I watched the final season of Love Victor last night and my feelings were complicated, to say the least. I was really, really excited for this season and I felt like it really didn't live up to what it could have been. When they announced that the third season would be the last season and would only be 8 episodes, I was concerned. And as it turns out, I was right to be concerned. Having said all this, I didn't hate the season, I was just disappointed and didn't love it either.
Let's start, like we have in the past, with looking at the different characters. I want to start off with (surprise, surprise) Victor. One thing I have appreciated is seeing how much he's grown over the course of three seasons. In the first season, he relied on Simon very heavily because he didn't have anyone else to talk to while he figured stuff out. Then, in the second season, he would turn to Simon less and less frequently as things with Benji progressed. The whole sex message debacle turned out to be very much a one off last season, and a very amusing one at that. the season ended with Victor telling Simon that he could stand on his own now that he had a support system in place. This season, we never heard from Simon at all. And that was a good thing. Victor has learned to stand on his own and has been getting better about standing up for himself and what he want/needs. He's still not great about it all the time (I totally relate to this!), but he is better.
Victor and Benji have a tremendously complicated relationship. Turns out that Benji's drinking never really stopped, he only drank when he was stressed. I was glad to see him go to rehab, because he needed the help, but also because it gave him a chance to really work on the shit that gave them trouble last year. As I said in a prior post, "I think Benji was feeling tremendous pressure to be the perfectly knowledgeable boyfriend/guru, which is not a good combination. He seemed to feel that he couldn’t share his feelings with Victor because he didn’t want Victor to shut down, but he needed to find a way to share them. When he didn’t, he exploded at Victor and one thing led to another and they took a break. Benji seemed to think that he couldn’t be vulnerable or needy or anything other than the strong flying buttress of support. And no one can be that." Because Victor was so new to everything, Benji felt that he had to be ok with everything and that led to him bottling things up, which led to the fight at Benji's birthday dinner and the fight when Isabel walked in on them having sex. I loved that Benji decided to really take time and work on his own stuff.
I can't say I'm as fond of his decision to completely walk away from Victor for most of the season. I get not wanting a boyfriend, that really makes sense. But Victor is also his friend and that is where I have trouble. That being said, what Victor and Benji have is really intense, so I don't know if Benji could have been just a friend with Victor. It's really, really obvious that Victor and Benji really care about each other, like when Benji saw Victor upset in the hall and came up to find out what was going on. That was really cool, but I also think Victor had the right reaction. Benji wanted to cut off contact and then they met through the app (which was completely hilarious, BTW) and then Benji's dad came over and told Victor in no uncertain terms to stay away from Benji. More on that in a bit. So Victor's getting mixed messages about what Benji wants, is conflicted about the award, and is generally feeling like he is just hurting people. Was he a unfair to Benji? Maybe a bit, but I also think the reaction was completely understandable. All that said, the tie these two share is undeniable. Hence, Victor going to make a final plea to Benji to not go to boarding school and the ending make sense. And I'll have more to say about the ending later.
As for Benji's dad, I wanted to hurt him so badly. I know that he thought he was protecting Benji, but he really wasn't. He just saw Victor as someone who was hurting Benji and refused to see that his own actions had caused and were causing so much more damage. Between telling Benji he wasn't smart, the homophobic comment about not wanting Benji to be gay, to taking Benji to the strip club, to insisting that Victor was bad for Benji, he just kept causing damage. And trying to foist off Benji's relapse as all Victor's fault? That pissed me off so much. Laying all that on a 16-year old is just beyond unfair and just makes me see red. I was so glad when Victor told Benji what his dad did and I also loved that he completely ignored Benji's dad when he went to talk to Benji. That was fun.
And parents being clueless about how to help their kids and the damage they were doing to their kids was really a theme this season. Ok, this has been happening for the entire show. The first season, we had Isabel and Armando fighting constantly and Lake's mom belittling her in the name of "improving" her. The second season, we had Isabel's horrible reaction to Victor's coming out, more about Lake's mom, Mia's dad lying about Stanford, and Benji's parents just being clueless upper class white parents (sorry, I can't think of another way to put that). This season we had Isabel trying to set Victor up with Nick over Victor and Armando's objections, Armando being way too overprotective where Pilar was concerned (it felt really misogynistic), Lake's mom continuing to put Lake down, Mia's mom, Rahim's mom shoving Rahim back into the closet, and Benji's dad. Interestingly, the only parent who we saw who wasn't this way was Felix's mom. And that was because their relationship has been one where Felix was the parent figure and now she can be and is really stepping up. I loved that both Lake and Rahim sat down with their moms to explain how their actions were causing pain. That was a good thing.
