‘The Bold Type’ Kicks off Season 3 With New Relationship Statuses (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 3, Episode 1 of The Bold Type, “The New Normal.”]
The truth hurts, which is why it’s so hard to accept something’s real — at least for one of the girls on The Bold Type. Season 3 begins with new relationship statuses and a new status quo at work for Jane (Katie Stevens), Kat (Aisha Dee), and Sutton (Meghann Fahy).
Picking up soon after the Season 2 finale left off, Jane has chosen between Ryan (Dan Jeannotte) and Ben (Luca James Lee). Sutton and Richard (Sam Page) are in a good place after he flew to Paris to be with her, but he’s looking to take the next step. Kat is recovering from her breakup with Adena (Nikohl Boosheri) after her ex-girlfriend told her their relationship limited her creatively.
But things aren’t just changing in their personal lives. There’s a new head of digital at Scarlet after Jacqueline (Melora Hardin) published Jane’s article calling out Safford for its healthcare policies. With this new boss, Jacqueline’s not the only one whose job is affected.
Jane Makes Her Choice
Jane has chosen Ryan (a.k.a. Pinstripe), and she’s not planning on looking back. Her BRCA status made things “complicated” with Ben, she explains to her friends. “We never recovered. It just wasn’t right.”
However, Ryan hasn’t moved on as easily. He’s even reading up on Jane’s ex-boyfriend in Scarlet magazine. Upon figuring that out, Jane reassures him of her choice. “I just can’t figure out how I got so lucky,” he tells her.
A New (Big) Step for Sutton and Richard
When Sutton realizes she doesn’t have any clothes for work at Richard’s apartment, his solution is to ask her to move in with him. Just because they’re doing good doesn’t mean she’s ready to take that “big step.”
Though she promises to think about it, Richard tells Jacqueline that she’s moving in to prove that their relationship is “real” and his judgement hasn’t been affected by his father’s death.
Jacqueline’s not the only one with concerns about this relationship. One board member doesn’t invite Richard and Sutton to an annual dinner with the board, and another makes a comment about Sutton’s flexibility. Richard quickly defends her in the latter situation. “You’re talking about my girlfriend,” he says. “She’s smart [and] talented.”
He was “being hopeful” she’d move in, he admits to Sutton, promising, “I wasn’t trying to take away your power.” Just like she (and the others), he, too, is still figuring things out.
But in the end, she realizes she wants to move in with him. Jane’s going to have to find a new roommate.
Newly Single Kat Learns to #BeReal
Unfortunately, all the girls’ love lives can’t be going well. Kat’s faking her way through mourning her breakup and having a hard time moving on, which is why she has yet to pack Adena’s belongings.
She even lies about her relationship status to the new head of digital, Patrick Duchand (Peter Vack) and tells him Adena’s out of town. After giving a somewhat disappointing speech at the annual Scarlet Summit, she admits the truth to him.
“Before I met Adena, I was just a straight girl with commitment issues,” she says. After they fell in love, it was “amazing” until they broke up. She’s stopped posting on her personal accounts because she couldn’t help looking through old photos and wondering if she could’ve done something.
Kat even kisses Alex when he tags along to a lesbian bar because “he said nice things” at a time she needed to hear them. But that’s what Patrick wishes she’d said during her speech.
“People don’t want perfection,” he says. “They want honesty.”
That’s what she gives her followers on her social media account at the end of the premiere: her real self, which is “a mess” following her breakup. Admitting that makes the breakup real.
“We always post the perfect photo of ourselves, instead of showing what we’re actually going through, so this is the real me: heartbroken, after breaking up with the only person that I’ve ever really loved,” she says in a video.
“My life is amazing, it really is, but that doesn’t mean that I’m perfect, and it doesn’t mean that I don’t make mistakes sometimes,” she continues. “I’m getting there, I’m figuring it out, and I think it’s about time we started being real with one another, sharing how we’re actually feeling and being there for one another.”
Her #BeReal hashtag inspires people on social media to post their own truths. Among them is Adena, who is also hurting.
A New Boss
Jane doesn’t get off to the best start with Patrick, accidentally knocking him off his bicycle when she opens her taxi door on his first day at Scarlet.
She is outraged they chose a man to run digital at a women’s magazine, so she’s hoping to dig up some dirt when he invites her to write an article introducing him to Scarlet‘s readers. He encourages her to write whatever she finds because “a good reporter doesn’t shy away from the truth.”
Jane thinks she’s found her story when she sees he doesn’t list his time at Upright in his employment history, but it turns out he’s a good person. He was fired for dropping his pants at a meeting — to prove women deserved to be paid as much as men for the same job. As his former coworker, Stacey (Daniela Sandiford), explains, he was paid more and received perks for doing the same job she did, which he didn’t think was right.
When HR denied that was happening, he screamed, “The only difference between me and Stacey is this” and pulled down his pants. He signed an NDA, so he couldn’t share it.
Jane’s work on the article leads to an unintended consequence for Jane: a spot on Patrick’s digital team.
It’s a new season with a new normal and new relationship problems for Jane, Kat, and Sutton. Sound off on what you think of Jane and Sutton’s decisions and Kat’s way of dealing with heartbreak in the comments below.
The Bold Type, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Freeform
