Okay, so the final episode of Queen of the South aired some days ago and I still haven’t made peace with the way season 5 was written so this post will basically be my coping mechanism: it’s basically me venting out about everything I think it was badly handled (hopefully I can move on from this terrible season after I finish this).

I’d like to start stating that this season was supposed to be the most important season of the show. It was the one where we’d see Teresa finally reaching the top and becoming the Queenpin, so her character arc was extremely important. We, as viewers, needed to see how everything she went through finally hit her and made her become a cold and collected person, who did what she had to do to protect her business and who went lengths not seen before to achieve everything she wanted - all that while losing her soul, while losing who she is. And considering the writers decided to end the show with her alive and at peace, we also needed to see her redemption arc - her making the final decision to leave it all behind, her making peace with everything that happened and everything she did and her finding the path back to herself, finding who she is in a new life not surrounded by death and violence.

But we didn’t see any of those things.

We didn’t see how Tony’s death affected her and her decisions along the season. We saw her, in the first episode, mentioning it to Boaz - and then using coke after he said to her that Tony probably would still be alive if she had killed Lafayette sooner - and that was it.

The show completely messed up last season by showing her already dating Guero when Brenda was pregnant and her being at his birth when it didn’t make any sense for that to happen, since Teresa and Guero dated for a little more than a year. They showed her being part of all Tony’s life, loving him for more than fifteen years (when, in reality, it didn’t happen - she was around his life for probably five years or something like that) just to turn around and give Pote of all people more screen time grieving and dealing with Tony’s death. We saw Pote, who spent a few months living with Tony, making a memorial, talking about him and actually grieving him, but we didn’t see the protagonist of the show, who had the closest relationship with Tony among the characters in season 5, doing it. She spent years of her life loving that kid, but the writers decided that only Pote was allowed to grieve him - honestly, looking back now, I should’ve taken that as a big red flag, but unfortunately I didn’t and here I am.

We saw Boaz grieving the death of his son - a psychopath who doesn’t flinch when he cuts people’s heads off. We also saw some glimpses of how much Javier’s death affected him when George visited him in Miami. We saw Camila grieving Epifanio after we spent two seasons seeing how their marriage was on the rocks. Even those two people who were cold and killed enemies without a second thought were allowed time to grieve people they loved. Why didn't the writers allow Teresa to do the same?

But okay, the writers decide that her doing coke was the way they wanted her to deal with Tony’s death. So I imagined that they would make her shut down, act cold and closed off and not talk about it, and then make her eventually break down over it. Because it doesn’t matter how cold and closed off to the world she might’ve become: it was still Tony. She still would break over his death - not only because she lost him, but also because he was killed in a bomb meant for her. So she wasn’t only dealing with losing Tony, but also with the blame for his death that I’m sure she put on her own shoulders.

But bold of me to assume the writers would ever make her touch the subject of Tony’s death. Because she never talked about it and no one ever asked her how she was, how she was dealing with it, if she was okay. No one checked on her (I’ll talk more about it later). George could see James leaving back in Phoenix affected her even when (his own words) “she put on a steely front,” but he couldn’t ask her how she was after Tony died and she spent God knows how long in a coma? Right.

The writers didn’t allow her to grieve Tony because they chose to use it as the final trigger to make her become the Queenpin from the visions. But they also didn’t show to us, the viewers, how this transition happened, what was going through her mind, why Tony dying made her want to stay and grow her business to the point, why that made her snap and suddenly become power hungry. We were left to assume what was going through her mind because the writing didn’t make it clear what she was thinking.

Teresa started her own cartel because she needed protection from Camila - she did it to survive. Since season 3, she says she wants to “grow up her business until she reaches the point where no one could hurt her.” She explicitly said it to James twice - in 3x05 and in 5x02. Why did she switch from this person who wanted to survive and be safe to someone who was looking for power? When did she become this person who would want to grow her business with no stops, ignoring that the bank couldn’t launder her money that fast? All I wanted was an inside on her thoughts, to understand why she wanted that. I honestly thought she would say something to James after he (rightly) threw at her face in 5x06 that it was all about power, but she didn’t. And here were us left again to assume things.

