Sweet/Vicious - Tragic Kingdom - Review: Damaged Jules Goggles

"Why didn't you tell me, Jules?"


Tragic Kingdom

This episode was great in showing our kick-ass heroine's don't only handle rapists but they do everything they can to make campus a better place for all the female students, and that includes sororities that take pleasure in torturing and body shaming their pledges. This is good not only because rapists are not the only threat but as a show, you can't expect to follow up a story with one rapist per-episode without turning the whole campus into a sea of predators. Eventually there wouldn't be a single good guy left.

Pledge week has started and Kennedy is clearly pumped, they go on a run with Jules and we find out Kennedy met both Nate and Jules on the same week three years ago, which means Nate was Jules boyfriend for two years before he raped her best friend, since in episode two Jules said she was raped a year ago and after that she went home for the summer and trained to come back as a vigilante. I'm interested in the timeline because they're giving us small clues ever episode which could indicate it has something to do with why Jules kept it a secret.

During the run is when Jules finds a video posted of Kappa humiliating their pledges and she goes straight to Ophelia so they can do something about it. In Ophelia's investigation we find out the head of the house is Chloe Freeman (Malese Jow, The Vampire Diaries) and that they give spots to legacies, girls who's moms where part of the sorority when they were at college, and even if they don't fit in they torture them until they fit the mold, there are many interchangeable blondes in the house.

Since they use masks in their videos and they are pretty good with technology they're hard to take down so they decide they need to go in undercover, for which it comes in handy that Ophelia is actually a Kappa legacy, since her mom is on the board of Kappa National an they try to recruit her every year. Jules laughs so much and then she says it's makeover time, she puts make up on her and dyes her blonde, which is Taylor Dearden's usual color, by the way, she's the daughter of Bryan Cranston and Robin Deadrden, in case you didn't know.

During the makeover, Jules is being very annoying and girly and makes you remember she's a sorority girl through and through. She seems happy because things with Tyler are going well, she's not having nightmares and she feels like herself again, that it her old sorority self. Ophelia's not sold on it. That night Jules proves Ophelia right when she has a nightmare, in it, Nate comes into her bed and when she turns around Kennedy's there crying asking her why she never told her the truth. Still, things with Tyler seem to be going really well, he's very sweet in the few scenes we see them together but the main problem remains, and he tells her he's suspicious of his brother's disappearance.

We see a parallel of the introduction of pledge week by both Kennedy, at Zeta, and Chloe, at Kappa. Kennedy is way to cheesy but it's still preferable to Chloe's.

Chloe: Welcome to Kappa, you grimy-ass bitches. We call pledge wee "hell week" for a reason.

Kennedy: Welcome to Zeta, my queens. This week is all about sisterly bonding.

And then she calls Zeta Zeta Psi the ultimate female empowering community, which only contrasts with what we know about her boyfriend, even if she has nothing to do with it. To make things worse Nate shows up with flowers in the middle of their activities, clearly trying to conquer the young pledges right out the bat. Which is totally disgusting.

Finally Ophelia introduces herself as Fefe Mayer with a camera in her necklace. It takes no time for her mother Bobbie, payed by Alex Kapp Horner, to find out and drop by for some mother-daughter time, since she's clearly thrilled Ophelia is "finally" following her steps. They have a spa day where Bobbie tries to tell her how great it will be to be a part of a community of well connected women all over the country, she even invites her to spend the summer at their house in East Hampton and Ophelia seems to really like that idea. Jules shows up in the middle of their bonding and sees Ophelia transformed, Bobbie says Jules color is great and Ophelia asks the name of her salon, Jules shocked asks her to speak in private and pinches her.

Ophelia: Ow, what the hell?
Jules: You want to know the name of y salon? It's called You're Not Blonde, Ophelia. What's going on?
Ophelia: Okay, well, that's a really long name for a salon.

Ophelia says she's really enjoying spending time with her mom and that maybe Kappa isn't that bad, since the girls really seem to want to be there. She says maybe they're on the wrong side of the matter. Jules says maybe she lost her mind, that they are terrible people and asks if they rewired her brain or something. Ophelia says maybe she's ore open-minded than her and that Jules just sees the world with her damaged goggles, which was really going too far. Jules says she's mean and maybe she does belong in Kappa, and she storms off.

But the next challenge changes Ophelia's mind, when they keep them locked in the basement for three hours and force them to smoke a whole Cuban cigar, one of the girls passes out and even then they're reluctant to open the door, finally they do it just to smuggle the girl to the hospital where they have a doctor that can keep it quiet. Before she locks them in again Chloe asks Ophelia what she thinks of her legacy, since the lock up was the keystone hazing ritual when her mom was president, her answer is of course to vomit. I really don't like that "character trait" it's ridiculous and I don't think it really fits the character, I know it's supposed to be funny but, at least to me, it's really not.

The girls from Zeta get breakfasted by Omega so they decide to get revenge and fill their house with pink toilet paper and paint everything they can pink. Kennedy get the idea of sneaking in and stealing their paddle but Jules can't manage to do it since she's having flashbacks of leaving that house after the rape, which makes me think this is Nate's frat house. She says the pranks are stupid and Kennedy gets mad saying she doesn't know what happened to her, Jules with tears in her eyes says she can't do it anymore and leaves. Jules goes to Ophelia's where she finds out everything is being recorded by the girls at Kappa and used for a hazing site for which they earn a lot of money.

And so, we finally get to the take down. Somehow the Kappas have great marcial arts skills but they still kick their asses, and once they're on the floor they tell them what they do, since they're filming pledges without their consent it's ilegal, so they make them turn themselves in to the university, if they want to avoid jail, and they rewire the money they made to a battered women shelter.

Harris' storyline in this episode gets him close of being the one who catches the girls, which is not bad because he could cause some problems but we all know eventually he will be in on the secret. He's worried that his editor only gives him pieces to write from the black perspective so he complains to his editor and she says, given the theme of his essay they though that's what he wanted to write about but if he didn't he should pitch something else, and of course he says he thinks there's a vigilante on campus, she says she needs evidence but if he finds it it would be great story. So, he goes to talk to the assaulted guys, he starts with Will Powell, but he doesn't want to talk and he says to tell Beth he got the message and it won't happen again. Harris is confused so he asks for Fiona's help and she says there was a rumor gong around that the guy had date-raped a girl named Beth. And so, our reporter is on his way to figure it all out.

Bobbie is furious that Chloe got Kappa disbanded, she says the actions of a few girls shouldn't affect a whole house but we know minus the filming, she was just as bad, tough Ophelia seemed to try to defend her, even when her mom changed her mind about inviting her to the Hamptons once the green hair returned.

Tyler talks to his cop friend and he shows him some anomalies in the location on the phone, since before going dark for ten days and reappearing in Canada, it pinged in the other side of town, at the cemetery. Tyler takes a picture and goes to the place to investigate.

Kennedy and Jules are sitting on the couch and she tells her she knows something's up, that she doesn't understand it but she's there for her when she needs to talk. She's a great friend and she really doesn't deserve to be in the dark. Later Jules and Ophelia bond over pizza and they both admit they were lying to themselves, Ophelia about her om and Jules about being okay. I like that at least they can be themselves with each other but I really want Kennedy to know, I'm guessing they're saving it for the season finale, or something like that, but I can't wait.

What did you guys think of this episode? Did you like to see another side to our vigilantes? Do you like Harris' storyline? I'd love to read your thoughts.

Note: English is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes.