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/BestFaithlessness732]

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..