Sweet/Vicious season 1, episode 7, “Heartbreaker,” finally gave us a full account of Jules backstory, including her sexual assault.
This episode comes with a major trigger warning for those who have experienced sexual assault. The scene is by no means graphic, but MTV toes the line by showing us exactly what happened to Jules on the night Nate raped her. It is not easy to watch, but it is so incredibly important to understand how these situations happen and how they are handled in the aftermath.
The flashback sets up the situation rather effortlessly. There’s going to be a huge party at Nate’s fraternity, Omega Theta, but Kennedy can’t go because she’s sick. She begs Jules to have fun without her, and she does just that. The friendship between Jules and Nate is comfortable and silly. Not only are we seeing a different side to their relationship, we’re also seeing a different side to Jules. She’s fun and carefree in a way we have yet to see in the present day.
But Nate turns the friendship into something much more predatory. Jules gets drunk and begins feeling sick, so she asks to go to Nate’s room to lie down. After commenting on how good she looks in her skirt and telling his friend not to say anything, Nate heads upstairs after her. He clearly wasn’t thinking about either Jules or Kennedy’s feelings when he made that decision.
There are several factors that later make this case murky for some of the school’s officials, but the fact of the matter is that Jules told Nate no time and time again. He put his hand over her mouth to silence her and didn’t stop even when she struggled to get away. It doesn’t matter that Jules was drunk or that she asked to go into his bedroom to lie down. She said no, and Nate still forced himself on her. It was, without question, rape.
The next day Jules goes to the student health center and gets a rape kit, but she’s adamant about not going to the police. She’s also worried that the center will tell her father, a sheriff, but they assure her that’s not the case. For a variety of reasons, it is common for women to reject going to the police after being sexually assaulted, but shame is definitely one of them. The situation for Jules is only compounded by the fact that her dad is a cop.
What really doesn’t help, however, and yet continues to be a trend for many sexual assault victims, is when Jules’ counselor convinces her not to report her rape to the school. Keiko Agena from Gilmore Girls plays the counselor, and it’s difficult to see her in such a horrifying role. After she hears the details of Jules’ story, she asks Jules if she thinks it was rape or if she’s just feeling regret for sleeping with her best friend’s boyfriend. She also reminds Jules that Nate is a high-profile and beloved athlete. What will this do to him if she accuses him of rape?
It is a sad truth that art imitates life, and this is certainly a headline we’ve seen in the real world.
So Jules doesn’t report her rape to the school, and thus begins her isolation. She goes to group therapy, but she doesn’t talk about what happened to her. We see one student speaking out about her fear and defenselessness, and right before our eyes we see the birth of the idea of Jules’ vigilante alter-ego. It’s a powerful moment in the aftermath of such an incredible tragedy.
The present day storyline for Sweet/Vicious season 1, episode 7 takes on a much more humorous role, but still explores the way Jules’ rape continues to affect her. She’s been holed up in Ophelia’s apartment for a week, but it’s officially Opharris Day — the anniversary of Ophelia and Harris’ friendship — and Ophelia wants Jules to join in on the fun.
I love this moment because Ophelia calls Jules her best friend, but doesn’t require that feeling to be reciprocated. I think it is reciprocated, though, even if Jules doesn’t say it out loud. She can share a part of her life with Ophelia that she can’t share with anybody else, and voicing your deepest fears and darkest secrets like that goes a long way toward cementing that bestie status.
Despite the fact the police let their number one vigilante suspect go and the fact that Jules hasn’t had a drink since the night of her rape, Ophelia convinces her to let loose and join them on their drunken tour around campus for Opharris Day.
The day gets off to a rocky start, though, when Harris realizes the school took away his article. Conspiracy, much? Meanwhile, Ophelia continues to ignore Evan’s phone calls, despite the obvious fact that she likes him — a lot.
Everything gets kicked up into high gear when Jules starts drinking and the three of them begin wallowing in their sadness. Ophelia interrupts Evan’s date, Harris gets kicked off the law journal, and Jules spots Nate across the bar with a look on his face that is far from apologetic or remorseful.
Jules hides out in the boy’s bathroom, ready to jump Nate, but Ophelia stops her. This is a breaking point for Jules. She’s seen Nate’s face continuously since the day he raped her. She finally confronted him in last week’s episode, but he either doesn’t believe he raped her or refuses to admit that’s actually what it was. Jules’ carefully constructed lie is crumbling around her, and all she feels is hurt and anger.
Thank God for Ophelia. She isn’t always the stable one in the relationship, but she can at least see past the alcohol to recognize that Jules’ plan is a terrible one. First of all, someone will surely recognize her as the vigilante if she attacks Nate in the bathroom, but more importantly, hurting Nate won’t make Jules’ pain go away. Ophelia tells her friend to go to group therapy and work out her issues there. Luckily, Jules listens.
Harris’ problems are not solved by the end of the episode, but he doesn’t give up on his story about Darlington’s campus vigilante. Instead, he calls Barton and tells him to keep digging. One way or another, they’ll get to the truth.
Ophelia, on the other hand, has a pretty good night in comparison. Evan comes to her door to demand she figure out what she wants from their relationship. He’s not to blame at all here — he called her a dozen times and she ignored him. Ophelia admits she does like him, but she also wants to be independent. She doesn’t need someone clingy in her life. I love the way Sweet/Vicious flipped the trope here, with Evan fulfilling the stereotypical female role in the relationship.
I also love that the show is making an effort to put forth a sex-positive relationship in comparison to all the storylines about rape. It’s important to know that sexual assault is a prevalent issue, but it’s equally as important to see women on our screens who have had good experiences with sex. There is no shame in being sexually active, and Ophelia’s story reminds us of exactly that.
The last bit of Sweet/Vicious episode 7 continues to weave Tyler and Carter’s story throughout the narrative. At the top of the episode, Tyler says he’s done dealing with Carter and his issues. He makes an Etsy store on Jules’ advice, and their run-in at Vinylton is only awkward because there is still so much longing between them.
The problem comes near the end of the episode when Tyler realizes the photo Ophelia sent him weeks ago under the guise of Carter was actually photoshopped. Despite not wanting to deal with his step-brother’s mistakes, Tyler knows something is horrifically wrong, so he goes to the police station to file a missing person’s report.