Joe and Terry review season two of Hulu’s Love, Victor. In this second post, we’re tackling the second half of the season, digging into spoilers.

TERRY

Well, Joe, when we last discussed Love, Victor season 2, we left our wonderful group of weirdos at various crossroads in their relationships. Things were going a little too swimmingly for our lovebirds Victor (Michael Cimino) and Benji (George Sear) that we knew conflict would eventually rear its ugly head. Cracks were starting to show for Lake (Bebe Wood) and Felix (Anthony Turpel) because Lake felt the need to tell her mother Georgina (Leslie Grossman) about Felix’s mom and her bipolar disorder. And Andrew (Mason Gooding) and Lucy (Ava Capri) broke up, allowing Mia (Rachel Hilson) to get back together with Andrew in an episode-ending kiss. Finally, the gulf between Armando (James Martinez) and Isabel (Ana Ortiz) seemed ever-widening because of Isa’s inability to embrace Victor’s queerness.

“Sincerely, Rahim” begins like I thought it would, be introducing a new gay kid named...well, Rahim (Anthony Keyvan) who has reached out to Victor much in the same way Victor reached out to Simon (Nick Robinson). Spurred by his friend--and Victor’s sister--Pilar (Isabella Ferreira), Rahim brings a different dimension to these final episodes. He’s witty and sarcastic, ending his first DM to Victor with a “Sincerely, Rahim...is it weird to end with sincerely? Whatever, I’m going for it.” And then shows up wearing last season’s Saint Laurent, painting his fingernails purple and, of course, singing Little Shop of Horrors with Isabel.

Victor spent the first five episodes trying to understand what kind of gay person he is; a person who was too gay for the basketball team and not gay enough for Benji’s woke (yet super dismissive) friends. And here is a character who is equally “more gay” (i.e., flamboyant) than Victor and yet stifled by his conservative Muslim family. He’s an intriguing new addition to Love, Victor’s exploration of gay life and an intriguing foil, of sorts, for Victor’s relationship with Benji.

We spent a bit of time discussing the fact that the first five episodes raced by without really marinating on particular moments or letting the drama unfold before quickly moving on to another situation. And by doing so, I do think we kind of missed the simmering, season-long situation between Felix and his mother Dawn (Betsy Brandt). Anthony Turpel has been quietly doing the homework with his character throughout the first half, to the point that, while I was seeing what was happening, I wasn’t really processing it. The truth is, Felix has been barely holding it together the entire season and “Sincerely, Rahim” steps in to rip my heart out. It’s obvious he needs help. The role of parenting shouldn’t be placed on a teen kid who’s been forced to help classmates cheat on essays for money, walk on eggshells in hopes his mother’s recovery will stick and basically run the household.

Lake did what any person would do in the situation, but it also brings with it a whole lot of problems, as Dawn tracks down Georgina and ends up being admitted for a 72 hour psychiatric hold. And just like it’s obvious he needs help, the result is also obvious: there’s a chance Felix could be taken from his mother and placed...who knows where. And that realization is heartbreaking, especially when “Sincerely, Rahim” ends with him at Isabel’s doorstep, asking if he can stay with them for a few days. This is a story that’s been slowly building throughout the season and, Joe, when he looks to Isabel for help before his face crumbles into a bawling mess...whew, I have to admit it made me teary-eyed. Anthony Turpel completely sells the breaking moment of a kid who’s had to carry so much weight for so long and is also afraid of what his future holds.

This moment is also a breaking point in Lake and Felix’s relationship, but they aren’t the only ones going through a rough patch. Mia and Andrew, in the early part of this second half, are kind of annoying in that Andrew has turned into the perfect man and Mia feels the need to protect her heart. The latter point is somewhat appropriate, given her last boyfriend dumped her, her father is more job-focused than family focused and her mom left her...but it feels like an abrupt turnaround for a woman who has spent the season pining over Andrew. More importantly, Victor and Benji’s relationship seems like the Titanic approaching an iceberg in the distance.

So, Joe, as we moved into the second half of season, I’m curious about your initial thoughts. Were you surprised by Benji’s admission in episode seven “Table for Four”? Do you like the addition of Rahim and his advice for what Victor should wear to a “cozy chic” dinner at a place that J.Lo has frequented? And on a scale of 1 to “I want to die” how awkward was Isabel walking in on Victor and Benji?

JOE

We’re into the thick of it now, aren’t we, Terry?

This is the point in the season where every long simmering storyline is either paying off or it’s getting wrapped up. And, in true teen YA fashion, there is plenty of drama in these teens’ lives.