Talking about 5x06, why would she make business in Europe before checking on Castel to see if she could handle the new need for the product? And why would she want to go in business with Europeans without knowing about them when Camila taught her “you can never get in business with someone without knowing their weak points” - and after we saw her using that knowledge in season 3? When did she become this dumb person who suddenly forgot everything she has ever learned and started making stupid mistakes she would never do?

That also applies to Boaz and his childhood best friend. First Boaz tells you, in your face, that he can only wait so long for his revenge and, when he kills Lafayette, you sound surprised? You’re expecting blind loyalty from Boaz of all people? And then you send George alone to Miami to see if Boaz was trustworthy? And you also expect Boaz’s childhood best friend (the one controlling Sinaloa) to choose your side in a war against Boaz? To be loyal to you? You really don’t put someone of your trust to follow the man? Nor to follow Boaz? And most important of all: all that could’ve been avoided if Teresa knew how Boaz handled things in Sinaloa and Miami. She said, in 4x01, that she didn’t want to work with Boaz because he was capable of killing his own family and then you let him control one of the most (if not the most) important parts of your business and you have no idea how he does it? You don’t have anyone of your trust around there, so you can check on them how things are going?

Why did the writers decide to make the protagonist of the show look and act dumbly to fit their plot?

And George’s death. I honestly don’t even know what to say about it. Because Teresa screamed, threw some things around, used coke, saw her old-self telling her survival is the most important thing of all and that was it. Suddenly she’s deciding to leave the business. Nothing else. They didn’t mention his death in the following episode and we already jumped to Teresa saying to everyone they were leaving. Why? Did George’s death make her realize there was no place on top she could reach that would guarantee her complete safeness? Did Tony’s death make her realize it? Did Boaz coming for them make her realize it? Did she decide to leave just because Boaz was coming for her, so she decided it wasn’t worth the risk? Was all of it? What made her decide to leave? Why did she decide to leave?

Well I guess we’ll never fully know because the writers decided it wasn’t worth having this conversation on-screen. Like they did the entire season. Teresa wasn’t allowed to have one single conversation on-screen. Just one. All of them happened off-screen or didn’t happen at all and we were once again left here to assume things. The most important decision of all season 5 - Teresa deciding to leave the drug cartel world - happened off-screen.

Do you know what also happened off-screen? Teresa’s redemption arc. Because the writers decided that, in the final episode of the show, they would waste 40 minutes of screen time trying to convince us she was dead just to pull out the biggest twist of the television industry - that no one predicted - showing her alive. Literally no one knew she was alive and it all had been a set up, no one predicted it, we were all on our seats looking oh-so-shocked at our screens when they showed her alive, because we clearly believed James had killed her, right?!

Yeah.

Anyways.

Dailyn Rodriguez, co-executive producer of the show, and Benjamin Lobato, showrunner of QOTS, said in an interview that she spent those four years making peace with everything that happened to her and that she did and trying to find herself in her new life.

Why couldn’t we see it on-screen?

We saw her going through hell and back for five seasons, but we weren’t allowed to see her finally reaching a place of happiness and peace? Really?

She used coke many times this season and that was never addressed. Why? Why make her do drugs just to never address it? To never explain why she started using in the first place? Why didn’t the writers show Teresa deciding to not use it anymore? To leave it behind like she left her life behind? She obviously struggled with it because, even though she didn’t use that much, it still became her coping mechanism whenever she was nervous or on edge. Did she ever talk to someone about it? Can someone explain to me why the writers made the protagonist of the show start doing drugs just to never address it?

