So the scene everyone’s talking about is the scene with Liv and Engel in the change room. It was obviously primarily designed to show Engel’s insecurities as she watched Liv in the mirror, a girl with larger breasts than her own, and a girl who she generally wishes she looked like. But I can’t help but draw connections between this scene and one from a romantic comedy called What If.
In What If, the protagonist, played by Daniel Radcliffe has feelings for a girl, but she has a boyfriend, so in order to stay friends with this woman, he’s hiding his feelings. So they become best friends, and one day they’re out shopping and she finds this dress she thinks is beautiful, but it’s a size 2, and even though she insists that she is a size two, it gets stuck going over her shoulders and she gets her friend to come in and help her get it off.
The love interest in the movie is getting dressed, but since the dress is stuck it becomes intimate, with her only basically being in a bra and underwear. [this scene does contain non-consensual viewing of this woman in an intimate state, though she invited him in she asked him to close his eyes]. This is the look he has on his face.
Then we have Engel, who’s in a dressing room with Liv, and Liv too is in a very intimate state, she’s in her pants but her bra is only half on. In addition to that, it’s a bra that’s definitely sexy and meant to be enjoyed. This is the look that Engel gives Liv.
After this connection, I began to look back at some of the other scenes that Engel has had this season and came upon this one. It reminds me so much of a romantically intimate gesture, the forehead touch.
Obviously they didn’t kiss and weren’t about to, but most of the time when people are touching their foreheads together, it’s because of romantic intimacy.
And of course, we have the scene with Isa. Unlike the og, where it was depicted as a drunk kiss, with the sloppiness and disjointedness to support it, the kiss between Engel and Isa didn’t have these factors. They’re both still, it doesn’t seem rushed, their hold each other and kissing in a way that seems at odds with the situation around them, it seems calm, not messy. It seems, dare I say it, intimate.
Do I think that they’re trying to build up a plot where Engel is in love with Liv? No. But I do think that they’ve put Engel in multiple intimate situations with girls that would, without a doubt, fit quite perfectly into a rom com, in fact one already was like a scene from a rom com. All of this is to say that I hope they don’t let this fade, whether it was purposeful or not, they’ve given a great foundation for a wlw Engel.