You’re completely right that everything to do with Felix is great. Turpel has never had an opportunity to show off his dramatic chops like this and his emotional breakdown on the Salazar’s doorstep is crushing. So too is the aftermath in ‘Table For Four’ (aka the break-up episode) when Felix dumps Lake at the Aquarium because she makes him sad.

My favourite thing about this storyline is how no one is wrong. Lake absolutely had to tell her mother because no teen should be responsible for protecting their parent...but Felix (and Mia, when she tries to help Lake understand) are also right that Lake didn’t properly consider the ramifications of her actions before exploding it. It’s a no-win situation and while I have no doubt that these two will find their way back to each other, the way this whole situation unfolded is achingly real.

Less so Mia’s arc, which has seen her relationship with Andrew progress as though no time (or other girlfriend) has occurred. And while Hilson continues to sell every emotional and comedic beat (her dressing down of Sophia Bush’s Veronica for commenting on Andrew’s looks is A+), it simply feels like less the writers haven’t given Mia’s storylines the same care and attention the other characters have received since those first few episodes. Looking back over the season, it’s disappointing how poorly Love, Victor has handled her arc compared to the other characters.

With that said, the new development with her father (Mekhi Pfifer), wherein he’s gone behind her back to accept a plum gig as President of Stanford is straight up hissable. I’m very intrigued to see how this betrayal will play out in the final episodes when Mia finds out.

But really, this middle stretch has really belonged to Victor, Benji and Isabel. At one point in “The Morning After” - once the absolutely humiliation of Isabel walking in on Benji and Victor having sex (ack!) has worn off - Benji bemoans to his boyfriend that all they do is fight. And truly, isn’t that what Love, Victor needed for Benji? The reality is that the golden-haired swoop boyfriend isn’t perfect...and that’s great because he was veering dangerously close to Disney Prince territory.

Instead we learn that Benji is a recovering alcoholic (a nice callback to 1.07 ‘What Happens in Willachoochee…’ when the show introduced his car accident). In true Love, Victor fashion, the show doesn’t judge Benji: his alcoholism doesn’t make him a bad person; it simply means that Benji, like everyone else, is an actual character with flaws and issues. Not unlike how the show has handled the escalation and fall-out of Felix and Lake’s problems, here we see how Victor’s need to excuse his mother’s slow acceptance of his sexuality and Benji’s embarrassment about AA transforms simple miscommunication into epic blow-outs. It’s totally avoidable...and also totally realistic.

The same can be said for the introduction of Rahim and how Isabel responds to him compared to Benji. Victor’s boyfriend’s observation that Isabel accepts Rahim, but not him, is spot-on and very telling: she’s completely comfortable with Rahim’s non-threatening, traditionally effeminate queerness because he’s not her son or her son’s lover. I’m curious to see what Love, Victor has planned for Rahim (hopefully he doesn’t become a foil for Victor and Benji’s relationship), but thus far he’s a welcome, albeit far more conventionally “Hollywood”, depiction of gay.

Isabel’s reaction to the very concept of Benji is fascinating, though. This may be a moot point considering her epiphany in episode eight, but before this point it’s legitimately unclear if she dislikes the idea of Victor being with any man. When she discovers the pair of them in bed (which, also, skipping BJs and going straight to anal? Straight up fiction), Benji claims that Isabel wouldn’t have responded the same way if Victor had been with a girl, but I’ll confess I don’t completely buy this argument.

One thing Benji’s birthday celebration suggests (which his *palatial* home then confirms) is that Benji comes from a completely different background from Victor. When Victor defends his mother’s slow progress, Benji’s frustration is understandable, but his extreme reaction when Victor introduces race is sooooo telling. I’m over the moon ecstatic that Love, Victor is finally willing to address both the racial and socio-economic differences Victor is facing as a low-to-middle class POC, because the reality is that Isabel’s race and religion would 100% inform her reaction to Victor’s sexuality.

Overall, while I’m happy that she appears to have finally accepted Victor and dismissed the shitty Priest (we all knew that Mateo Fernandez’s Mateo would be the impetus that would finally set her straight, right?), I really hope that Love, Victor doesn’t completely jettison this recent interest in how POC queer people face different pressures and stigma compared to their Caucasian, well to do brethen.

Terry, what’s your take on Isabel’s journey in S2? Do you want Rahim to become a main character next season (assuming the show gets picked-up)? Have you been satisfied with Mia’s arc this season? And what is your overall grade for the season?

