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meganhoa · 3 years

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We Met Poppy Clarke in Season 1 (PART 2)

PART 1: WHO’S THIS MYSTERY GIRL?

PART 2: WE OFFICIALLY MEET POPPY

In 2x02 House of Dolls, we meet a girl with a low pony tail, a gray sweater, and a pleated skirt. (Sound familiar to this girl from the auditions in Season 1?):

We don’t know anything about her except that Jerome is trying to avoid her for some reason:

And she’s blackmailing him (note that Jerome was wearing his jacket in their previous encounter - ooc for him in the series - and now she’s wearing hers too except now Jerome isn’t wearing his anymore):

For three 11 minute episodes, this girl doesn’t have a name. Let me repeat...we don’t know who she is for three episodes. Remember what I said in (part 1) about the mystery girl being nameless to prevent a spoiler? I think this is all a continuation of that scene that they first asked us to notice her in.

After some bickering, Jerome challenges this girl to do her worst because he’s not going to play her game. Only then do we finally get the reveal from the girl herself.

Jerome is her brother:

Let’s talk about the biggest photo Poppy chose to display in the school.

Jerome: “Poppy!” Poppy: “Oh hi, Gerbil, remember the time you dressed up as a girl?” Jerome: “They made me do it! They made me do it! It was a school play...”

If it was a school play...wouldn’t everyone in the hallway already know about it? Wouldn’t they have already seen him in the costume? And then there’s the bit about “they made me do it”, who is “they” if Mr. Winkler was the only drama teacher? And if he auditioned for a part in the play, how is it that “they” MADE him wear the costume if he knew what the part was going into it?

I would argue that this is supposed to represent a picture of Jerome from season 1 in the ballerina blow up suit and they just didn’t have one on hand. I would argue that the dialog supports that because in the canon of the show, that’s the only time we know of that Jerome has dressed up like a girl and is the scene your mind immediately goes to. “They” would then be Winkler and the 7th graders (Poppy’s class) and since I believe she was there, it checks out that she would have the picture on her phone (where we know the pictures were since Jerome took it away). That would also mean that no, the rest of those people in the hallway hadn’t seen him in that outfit before (exception: Alfie). And since the whole scene in season 1 revolved around the play, Jerome wasn’t completely lying.

The fast paced bickering between them in this scene is also what I was comparing Jerome and the mystery girl to in part 1.

Now the heart to heart that ties this whole thing together:

Poppy: “I can’t believe you deleted all my photos!” Jerome: “I had to take action.” Poppy: “You’re evil! Those photos are mine!” Jerome: “Why do you want photos of me on your phone anyway, Poppy?” Poppy: “I- like them...” Jerome: “...loser.” Poppy: “They remind me of when they were taken. Like...my recital. Mum dodged it but.. you came.”

Where do I start?

Let’s talk parents. We know that Jerome’s parents sent him to school at 5. In Jerome’s own words they “left him to rot” so I’m going to go out on a limb and say that means he never leaves the school and/or Trudy & Victor’s care. He dodged Mara’s question about seeing them during holidays. Poppy says that Joan didn’t come to her recital and John has been in jail so long she doesn’t even remember him. So that’s both Clarke kids implying they never see their parents. I’m going to go ahead and assume that Poppy never leaves school either. I think that’s backed up by her knowing all the ways to sneak around Anubis House and the property...how does she know so quickly if she’s completely new? That means, it’s reasonable that she’s been in other parts of the school building this whole time and could’ve absolutely came to the auditions in season 1.

Let’s talk recitals. What a coincidence, it is canon that Poppy can either sing or dance and Jerome knows it. He’s even attended her recitals. Of all things he could’ve supported her in...it matches S1 mystery girl perfectly. Poppy couldn't have been an artist or an athlete or something instead? Let’s go back to the mystery girl in season one. Yes, I framed it that she came to annoy him. But with new information, you could also argue that she was grinning because she was about to showcase a talent for her brother who she assumed would be proud of her. That girl practiced for hours...maybe she was just excited to show a new number to the one person in her life who has ever shown her that they cared. Also something else to consider...if Poppy is a dancer, there is a possibility that she would have to dance with boys sometimes. And remember who Jerome said was worse than terrifyingly soul-witheringly bad (yikes??) even though he wasn’t? It was the boy who could dance. Maybe he’s had to watch that boy dance with his sister and he didn’t like what he saw?

(Side tangent: How did Mick hear about Alfie and Jerome’s whole plan failing before they even got home if it was just the two of them, Winkler, and the 7th grade? Remember, he laughs about it as soon as they walk in the door. I would like to propose that soul-witheringly bad dancer boy could also be Mick’s little blonde brother. After all, Mick has moves you’ve never seen, so maybe they took dance to improve their sports game. Jerome has issues with Mick, it would check out.)

And finally...Winkler. If we’re assuming that the Clarke’s never leave school, wouldn’t that mean Poppy would have to be doing some of her recitals through school? And that probably goes through Winkler in some capacity? So he would KNOW. He got super mad for some reason when he’s let a lot of shady stuff fly. And once he got involved, that’s when mystery girl got all of the focus for the rest of the scene.

Let’s talk clothes. In this heart to heart scene, they are finally wearing a matching gray uniform (remember when I told you in part 1 to remember that they matched in that scene). Poppy was playing jacket tag the whole time leading up to this and now they are matching. Matching for the scene that; we learn how close they actually are, how much they care about each other, how much Jerome is there for her, and how much Jerome means to her...she adores him. I think it would make perfect sense for her to want to be like him, to look up to him (after all - Jerome tells Mara that he trained Poppy himself). Maybe this is just something I’m picking up on as a little sister that has a big brother who is my best friend that I can’t quite explain to you but it stood out to me immediately.

We don’t really have a solid timeline as far as when the events within season one took place. We don’t know when the audition scene or the play was in relation to the school year. Even if it was about halfway through the year like it was about halfway through the season, that would still give us 7-9 months between when we see these girls. Plenty of time for Poppy to get taller (her family is TALL, she would shoot right up) and start wearing a little makeup. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first time we meet her she’s dressed exactly like the audition girl right down to the hair...not even a little bit. There’s too many uniform combos for that and we go on to see Poppy’s hair in all sorts of styles.

So um...yeah, we met Poppy Clarke in season 1 and didn’t even know it.

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