Omg, right? I was thinking that during yesterday’s live, it’s so clear and melodic.
I remember noticing it during the second half of TBH, when April was suddenly shown in this different light, the light Sterling was seeing her through, and I’ve mentioned the transformation before, the hair and outfits, but the voice too! When she’s not putting on the mean girl superiority, it seems closer to her natural voice, from interviews and stuff, and it’s literally noticeable in how nice it is. I like it a lot.
Hmm, while it’s possible that April puts all those points together and is surprisingly understanding, aside from the fact that it’s a TV show that seeks heightened drama, there’s a difference, I think, between an impersonal response that only looks at the logic and facts versus one that reacts to the emotion of the situation. Given who this involves, it would be extremely natural for April’s initial reaction be to the betrayal of it all.
And that’s what it would be, it’s not just that it’s her dad, or that Sterling technically never lied, or even what their relationship was like when it all went down. She’d be mad that it was Sterling who did get extremely close to her, who she told all her secrets to, who kept this from her. It would hurt on THAT level. It doesn’t matter that she was mean to Sterling and Sterling didn’t use it against her, that doesn’t get her bonus points when it was Sterling who chased a friendship and then kissed her. She totally bared her soul to Sterling about it all! Who throughOUT the show, has expressed concern and sympathy because of her father’s situation, all the while she was the one who secretly caused it, like, this isn’t about the father, this is about April and Sterling.
And in fact, if the show somehow does subvert some of the dramatic expectations and has Sterling tell April about it, that would very much change the equation, and April’s anger might be a one or two ep arc instead of half or full season.
I loveditttttt. It was so good, so thoughtful! I loved all her answers, but two in particular, one about how the reveal about April’s sexuality wouldn’t suddenly make her a different (better) person, she was exactly who she was before, we just now knew she was gay.
And the other answer with all her little headcanons of their earlier interactions and April being the one to kind of wake up to something in Sterling throughout too! I actually really love that interpretation, that it wasn’t some longstanding crush forever OR just happened suddenly in the moment of the kiss, but was happening during the same time we saw Sterling start her journey of exploring her sexuality in ep 1. I love getting these kinds of BTS insights into characters, especially one as closed off and complex as April.
And even if these were things Devon discussed with Kathleen Jordan, the way she shows how she understood it is and is able to express it in an interview, pinpointing all these different moments, shows how much she’s made it her own.
Oh, for sure! My position from the start was actually a very strong “she doesn’t have to come out at any point for the likely duration of this show!” so that’s what the previous answer was, me lightly backing off of that because it IS so painful and you can see its effects on her. But of course it has to be done with so much care. That’s the thing, this being a TV show, there’s what’s best for the character/rep and what’s most dramatic and often those are not the same thing.
About Sterling, like. I sympathize! She got caught up with it, she’d JUST had a huge fight with her twin where the issue wasn’t the same-sex thing but instead the secrets, that’s the mindset she was carrying with her into the finale. It’s hard to balance, and even if it was a few days, clearly it was this very charged satisfying new dynamic that was making her feel something she seemed to have been chasing since the start of the show and probably before. And on some level she and April have known and been circling each other since at least the 5th grade. I can get that it felt super significant to her, worth the coming out.
Neither side is wrong–this isn’t even a sides thing, this is just…circumstance. They both have done not great things but are both understandable and ultimately sympathetic, they’re just kids making the best of normal kid stuff as well as the larger social injustices of homophobia.
I’ve been thinking over this and I know that when I first watched I was all, some people just don’t get to come out early! April shouldn’t have to go through this arc if she’ll be left disowned or whatever, they shouldn’t focus on coming out as the only goal, she has a right to prioritize her security and future, but I happened to catch a gifset of the skeeball scene and as always, paused on this one because it is the cutest:
And like, it made me super sad! For ONCE, she’s allowing herself to be so open with someone, not having to guard every word and glance and motion, knowing it’ll be accepted without judgment and with safety, like, she can trust in this dynamic in a way she can’t with anybody else! The closet is such a particular kind of hell when you know how the people around you will react, it truly is traumatizing to be that watchful and careful and afraid CONSTANTLY. I used to be afraid I’d accidentally say something incriminating in my sleep! It’s literally like being undercover or a spy in enemy territory, you don’t get any respite. Except the enemy in this case are your family and friends, the people you’d go to for comfort in any other situation.
