HBO's Betty Season One Ends on a High Note
Okay so we are BACK. I had to finish off Season one of Betty on HBO. I kind of stopped posting on Quell as the tragedies of Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery started to come to light. Obviously it’s incredibly important to recognize that not much has changed with police brutality in this country. I do want to however celebrate the beautiful stories and opportunities Betty gives women of color in the skate community. No one asked for this, and probably no one cares but we’re going to give this season the send off it deserves.
Episode 04
We start off this cliffhanger of an episode with Kirt having no idea that everyone got arrested. Camille is being mad annoying in jail and arguing with Janay about how they ended up there. The mean jail woman calls out Janay and Camille for being asshole friends. Camille calls Bambi...who *spoiler* is absolutely useless. Indigo ends up bailing Janay and Honeybear out of jail with the money she owes for losing her drugs.
The girls absolutely drag Kirt for literally leaving them to get arrested even though she was the one who caused them to get arrested in the first place. “I’m sorry I’m lucky!” “No, you’re white.” I mean...that’s basically what’s the theme of 2020.
The morning after, the ladies are taking stock of their day. Farouk calls Indigo asking for the money and obviously she just used it to bail out the girls. Indigo takes that modeling job from a couple episodes back. Camille gets out of jail and go finds her man who as I mentioned before, LITERALLY FORGOT TO BAIL HER OUT. We cut to a moody scene of her skating in Queens and ~*realizing things*~
Honeybear asks out Ash finally and we see a really cute date. We catch back up with Kirt who is with a girl who gives her shrooms. We end up at Cooper Park where we get a little clip of Janay skating the manny pad. She addresses the twin and wants to apologize to Yvette so they exchange numbers. Kirt finds them at Cooper and has a big idea to do drugs with them to make it up to them. They obviously won’t hear any of it and leave her.
Janay asks the girls if they’re wearing bras...and we cut to them at the public pool. It’s all coming back to me, this episode breaks my heart. Janay gets in the pool and hears Yvette’s story about happened between her and Donald. Janay drops a bombshell when she says she knows she’s telling the truth because it happened to her.
Episode 05
Janay starts talking to Honeybear and Indigo about her past trauma with Donald. This is a really beautiful moment of friendship and support for someone who has been through SA. Honeybear suggests saying something to him and Janay agrees. Cut to a super cute scene of them all holding hands and skating by the pier.
Camille is back with her friends drinking boba and they meet up with Honeybear, Janay and Indigo. They’re all friends now which we love to see it. Bambi comes back and starts acting like nothing happened. Janay destroys him for forgetting Camille’s bail and he obviously gets up and leaves. Indigo admits she took the modeling job and has to go. Camille ends up at Blue Park to meet Bambi after that little interaction. Camille is kind of watching for Bambi as he literally doesn’t pay attention to her. Then he starts to ignore her which really pisses me off personally. She calls him out on it and then he basically brushes her off. Camille kind of tries to bring it up later and realizes how mean Bambi is. Officially team fuck Bambi...don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Kirt takes the shrooms and hangs out at a pet store. The boys find her laying in the park with a rat she got at the pet store and she offers the shrooms to the rest of them. At this point, I don’t care about Kirt’s story. We’re mad at her. We cut to indigo at the modeling job and it becomes super clear how insanely problematic it is. There are lots of white women cornrows, and cultural appropriation like crazy.
Janay calls out Donald for everything. He obviously gaslights her for telling the truth. This scene is super triggering so if you’re somehow reading this before watching the show months later...be aware. It’s super problematic to see what Donald is saying about Yvette and how she’s basically lying for what happened. I hate to see this because he’s so clearly manipulating her. I think it’s so important though to have included this because at any age these things can happen and sometimes you don’t realize it was wrong until after the fact. It’s valid and okay to feel different about a situation after it happened.
This is the crux of the episode. Honeybear and Ash have a super cute date. Honeybear sees her Dad on the way to the ferry and she hides. She gets kind of defensive about it and ends things with Ash. Honeybear knows it’s wrong but leaves. She cries on the very home.
We cut to Camille crying and one of the boys comes to comfort her. He admits as a friend that he goes through the same energy that Camille has felt. We’ve all been there and that fucking hurts. Janay deletes her channel with Donald on youtube because she knows that at the end of the day she was right. Indigo can’t believe the insane shit that this guy’s photo direction is. She leaves the photoshoot in makeup and her red Gucci coat. We cut to the girls dancing with the coat and smoking in Janay’s room. They kind of circle back to harassment and the topic of “me too”. The girls come back and Kirt apologizes to them. I guess we’re friends now.
Episode 06
We open with Camille skating flatground. This little girl sees her skating and she offers to let her try to skate. Kirt shows up and they teach her a little bit how to skate. Her dad shows up and starts to yell at them. They decide to host a girls skate meetup.
Indigo offers up her Gucci coat to pay back for her drugs. Farouk admits he was teaching her a lesson and she needs to be more careful in life. Indigo goes home and her mom kicks her out of her house.
Honeybear and Janay start making flyers for the skate event. Janay asks about Ash and Honeybear admits what happened between them. They all start to pass out flyers and there’s a little Jaime Reyes and Tony Hawk cameo. We’re back at the deli from episode one and she puts the all girls flyer on their cash register.
Donald finds Janay at the park and finally admits that he fucked up. But he asks for her help to be a better person. Janay is no longer having it and she basically tells him to grow up and take accountability for his actions.
Honeybear makes an apology video to Ash. Kirt is on her way to the meetup and gets hit with a car door. The meetup is POPPING off. All the ladies are at the monument. They’re so excited to see all the girls but no Kirt. They facetime Kirt and she’s in an ambulance. She tells them to go on without her. Then we get the beautiful montages of everyone skating over the bridge and down the street into LES park.
All the guys are kind of shook which we love to see. Janay facetimes them all and they’re showing Kirt how many women have shown up the the event. Seeing this now made me tear up? Am I ok? We get a bunch of hand filmed footage mixed with everyone just having such a fun time. Then it cuts to Camille’s board outside the little girls house from the beginning of the episode and that’s a wrap on Season ONE.