Dailyn loves going around saying this is Teresa’s show and we should focus on her - she even said this was a very Teresa-centric season. Bullshit. Because Teresa, the main protagonist of the show, was sidelined and painted as dumb in the final season to fit whatever plot the writers room came up with. She barely had five minutes of screen time in the last episode of her own show because the writers decided it was more important to show Pote killing Boaz in one of the stupidest fight scenes I’ve ever seen. A show that is supposed to be about feminism and female empowerment, that narrated the journey of a woman rising as the head of a drug cartel, spent its last episode focusing on a male character that, in the pilot of the show, walked away when the protagonist was being raped, and made several sexist remarks along this season about not wanting to have a daughter. Congratulations on your amazing work, QOTS writers room.

This final season had three women in important roles: Teresa, Oksana and Kelly Anne. Teresa, the protagonist of the show, was sidelined. Oksana lived under fear of her male cousin her entire life and, in the end, was killed by him - but not before looking dumb during an entire episode while Teresa went around saving her. And Kelly Anne’s entire storyline this season was becoming a mother and being mistreated by the father of her child. She was kidnapped and almost sex trafficked by Boaz and Pote was mad at her because she said she didn’t want to raise their child in the cartel world. Because he valued staying and helping Teresa kill Kostya more than supporting the mother of his child. Kelly Anne was mistreated and looked down upon by the man she was in a love relationship with and with whom she was going to have a child. But this is supposed to be a show about feminism and female empowerment, right?!

Pote made sexist comments this entire season about not wanting to have a daughter and it was never addressed - because if he plays soccer with some young girls and has a daughter at the end and he’s happy about it, well that’s clearly enough!

It was more important to show him saying he didn’t want a daughter, to show him wanting to force a curfew on Kelly Anne and to show them talking about what she can and cannot eat because she’s pregnant than to give to us, the viewers, an inside in Teresa‘s mind, the real protagonist of the show. It was more important to show Pote and Kelly Anne talking to their new neighbors than to explain to the audience what was going through the protagonist’s mind. They gave Kelly Anne a moment with the neighbor to highlight the fact she was insecure about Pote adapting to live a normal life with her - and they also discussed that with each other -, but we weren’t allowed to see Teresa’s struggles with everything that was happening.

We saw Kelly Anne talking about how afraid she was of becoming a mother after once being an addicted but we couldn’t see Teresa talking about her own addiction? Reflecting on it? Talking about anything at all, since she didn’t have one single conversation on-screen?

Season 5 was the last season of the entire show. Of Teresa’s show. It was the end of Teresa’s journey. But the protagonist was sidelined during all episodes for the sake of the plot and to give us an inside on side characters’ minds such as Pote’s and Kelly Anne’s.

Teresa barely showed any emotions during most of the season and we didn’t know why. And before someone comes and says “there was so much on her plate, she didn’t have time for that!” Well… that was the writers’ decision. They decided to write the season like that. They decided to throw a lot on Teresa for the sake of plot and didn’t give her time to breathe. To think. To talk. To show any emotion that we all know she still had because she looked on the verge of tears at the end of 5x04 and when she was talking to Marcel at 5x07, but it never went further from there. We were left to assume what she was thinking, what was going through her mind, what she was feeling - all based on her body expressions. (And now I take some time to give all the kudos of the world to Alice because she carried Teresa on her back this season. We are supposed to understand a character through the actor’s acting and the writing, but we didn’t have the second part of the equation, so Alice did miracles this season.)

I’m beyond disappointed with the way Teresa was written this season. She never reached the Queenpin point of her journey. The Queenpin in the visions was always a calm and collected person, who thought before acting and who did what she had to do without flinching. Teresa this season was a mess - she threw things around, screamed, snapped at people who didn’t attack her, did coke and, in the end, showed happy and at peace in a beach. That was it. Her character arc this season made no sense whatsoever. She didn’t develop to become Queenpin nor the viewers were allowed to see her redemption arc happening. Bad writing at its finest.

