realities and how they’re different from white Americans, then why? Here’s hoping the show remedies that.
“Oh no. Sad girl music. Sweatpants. What was it? A lousy first day of school?”
And the misogyny continues at Mia’s house! Her dad Harold (Mekhi Phifer) enters her personal space and immediately judges her for her choice of attire and ambient music. He literally invites her to an event at school because “Veronica (Sophia Bush) is stuck at work.” I swear to God, I’m gonna change the name of this show to I Love You, Mia.
Over at Salazar apartment #1, Victor’s parents aren’t being too harsh on him for shoving that brat of a basketball player. In my opinion, they’re correct not to punish him, because he was defending a friend from a bully when literally no one else would. Unfortunately, Isa’s too happy that Victor still cares about Mia, even though he’s “going through” other things.
This escalates to Victor confronting Isa about telling him not to come out to anyone. To his ever-lasting credit, Mando (James Martinez) is not happy with Isa either. Victor demands to know if she supports him and when she’s silent, yet again, Mando jumps in to remind his son that they support him — no matter what. But Victor needs to hear from Isa right now. And she can’t find the words. Any words, actually.
Meanwhile, at the Mia-Harold hang, he drops her like a hot potato when work-schmoozing calls. Yikes. This leaves Mia alone to meet Tyler (Daniel Croix), a frosh who’s only at this botany event to score the free food. They run off to have wine and cheese on the quad.
“Vic, you coulda just told me.”
Next, Felix is doing his homework on the front stoop, in the dark. Pilar finds him and admits she overheard his conversation with the landlord. She gets Felix to open up about his mom’s bipolar disorder; she’s not bouncing back from her current depressive episode and lost her job. He’s $200 short on rent.
Felix’s storyline is getting me the hardest this season, and I think is especially important right now since a lot of mental health and financial issues have been extra triggered by the pandemic. Pilar lends Felix the money he needs since the Billie Eilish tickets she’s been saving up for are sold out anyway. I’m not crying. You’re crying. Anthony Turpel and Isabella Ferreira really do have excellent chemistry, and Turpel can work a facial expression.
Back at happy hour on the quad, Mia has told her new friends about her personal humiliation at not knowing her ex was gay. She watches so much Bravo. How could she not have known? After some more stereotype bombs are dropped, Mia begs off.
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Over at the coffee shop, #Venji is bussing tables and having a heart-to-heart. Once Benji knows it was Isa who psyched Victor out of coming out, Benji’s more understanding and is all, “Hey, let me share this story of child abuse with you.”
Apparently, shortly after Benji (a minor) came out, his dad took him to a strip club and bought him a lap dance (from a lady stripper). What did Benji do? Extracted himself from that stripper’s bosom, pride marched himself out of the club and told his dad he’s not gonna change … and then Victor apologizes for not being as brave as Benji? Baby boy, no. Sure, Benji says some sweet things, but none of them are that Victor is plenty brave. Oof. This is just … not gonna end well.
PFLAG!!!!
The next morning, Mando stops by Salazar apartment #1, ostensibly to pick Adrian up for school. But actually, he wants Isa to go to a PFLAG meeting with him. OMG. Is this series gonna show parents doing the work? Yassss. <3 <3 <3
At school, we get some more #anti-feminism when Lake threatens someone from posting more rumors about Mia … by threatening to spread that the rumor-spreader has two vaginas. But Mia could not care less about the gossip, not because she’s above it all, but because she met that boy. STAHHHHP.
Victor comes up to Mia to apologize for everything that happened between them, like ever. She tells him it’s not his job to defend her; she’s not even sure if they’re friends anymore.
Inside the hallowed halls of Creekwood, we learn that Billie Eilish tix haven’t even gone on sale yet and Pilar’s friends are like, “Huh what do you mean you gave away $200? Did you pass go?” And then Pilar’s like, “No, if I’d passed go, I’d have $400” … but I digress.
We end the ep with Victor deciding it’s time to live his truth. And while it’s no kiss on a Ferris wheel at the winter carnival, standing up in the middle of the hall to announce you’re queer is so extra. Points for Victor acknowledging that the #Mictor breakup was neither his nor Mia’s “fault.” Watching Victor’s joy at being himself, about being gay is bliss, no matter how much the jaded millennial in me wants to pretend otherwise. We need the win sometimes, you know?
Well, that’s it for this Love, Victor recap. As I said, not so sure how well the show is winning at feminism or racial stuff, but I do think they’re getting the gay stuff pretty all right. What do y’all think?
Awkward of the ep: “Do not Google ‘Dad with gay teen.’ I’m not sure I can call myself a Catholic anymore.”
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