Episode 3.2 - We’re Not From Here

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope is a trope in which a young (white, pretty, thin) girl who shows up to guide the (mediocre, straight-laced) male Main Character to a new and exciting chapter in his life. She behaves irrationally, but it’s so adorable! She’s mysterious and cagey, possibly hiding a tragic past, but it only makes him want to know more! She has quirky habits, but those habits make him see the world in a Whole New Way! She exists, in other words, to push the main character towards his goal, even if he doesn’t know what that goal is or how to get there on his own.

This is a pretty misogynistic trope, because it’s almost universally a girl with no last name who exists to push a man to doing what he was always supposed to do, and then she disappears as soon as her purpose is fulfilled. If this trope was applied evenly to any gender, then this would be a lot like the stereotypes we talked about last week. But considering I can think of dozens of Manic Pixie Dream Girls in film, theater, and television, and I can only think of two Manic Pixie Dream Guys (Gael in this episode and Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in Titanic), this is a method Hollywood uses to erase women and their stories.

In fact, in this episode (one of only two Manic Pixie Dream Guys I can think of), Gael actually fails at his purpose. Robin isn’t pushed forward to her New And Greater Purpose; she tosses Gael to the curb and goes back to being who she always was.

This is part of why this trope is so damaging. The “changes” the main character goes through are superficial and reversible. Once the Girl disappears from the man’s life, he could go right back to his old ways if he wanted to. Her energy is dedicated to his change and he can either accept or reject that, and her life means nothing in comparison.

So even in flipping the gender on this trope, the writers end up underscoring it. Not only is Gael a tool in the story, but he’s not even an effective one. Robin knows who she is and who she wants to be and she doesn’t need Gael for any of that.

In this episode, Gael has pushed Robin to become someone else entirely. She's more impulsive, more laid-back. As the episode starts, Robin insists she's happier this way. She insists: "My journey was transformative and I reassert my commitment to both the aforementioned paramour and the philosophies he espouses."

This quickly leads to some upsetting events for Robin, though. She accidentally goes to work high after Gael left pot muffins in her kitchen, she has sand all over her apartment, and Gael brings some inconsiderate and intrusive friends into her home (they pee in her sink, use the bathroom while she's in the shower, and play bongo drums at midnight). Worse, Gael and Robin start having some friction. He smashes her laptop in his sexual frenzy, he drops spaghetti onto her sofa because he doesn't use utensils.

Robin becomes pretty disillusioned pretty quickly.

And this is the reality of the Manic Pixie characters: they can't really function. Nobody can just bounce from one place to another, making zero real connections with other humans, and fitting around, inspiring other people to be their best selves. Even the most free-spirited person you know has people they love. They have a home base, even if they are rarely there. They have dreams, goals, and aspirations of their own. Those dreams, goals, and aspirations will eventually come into conflict with someone in their life.

This episode just had the guts to point out the truth.