But for just this moment, she’s letting herself relax with someone, and the worst part is? The worst part? She’s fully self-aware! She knows how intense she is! She knows how high-strung she usually is, how she comes across, how people regard her, how she’s been forced to be these last years. But what other choice does she have? Nothing until she comes out.
So I’ve changed my mind, anon. You’re right, I hope she does come out, and of course she is a fictional character, but I hope that kids–people in her position get to see a way out of it without too much loss. Her father becoming accepting would be too unrealistic but maybe it could be a Quinn Fabray kind of situation where they deal with him once and for all, that is actually plot-relevant, and then her mom is better about it? I just hope they treat it with the kindness I want for her. 😡
Hey, do you think April already had a secret crush on Sterling? Or she became attracted when Sterling kissed her?
Did April like Sterling when she was being mean to her early on?
Do you think April had a crush on Sterling? I think Sterling might have had one on April (if maybe subconsciously) when they were younger if only because in the scenes where they’re reminiscing on their childhood Sterling seems to remember little details that even April is surprised she remembers
Hmmm. That is the big question, right, was Sterling one of the Adeles, and if so, did it ever go away and if it did, when did it come roaring back?
I don’t know what the show’s version of the timeline would be, I’m not even entirely sure of my own thoughts, but here would be my current feelings:
In the first few eps, there’s a genuine resentment from April toward Sterling, for the reasons I mentioned earlier and obviously the 5th grade thing. Mixed up with all that was probably also a buried attraction, Sterling’s pretty, but she’s also a good enough student to be an actual rival and on some level that’s something April responds to. April also seems strong-minded enough to appreciate how principled Sterling is, except it makes her even more resentful, thinking it’s fake.
So you enter ep 6 with this swirling maelstrom. teen hormones, resentment past and present, having to suppress any gay feelings, probably hiding them from even herself, the recent agitation of her father’s situation and the resulting social humiliation. I don’t think she’d like, been sitting there examining her feelings and being like, omg, I have a crush, damn, I wish I didn’t have this crush on this snake, I think she just had complicated messy feelings about Sterling, former friend and current rival, who can hold her own against her but also keeps reaching out and being nice. And then it all comes to a head at the competition, where she’s actually teaming up with her, having to think of her as an ally (if grudging), and then the 5th Grade Betrayal comes up again and Sterling seems to genuinely have no idea about it and immediately and earnestly wants to apologize. When Sterling refused to use the info against Craig, April was furious in the moment but I think that really was when everything really changed.
She’s yelling at Sterling, right, angry at her and also at herself for trusting her to do this and being hurt again and you can see that moment where she catches herself and pulls back:
As much as we (understandably!) talk about Sterling’s reaction here, April was having a Moment of her own. I mean, don’t think she went home and had a Clueless fountains realization, I’m in love with Sterling Wesley, but I think she did realize she’d been overreacting, over a lot of things, as she said in 1×08, her anger had been “misdirected”, and that might even mean that Sterling had been an Adele. But now the realization gave her a lot of room to think about Sterling’s good qualities without always stopping short because of the bad (or what she thought were bad). Because with everything else, refusing to use that info against Craig was actually super admirable.
I think a lot of Sterling’s flirting over their project actually DID get a response from April, the way she grudgingly admitted she didn’t think Luke was right for Sterling, the whole conversation about Naomi and Ruth with her confused about Sterling’s motives but also curious in so many ways about her thoughts on it. At that stage and with the specific complexity of this situation, it’s hard to really define it, I don’t think she was in a place where she had fully decided her feelings and was just waiting for a sign to act on them, I think even then she was ready to remain alone for the whole of high school, at the very least, buuuut, to answer all your questions, I think she absolutely did have increasingly positive and warm feelings about Sterling at that point, maybe some wistful what-ifs, and then the kiss opened up a whole world of possibilities.
That’s an interesting observation, last anon, about Sterling having a thing for April and that’s why she remembered things like what she’d quoted to Luke. It’s definitely possible, I do think she has a great memory in general and can probably quote all kinds of stories like that, but that was SO specific. i do agree, though, if it was there, it was subconscious.
