The Bold Type Recap: 3×02 “Plus It Up”

In this week’s episode of The Bold Type, all three of our leading ladies are forced to confront realities they’d rather not have to deal with. Jane doesn’t want Pinstripe to be involved in her egg freezing process yet gets tasked to co-author an article with him about the whole thing. Sutton is feeling good about finally having moved in with Richard but yet is forced to fill in for Oliver when he keeps mysteriously disappearing during work hours. Kat tries to save a prominent lesbian bar from being shut down by throwing a Queer Prom fundraiser. Keep reading for a full breakdown of what happened this week!

Jane:

Jane is starting her injections to prepare for freezing her eggs. Pinstripe offers to help, but Jane waves him off. They taught her to do the injections at her doctor’s office so how hard could it be, right? Wrong! As soon as Pinstripe leaves for hockey, Jane calls Kat over and asks her do the injection. Although Kat loves any excuse to hang out, she asks the question we’re all wondering: why won’t Jane let Pinstripe help her? Jane says that she doesn’t want to kill their early, fun dating vibe with the tough stuff, so she’s just going to do it while he’s at hockey every day.

Jane goes to Patrick and tells him she wants to write a piece on her egg-freezing process. While Jane wants to approach it from a relatively safe angle, Patrick encourages her to “plus it up”. Pinstripe happens to drop by the office and meets Patrick for the first time, which sparks an idea for Jane’s piece; he wants Jane and Pinstripe to write about what it’s like going through the process as a couple.

When they finally sit down to start writing, Pinstripe is super into it. He wants to hear about all of Jane’s feelings, get a schedule for all her upcoming appoints, etc. Jane’s not feeling it though. She wants it to be a “he said/she said”, where they write their separate parts alone. You can tell from the look on Pinstripe’s face that he’s super disappointed in what she said, but he doesn’t push her on it. All he says as she walks away to go to a “meeting” — *cough* doctor’s appointment *cough* —  is that he wants to be kept in the loop because he truly wants to be there for her.

Pinstripe figures out that Jane lied about her doctor’s appointment once he started doing some further research on the whole egg-freezing process. “Why do I feel like you’re hiding this from me,” he sincerely asks her, to which she honestly responds, “Because I am.” She says that she just let Ben get involved in her medical stuff and it ultimately ruined everything; she doesn’t want that to happen with her and Pinstripe. When he asks her if he’s just supposed to ignore it completely, she flat out tells him yes. “I appreciate everything you’re doing,” she says. “But this is about me. It has nothing to do with you right now.” Jane tells him that all she wanted is to keep things from getting heavy and weird between them, but that’s clearly backfired, girlfriend.

When Jane returns home from queer prom, she finds Pinstripe waiting at her door “because it’s almost 10:30”, which is when she has to giver herself her injection every night. Jane says that she just really likes what they have right now. “I’ve never felt this way about anybody and I wanted to protect that so badly that I tried to keep all the mess away,” she honestly tells him. “But that’s dumb because that’s part of it all, right?” The two of them makeup but are quickly interrupted by Pinstripe’s phone going off; he’s set his own reminders for Jane’s injections and I’m SWOONING.

Sutton:

Sutton has officially moved in with Richard! Let’s all do a happy dance! Sutton has some dirty laundry and Richard offers to put it in the closet so that Fran, the housekeeper, can do it when she comes in on Monday. Sutton feels a little awkward about it and says that, for now, she’s going to continue doing her own laundry. Work continues to get in the way, but Sutton is determined to do it herself. Richard ends up compromising with her and does it for her, saying that he gets why she might not be ready to have a staff do everything for her.

On the work front, Oliver keeps mysteriously disappearing for long hours at a time. This forces Sutton to fix his mistakes — without consulting him first — in order to keep an important photoshoot on track. 

When Sutton confronts Oliver about the crazy photoshoot she was forced to take over on a whim, Oliver blows her off. He leaves yet again and when she asks him where he’s going, he gets stern with her. He tries to diffuse the situation by telling her photoshoots sometimes implode and everyone is allowed a misstep every now and then. But that doesn’t completely soothe her concerns.

Sutton is looking for a form for her photographer on Oliver’s desk when she notices an order to appear in court sitting there. So now, she’s really worried. She’s forced to leave queer prom early when she gets a text saying that Oliver still has not approved the photos for this month’s cover. Sutton goes over to Oliver’s place to confront him about everything that’s going on and he fills her in. As it turns out, Carly — the daughter of an old boyfriend that Oliver helped raise — was headed for a group home due to both parents being absent from her life. But Oliver has chosen to step in and apply to be her legal guardian.

Kat:

When Patrick shows Kat that her #BeReal campaign has gone viral on Twitter, Kat notices one particular tweet about how Wild Susan — a prominent lesbian bar in the city that has become Kat’s spot after Adena once showed it to her — is being shut down after 30 years in business.

Kat, Jane and Sutton go and visit Wild Susan’s for lunch and the owner tells them the real reason that the bar is closing. As it turns out, they were just told about some 20 year old fines that they owe to the state liquor board and they can’t afford them.

Kat calls up her councilmen to talk about how they can work together to save Wild Susan. He admits that the fines are onerous but says that there’s not really anything he can do. Back in the fashion closet, the girls are brainstorming about how to raise $42,000 in one week. When Sutton makes a comment about Oliver hating his prom, this sparks an idea for Kat; she decides to throw a queer prom fundraiser at the Wild Susan.

Queer prom seems to be a smashing success — even Sasha Velour showed up, thanks to Jacqueline! That councilman that Kat met with earlier also shows up. Kat approaches him and asks if they can make a partial payment now and set up a payment plan for the rest, but he says it doesn’t work that way. “Look around, people need this space and they elected you so we have to fight,” she tells him. But he responds with the most oblivious answer ever about how the plans for the luxury condos that are set to go up will include “some open space”. Kat calls him out on his lack of compassion for the people he serves, but all he says on his way out as that he admires her passion.

At the end of the night, we see Kat googling things about the city council election and finds herself clicking on the link to the website of his opponent, Linda Zephyr.

Episode Notes: 

• I don’t know what’s funnier: Jane and Sutton mixing up their vibrators, Sutton calling hers “Mr. Hemsworth”, or the vibrator going off in front of the extremely attractive movers.
• The subtle Pinstripe playing hockey storyline is something I never knew I needed before now.
• This is such a hilarious and underrated exchange:
  • Sutton: “Not only have I never had a housekeeper, but in 12th grade I almost was one, at a hotel.”
  • Kat: “What happened?” 
  • Sutton: “Failed the drug test.”
• Patrick learned a very important lesson in this episode that will take him far at Scarlett: never underestimate Jacqueline Carlyle.
• Speaking of Patrick, I’m not really sure how I feel about him yet. On the one hand, I like that he challenges Jane to think outside her lane, but on the other hand
• I really love seeing how flawlessly Richard fits in with Kat and Jane. It makes me so happy. 
• Granted we’re only two episodes in, but I love what they’ve done with Pinstripe this season. They’ve really started to flesh him out and make him much more well-rounded character. I can’t wait to see where his and Jane’s relationship goes this season. 

What did you think about this week’s episode? Let me know in the comments below!

The Bold Type airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Freeform.