Hi, anon! I’m so glad you came back, it gives me an excuse to keep talking about it.
Gah, wasn’t it, though? I’m still riding the high from it. Every day I think of it and smile and gush about it with my friend. And omg, I literally said the EXACT same thing to her!
Their first scene is set up as Aneela the queen granting Delle Seyah an audience. Delle Seyah is literally forced to kneel while Aneela is casually bathing in such an abundance of the green, something so precious it’s being killed for, a show of force and power and highlighting their different stations.
And then their final scene is Aneela GIVING DELLE SEYAH HER OWN GREEN. They even made sure to add that, to indicate what a serious gesture this is from her, that small a detail to add to its significance. This isn’t just Aneela using her pools of green to add to her army, this is risking herself so Delle Seyah can stay with her. And as opposed to Delle Seyah kneeling to her, surrounded by Aneela’s guards and handmaidens, they’re holding hands alone in THEIR bedroom.
I’m going to remember this for such a long time. Like, i don’t know if you watched Harlots? One of the other shows that I loved and talked so much about for being both good but also making compassionate decisions? We praised it so much after season 2, we were like, these writers GET IT, they get what they should and shouldn’t do, this is a story about hope, it’s about victims triumphing, this is women writing women. And then it turned out that WAS just coincidence, these writers had no such deeper intentions.
But KJ is the opposite! To have it confirmed that these are deliberate choices, with Michelle Lovretta going out in interview after interview and being asked by so many different entertainment journalists, why not a death? Everyone gets a happy ending? And she’s like yes! Giving a properly articulated philosophy, describing the effort and work that went into doing that, bringing back even Pip and how that wasn’t about Zeph needing him anymore but as a bonus, discussing ways to even bring Pawter back. I really needed to have that kind of faith in at least some professional creator.
Another thing I loved was that she said she specifically wanted to end it with some things left open, to show that these were their ongoing adventures and it all continued even after the camera stopped rolling. Just so much thought into making this the best experience for the characters and thus fans! And it worked. 🙂