This show used to be great on the first three seasons on developing characters’ arcs and on building their relationships. The writers used to take time to invest in it. Now, the new writers room seems to like to waste screen time on useless and badly-placed action scenes and non-important plots instead of showing to the audience what the protagonist of the show is thinking in the season that she was supposed to become the Queenpin from all the visions. I simply can’t associate it with anything but the change in the writers room that happened at the end of season 3

The script supervisor, Barry Caldwell, said one day here, on Reddit, that “Queen of the South is a show about people in the cartel world, and not about the cartel world itself,” but that’s the opposite from everything we saw in this season. The pacing was absolutely terrible: it was hard, as a viewer, to keep up with everything that was happening at once. Because the writers were more focused on shoving plot down the viewers’ throats instead of making us understand what was going through Teresa’s mind.

And Dailyn confirmed on Twitter that they never talked to the creators of the show. They never talked to the people who first imagined the Queenpin, who first brainstormed Teresa’s journey.

Well, it shows.

And since I mentioned Marcel, let’s discuss his character arc and his relationship with Teresa this season, shall we?

Like I said before, in 4x01, Teresa told Pote she wanted to go legit so she wouldn’t have to do business with people like Castel and Boaz, who were capable of murdering their own relatives. But now this season she chooses Boaz over Marcel? Because it was the best way to protect her business? When did she become a person who chooses her business over her family? Why didn’t we see her slowly becoming that person? Because that came out of nowhere and she didn’t make any similar decisions in the rest of the season. So I can say it was out-of-character because it didn’t have any impact on her arc, it didn’t change her, it didn’t make her be closer to the Queenpin from the visions.

So let’s make our protagonist act out-of-character for the sake of the plot, shall we?

And let me go down further.

One of the first things Marcel told Teresa after she arrived in NOLA is that “people of color needed to stick together in a southern state.” And now, this season, the writers room decided that it was a great idea to make Teresa act out-of-character, blaming Marcel for something he didn’t do.

The writers room made a woman of color throw a black man in prison in a southern state for the murderers of two caucasian people he didn’t kill.

They first brought up a serious problem in the American prison system that is the mass incarceration of BIPOCs - touching on that subject by showing Lafayette, a caucasian man, sending BIPOC kids to juve and gaining money from it -, and then turned around and made a woman of color throw an innocent black man in prison.

Let me highlight something here: Dailyn said in an interview before 5x01 aired that “she was glad and proud that they could bring some aspects of the African-American culture through Marcel’s characters this season.” I’m not kidding, she said that.

And they made Teresa offer money to Marcel to buy her forgiveness and get him back on her side, doing business with her.

They really think they did something, huh?! Wow.

They love to talk about how this show has so much racial representation and Barry confirmed the new writers room decided to bring “the systematic racism aspect of it all” to the show in seasons 4 and 5. And then they wrote a woman of color throw a black man in prison in a southern state for the murderers of two caucasian people he didn’t kill. And they think they brought “aspects of the African-American culture to the show.” And they’re glad because they were able to talk about it. And proud of themselves. Because they wrote a woman of color throwing an innocent black man in jail.

It honestly makes me want to throw up.

One more thing that pissed me a lot about this season is how they never addressed the opening scenes from season 2, 3, 4 and 5. I know Barry said they weren’t literal, but he said it here. Imagine how locals must feel confused? Why leave such huge plot holes? Why make George buy the exact boat from the opening scene from season 3 just to never address that scene? Why make Teresa buy the hotel in Germany just to never address the opening scene from season 4?

Well honestly everything the writers did was leaving plot holes and making the audience confused. Why didn’t Devon go after James and Pote if he knew they were alive? How did Teresa fake her death? Like how did she fake a gun-wound-shot? Did James actually shoot her or did he just shoot whatever was in that box? By the way, what was in that box? Was it cocaine? Was it something to slow Teresa’s heart? How did they convince the forensic doctors that she was really dead?

And the writers really spent one season and a half building up Kostya’s character to be someone untouchable just to kill him off like that? He was a Russian diplomat that was killed in U.S. soil under the orders of a CIA contractor and the show just let it slide? Like that wouldn’t have any international implications? And why did Kostya’s men didn’t kill Teresa right on the spot? They might not have known she was the one who killed him but they would’ve shot her right there just for the sake of not leaving any witnesses.

