I JUST had a conversation with my friend about tonight’s ep and basically said all of this! I super, super love Carina, which, maybe it’s easy to do because I’ve also mostly just seen her on this show and she’s only been allowed to be a supporting character and what’s not to love about an endlessly supportive upbeat sweetheart. Because yeah, even with the “I don’t fix broken people” line that seemed to imply she wasn’t going to put up with all this, she is putting up with a lot.
And I love Maya too and of course she’s a victim and it’s super sad to see her be grateful to her abusive dad, it’s so hard for her to separate her achievements and identity from his abuse, obviously, this is a big, important arc for her, but they’re getting close to a line where it’s just Maya pouring a LOT on Carina and Carina just taking it with no other role in this relationship. Maybe there was meant to be a balance, with her brother, maybe next season, but I assume it’s actually going to be deliberate on the part of the show where Carina’s like, okay, you can’t talk to me like that. We’re starting to see Maya exhibit the same behavior her father did, pushy and bossy and I’m sure it comes from a place where she thinks that’s the best way to achieve success, but it was abuse then, and it’s just not going to get good results now. If Emmett is too scared to go back into the fire, fine, in the moment, deal with him quickly and effectively, but at some point, you have to get to the root of the matter, you can’t just give him an errand as punishment and that’s it. And in the heat of the moment or not, you can’t talk to a fire victim like that.
The show’s being way too obvious about this arc to just assume it’ll be brushed away, things are going to come to a head, I just hope Carina and their relationship won’t be a casualty on the way.