TERRY

The back half of season two has so much going on, Joe, so let’s start with the Mia situation. You’re right, she hasn’t been given the most to work with this season and, honestly, I actually thought the show was going to write her out with Harold’s on/off/on reaction to taking the job across the country.

It initially felt as if the show was giving her an exit strategy, only for her mother to become an intriguing wrinkle in the situation in the finale. I’m now curious about what’s going to happen with her storyline if there is another season (and, put a pin in that, because there better damn well be another season). You also mentioned how Benji has been moving dangerously close to the Disney Prince direction and I will see your statement and up you Andrew.

Andrew started as a somewhat antagonistic force for Victor last season. The captain of the basketball team, the guy who Mia lost her virginity to and the person who learns of Victor’s sexuality and seems, initially, as if he wanted to use it to his advantage. But this season, his character (much like Lake and...to a lesser degree, Lake’s mother) got a bit of a Disney Prince kick, as well. He’s been the consummate gentleman towards Mia and the lynchpin behind Victor getting back with the team.

His jockish rough edges have been sanded down and yet there’s something rather annoying about the way he struts in to scenes, hands in his pockets and full of wise advice. For instance, the way he stands up to Harold at the end. He always seems to know the right thing to say and the fact he was the reason for Harold’s about-face on Stanford continues to rob Mia of agency this season.

As for Rahim...you’re absolutely right that he seems to suggest the “Hollywoodification” of queerness; he’s effeminate and endlessly quippy. But once we hit episode 9, “Victor’s Day Off,” I really started enjoying the dynamic he brings to the series. This episode felt like a call back to season one’s episode “Boys’ Trip,” where Victor goes to New York to figure out what being gay could mean. Here, we have another bar, another illicit school/family dodging vacation from the straights and Victor’s friend group. And, like in “Boys’ Trip”, we have a couple moments of realization and self-actualization.

The first is Victor’s realization that his sexual identity is tied up in Benji. When they discuss their type, Victor doesn’t quite know what to say because he’s only experienced a relationship with Benji and Benji was the reason Victor knew he wasn’t straight. Not only does this tie into his inexperience and the kind of first love wonderment Love, Victor has explored, particularly in this season, but it ties into the drama between Victor’s parents. Armando and Isabel were childhood sweethearts and first loves and this moment calls back to the tension they’re currently experiencing. You can almost see the cogs moving in Victor’s brain as he makes the connection to his relationship with Benji.

The other moment of self-actualization, though, is a direct callback to “Boys’ Trip” as Rahim discovers what it could be like to be around a room full of queer people. It’s a small moment, but an important one, as we watch his eyes fill with wonder and happiness. This episode also pushed against that type of gay character that Hollywood tends to put in their films by showing, albeit briefly, the tension that comes from the horrible “masc 4 masc” crowd. I wanted to trip Charlie, the boy Rahim had been flirting with via the apps (“you know which one”), when he is suddenly not into Rahim because he only goes for the masculine type.

Their friendship in this episode also showcases some of the tension, misunderstandings and drama that comes with feeling slightly out of step with your friend group, whether that’s due to sexuality or culture or socio-economic standing.

As you mentioned, neither Victor, nor Rahim, come from the same background as the rest of Creekwood High seemingly does. And while his friend group does include a WOC, Mia comes from a highly privileged (if lonely) lifestyle...I’m fairly certain Isabel/Armando’s apartment could fit into one or two rooms in Mia’s palatial house. I like that the show has given Victor an outlet to discuss things that his friends just don’t understand, particularly from that socio-economic and familial situation. I also quite enjoyed mama bear Isabel showing up and being offended that Rahim called in that Victor had food poisoning from chimichangas, noting, “we’re not even Mexican.”

Before I turn it back to you to finish the season, I looked back at my review of Season One and awarded it a slightly low B-. It was a good season that established fun characters and relationships, but, like Victor, it was towing the line between the worlds of the more conservative Disney+ and its final home Hulu. Season Two strengthens what made the first season enjoyable and tosses what wasn’t working. While some of the plotlines were quickly dispatched, it’s a queer TV show that gave me the same kind of whirlwind romance I grew up watching...except decidedly queer. This is the show I needed growing up and I’m so happy it exists and has gotten stronger with this set of ten episodes. It’s a strong A-. Maybe (hopefully) if we get a third season and I look back on this season, I’ll feel the same way that that score is a little low.

So close your eyes and take us home, Joe. What are your final thoughts on these last few episodes? Did “Victor’s Day Off” work as well for you? Were you incredibly frustrated with Harold’s callousness, which resulted in Mia’s decision to leave? What about the little tease between Lake and Lucy (Ava Capri)? And...when you close your eyes and think about Victor’s future...which door did he show up at?