And George. I don’t even know how to express how mad I am over how George’s character was written this season. Because, like the writers room did with Teresa, they also painted him as dumb to fit the plot. Why did he look so suspicious in front of Boaz of all people? That man was a pirate once, before he lost Bilal. He was extremely smart - he knew how to play the cartel game. Now all of a sudden he’s stupid at the point of telling Boaz he disagreed with Teresa being mad at him for killing Lafayette? Can someone please explain to me why the writers thought it was a good idea to destroy his character like that?

(I won’t even dwell on how he and everyone else on the first episode were suspecting James for doing James’ things because honestly at this point I’m just tired of the way this show spent five seasons painting him as a traitor when his primary personality trait is loyalty.)

I could end all of it here and leave this long post like that, but there’s two more things this season that bothered me a lot: James’ individual character arc and James and Teresa’s relationship. I decided that they would be the last things I’d talk about because I know Dailyn and Barry love going around saying this isn’t James’ show, it’s Teresa’s, and that’s why it’s called “Queen of the South” and not “James of the South” nor “Jeresa of the South.” (But apparently they were happy to make it look like it’s called “Pote of the South” or “Pote and Kelly Anne of the South”). So I chose to talk about James and his relationship with Teresa in the end to prove that my problems with this season go way beyond James and Jeresa.

So let’s talk about it, shall we? (*deep sigh*)

I honestly don’t understand what the writers wanted to do with James and Teresa’s relationship this season. What was the point of bringing James back just to not give him any individual storyline nor backstory. I just… I can’t.

Dailyn said on Twitter they didn’t give James a backstory because they didn’t have the real estate to do that and well… that made way more sense when we found out the new writers room never talked to the creators of the show. Because they obviously would never bother to give the male lead a solid backstory when you don’t even bother to understand why and how the people who first brainstormed the show decided to create a new character from nothing and give him and the protagonist of the show the most important relationship.

We, as fans, didn’t want huge things: we didn’t want to know at what time of the day James was born, what was his grandfather’s middle name or something like that. We wanted to know more of his past to understand better why he is how he is today. What happened to his family? Did his sister really die when they were both young or was that just a story that he invented when he was pretending to be Trevor? And the most important question of all: how and why did he go from being a sniper in one of the highest divisions of the U.S. army such as the First Cavalry to a cartel soldier? What happened in the between?

And apparently the writers also didn’t have the real estate to give James an individual storyline, since everything he did this season was cleaning up other people’s dirty works. Somehow, the writers managed to sideline him, not give him any long dialogues with other characters nor give him an individual storyline - one that could, for example, let his strategist side shine - but he still was the most competent character in the entire season and the one who basically did all the dirty work. Oh so they needed to kidnap someone? Send James. They need to steal a worldwide known painting? James can do it. But James can’t have an individual storyline? We can’t see him sitting down and planning a move, like we saw him planning how to kill the Birdman in the first season? Or how we saw him planning when to break into Cortez’s compound at the end of season three?

But they could give Pote screen time to make sexist remarks on how he didn’t want to have a daughter.

But they could give a family backstory to a random german man that we saw for fifteen minutes in one episode of the entire season.

Got it.

James spent an entire year working for Devon and we have no idea what happened during this year. All we got was some lines thrown here and there that told us he was keeping Teresa safe (God knows how because we don’t). But how was he protecting Teresa if he (apparently) became Devon’s hitman? Was he protecting Devon’s business and, indirectly, Teresa’s? Was he protecting Cartel’s business and, indirectly, Teresa’s? Was he actually protecting Teresa by taking out enemies before she even knew they existed? What was he doing?

We also know through George that Teresa was hit hard when James left back in Phoenix. But how hard? How did she react?

And most important of all: why didn’t they actually talk about it? Because none of them ever really addressed what happened in season 3. They never talked about the real reason why he left nor how they dealt with it nor what happened with both of them when they were separated.

They had a huge miscommunication problem this season - a consequence of a writers room who seemed incapable of letting their two leads, who - let me highlight it here once again - have the most important relationship of the show, talk.

