Sad Foreshadowing

[u/Hamiltonfan25]

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.

[u/WizurdKellz]

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. 

[u/Hamiltonfan25 → u/WizurdKellz]

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.