Well, get out one last Unicorn Dreamtini because we’re going into the final season for The Bold Type, and wrapping up everything. We hope.
A solid return with the comedy and realistic drama we’ve come to love about the show. A big story with twists and turns, and everyone struggling with personal drama. Will there be a happy ending?
Tonight is the first episode of that last season, and it begins not long after the last season ended which … let me give you a quick rundown:
- Jacqueline and her husband hit hard times and took a break, resulting in them both sleeping with other people. They’ve made up, however now there’s a story that her husband’s hook-up is involved in covering up a predatory scandal. Jane is assigned to dig out the truth.
- Jane is enjoying her new job as head of a feature byline, and has a staff of two. One of them, Scott, she totally has the hots for (and he her). This is distracting her a little as she works on the story, and is probably why she missed out what happened with Kat.
- Kat, who lost her job at Stafford for standing up for equality and all that, is working as a bartender and podcaster. One of her interviews is with a Log Cabin Republican, Ava Rose! Ava happens to be the daughter of LJ Stafford. They get together, but Kat breaks up by text, and is hiding a lot of that from Jane and Sutton.
- Sutton broke up with Richard about not wanting to have kids. After the wedding. She went ‘home’ and slept with her (married) high school boyfriend. Now back in NYC, she’s living a bit wild.
Caught up? Great!
What’s to Come
That story Jane’s working on is still ongoing. In fact, it’s the forefront of the episode in an undeniable way. But more than just getting to the truth, Scarlet is having money trouble. Like all newspapers and magazines, they need more advertisement. So the best thing to do would be to hire Carson Kressley and go to a fancy resort/hotel in upstate New York for some bonding.
Of course, this great idea might work better if Sutton wasn’t drunk, trying to cope with her guilt of cheating with her ex, and Jane wasn’t distracted by the double duty of falling in love and working on a big story. In fact, that distract may be why Jane misses some major red flags with the story and her ‘inside source.’ Kat, on the other hand, is guilted by her friends into not ghosting Ava, and finally explains why she can’t be with her.
The Trouble with Ava
It’s no secret that a lot of us didn’t like the Kat/Ava story. Sure, love is love, but given the events of the last few years, it’s difficult for many queers to stomach the dichotomy of people supporting a political party who actively want to hurt us. Ava is opposed to equality, to health care for all, and more things that made us Spock the eyebrow. Heck, Ava’s dad runs a gay conversion ‘therapy’ centre.
And it’s not just us who looked at the relationship askance. Aisha Dee, who plays Kat, also had some serious words about not only that relationship, but the fact that there were so few BIPOC writers for the show. It wasn’t until season two!
The decision to have Kat enter into a relationship with a privileged conservative woman felt confusing and out of character Despite my personal feelings about the choice, I tried my best to tell the story with honesty, even though the Kat I know and love would never make these choices. It was heartbreaking to watch Kat’s story turn into a redemption story for someone else, someone who is complicit in the oppression of so many. Someone who’s politics are actively harmful to her communities.
Aisha Dee on Instagram
To say that a number of queer fans were uncomfortable with the presentation would be an understatement.
Now, when Aisha posted all that, The Bold Type‘s producers, Freeform, and Universal TV responded positively with a statement of their own.
We applaud Aisha for raising her hand and starting conversations around these important issues. We look forward to continuing that dialogue and enacting positive change. Our goal on The Bold Type is and has always been to tell entertaining, authentic stories that are representative of the world that Kat, Jane and Sutton live in—we can only do that if we listen.
And guess what? They absolutely did listen, and they walk the walk in season 5.
Check out Season 5 Tonight
Tonight is the start of the final season. Check it out on Freeform.
