overnights

Conversations With Friends Recap: A Bit of Pressure

Conversations With Friends

Episode 6
Season 1 Episode 6
Editor’s Rating 3 stars

Conversations With Friends

Episode 6
Season 1 Episode 6
Editor’s Rating 3 stars
Photo: Enda Bowe/HULU

How does everyone feel about Bobbi’s reaction to Frances’s secret? I’m torn between totally understanding why this would feel like a betrayal and also being, as ever, extremely frustrated with the way Bobbi makes herself the center of every experience, even this one, which is very much not about her. And I don’t really buy that her pain is coming from feeling as though she’s being more vulnerable with Frances than Frances is with her because (1) Bobbi tells everyone everything basically all of the time and (2) I think she told Frances about kissing Melissa just as a provocation and point of pride, not because she was divulging something truly private or sensitive. Honestly, I think she’s just feeling stunned that her friend is, by her (Bobbi’s) definition, cooler than she realized and is capable of doing protagonist shit when Bobbi has long relegated her to quiet-sidekick status. And I think she feels threatened by the fact that her indiscretion — a kiss — which seemed so juicy and exhilarating at the moment, is rendered so minor next to the fact of Nick and Frances’s full-on affair.

Frances returns to her mom’s house. Ireland is gray and rainy, just in case you could pick up on the “vacation is over” energy. Frances’s entire description of the vacation is that it was “really nice” and “really hot,” and her mom can tell that something is up even though this isn’t exactly a deviation from Frances’s standard mode of communication (minimalist, evasive, skipping all the good parts).

Remember Frances’s cramps from hell from the first episode? They are back and worse than ever. Frances is in severe pain; there is a lot of blood. Mom is a very cool cucumber here, just calmly asking her daughter if she could be pregnant but in a nonjudgmental way, and then takes her to the hospital — and once they get to the hospital, she hustles to get her daughter seen when they’re being overlooked. A+ parenting, glad to see it.

I cringed when I saw her doctor arrive — young and male, the worst kind — and ask her questions about her level of sexual activity and use of protection. Obviously necessary questions, but the way he asks them is so irritating to me. Just use specifics! And be nicer! Your girl is vomiting from pain! Also why do doctors think you’re going to know the date of your last period … no one ever knows the date of their last period. I love that Frances just loses it and is like, “I mean, he didn’t come inside me. Am I not being clear?” I wish it did not take this excruciating and terrifying experience for Frances to assert herself, but here we are.

It’s unclear if Frances has reported that her periods are always a real struggle. But someone should have asked her this! Left alone, Frances calls Nick, and though she is evidently distressed, he thinks she might be drunk, and she quickly hangs up the phone. When the doctor returns, he says she was not pregnant, so she did not miscarry; no infection either, but the pain is concerning enough that she ought to stay over so the gynecologist can check her out in the morning.

Mom goes home because the nurse told her to. Frances cries until she falls asleep. Nick sends a very effusive and loving text (“hope everything is okay”).

In the morning, the gyno arrives to do an exam. At least it’s a woman, thank God. Time for “a bit of pressure” — every woman’s favorite thing to hear! The doctor, who is very reassuring, says Frances should get an ultrasound in Dublin because there’s nothing showing up (all that pressure for nothing!) and prescribes her the birth-control pill.

Back at her mom’s, Frances gets a text from Bobbi, who, of course, is making the Nick thing all about her (“Did you think I’d disapprove?”), which again is just deeply irritating to me. Just ask if she’s okay!! This is the part where Bobbi says she feels “as if we’re in wildly different versions of this friendship” because of their uneven disclosures, and again I say that Bobbi told Frances about Melissa because she wanted to prove that she was cool and interesting, not in the interest of intimacy between these friends (who, it bears repeating, are also exes).

After Frances picks up her pills, she leaves Bobbi a voicemail asking to talk. Back at her mom’s, she searches their text history for messages with the word “feelings” in it and finds a text in which Bobbi accuses her of never talking about her feelings. Frances maintained that she just wasn’t very emotional, which Bobbi doubts (fair). But Frances says Bobbi thinks anyone who isn’t talking about something is hiding that something, which is not always the case.

Frances walks to her dad’s. His house is in an even more disastrous state than before, just full of trash and filth. Her call to him goes to voicemail. She finally finds him leaning up against a bar downtown; he is clearly blitzed. She walks him home and makes him tea and ignores Nick’s call. Once her dad is settled, she goes back to her mom’s. Mom says it was important that Frances visited her dad, simply because he’s her dad, and Frances is like … Is it, though? Mom also says Frances and Bobbi should make up as, in her maternal wisdom, she can tell they’ve had a spat.

So Frances texts Bobbi on the train ride back, and they meet up at a pub, where Frances apologizes for not telling Bobbi about Nick. I’m genuinely not sure if she has anything to be sorry about here. Bobbi wants to know if Frances would’ve ever told if Bobbi hadn’t walked in, and I can only scream into my notes, ”Bobbi, this isn’t about you! You’re actually not entitled to know every single thing your friend does.” Frances summons all her courage to say, “It’s hard to tell you things sometimes. You’re judgmental. You don’t like Nick.” Fair!

Rather than take this criticism, Bobbi is all “Why do you care what I think?” When, like … literally all Bobbi wants is for Frances to care what she thinks. She would be absolutely wrecked if Frances came to the realization that Bobbi’s opinion of her should not rule the day. Bobbi says Nick has grown on her but that the problem is Frances making Bobbi feel like an intruder. (Okay, but you did intrude, so …) Frances tells Bobbi that Bobbi is at the center of her life, which makes me very sad considering how Bobbi treats her. But oh well.

Outside, Frances tells Bobbi about the hospital situation. She wants permission to feel any kind of way about it — “What are you even allowed to feel about something that probably wasn’t anything at all?” — and Bobbi (correctly!) says, “You tell me.”

What’s funny and frustrating about the rest of their conversation is that, finally, all of Bobbi’s points are 1,000 percent valid, but now that Frances has made the case that Bobbi is too judgmental and critical of Nick, Frances can just ignore whatever Bobbi is saying and claim that Bobbi is being unfair to Nick again. Because Frances is all “It was probably my idea” not to use protection, and Bobbi astutely says maybe Nick isn’t actually passive, he just acts that way so he never has to take responsibility for anything. This is Nick’s entire deal in one cool sentence. Does Frances heed this? We’re only halfway through the series, so I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say, “LOL, no.”

That night, Nick and Frances are texting, and he escalates their conversation to a call, which comes through as a Skype. Oh, boy.

Conversations With Friends Recap: A Bit of Pressure