did u find out what the gamechanger was pls tell me
Alright, fine, I give up, I’ll tell you, but only because I’ve been geeking out over how good it is and I’ve been dying to spill:
Okay, so Lucas actually did die while trying to ride Tombstone the bull back in Texas, but Farkle was completely unable to deal with it. He was unprepared for the reality of death itself, let alone his best friend dying at age 15. His mind refuses to accept that as truth, has blocked the memories of the hospital and funeral from his consciousness, and pieced together a ‘storyline’ that Farkle feels would have organically happened anyway if Lucas hadn’t died. Farkle has basically been hallucinating the past year and a half!
That’s why it takes Lucas so long to “pick” between the girls- Farkle’s subconscious is trying it’s hardest to come up with the most realistic storyline possible so Farkle doesn’t have to deal with the heartache of death and loss. But since Farkle could never decide between the Riley and Maya, he has no idea how Lucas would decide between them! The cognitive power for something like that just isn’t there, and that’s why Lucas seems to flip-flop between the girls at times. It’s awful, but the triangle is the only organic sequence of events his brain could come up with for the three- he had already been a little suspicious of seemingly flirty moments between Maya and Lucas, and in the Texan hospital he overheard a crying Maya confessing her true feelings over Lucas’ lifeless body. His conscious mind blocked that memory, of course, but selective memories can be a bitch and her confirmed feelings needed a way to be tied into this elaborate hallucination, because he needed to keep Lucas alive and he wants him and his friends to grow so this seemed like the only solution. And this is all happening subconsciously, Farkle isn’t intentionally imagining something that deeply hurts all of his friends, but his mind is trying so hard to protect him. The human brain is truly amazing, tbh.
All his other friends have been dealing and coping with their grief in relatively normal ways, but the hallucination adds Lucas into every scenario, and creates reasons for his friends to be acting the way they are without Lucas being dead. Riley seeming so depressed and everyone fighting the first week of high school? Had nothing to do with them all feeling a hole in the group where Lucas used to be and feeling guilty that they’re starting high school without him, no, it was all some stupid seniors making them fight for cheap laughs. Maya having an identity crisis and getting caught for vandalism? It’s the triangle, it’s always this stupid triangle’s fault, it totally can’t be because she blames herself for Lucas’ death and she’s reacting negatively. Zay hanging around more often than usual? They just finally bonded, that’s all, totally not like they’re all clinging to him and he’s clinging to them just because they all knew Lucas and they all miss Lucas and Lucas feels like he’s fading more and more every single day. Hell, Farkle’s subconscious is even willing to let his girlfriend flirt with Lucas as long as it means Lucas is there! Don’t lie to yourself, ever since Texas this has seemed more and more like the Lucas Show, despite the boy barely doing anything, ever. Most assumed that was because the romantic drama of the triangle kicked into highkey time, and since the show is in Riley’s POV, that’s what’s going to get focused on more. That’s what the writers wanted you to assume, to focus on, meanwhile we’re getting force fed perception vs reality lessons at every turn! Farkle’s mind is perceiving every little problem that occurs tracing back to a triangle he invented, rather than the reality of everyone around him acting like they do because of grief and mourning and growing up in ways Lucas never will. We hear more and more about Farkle’s insecurity issues, and how they even relate to Lucas, and what happens after Texas? Farkle gets less and less screen time, less lines, becomes someone who watches and observes more than anything. Farkle was always, always a main character in Riley’s life. He was in every single episode, he always had lines. But this is a view from Farkle’s life, and he’s so insecure and focused on keeping that friend alive that Farkle becomes a mere side character in his own ‘show’ (he’s still ‘perceiving’ it as Riley’s show, however, because he doesn’t want anything to really change) . And from one side you might wonder how that makes sense, how can Farkle’s mind justify him not being a main character in his own mind? But Farkle is broken and sad and sick, and he was never prepared for any minor inconvenience at all, let alone the harsh reality of death, and he’s never felt important next to Lucas anyway, and right now keeping Lucas alive is the most important thing, so who cares about the nerdy sidekick? Of course, on another level at the same time, Farkle probably realizes that if he says too much, if he lets people know he’s hallucinating Lucas, his dream is going to have to shatter and he’s going to have to face the facts. For the first time in his life, Farkle doesn’t want facts.
Everyone around him knows Farkle hasn’t been handling the death well, he’s taken it very hard and he’s responding to grief a lot differently than they are. But they don’t know HOW BAD it is- they don’t know he’s all but been living in an intricate hallucination for almost a year and a half. Sweet Sixteen is when they finally find out, all those hints about ‘not paying attention’ to Farkle, taking Canada for granted, even hallucination-Lucas dubbed him “Mt. Farkle-Uvious” because somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he couldn’t hold it in much longer. All those “Farkle will explode” speculations that having been flying around tumblr left and right come to fruition in this episode, finally. The episode is titled Sweet Sixteen because it’s what would have been Lucas’ sixteenth birthday- and everyone is understandably upset and in mourning. But as the episode plays on, Farkle fails to notice or understand everyone’s sad moods, because he can’t notice or understand them. So he asks them if they were planning a surprise party for Lucas’ upcoming big day, asks them if they have any ideas what he could get the cowboy for a present, the usual birthday talk. At first, the group thinks he’s joking, Zay gets really mad at him, but as they notice Farkle being genuinely confused by what they’re upset about, the friends realize how far gone their friend really is over this whole thing. They all spring into action because, shit, they’ve been ignoring their friend too much but ohmyGodtheycan’tloosehimtoo. Riley takes this harder than everyone, I think, because Farkle’s always been a rock for her emotionally and this is making it dawn on her that she was never there for him in the same way. They have a very touching scene together, if you’re a riarkle shipper get the tissues ready! Maya tells Stuart about this and he’s horrified that he’s been so busy he missed obvious signs of his son’s mental health declining, and tries to help. Cory goes as far as to call his sister Morgan into town, as she’s a child psychologist. The episode consists of everyone dealing with the news of Farkle’s hallucination in their own way, and dealing with all the pain of Lucas’ death all over again, and of trying to piece together the ‘storyline’ that Farkle created to keep himself safe. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, the ‘game changer’- everyone sitting Farkle down and telling him that Lucas died in Texas, that he’s made all this up and they wanna help him and he needs to deal with this. The next episode, the season finale, is when the true ‘explosion’ happens- Farkle completely breaks down. Because he doesn’t want to believe this, he can’t believe this, but the curtain has already been drawn back, the glass is breaking, his hallucination falling apart, and shit, he’s remembering the bull ride and the ambulance and the hospital and the funeral and he doesn’t want to remember it! He doesn’t want to have to lose his friend all over again!
The episode continues on around this, and honestly, it’s a real tear jerker so get ready. Maya can’t stand to see Farkle break like this- she was already blaming herself for Lucas’ death, and she was just starting to maybe move on from it, but now her best friend of 9 years is so broken because of it and obviously this has to be her fault too. Stuart’s in full worried parent mode and Topanga and Shawn try to help him figure out what to do about Farkle- Cory is so heartbroken and angry at himself that he didn’t notice how bad this was, this is Farkle, one of his favorite students, the kid who’s at his dinner table three times a week, the one he’s been seeing on a daily basis for almost a decade. He became a teacher because he wants to help people, have an impact on them the way Feeny made an impact on everyone he knew. He ends up calling Feeny for advice because he can’t believe he let Farkle’s struggles slip through his fingers like that. Smackle, bless her, is upset and all, but doesn’t really understand how emotions alone are having such a profound effect on Farkle- she spends most of the episode trying to get Zay of all people to explain it to her, because he doesn’t really want to be near Farkle right now and she feels he’s more in tune with emotions than she is. Riley spends most of the episode with Farkle (and Morgan and some others) as he tries to work through the past year, tries to figure out what’s real, if anything’s real or if he’s been living completely in a bubble the past year and a half. It’s some really emotional stuff, very deep and heart wrenching and you can feel everyone’s emotions so clearly.
And the way they tie it all together? Truly amazing! Like these writers do not get enough credit, guys. The hints for this whole thing are so obvious once you know it’s all in Farkle’s head, so many things from Texas onwards make sense! The fact that Lucas was so indecisive in the triangle, and Farkle not understanding how he could choose but simultaneously wanting him to choose, it all makes so much more sense in this light. Of course, in the “reality” of the situation, the girls were deeply upset and dealing with it in maybe-not-so-good ways because someone they deeply cared about died. But Farkle was only seeing “girls are very hurt” and it tied automatically to the triangle his mind invented. The mind will literally go out of its way to make sense of some things- so while the triangle couldn’t end in a realistic way without Farkle being suspicious of his subconscious, he wanted it to end because it appeared to be hurting the girls. This poor boy’s mind was literally at war with itself! And oh, God, that whole thing in Legacy where Farkle asks the teacher if emotions are stronger than science? Or any scene where he implied not knowing his own emotions? It’s because a part of him knew that if he let go of this world he created, his emotions would consume him entirely, they’d kill him, because he just wasn’t ready for this. He’s been so scared without even understanding it, honestly? #SaveMySon2k16. Oh God, what else ties together with this? Have you noticed how tired Farkle’s been lately? He went from a hyper little ball of love to Doooonnnie Baaaaarnes mellow, but even after that he’s crashed way down. He always seems so exhausted, so agitated, so…not Farkle-y. That’s because ever since Lucas’ accident, his mind has literally been working overtime to keep him protected. There’s barely space or time to focus on anything else, he can’t beat Smackle in school because he doesn’t have the energy to focus, he can’t sleep properly, he can’t do anything properly, which makes him feel even more inadequate than he already did, which pushes him even more into a suffering silence, and of course, the more unhealthy he is, mentally, the stronger the delusion is going to get! And even in some upcoming episodes- we know in The Other Side, Lucas says he only really likes Riley when she’s all sunshine and giggles and glitter and smiles. Which isn’t a realistic way to look at any person, ever, but Farkle and Lucas never had a real legitimate talk about how great Riley is before he died, so he’s never seen Lucas see any other side of the girl, so obviously this is the only side his mind can let Lucas acknowledge. That whole thing in Bay Window where he and the girls just momentarily turned back into six year olds and performed a musical number while Lucas stayed 15? Yeah, because that’s realistic. There’s so many other tie in’s, this is getting too long, message me about them if you must.
Honestly, though? 11/10, amazing episodes, arc, and character work. Great acting to expect from it, too! This whole thing was so well thought out and well executed, and I can’t wait to watch more upcoming episodes and sit there and pick up on all the clues pointing to the fact that this isn’t real! It’s so exciting! This truly is the greatest show, with so many layers to peel back and to pull a game changer like this on the audience is honestly admirable. I’m so inspired by these writers, tbh. I really hope we can get a fourth season out a Disney so we can see where else this amazing storyline takes us!
amandla
yousharknotpass
titsay
vaporwave
theartofmadeline
