in my mind, garcia and santos’ relationship is never officially, explicitly casual because they both assume that casual is the only possible way it can be. for their own reasons, they aren’t the kinds to get attached. ever. the conversation is thus considered unnecessary and never had, the label of casual never actually bestowed upon their relationship.
that is, until some nine or ten months later when they’re essentially girlfriends and garcia is prying, she just can’t let something go. maybe it’s about santos’ self-harm, maybe it’s about langdon, or maybe it’s about something else entirely, but whatever it is, santos feels cornered. attacked. she weaponizes “casual” to defend herself.
“casual” doesn’t necessarily surprise garcia. it’s not like she went into this expecting anything else. it’s not a matter of truly believing that they were in an actual relationship this entire time or of being casual and that being violated, but a complicated combination of things. it is being casual (in theory and thought) while also not being casual (in words and ways) and still being struck by “casual.” the word doesn’t surprise her, yet she is taken aback by it. she is hurt.
what makes matters worse—for both of them—is that garcia then weaponizes “casual” back. she launches her own defense, but to santos, her weaponization is seen as another offensive attack. instead of protecting santos from attack, “casual” comes to attack her.
thus, within a matter of hours, garcia goes from someone safe to someone santos sees as taking advantage of her. santos wants garcia to come over for fireworks, then she identifies herself as garcia’s “stress relief squeeze toy.” this isn’t because she actually is—or it shouldn’t be, given the sudden significant shift—but because santos’ trauma shapes (and warps) her understanding of reality.
santos has been sexually abused—the show makes that pretty clear. it seems unlikely that garcia is properly aware of this, given santos’ demonstrated hesitancy to open up, to be vulnerable—something also informed by her trauma. garcia may have gathered bits and pieces here and there but probably not a full picture.
with santos’ trauma, it doesn’t matter that she was the one who said “casual” first. “casual” from garcia, from someone santos thought was more than casual, thought was real, makes it seem to her that she is only wanted for her body. for sex. that garcia is taking advantage of santos, using her devotion to her for her personal pleasure, as her devotion to gymnastics was also once used.
even though garcia isn’t using santos. even though there is obviously so much care there, on both ends.
and i think that is so much more interesting than the “toxic yuri” “garcia is evil” narrative.
