Hey! Hope you’re doing alright. I binged Welcome to Eden and I have thoughts I want to share but am very much mindful of spoilers so don’t read this until you finish/catch up! I’ll put my thoughts under the break:

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Okay so! I really enjoyed this season it was fun. I loved the progression of Bel and Zoa’s relationship. I liked that Bel initiated a convo with Gabi after she and Zoa fought, and Gabi picked up that Bel liked Zoa “a lot.” I’m always wary of f/f couples on television saying I love you too soon because I find it really jarring and I respect that they didn’t have Bel say that explicitly, but honestly after everything they’ve been through together I also wouldn’t mind if they did have her say I love you.

Also — the way that there were multiple moments where Zoa was with Bel but would leave to speak with Gabi and tell Gabi that she is the most important thing in the world to Zoa AND there were a couple of scenes where Gabi made digs at Bel or suggested Zoa was wrong for wanting to rebel … then in the finale Zoa has the opportunity to leave Bel to die and live with Gabi, but she chooses to stay with Bel and die together.

Lowkey I’m wondering about the racial politics of the show, like the way the majority of the main and/or sympathetic characters are white or at least white passing (Zoa, Charly, the kid, Mayka, Ibón, Eloy, África, Gabi … also Bel? Her actress is Spanish) and the characters of color, especially the Black characters, are discarded or unsympathetic (Eva, Saúl, Nico … man Nico is a mess and all over the place character-wise). This didn’t particularly bother me while I was watching, but it’s worth thinking about what’s implied even unintentionally. I appreciate the amount of queer representation in the show, truly off the charts and beyond my expectations, but idk…u know? Anyway thank you for reading this if you did, excited to hear your thoughts on the show :)

Hey! Thanks so much for the spoiler warning, I hadn't finished by the time I got this and was able to stop reading ahead in plenty of time.

Yeah, I was honestly shocked at the treatment Zoa and Bel got, especially since the trailer had almost no Bel or Bel with Zoa, and a romantic-seeming scene with Nico and Zoa. Given history, people could be forgiven for thinking s2 would return to a love triangle, or worse, kill off Bel. We couldn't have been more wrong.

The show didn't even do the kind of drama or distancing/sidelining that often happens in a second season, where Zoa would get frustrated with Bel's single-mindedness or choose Gabi over her. It was just them together, somehow both the established, grounded couple watching over everyone but also with tentative little romantic moments just for themselves.

I didn't even make that connection between Gabi accusing Zoa of being influenced by Bel and forcing her to reiterate that Gabi was Zoa's biggest priority, but then at the end Zoa choosing to die with Bel over living with Gabi, like, damn.

They just had so many scenes, like, I don't even know where to begin giffing. And along with the m/m and trans rep, the rebels were the queerest group on the island. :P Though I was super sad to lose my cartoon boy brought to life, Ibon, would much rather have lost Orson who in his final act of character development could have sacrificed himself for the others. >_>

I definitely know what you mean about race, I remember it last season when Claudia was just sacrificed like that and Nico was treated like a selfish moron, and then this season it wasn't much better, Nico straight up dying, Saul also dying, Eva being treated as an outsider the whole time. I'm just glad she survived it all and wasn't the traitor (which, dammit, Gabi, so annoying, her and Africa were by far the biggest disappointments). And when you're considering something like this, it is a combination of screentime, complexity, rootability, agency, I didn't love that Eva was one of the only women who went totally topless, along with Som, who is Asian but one of the darker skinned characters on the show. Which, lol, that's an even more nuanced discussion, like, it shouldn't be a matter of shame or poor treatment, but in reality, it can be, and if there's an imbalance, it does stand out. None of these are dealbreakers, but for sure, I definitely was racking up these observations.

I'm curious if it gets another season. I'd be okay if it doesn't, since it could very well be read as a full rescue and resolution of the story, though I'm sure the writers have something much more convoluted planned. :o