And now we have Isabel. I love the fact that she really was trying to make up for what she did. She was feeling really, really guilty over how she treated Victor and Benji and she was determined to be the perfect ally for Victor. So much so that it annoyed Victor. But, unlike last season when he was only really able to swallow his thoughts to avoid conflict or get upset at her, this season he very calmly explained that while he appreciated the thought behind what she was doing, she really needed to listen to what he needed. And she did. This is the relationship that Victor really could have used last season. When he and Isabel sat down and actually talked through stuff, it was really amazing. She gives good advice and is a great listener. It was definitely really nice to see them together again.
As for her introducing Nick, this is one area I was definitely conflicted about. First off, I wasn't happy that they brought in a new love interest in the last season, especially because it was a short season. I did appreciate that he did help Victor get through some of the time after Benji broke up with him, but I cannot say I felt any spark between the two of them. Don't get me wrong, they were gorgeous together and they were obviously physically attracted to each other, but I can't say that I ever felt like there was anything more than that. So having the two of them not stay together was a good thing, particularly after Nick realized that Victor was still majorly hung up on Benji.
As for Victor trying to help Liam, that just made me cringe. I get that he really did have good intentions, but in trying to force a bond with Liam to help him, he massively overstepped. The reason Simon was able to help him and the reason he was able to help Rahim was because he and Rahim reached out to get help. Liam never did. Victor just heard the notification from the app go off and realized that Liam had the app to and decided to just step in. Not a good idea. That said, he seemed to have learned his lesson, so hopefully he won't try that again. And seeing Liam and Nick end up together was sort of funny.
As for Rahim, he and Victor had a rocky road this season, First, Victor chose Benji and then just tried to pretend that everything was ok with Rahim without ever actually checking in to make sure Rahim was ok. And then there was the award. This was the tricky one. I get why Victor was reluctant to take it, but I also really get why Rahim was insistent on Victor taking it. Being awarded for existing (as Victor saw it) does seem a little degrading and infantilizing. However, what Victor was missing is that the award meant a lot to people like Rahim, people who aren't as straight passing as Victor is. Seeing the homophobia when the group was at the restaurant was shocking because there hasn't been that much blatant homophobia in the series. Yes, there were people on the basketball team who were being homophobic when Victor came out and Rahim did meet up with the femmephobic guy at Brasstown, but it wasn't as bad as what we saw there. And that really opened Victor's eyes. I hated that it took that to open his eyes, but it was nice to see Victor learn from Rahim. Victor never meant to hurt Rahim, but he managed to several times. Seeing Rahim end up happy with Connor was really nice.
And now about that ending. That was one part I really disliked. Let me start off by saying that I am not a fan of ambiguous endings. I appreciate that they didn't want to end it like this was the end of their life or their story, but I really think we deserved more of a concrete ending than what we got. I assume that Victor and Benji got back together given the fact that they were kissing, but I am really not sure given that Benji was talking about how he still had a lot of stuff to work on. I really felt that having some sort of coda on the end would have made it so much better. Not a flashforward through their whole lives, but if there could have been a scene of the Victor, Benji, Lake, Felix, and Andrew graduating with Victor and Benji together and happy, that would have given us more of a sense of closure and finality for this chapter of their lives. Instead, it just petered off which left me feeling incredibly unsatisfied, a little confused, and not happy. I did like that they let us know people's next steps, but the whole thing also felt a bit rushed.
I would actually say that about most of the season. It felt like they knew where they wanted people to end up and they came up with stories to explain it. It's not that the stories didn't make sense, it's that they felt a little inorganic. If they had a longer season or even just one more season, I think it would have made everything a whole lot better. Just overall I can't say that this season was anywhere near as good as the other two and that was a big disappointment for me personally.
So now onto other characters. Let's start with Benji. We got to see how he ended up drinking and we got to see the leadup to and the aftermath of the Accident. I really did appreciate seeing the troubles he had. In the first season, he was pretty chill and seemed to have it all together. That came apart in the second season when he and Victor fought and the third season explores why Benji is the way he is. He is someone who is always anxious and drank to combat that. As for his parents, while they may have wanted the best for him, they never knew how to help him. In fact, they caused a lot of his problems. Watching Benji blame Lucy for the pics of guys in various states of undress was both amusing and cringeworthy. I probably would have done something similar. Actually I did, only it wasn't to my parents. It was to my roommate the first semester of my junior year at college. I let him use my computer and he stumbled across some pages I looked at (no nudity, just shirtless or underwear shots from what I remember). So I totally related. I just wonder if Lucy ever found out about that. And I loved that Benji eventually decided to let Victor know about his feelings. Unfortunately, just like last season, he has a horrible sense of timing. Of course, that's expected from a drama, so it wasn't shocking.