JOE

Oh boy. I messaged you after I finished the finale that I think S2 did a really great job of plotting everyone’s arcs, because there is a lot of payoff in these final two episodes. Not just callbacks to last season (“Close Your Eyes” parallels last season’s finale with Benji in Mia’s place and Rahim swapped in), but also references episodes from this season (Victor and Felix back in a room with identical relationship issues is reminiscent of episode 2.04 “The Sex Cabin”).

So much of this finale, in particular, feels inevitable because of the groundwork that has been laid all season: Mia started the season trying to escape and hits the road in the finale; Pilar’s support of Felix throughout the middle stretch leads to their kiss; Isabel and Armando’s post-turtle search sex relapse anticipates his return home; and, of course, Victor and Benji’s increased distance in the back half of the season just as Rahim is introduced sets up the events of the wedding.

These aren’t bad things. If anything, it means that showrunners Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger have been paying attention to the mechanics of their own show, as well as other YA properties.

And you’re right, Terry, that even when the show veers into tropes, it’s nearly always groundbreaking because Love, Victor is actually tackling the queer stuff front and center. Our lead character being caught in a love triangle between two impossibly cute, but incredibly different boys could be ripped from pretty much any other YA property...except here our lead character is a gay POC. Love or hate the conventions of YA, Love, Victor is breaking new ground because it gives gay (and now possibly bi or pan*) kids the representation that they’re not seeing anywhere else. That’s exciting stuff!

I loved “Victor’s Day Off” if only because it reassured me that the show wasn’t simply interested in using Rahim the way non-queer texts would. Rahim has very quickly become one of my favourite characters on the show, in no small part because Anthony Keyvan consistently finds the humanity within Rahim where other actors would lean into caricature. I’m a big sucker for musical sequences because they have a “power” about them, and while no self-respecting gay bar would ever a) program go-go boys and Karaoke on the same night or b) be this busy this early in the evening, watching Victor and Rahim make love-struck eyes at each other while singing was delightful.

It doesn’t hurt that Keyvan and Cimino have really, REALLY good chemistry together (possibly better than Cimino and Sear). I’m fairly certain that it’s Rahim’s door that Victor has knocked on, though that’s principally because the writer in me believes keeping Victor and Benji apart will open up more storylines than bringing them back together. My single request/plea is that - if this does occur - that Benji doesn’t go through an alcohol-related spiral.

The finale also offers up two other (re)unions: one expected and one that’s pretty surprising. When Armando shows up at Isabel’s door for some ice cream/syrup-related metaphors about sex, it’s a pleasant, albeit totally anticipated development. The issue between these two shifted this season from their early marriage and the fact that they hadn’t dated other people to focus more on Isabel’s inability to change and grow along with Armando. Those S1 issues aren’t entirely dismissed, because Benz’s Shelby is around for sex and donuts, but the moment that Isabel actually puts herself out there and confirms that she is more comfortable with Victor’s sexuality, the outcome of this plot is pretty evident.

Much more surprising is Felix’s Swedish Fish-inspired decision not to get back together with Lake and instead pursue Pilar. Like the potential pairing of Victor & Rahim, this is a much more interesting narrative direction to pursue, especially considering that the show still hasn’t quite figured out what to do with Pilar (her character has been used better in S2, but she still only interacts with Victor and Felix). A romance with the floppy haired neighbour should open things up for Pilar and affords Lake an opportunity to pursue <checks notes> a potential bisexual relationship with Lucy, who is suddenly back?! Didn’t exactly see that coming, either, Terry!

One final area of praise: kicking Simon Spier (and Nick Robinson’s horrid hair) to the curb in the finale. Love, Victor definitely outgrew its ties to the Love, Simon, particularly back in “The Sex Cabin” when his vocal presence felt unnecessary. Victor telling Simon he’s ok is another moment of character growth; our protagonist has finally realized that he has the support network and self-confidence to make his own decisions moving forward. Bye Simon!

All in all, I’m quite pleased with the way the show has grown in S2. The speed at which certain plotlines have progressed has occasionally made for a whiplash viewing experience, but overall it’s been a satisfying, emotional and more well-rounded season. There’s a definite confidence in how the show has handled Victor’s public coming out, especially in the uncomfortable moments when well-meaning people like Isabel and Andrew had to figure out how to be better people. With teases like the introduction of Mia’s mom and new potential romantic triangles, S3 has been well-set up.

Now all we need is for Hulu to pull the trigger and greenlight it!

Love, Victor S2 is now available on Hulu