This is going to be a long post following my feelings toward Eric Miller throughout season 1:

1x1: When Bela first ran up to Eric, I got a sense of her character as a super eager freshman trying extra hard to make a drastic first impression so that she would be remembered. As a college senior who's been in a position of leadership, I sort of sympathized with his reaction at first, especially since there were hundreds of people at the Catullan meeting. If some random freshman came up to me wanting to read me their submission or something, I'd be happy to see their enthusiasm but god damn I got shit to do lmao.

Then Eric said that shit about "female spots" and I was like goodbye. And he followed it up with "I would give anything for Elizabeth Warren to be president" which made it all sound even worse. AND he ended it by mentioning the Pot Stickers, the all-Asian improv troupe. Like noooo, way to make it about race too.

1x2: The next time we see him he's saying stuff like "If I want Bark Thins and a mocha, you will get me Bark Thins and a mocha. And don't be cute and try to write a funny name on my cup. You will be cut." So now he's sexist, racist, AND on a power trip.

1x4: When Bela stands up for herself after being uncomfortably stereotyped as part of a joke (and I was really proud of her!!!), Eric is more concerned about Danny rescinding his donation check instead of addressing her experience. I was really sad because I thought her act of standing up for herself was going to be associated with the destruction of the Catullan, therefore implying that she should've just stayed quiet, but half the funds were recovered by someone else, so there was that at least. But it really says a lot about institutions...

In the same episode, Eric tells Bela, "I think you overreacted. Danny can't be sexist. He only hires female assistants." Honey, no, that's...just not true. Props to Evangeline for continuing to be fucking awesome by rolling her eyes and also speaking up for Bela.

1x7: After final submissions, Eric says, "If we choose any new members, tonight is gonna be tap night. We'll come find you in your rooms and whisk you away for hours of traditions that you cannot share with anyone, ever. Including future spouses." At this point, I got really scared that Eric might be like Ryan because the specific word choices and phrasing were really sus, like tap being slang for fuck, hours of tradition, can't share with anyone including future spouses...??? But there was no way because Evangeline was also a part of it.

And then...Ryan sexually assaults Bela after sexually harassing her and she finally speaks up about it to Evangeline and Eric. God bless Evangeline for being perfect, but Eric immediately says, "Can we make this quick" and lowers Bela's confidence and self-esteem even more. Eric starts to freak out visibly and verbally, saying things like "going to Title IX already?" and "I don't want to get involved in this and quite frankly I'm not sure there's a this to be involved in," literally dismissing Bela's feelings and the importance of the situation. His defensiveness made me so uncomfortable to hear as a viewer, like holy crap, he shut her down in such a horrible way.

Later, he asks Bela to talk alone. Before starting, he asks for a glass of water or something to which Bela says no and good because earlier he was such an ass. Then, he says, "I wrote this down so I wouldn't get it wrong...My initial reaction earlier today sucked. As an editor and a sometimes very awkward and thoughtless person, I'm sorry. I handled myself poorly. I believe you, and I will do something about it."

This scene is where things changed for me. At first, I thought that Eric was taking the easy way out by using a script, but in the season finale, he actively takes part in removing Ryan from the Catullan. When Ryan tries to make Bela less believable with ''a girl who gave eight handjobs," Eric counters:

"And who cares how many fucking hand jobs she gave? It doesn't make her any less credible, you shit."

This line is so so so important because yes, it doesn't matter what Bela did in the past. It doesn't erase her experience of sexual harassment and assault. For Eric to say this so outright and to the point means so much for Bela and for people who have had the same/similar experiences. It also really shows that he's capable of change and growth as a person. He went from completely denying Bela's experiences to directly addressing them to taking action. And the words that he wrote down when apologizing acknowledged Bela's experiences and the inappropriateness of his reaction. There were no excuses like "I've known Ryan for years" or "this is a sensitive situation and there's a lot of room for screwing a lot of things up." No, Eric's apology was about him as a person and owning up to his behavior.

And that is why Eric easily got bumped up on my favorite characters list. He started off really terribly but had very meaningful development and that's the kind of shit I love. I just wanted to share, so if you read all this, thanks 😊

Edit: I’ve finished s2, so I won’t be spoiled by anything. I was gonna make another post about s2 because god damn 😍🤤 he is FINE