Instead of using the fact that James was brought back this season to repair his relationship with Teresa after what happened in Phoenix, the writers sidelined him, barely giving him any lines, and completely messed up their relationship. I bring back the fact that the new writers never talked to the creators of the show, the ones who created James from nothing, who gave him life, who brainstormed and first wrote this amazing character. Well, it shows.

James and Teresa’s relationship goes way beyond just physical attraction and romance: it was built on understanding and trust - the last that lacked back in Phoenix and that led them to their downfall. Their relationship was built on the fact that they both looked around on their lives and saw no one but the other actually being affected by all the deaths that surrounded them. They both went through hell and back, but they did it together and that changed them forever - to a point where no one else but the other understood it.

And we saw none of all that in season 5.

Instead, we got Barry being extremely disrespectful on Twitter by saying that unfortunately we wouldn’t get a 42-minutes-episode of porn, because that’s clearly what we wanted, right?! It’s not like we were all expecting them to talk about a huge list of things and to properly rebuild their relationship and do it in the right way.

But they didn’t talk at all. They spent an entire season separated, keeping their relationship purely professional and not having any important conversation, then they found themselves in a life-or-death situation that made them confess their love - without any previous build up for that -, then they faked Teresa’s death and boom! four years of time jump and we saw them happy and at peace, being domestic and openly in love. That was it.

They probably talked about all the things we wanted them to talk about in this season during those four years, but do you know what pisses me off? The show left us to imagine how all those conversations played out. Because they never had it on-screen.

I liked the idea of the ending - I loved that we got a happy ending, that James and Teresa are now living peacefully in a beach house, that they’re trying to find themselves in this new life, away from all the danger and the deaths that surrounded them in the drug cartel world. But I hate the way it was done. It was rushed, badly written and underwhelming.

Many people are seeing some James and Teresa’s scenes in completely different ways and all of that could’ve been solved if the writers were investing screen time in letting those two characters talk. Most of their conversations lasted no more than one minute and they barely said anything substantial to each other, so we were left here confused, not knowing how to read them, not understanding their actions nor what was going through their minds.

We simply didn’t get an inside on Teresa’s mind nor on James’ mind. We were left here to guess what they were feeling because they didn’t talk - one of the things they used to do the most in the first three seasons. Communication was one of the cornerstones of their relationship. But suddenly they don’t talk at all? They don’t talk to each other nor other characters? We can’t understand what’s going through their minds if the show doesn’t give us their POV!

James looked physically drained and extremely mad at Teresa at the end of 5x04, after that terrible CIA comment, and in 5x05… it was like nothing had happened. They spent four episodes building up James being disappointed at Teresa - and made all of us be here waiting for him to snap and say something - just to… throw all of that out of the window in episode 7 and give them a heart eyes scene. He literally said in the episode before that he barely recognized her anymore and then, out of nowhere, he’s looking at her like that in front of everyone? The episodes felt disconnected, like they were written separately and no one ever thought about connecting them, checking continuity, to see if they all made sense together, as a season.

And let me make a side note here: none of that is Peter or Alice’s fault. They both did amazing jobs this season and, honestly, they carried it on their backs. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have finished watching season 5 if it wasn’t for them. They deserve all the praise in the world because they did great - they truly shined - and with so little to do. So all that disconnection isn’t their fault. It’s the writers’ fault.

You know, there’s one thing I don’t get. Since the beginning, this show has been showing how love and the drug cartel business can’t co-exist. And the writers told us that’s why Teresa pushed James away. But then they made Pote and Kelly Anne be happy together? Because, somehow, they can love each other while working in the field they worked but James and Teresa can’t?

Why did she sort of “break up” with him back in 5x02? We know it was because she couldn’t bear the thought of losing more people she loved, but then why was she so easy around Pote, for example? Because it would have made more sense for her to push away everyone she loves, and not just James.

