"We don't need to know how the game ends. We just need to be there, pitch by pitch, play by play, each precious minute at a time. We're the Peaches. And we fight to win. But if we lose, let it be fucking epic!"
The acting and the blocking in episode 7 after Greta and Carson come back to the house is so good. We can feel the tension in the room. Jess, Lupe, and Esti have been back long enough for Lupe to start a game of Dominos with Maybelle, but none of them have changed clothes, so I think we can infer that they returned still pretty recently.
In this scene, Jess is full of nervous energy, pacing behind Lupe’s chair as well as rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. Given how we’ve seen this character act just last episode in two spaces where she feels really comfortable (the bar and the team house after they win), the fact that Jess is standing all by herself, not touching any of her teammates, really shows how shaken up the atmosphere of the team is after Jo’s transfer. Because when Jess is happy, she’s touchy - she hugs her teammates and grabs or pats their shoulders. In the bar, she’s hanging off of Lupe almost every time they’re on screen. In the scene above, she’s staying close to Lupe, but even though we can almost feel how much Jess wants to reach out for physical comfort, she’s stopping herself and trying to keep busy in other ways, like drinking or pacing.
I think that Jo’s arrest is not only a disruption of Greta and Carson’s bubble (Oz), but also Jess and Lupe’s. As they’ve grown more comfortable and the team has grown closer, some of the walls they have to protect themselves have come down. What happened to Jo is a devastating reminder that it’s not safe for Jess and Lupe to be visibly queer and link themselves together. The blocking in this scene illustrates just how isolated they must feel now.
For example, here’s a screenshot from Episode 6. (I think this is ep 6. Also I’m sorry about the subtitles. I was so focused on getting a good screenshot that I totally did not notice the text until making this post.) Anyway, there’s Jess and Lupe standing together in the corner as they usually do.
Now here’s a scene from Episode 7. This is where I really credit whoever did the blocking for this shot. The other girls are clumped together similarly closely as they were in the locker room one episode earlier… except Lupe and Jess, who are standing abnormally far apart.
Are these the same people from the previous episode?? Yes, BUT the environment of the team has changed now that people are reeling over Jo 1) being queer 2) being arrested 3) being traded. In this screen shot, Lupe and Jess - also the only ones obviously wearing pants - are doing everything they can not to draw attention to their friendship, because the team is no longer a safe space for them to be their authentic selves.
They are standing so far apart, there’s room for a whole other person in between them. That’s why I think this is a brilliant blocking decision, because it not only shows the strain that Jess and Lupe are obviously feeling, but it also calls attention to the fact that Jo is missing from this tableau.
We should just start gaslighting Amazon into thinking they approved a second season of A league of their own. Like what if we all just started posting things like “so happy aloto was renewed can’t wait for the second and third seasons”. Gaslight big business what are they gonna do about it?