Sweet/Vicious season 1, episode 4, “Tragic Kingdom,” just finished airing, and this week Ophelia had to go undercover with Kappa Kappa Phi.
The episode starts off with Grace, a Kappa pledge, getting humiliated in front of the sorority. It’s hard enough to watch women being cruel to other women, but the sisters also upload the video of Grace for the whole campus to see. Jules comes across the video, and she sends it on to Ophelia. The girls have their next mission.
There’s a good discussion between Ophelia and Jules about how this still counts as sexual assault, even though it’s female on female violence and no one is getting raped. It’s important to remember that any non-consensual acts perpetrated against a person are not right.
The problem with Kappa is that the girls need undeniable proof of their crimes. Between the masks and the fact that the video was scrubbed clean, that may be hard to come by.
Except Ophelia has a secret! She’s a Kappa legacy thanks to her mom, and the sorority tries to recruit her every year. Jules can’t contain her excitement about Ophelia’s makeover, and the end result is quite shocking. Ophelia is barely recognizable with blond hair, light makeup, and a posh outfit. This is Fefe Mayer.
Speak of the Devil, and she shall appear. We also get to meet Ophelia’s mother in this episode. She’s not a completely unlikable character, but it’s hard to have much compassion for a woman who refuses to accept her daughter as who she is.
Mama Mayer has no problem accepting Fefe, though. When she finds out Ophelia has pledged to the sorority, she can’t contain her excitement and the two of them spend the whole day together. Ophelia gets wrapped up in the moment, admitting that she enjoys spending time with her mom. “What if we think it’s bad because it’s different?” Ophelia asks about the sorority’s practices.
Jules is disgusted by the thought, and once again Sweet/Vicious finds a way to delicately but purposefully present their point of view. Yes, Kappa runs their house differently than, say, Zeta, who we see in this episode as positive and empowering for women, but that is by no means an excuse to turn a blind eye.
Luckily, Ophelia didn’t get as swept away as Grace, who we see has returned to the house to continue pledging. She doesn’t want to be a loser anymore — she wants to be a Kappa sister. But Kappa is a dangerous place. During one of the hazing rituals, we see a girl pass out from intoxication, and then we see the blase way the sisters tell the others to get her to a hospital to see a doctor who will keep the incident a secret.
Between this and the realization that this particular hazing ritual was created while Ophelia’s mother was president of Kappa, O sees the light of day and is ready for some revenge.
Jules is ready to take action, too, though hers may stem from the need for a distraction. She’s so happy at the top of the episode, but Sweet/Vicious makes a point that just because a sexual assault survivor has their good days — or even good weeks — it doesn’t mean they’ve been “fixed.” Jules continues to have nightmares of being attacked by Nate and seeing Kennedy’s reaction when she finds out what her boyfriend did to her best friend.
Jules can’t find it in herself to be enthusiastic about pranking the Omega Theta house because that’s where Nate raped her. When Kennedy doesn’t understand Jules’ resistance to going inside the house to steal their paddle, she blows up at her friend. It’s hard to watch because we know how much these two girls love each other, and we know why Jules is acting the way she is, but we must also remain mindful that Kennedy is frustrated that Jules isn’t telling her what’s wrong.
When Jules walks away from her friend in tears, she goes to Ophelia, who has discovered Kappa’s darkest secrets. She’s hacked into their camera system at the house and has also found that they’re profiting from a hazing site.
Jules makes a comment about Ophelia’s mother in this scene, and O is quick to say her mother had nothing to do with the hazing rituals during her time, even though we know that’s not true. I’m not sure if this was a throwaway line to show Ophelia is hesitant to paint her mother as a bad guy, or if this will come back later in some significant way.
In the end, the girls do what they do best, and we get a great fight scene between three of the Kappa sisters and Jules and Ophelia. I love that Sweet/Vicious didn’t turn this into a hair pulling, nail scratching kind of fight. It was intense and it was brutal, just like the other fights have been up until this point.
Once Ophelia and Jules have the girls tied up, they make the sisters turn themselves into the school and disband Kappa altogether. Ophelia does threaten police action if the girls don’t comply, but I find it interesting this wasn’t their initial course given the severity of the hazing. It must still have something to do with the fact that Jules doesn’t trust the police to do anything helpful.
But it’s very satisfying to hear Jules say they donated all the money from the hazing site to a battered women’s shelter.
Neither Ophelia nor Jules get too much closure for their personal journeys in this episode. Ophelia’s mother has no interest in her daughter once she’s no longer “Fefe,” and it’s hard to watch the disappointment on O’s face. She’s normally so strong and confident, but it’s obvious that her relationship with her mother is a soft spot for her.
Jules, meanwhile, does make an effort to seek out Kennedy, who tells her friend she doesn’t understand what’s going on with her — but that she’s here to listen when Jules wants to talk. Jules doesn’t open up to her that night, but it’s obvious in the way she looks at Kennedy that she’s heavily considering doing just that. I have a feeling Kennedy and Jules will only get closer after the smoke has cleared once the bomb has been dropped, and I can’t wait to see how that plays out.
Harris continues to be a B plot in episode 4, which is understandable given that Jules and Ophelia’s stories must take center stage. The only problem is that I enjoy Harris so much, I can’t help but feel disappointed that he doesn’t get more time on screen. I’m hoping this changes as we get deeper into the series.
For now, Harris is worried about being pigeonholed after his editor at the law journal only gives him articles stemming from the Black gaze. He pitches another idea to her, but she’s hesitant to run it without solid proof. The story? There’s a vigilante running loose on the Darlington campus.
We also make sure to visit with Tyler this episode, who admits he feels responsible for Carter’s behavior. They got into a big fight the last time they saw each other, and he’s feeling guilty. When Tyler talks with the police, they mention his cell phone records and the fact that he visited the cemetery right before he went off the grid. Going on a late night adventure, Tyler walks right over his brother’s final resting place, none the wiser.
Sweet/Vicious earned the first part of its name with the end of the episode where we see Ophelia and Jules admit the other person was spot on with their analysis of them. For two girls who haven’t been friends long, it’s amazing to see how close they’ve grown already. They can talk to each other when they can’t talk to anyone else in their lives. Even Jules’ comment about how awesome Ophelia’s green hair is reinforces the importance of having positive female friendships. And the important of pizza.