Season 5, Episode 8: Saint Carla

Edit: Third times a charm!! I have attempted posting this twice now, and we are now on attempt number three. I don’t know what is going on with my WordPress, but I’m not impressed.

Hello friends, how are things in the real world? I’ve had a lot going on lately, the most recent thing being travelling for 1.5. months to the UK and Spain, which was honestly amazing. There were some questionable moments, and I did come home with COVID (yaaay, I’m all cleared up now though, thankfully it wasn’t too bad), but I wouldn’t change a thing. Travel is one of the things that makes me the most happy, so it was really nice to finally get to do it after so very long.

Well enough about me, let’s continue on with Season 5, as I have mentioned before, I’m hoping to finally finish this blog this year, but….don’t place bets cuz y’all know how I am.

The episode opens with Amanda performing the role of Juliet in the play for the theatre company with Milan. But she’s only filling in for Carla, as she’s the understudy and Carla was away for some reason. Carla shortly arrives and Viva, the director lady, promptly kicks Amanda off the stage to make way for the real star of the show.

The next day in the cafeteria, Busy, Amanda, Carla and Monkey Ears are all discussing the play. As per usual, Busy is being kind of a bitch to Carla, since they still aren’t the biggest fans of one another. Carla then says she has to leave to go to an eye doctor appointment. Her and Busy exchange a couple more minor insults, and then Carla leaves.

Later on, Busy and Amanda are putting up posters for the play around the school. Amanda is talking about how it annoys her so much that Carla is amazing at everything. To me this is the first we’ve heard of this, I don’t remember Carla being a superstar at anything, but then this show never really fleshed out her character so who knows. Amanda’s hoping that Carla looks like a square in her new glasses, as that will at least give her one thing over Carla. Busy says it’s normal for Amanda to be a bit jealous that Carla got the role of Juliet, since she wanted it. But Amanda says it’s more than that, and that Carla is super talented and hardworking and deserved it.

Also is this that stupid dancing guy from the drinking episode? That purple shirt looks familiar (ignore the YTV logo).

In class, Monkey Ears is in front of the class and doing some sort of lame stand up. The teacher Amanda had a crush on then comes in and asks to speak to Michael privately. Everyone for some reason thinks his ass is in huge trouble for his stand up, even though this teacher seems pretty chill, considering he put up with Amanda’s awkward bs a couple weeks ago.

The teacher whispers something in Monkey Ear’s….ears…and he then runs off. Amanda and Busy think he’s on his way to detention and start giggling. The teacher then comes up to the class with a stone expression on his face. He tells the class he has some terrible news, in that Carla has been in a car accident and she didn’t survive. I’m sorry, but this is a totally inappropriate moment in the show, but I kinda see what Amanda was saying about this teacher, he’s kinda zaddy haha.

Sag, the ever bright boy, then says “Uh…you mean…Carla’s dead?” Yes, “didn’t survive” usually indicates that, doesn’t it? Also did Sag get a blow out this morn? His hair is looking well kept.

Everyone sits around in stunned silence, including the teacher, who then decides to dismiss the class for the day. Amanda remembers Monkey Ears and runs off to find him.

She finds him in the boy’s washroom, where he is in a stall crying. She asks him to come out and they can talk and walk home together, but Monkey Ears needs to be alone in his grief and tells her to go away.

Busy’s waiting for Amanda in the hall with her bag. She asks her how Monkey Ears is and Amanda says obviously he is terrible. Busy’s confused by the events, as Carla was fine prior, and asks Amanda if she thinks it could be a mistake. Amanda says no, and it’s messed because they just saw her at lunch time. Busy’s in disbelief because Carla was the same age as them. She also feels regret for how she spoke to Carla before it happened, with Amanda basically being like, “yeah, you’re a shitty person.”

The next scene is at the theatre company, where the poster for the play has a big “rehearsal cancelled” sign on it. Wouldn’t it just been faster to call people then to have them waste their time coming down, only to see this sign? Oh well, maybe they had it on hand.

Amanda’s sitting around with Viva, whose talking about how it’s not fair that such a promising talent was taken away so soon. I guess untalented people’s deaths are fine then, Viva? The director states her first instinct is to cancel the play, but then there’s a reason that understudies exist in the theatre, even for morbid incidents such as this. She tells Amanda that if she decides to do the role, she’d work every day and night with her to perfect her Juliet. Amanda is still unsure, and Viva tells her to think about it, and that no one will blame her if she decides she can’t do it.

Amanda tells Phyllis about the play situation, which Phyllis says is kinda fucked, because they are putting a lot on Amanda, and I agree. That’s too much pressure for a teenager, Viva should just be the adult and cancel it. Amanda tells her that she knows the part, but she feels like she’s taking away something Carla. On the other hand, she feels like if she doesn’t do it she’ll be letting the rest of the actors down and she’s worried they’ll think she sucks compared to Carla. Phyllis let’s her know that no one would think that, but that Amanda does have to do what feels right for her. I’m glad to see their relationship is much better now, especially when discussing acting stuff.

Later on, Busy drops by and asks Amanda what she’s doing, even though she can clearly see Amanda’s weeping on her bed with a box of Kleenex. Busy then starts spouting off that she didn’t hate Carla, and that if she knew she was going to die, she would’ve treated her completely differently. I don’t think Busy would’ve treated her differently if she knew Carla was going to die, because Busy is not good at being fake when it comes to pretending to like someone she hates. Busy then starts asking weird philosophical questions, like if we all have a predetermined number of years of life, and when you reach your death year you dead. Amanda says she doesn’t think Carla was supposed to die since she was only fourteen. Busy then says what are the odds Carla would be walking the street at the exact time a van with faulty breaks would plow through a traffic sign. Amanda tells her that’s not weird, because freak accidents happen every single day.

Amanda then tells Busy that Viva wants her to take over as Juliet. Busy’s all casual about it and is like, “well yeah, you are the understudy.” Amanda’s like wtf, and feels weird because she doesn’t see it as the right thing to do. Busy tells her that if the roles were reversed and Amanda was the worm food, that Carla would’ve grabbed the role. Amanda’s pretty pissed at that, and says Busy has no idea, and that Carla was super talented/amazing/hardworking and didn’t have to grab anything because she already had it. Busy tells her to calm down, and to stop acting like she’s “Saint Carla.” Amanda gets even more pissed and tells Busy to fucking leave.

The next day while walking to school, Amanda see’s Monkey Ears standing at the spot where Carla was killed. Amanda tells him that they should leave, but he says he’s not going to school today. Amanda tells him that she’ll stay with him then. I wonder if Monkey Ears was planning on doing anything rash (considering this whole Romeo and Juliet theme of the episode), or if he was just trying to process the whole situation by being there.

At school, Busy’s sitting in the cafeteria still feeling weird about the whole situation. Sag comes by and she asks him how he feels and he says mostly depressed. Busy says she feels odd because she’s not reacting like everyone else on account of not liking Carla in the first place. Busy says she hates funeral homes and feels like she shouldn’t have to be made to feel like she has to cry. Sag says some Sagism sentence in that this is all in the cosmos and blah blah. Busy says she doesn’t think it’s fair she died, but Sag says it’s fair cuz if you are born you die. Shut up Sag. Busy says Carla probably thought she still had about eight decades to go before that happened.

So obviously Carla’s death is triggering things in each girl, with Busy looking at her mortality, and Amanda feeling inadequate about her life.

Later Busy see’s Monkey Ears go over to Carla’s locker to clean out her stuff. Busy tries to help out, but Monkey Ears tells her to get her grubby paws off Carla’s things as Busy never liked her anyway. Busy has no rebuttal to that, because it’s true, and walks away.

The next scene is at the funeral home, and we see Carla’s friends and family standing around. Viva comes up to Carla’s parents and tells them that Carla was the most promising talent she had ever seen, which seems to make the parents feel worse. Amanda takes Monkey Ears into another room and they sit down.

She tells Monkey Ears that she’s decided not to do the play, as she can’t fill Carla’s shoes. Monkey Ears gets annoyed and says that Carla would hate if she did that, because she loved that play and worked her ass off to make it good. Monkey Ears tells her that Amanda isn’t doing Carla a favour by not doing it, and if she’s scared she should just admit it.

Back in the main part of the funeral home, Busy has awkwardly entered to pay her respects. Milan comes up to her and says hi, and how shitty this whole situation is.

Back to Amanda and Monkey Ears, Amanda’s saying she’s worried that if she was good she would take away something from Carla’s memory, but if she was bad then the play would be shit. Monkey Ears then takes out Carla’s script, and shows Amanda something Carla wrote in the margin, about how Amanda had reached out to Milan during the rehearsal and Carla thought it was awesome. So with Carla’s words of approval from beyond the grave, Amanda now has the strength to take on the role on Juliet.

Busy and Milan come into the room, with Amanda happy to see Busy came. Busy says she wanted to and she hopes it’s ok. Monkey Ear’s rage has subsided, so he was glad she came too.

The next scene is the play, which is ending. We see a standing ovation from the audience, and then Milan and Amanda take centre stage to speak. Amanda tells the audience that if things had been normal, Carla would have played the role of Juliet, and she would have been the nurse. Milan tells them that Carla died in a car accident. Amanda then says that the play is dedicated in her memory and that they all miss her. Busy finally has some human emotions and starts to cry. Just kidding, I actually wish they hadn’t made Busy cry, because I think her numb response given her relationship with Carla was actually very normal. Maybe she was just crying from how messed up the whole situation was. Also is this the first time we’ve seen Busy cry? I feel like since Amanda is the one crying daily, I have no recollection of Busy crying before.

The last scene, Busy, Amanda, Sag and Milan are all at Amanda’s place discussing the play. The doorbell rings and it’s Monkey Ears with flowers for Amanda. He tells her he’s really glad she decided to do it. Amanda invites him inside, and he accepts, but not before asking her to do him a favour and call him Michael. I guess this is his way of keeping Carla’s memory alive for him, as she always called him by his real name. The episode ends with everyone talking about their memories of the weird things Carla used to do.

Sheesh, what a downer of an episode. I know the episodes are under thirty minutes, but I feel like they wasted no time icing Carla’s character off. I personally am a bit disappointed they chose her as the person to die, as I was starting to like her character a lot more this season, and I really liked her dynamic with Busy and how she was her nemesis. They should’ve killed Ernie or Nina.

Next episode, the girls graduate from grade nine! (Who cares). Until next time!