Claire Kunzier, Editor 

The characters on this show are not good people, genuinely. I love each of these characters, minus Nate and Cal Jacobs, but they’re all so shitty and do such shitty things especially to the people they care about, as well as to strangers. These are my opinions and the characters are different from the actors, so this article is in no way a reflection of my opinions on the people who perform these characters. Now that I’ve said that, I would physically fight Nate and Cal Jacobs as well, I think each of these characters needs a slap in the face. 

Season one, we saw Maddy literally engage in consensual sexual activity with a random guy to get back at Nate after they broke up. Then she spun the story that she blacked out and accused the kid of sexual assult on a minor and got him sent to jail, all for her shitty boyfriend to not get in trouble for literally choking her out. Maddy is not an angel when you look at her actions to help Nate, who is the worst person ever, who emotionally cheated on her with Jules and used her best friend as a sneaky link. As much as Cassie sneaky linking with Maddy’s ex in season two is one, against girl code and two, just shitty behavior, it’s pretty on brand for her considering she cheated on her boyfriend in season one. 

Cassie. Our poor girl with major daddy issues, poor decision making skills and no backbone just got caught by the one person that will f*** her shit up. Girly is gonna lose Maddy and Kat, her two best friends over a guy who is just using her and emotionally manipulating her *screaming and crying and throwing up.* Kat, who doesn’t really do anything wrong and actually is a pretty good person with bad friends, just needs to break up with Ethan and deserves much more screen time, period. The same with Lexi, who is about to put Cassie and her friends on blast with her play. 

I AM HOLDING OUT FOR FEZ AND LEXI. Lexi, our unproblematic queen, who does need to, like her sister Cassie, get a spine and stand up for herself more, and Fez the drug dealer with a heart of gold. The power couple we need and want from this show. Fez is a pretty decent person, but he does sell drugs, so he is not the best person to most people, I am not most people and he’s my favorite character. 

SPEAKING OF DRUGS. Rue, our narrator, the performance that deserves another Emmy, is something else. Obviously her struggle with addiction is what majorly influences her actions and drives her to act out in order to fulfill her needs. Her mom and Gia are the only two people who truly are looking out for Rue and deserve better. After her overdose at the beginning of season one, you would think her friends would pay more attention to her and what situations she is put in, but no. They actively bring a recovering addict into party scenes where drug and alcohol use is happening and while Rue can always say no to going to these events, what teenage girl wants to spend her weekend inside while all her friends are partying? If one of her friends even just took a second to pay attention to her, they could’ve seen how destructive it is to Rue’s progress to go to these parties with the environment and substances that would cause her to relapse. Elliot is a product of Rue going to a party, he didn’t know of her addiction at first, but clearly when she almost goes into cardiac arrest after taking too many drugs there’s an issue there. He fuels her issue by enabling and participating in her drug habit, unlike Fez who calls her ass out and will not sell to her if she is being destructive. 

The true villain of Rue’s story is Jules. Jules herself is fine, not the best person, but is horrible to her partner especially in season two. With the two getting back together in the second season after dating in season one, you would think Jules would know when Rue is using, but she doesn’t care to pay attention to her partner. It is certainly not her job or any of the other characters’ jobs to babysit their friend, but she is clearly high and has been clearly high the whole season. Taking five minutes to actually pay attention to Rue by any of the characters, they would’ve been able to see their friend had relapsed. While the excuse of pot could be a possible explanation to her actions, smoking or eating majiuanna is very different from the drugs that Rue’s been using in season two. You’re telling me that Jules, who is dating Rue, seeing her everyday didn’t notice that her girlfriend was doing HEROIN, FENTANYL and various PILLS. On top of her ignorance of a person she is in a relationship with, Jules cheated on Rue with Elliot, the same person that has been enabling Rue’s drug use. Jules cheated on the person she “loves” and continued to have a physical relationship with Elliot after he told her that Rue relapsed and he was doing drugs with her. Then she turned around and told Rue’s mom about her girlfriend’s drug use and dumped all the drugs, really just sending Rue into debt with a drug dealer. Jules just f***ed Rue’s life and Fez’s life all because she decided to jump in at the last second, a last ditch effort without any context and dumped 10k worth of drugs. 

If Fez dies because of this I will be so sad. Homie deserves to have a good and honest relationship with Lexi and maybe he will grow beyond dealing, but no, he’s def gonna catch the shit from Rue’s actions that he told her not to do. Like lowkey idc about Ashtray, but if either him or Fez dies, it’s Rue and Jules fault. While Cassie and Jules have very similar plotlines this season, with them both hooking up with people they shouldn’t be. The consequences of Cassie’s actions is that Maddy wants to beat her ass and is directly affecting her. Jules’ actions have a slight consequence on her with Rue, but Rue and Fez’s life are at jeopardy for being a hero and dumping a suitcase worth of drugs with the worst of it not affecting her life. Overall, these characters need to figure their shit out because someone is going to die, no joke. Sam Levinsten should’ve done so much more with his characters and listened to his actors when they had opinions on the direction their characters were moving towards. As well, if they could stop casting 20+ year olds as teenagers then maybe people would sympathize with the characters’ ages and how they act rather than becoming angered by adults acting poorly. Anyway, Barbie deserves better and that’s on that.