Don’t get me wrong - I do agree with the way this show painted love to be dangerous in their business. And it wasn’t possible for James and Teresa to have a happy and healthy relationship where they could enjoy being together in their past life because there was too many things on their shoulders: their boss-employee professional relationship (the balance of power from their professional relationship affecting their personal relationship) and the fact that their enemies could use it against them (hence Devon Finch attacking El Santo’s compound and almost killing Teresa and using it to convince James to come work for him to pay his debt). Pote was right when he told Teresa, back on 3x08, that her relationship with James was dangerous. But where was all this energy with Pote’s relationship with Kelly Anne? Because, to me, it screams hypocrisy for Pote to tell Teresa that her being with James put all of them in danger while being with Kelly Anne and expecting a child - because it wasn’t enough hypocrisy to just date Kelly Anne, they also didn’t seem to know the concept of contraceptive methods so they had to end up pregnant. Why did the writers decide that James and Teresa can’t be together but Pote and Kelly Anne can? Even the last scene of the entire show - where James and Teresa had walked away from everything and had finally reached peace and happiness - had to be about Pote and Kelly Anne. They had to have the biggest focus when it’s Teresa’s show - she is the protagonist of it - and James is the male lead.

Unbelievable.

Kelly Anne and Pote were giving screen time to talk about their self doubts and past traumas and that lead them to grow as individuals (well at least it was supposed to, for me they didn’t grow at all), but the writers couldn’t give the same to Teresa and James who are the leads of the show. They destroyed their main characters to fit their plot while giving the audience an inside on the side characters’ minds. It’s like the writers decided that, since they wouldn’t be romantic for the majority of the season, then that also means they won’t be communicating in any way shape or form either. Because romance/sex and communication/development can’t happen without the other - well since they’re not jumping on each other’s bones, let’s also not give them any development.

Both James and Teresa are closed off people who struggle a lot with being vulnerable around other people. Back on season 3, when they first kissed and had sex in 3x05, it felt earned. Because they had opened up to each other about themselves and it felt like they were on the same page about really wanting to be with each other. And the same goes for 3x09: they had an important conversation in the bathroom in the previous episode about respect and trust and about who they were and how they didn’t need to hide the hardest parts of themselves from each other.

The same didn’t happen in the love confession scenes - they felt really anticlimactic because there wasn’t any build up for them. They had so many things they needed to talk about before reaching that point - and James is such a closed off person, so it made no sense for him to just say he loved Teresa for the first time in the entire show without any previous dialogue. We could’ve had something like their dialogue in 3x05, where they were being vulnerable around each other - but that would be way more remarkable because it’d be the first time they’d say they were in love - but we couldn’t even get that. Were the fans really asking so much when we just wanted the leads of the show to have a conversation that lasted more than a minute? There was so much they could have discussed instead of just saying those three words. It seems like the peek of fan-service throwing those “I love yous” like that: the writers room decided to give us a mutual love confession and a longer sex scene than we’ve had before and called it a day, without further thinking about the depths of their relationship.

(To be honest, I keep going back and forth if I really wanted them to say more in the love confession scenes because the new writers room simply don’t know how to write long conversations between them.)

Oh, and all of that is without saying how out-of-character it was for James to not check on Teresa the entire season. Seriously QOTS writers, the man who spent the first three seasons asking Teresa all the time if she was alright didn’t ask her how she was dealing with the death of Tony? So he offers his condolences to Pote, but he doesn’t check on Teresa? Once again this show is making Tony’s death all about Pote after Teresa spent years by Tony’s side, loving him? And Marcel told James Teresa was in coma and he never questioned her about it? (Well at least he didn’t on-screen, God knows if he did off-screen).

James was the one who impacted the most on Teresa’s character arc and they had the most important relationship of the show. He made her see things in a way she hadn't seen before and she did the same with him. If you couldn’t see it and therefore give them development, you simply shouldn’t have accepted the job to assume this show after the writers room was fired after season 3.

I’m really disappointed with the way this season was written. At the end, I was just watching the episodes for the sake of it, just to finish the season, because I didn’t feel excited to do it like I used to when I was watching the first three seasons.