Episode 2.07-Awkward Kisses
I know a lot of people were upset by the weird kissing scene between Jessica and Wyatt at the end of the episode. But there was another equally weird kiss between Emma and Keynes. It’s not an accident that these two kisses occurred just a few minutes apart.
1. We suspect that Emma is playing Keyes so she can seize power for herself. She also seems to have a significantly different view of the future than Keynes. I personally see her as motivated primarily by the desire for power. I don’t know her ideological background but she’s clearly supportive of women’s rights (probably not racial equality but that’s White Feminism). Emma is manipulating Keynes most likely by pursuing a sexual relationship with him. Never forget that he is also conveniently married. I’m convinced that’s not the first time she’s tried this tactic. I think she and Flynn had a thing before she revealed herself as Rittenhouse. I’m not certain she wasn’t a little emotionally involved though. Not enough to make her stop being Rittenhouse.
2. We also suspect that Jessica is Rittenhouse. I think more than likely she isn’t a horrible person. The show keeps pointing out that Rittenhouse sleeper agents are often fairly unwilling and all but forced into it by their parents or through manipulation. I suspect Jessica wasn’t a very good agent because she didn’t rush to help Emma in the hospital scene. I also think she was looking for an out when she offered to leave. Jessica then offers to help comb through documents which makes me think she knows that there is something there. Jessica’s kiss is one of desperation. She needs Wyatt to protect her. She’s in a very vulnerable position. She knows that if she is outed as a Rittenhouse agent Flynn will straight up kill her. He’s not going to hesitate. The others might but not Flynn. She also can’t go back to Rittenhouse. Her screwing up the mission is too severe. So she kisses Wyatt in a last-ditch effort to get him on her side. He appears shocked. The whole staging of the kiss is so fake. He was arguably in more danger after that Rittenhouse raid and yet she was nowhere to be seen. She doesn’t kiss him after the JFK attempted killing either. (She may not have been told much but I suspect she knew that he wasn’t going to play golf.) Wyatt whispers “Why” or “What” to her as they walk away. He’s clearly puzzled by her behavior. She may be also motivated by spite when he waved her goodbye but I’m not sure. I think she doesn’t want to hurt Lucy but she’s desperate. Also, I’m not convinced that she knows that Lucy cares that much about Wyatt. Don’t forget that she has probably seen Lucy and Flynn together and may suspect something is going on between them.
It’s important to remember that Wyatt doesn’t know that Jessica knows about Lucy. All he knows is that Jessica was urged by Lucy to stay. If he had pushed Jessica away she would have immediately suspected. Even though he and Lucy didn’t have an affair he knows Jessica well enough to know that she probably won’t stick around. He needs Jessica’s forgiveness and needs to make the marriage work in order to assuage his conscience that he was the one who had her killed.
The parallels between Jessica and Emma are killing me. They are both playing a game to survive. I think Emma is much guiltier than Jessica most likely is but I find the parallels very interesting. Also don’t get me started on any potential parallels between Flynn and Wyatt being betrayed by people they trusted.
Anyway, that kiss scene was absolutely necessary even if it was disturbing. I thought Wyatt glancing at Lucy was weird and I’m still trying to figure out why he did that. Was it an apology? Longing for her? Any thoughts?
Note: I am in no way defending Wyatt for his behavior. I’ll have another whole post on that. It’s complicated.