I did love watching Benji and Rahim together. Benji was, for obvious reasons, pissed at Rahim. As for suspecting Rahim released the news he was in rehab, I get that but it was also a tad bit unfair (from an outsider's perspective). When it turned out that Rahim ended up being Benji's tutor, I just giggled. Forcing the two of them together was a good thing. It let Benji see that Rahim is not the awful person he thought he was, while also giving Rahim the chance to see Benji as a person. So it was something they both needed.
I'll also say that I am glad there was no real love triangle this season. I am never fond of those, so not having one made me happy. As for my thoughts about a triad, I still think it would have been nice, but given all the givens, I feel like it was a good thing that it didn't happen. I don't know if Benji would have been in a good enough place emotionally to handle an open relationship. The other issue is that the intensity of Benji and Victor's feelings for each other would probably have caused problems for the third person. And Rahim deserved better than that. I do think he and Victor could have been good together, but seeing him happy with someone who accepts him as he is was such a wonderful ending that I'm just happy for him.
Now for Felix and Pilar. I have to say that I sympathize with Pilar when it comes to hiding things from Armando. Watching him not know how to handle her having a boyfriend was how I was expecting him to act regarding Victor being gay last season. He was all machismo and misogynistic overprotectiveness and it was ugly. I really did not like him for a while. As for Felix choosing to not get Armando and Isabel mad, I have a lot of sympathy. It's obvious that he had to grow up way too fast and he never really had a solid parent figure in his life. He had to take care of his mom when she was unwell and be the adult in that relationship. So having parental figures who were actually parents was something he needed and couldn't just give up. I don't know what that means for him and Pilar (again, their ending was really ambiguous), but it seems like they're at least friends again.
Lucy and Lake were adorable. Watching Lake completely freak out about being attracted to Lucy and various other things (like sex with her) was actually adorable. There were some parallels between Lake and Victor in terms of coming to terms with their identities, but there were also a lot of differences. Neither Lake nor Lucy never labelled themselves. Based on what we saw, I would guess that Lake is bi or pan and that Lucy is a lesbian. My guess about Lucy mainly has to do with the fact that she indicated that some stuff had made her some to realizations about herself and I am assuming she is referring to Andrew here. I could be completely wrong about her, but that was my sense. The fact that they never labelled themselves is something that seems to be more and more common. I see a lot of youth insisting that labels aren't important, and when you're younger I really get that. You're figuring things out and trying on different labels to see what works. However, for me, I find labels to be really important. Not because they box you in, but because they let people know who you are and they can help you find a group with similar interests. That said, using or not using a particular label is a really personal thing and I get why some people may not use them.
Mia and Andrew. You know, I really wish they just wouldn't have gone to see Mia's mom because it was such a wasted opportunity. They got a great actress and barely used her. I know there could have been a lot of reasons for that, but it still felt like it was nothing more than a device to sort of reconcile Mia and her dad. I get why Mia was upset about her mom going to Prague, but expecting her mom to just drop a fellowship she had already accepted on a moment's notice was massively unfair. I get why it was important to Mia, but it was also such a bad idea and she way overreacted to what her mom said. I enjoyed seeing her and Andrew together and loved seeing her figure out how she could still fit into Lake's life given that Lake now had a girlfriend. I also loved seeing her visit her dad and Veronica and thought that moving back out there was the right thing to do under the circumstances.
As for Andrew, that boy has grown up a lot since we first met him. He's still cocky and self assured, but he's not the asshole he once was. He figured out how to let the good person he was on the inside finally shine through, and that was a good thing. Was sacrificing his chance at letting a scout see him at a game to go with Mia to Palo Alto a good thing? I have my doubts. While I get that he's trying to be there for her, especially considering her abandonment issues, I'm not sure it was the right thing. That being said, I also get that he had to do what he felt was right.
I don't really have much more to say right now. I plan on rewatching the third season tomorrow night and seeing if I have any different reactions. If I do, I will post them here Saturday morning. But tonight, I will be rewatching Heartstopper for the 13th time. To sum up my feelings about this season, I felt that they could have done a lot better. A lot of the smaller beats felt good, but the ending and some of the bigger beats, particularly between Benji and Victor, just felt like they didn't live up to what it should have been. If I was ranking the seasons, I'd go Season 2 as my favorite, Season 1 as the middle, and Season 3 as my least favorite. Maybe that's gonna be controversial, but it is where I am right now.
If you have any thoughts, comment below.
