I started watching TBH cause I heard there was a wlw plot line. As I watched the first episode, I immediately assumed it was gonna be Blair lol. She was in a relationship that wasn’t good for her, kissed with her eyes opened, kept sabotaging her potential relationship with Miles, and just gave a vibe. I was waiting for her to realize it until she had sex with Miles. I was like, wait a second… and then Sterling broke up with her boyfriend and did speech club with April, and I was like oh…

Hee, right! But you know, given the trajectory of these storylines, even if it were Blair, it’d have to be with April, because no other female character their age was really given enough time and interaction with either twin to be a potential love interest. And Blair and April did have their own dynamic and particular animosity. 

But yeah, I don’t hate at all where they went, obviously, which WAS super fun to see unfold once the breakup happened and suddenly Sterling has a whole ep with April… :O I’m glad you got the unspoiled experience, it was so fun that way!

yolanda’s sister saying sterling has a settled energy (despite sterling saying she’s actually a very nervous person) after her Big Gay Revelation with april was a cute significant moment. this show was unexpectedly clever with how they built in subtle signifying moments

Aww, right! Yeah, absolutely, it was this tiny throwaway moment you could easily read as just humor, haha, she’s so kooky she’s saying that about Sterling who is anything but, but given what we know has just recently been going on with her (as much as it absolutely is cause to be even more anxious) there’s something so nice about the thought that something in her’s settled a bit at realizing what, uh, makes her tick. And yeah, I liked that, obviously a lot of it was foreshadowing and callbacks for the plot, but it’s a character-centric enough show that a lot of them were about them, which I’ll always love.

Blair wesley gives me spencer Hastings vibes..even her voice sounds the same

Ooh, yes, another anon said that and I can see it.

And another anon:

i don’t think she’s the one you all were discussing who she looked like but i did want to jump on that bandwagon real quick and say april looks A Lot like jodie comer imo! also i think it’s been said but sterling’s a dead ringer for eliza coupe imo

Jo-Jodie Comer? For April? I…I mean…I…well, Jodie Comer can be quite the chameleon, so maybe in some pics or videos, yeah. Hmm, yes, Eliza Coupe has been said, so that’s another vote. I don’t know if I should be keeping track of these, hee.

And another anon:

I love how we play the look alike game after every new show we’re currently obsessed with lol

I think these four actresses just really set it off for us for some reason! These three and Alba, I mean, althoughhhh, when I watched Fairly Legal, I was stuck on who Virginia Williams (the twins’ mom) reminded me of and couldn’t really land on anyone. 

What moment do you think April caught/ re caught feelings for Sterling? Or was it just like lingering under the surface repressed?

And other anons:

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:

image

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.