At the end of the previous episode, Katy asked K.O. to move in with her as she turned down his proposal because she couldn’t lose him. Her choice is explored on Katy Keene season 1, episode 3.

Katy Keene season 1, episode 3 picks up a little after the previous episode as Valentine’s Day approaches, and each of the main characters has their own love to stress about: Katy with K.O., Josie with Alex, Jorge with (someone we haven’t met before) Buzz, and Pepper, rightfully so, with her dream of opening her artists’ venue.

We, obviously, had the chance to view the episode early and have put together a few teases about what’s to come on this incredibly important (for the story) episode. As always, if those aren’t your cup of tea, scroll to the end to read our spoiler-free review!

‘Katy Keene’ season 1, episode 3 screener secrets

Already trouble in paradise for Katy and K.O.

Despite, like, just moving in together, Katy and K.O. are struggling to make their relationship work with this turn of events on Katy Keene season 1, episode 3. While it was completely understandable why Katy turned down his marriage proposal, and K.O. doesn’t hold any hard feelings about that, moving in together into Katy’s tiny apartment has left them with zero space, but they both have never felt further apart from one another.

Treating moving in together as K.O.’s consolation prize for his rejected proposal, Katy is stuck in her head, questioning whether she made the right decision or if this step in their relationship came at the wrong time. Katy’s trying to get her relationship back to the perfect way they were before, which seems to just cause more problems. It doesn’t help that her roommates are both very frustrated with K.O. being in their tiny apartment, and spend the majority of the episode making her feel bad for it (Jorge much more than Josie, who actually tries to help Katy with the situation, because he’s trash).

And where Katy’s not creating problems, Lacy’s is. Valentine’s Day is one of the biggest days of their sales year, obviously, and they throw a party where the list of Vanity Flair’s designers to watch are in attendance, but K.O. has a boxing match the same night, which Katy already committed to attending. What ever is she to do?

Josie’s distraction and Alex’s gift

Despite not being in a committed relationship, Josie and Alex are continuing to have a bit of romance between them, as one of the first scenes of Katy Keene season 1, episode 3 is the two getting hot and heavy at the record shop. However, although the sex (and his abs) are amazing, they’re quite the distraction for Josie who has not really worked on her music in the time between episodes.

When another aspiring songwriter comes into the shop to purchase a Bob Dylan record, Josie hits it off with him, and it isn’t long before they’re working together on a song. But this causes some tension with Alex, and causes Josie to question where she wants to go and decide what her focus needs to be on.

Meanwhile, Alex reaches out to Katy at Lacy’s to get a gift for a special someone — a extravagant silk robe — but it’s not for who you might assume, which drives Josie a little crazy.

Pepper’s financial needs

Now that Pepper has the space for her artists’ gallery, it’s time for her to figure out the next steps. But first, as she’s living there and sleeping on a lone mattress, she really needs to get some heat. Unfortunately, that costs quite a bit of money — $20,000 to be exact — so Pepper must, once again, use her cleverness and resourcefulness to find her way out of the situation.

What she ends up doing is genius and took a lot of skill and manipulation on her part, and I definitely think it’ll make people love her even more (it certainly did for me). However, it brings up some interesting questions about Pepper’s past as we find out something about her that is questionable. Pepper seems to have already lived so many different lives, and we’re only a few episodes in, so we definitely need a deep dive into her past. We don’t even know who she really is. Do her friends even know who she is?

Jorge’s “LTR”

Honestly, Jorge’s story may be the saddest of them all because it makes him seem quite pathetic. With Valentine’s Day approaching, we meet the man that Jorge considers himself to be in a “LTR” or long-term relationship with, ignoring the fact that Buzz has never met his friends (who don’t believe he exists!) and refuses to go on a date with him because he’s not out of the closet and works for a powerful law firm in the city. They’ve simply been sleeping together almost every night for a year. I mean, isn’t that depressing?

After a pep talk from his friends and another man taking interest in him after a little accident at the apartment, Jorge decides to give Buzz an ultimatum: Go on a date with him at the bar where he works as Ginger, or their “relationship” is over.

‘Katy Keene’ season 1, episode 3 spoiler-free review

Of the first three episodes, Katy Keene season 1, episode 3 is probably my least favorite (aside from Pepper’s storyline, which is the best of the hour). The episode focuses mostly on the characters’ romantic lives and creates a lot of drama where there doesn’t need to be any (particularly with Katy and K.O.).

That said, it’s still a strong episode, and really gives Lucy Hale a lot of emotional material to work with, while Julia Chan’s Pepper continues to be the breakout star of the show.

I’m excited to see where the series goes from here, as the episode leaves off with certain things that change the futures of each of the four characters. I may not be the biggest fan of some of the writers’ choices, which you can read about in my review on Thursday, but I’ll trust them, for now, to know where they’re headed.

Katy Keene season 1, episode 3 airs Thursday, February 20 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW!