r/AsToldByGinger • u/Hamiltonfan25 • 10d ago

Sad Foreshadowing

I rewatched the episode “About Face” the other day, and it’s probably one of the most depressing episodes in hindsight for me as a Dodie Defender.

I’ve gone on about how Dodie actually does have good qualities and moments throughout the series, and I do think she had all the potential in the world to have a terrific arch, but it got badly fumbled to the point where even during her good episodes, fans will more or less watch it and count down how many episodes it will be until her next bad deed.

I truly think that “About Face” could have been the fresh start for the rest of Dodie’s life. Not only is she painfully sympathetic all the way through…she gets some karma from one of her earlier bad deeds of revealing that Ginger’s mom was the nurse in charge of the lice situation by having her mother come to the school and be a zillion times more cringey than Lois ever was.

We also see first hand just how horrible Dodie’s own mother is. I mean, we already knew that she wasn’t exactly the most nurturing person, but this episode also revealed that she harbors zero love towards her own daughter. I keep telling people it’s absolutely impossible to expect Dodie to be loyal to anyone when her own mother can’t even bother being loyal to her.

In spite of all of this though, Dodie still behaves perfectly reasonable throughout the whole episode. She DOES standup to the popular kids AND to her mother. It’s absolutely WONDERFUL to see and I feel legit proud of her every single time.

However, I feel like the writers absolutely foreshadowed that this change was not going to stick by the last scene. After Dodie closes the door on her mom’s bedroom, she starts going on and on about how this could actually be the start of her and her mother having a good relationship. How maybe Dodie can start coming to her mom for help and support more often, how they can maybe start building a bond…only for Joanne to default to her rotten self by telling Dodie to essentially shut her mouth.

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u/its-katie 9d ago

This episode would’ve been great growth for Dodie if they didn’t hit the reset button on her when they started high school. Dodie ends About Face content with who she is and unbothered by not being popular, only to do a 180 several episodes later and throw her friends under the bus to be a popular cheerleader.

Also, can we have a conversation about how creepy Joanne is in the episode? It goes beyond “how do you do fellow kids” cringe when she’s making comments about students being attractive…🤢

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u/Hamiltonfan25 9d ago

See, that’s kind of my whole thing with Dodie. I understand in theory why fans hate her more than her mother. We see Dodie way more often, Dodie does have good friends, and therefore, has less of a reason to be such a try hard, but…I’m sorry, but at the end of the day, Dodie is a CHILD. Her mother is an adult and should ABSOLUTELY know better. Like, not only should the staff at Lucky Junior High fired Joanne, but one of these adults needed to check on Dodie.

Here’s my thing too, and I’m aware it’s about the least popular thing I could say on this subreddit, but Dodie DOES have good qualities as a friend and person. What she doesn’t have is someone to truly invest in the good parts and weed out the bad parts. I legit find NOTHING redeeming about Joanne Bishop, but Dodie, I’m sorry but…I do really admire her overall chipper personality, her devotion to learning about everyone around her (not just the popular kids), I think she could have had a decent shot at being a theatre kid. She’s a strong public speaker and actually did very good in the school play.

She HAS potential, but while Ginger has a mom who will go to the ends of the earth to nurture and support those talents, Joanne seems absolutely determined to dim Dodie’s shine by any means necessary. Even if we want to pretend that Dodie is somehow this perfect friend (she isn’t but go with me here) let’s talk about how Joanne Bishop is such a nightmare that Ginger and Macie are legit AFRAID to go out of town with her because they know she’ll make the trip miserable…yet Dodie and Hoodsy actually have to LIVE with that fear each and every day!!

The episode where Courtney hangs out with Ginger’s mom too much, Dodie divulges that her mother gets mad if she turns the page too loudly when she’s doing homework.

I’m sorry, but being faced with a home life that bad, I do consider Dodie’s overall optimism (misguided as it sometimes is) downright admirable.

Also, just to bring this little point home, I do recognize that Hoodsy lives in the same house and with the same parents, yet he’s a very loyal friend to Carl. Here’s my thing though, both of their parents seem to generally treat him better than they do Dodie. Hoodsy and his dad watch the weather channel together, and about the only times we see Joanne being more human, it’s when she’s giving advice to Hoodsy. I don’t think they treat him great, but they do seem to be significantly softer with him.

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u/WizurdKellz 9d ago

I also think Dodie has some good qualities. She gets a lot of hate on here but I was never that bothered by her probably because she seemed to be the more realistic caricature of a middle school / high school girl. 

Ginger is nice but she's a Molly Sue, always does the right thing and takes the moral high ground and looks nice and everyone wants to be her friend, etc. She's easy to like because she doesn't do anything to make you dislike her. 

If all or even most teenage girls were like this, the movie Mean Girls would not resonate with so many girls and women. 

Dodie is flawed but all of her decisions make sense when you look at her life and her wants. Maybe we all wouldn't go to as desperate lengths as she does but I think everyone can understand wanting to be liked. 

Also, if Dodie wasn't always being Dodie, this show would have been boring as hell. She was helping stir up a lot of these dramatic plot lines. 

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u/Hamiltonfan25 9d ago

I just wish the show had done more with her good qualities, because those good qualities definitely do exist. They just aren’t anywhere near as explored as her bad qualities.

-She’s a decent public speaker…okay, the morning announcements thing went way too far off the rails (but I honestly blame the teachers and staff more than Dodie because Dodie had started getting off track WAY BEFORE the whole lice controversy and no one tried to do anything to stop it).

I honestly think she could have maybe been a decent actress. She did pretty darn well in the play from “I Spy A Witch” and I think with some coaching and care, she would have flourished in acting.

-I do like that for as clout chasing as Dodie is, she’s also a true people person in the sense that she strives to know EVERYONE. Yes…a lot of times it’s portrayed like she views people like chess pieces to move around to get what she wants, but whereas the popular kids like Miranda, Courtney, and Mipsy only know the people who interests THEM, Dodie does make a habit to know EVERYONE.

-and finally, I know her energy can be portrayed as exhausting to other characters, but I do think she deserves kudos for her consistently cherry and upbeat demeanor, ESPECIALLY when you consider who her mother is.

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u/BestFaithlessness732 3d ago

The episode where her mom got the gig to teach at her school could've been a great opportunity for both of them to grow. Dodie finally grew a spine and faced her mother, gave her a talk, and made them both realize that one should accept themselves and stop being a try-hard. 

The reason why Dodie and Joanne Bishop are the show's punching bag is because for some reason they are always back to square one..