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Everything Sucks! is a series created and streamed on Netflix in 2018 that tells the story of a group of high school students in the A/V club who set out to make a movie of their own. Set in Boring, Oregon, in 1996, the story touches on many of the character’s individual struggles, including understanding sexuality and the relationship between Kate Messner and Luke O’Neil. Over the school year, during the creation of their film project, they are both put through ups and downs on their way of figuring out who they are as individuals.
The “Relationship” In Everything Sucks!
It is undeniable that when Luke first saw Kate during his first day of freshman year, he immediately developed feelings for her. His main goals for high school were to become massively successful and popular, and part of this plan was to get a girlfriend. So, needless to say, when he sees a particularly attractive sophomore girl when he arrives at A/V club for the first time, she seems like the perfect candidate to be in a relationship with him.
Being a freshman boy, Luke lacked a lot of skills when talking to girls he was attracted to. When Kate seemed to be having technical difficulties with the camera she was using, he took this opportunity to swoop in and offer his assistance. After a little bit of convincing on Luke’s part, she eventually agrees to meet up with him after school at his garage, where he claims he had the right tools to fix it. She didn’t think much of his offer and saw it as him just wanting to lend a helping hand, whereas he viewed it as a chance to get closer with her in hopes of their new friendship, eventually leading to something more.
While leaving the club to go on with the rest of their day, Luke tells his two friends Tyler and McQuaid, that he thinks he has a shot with the new girl he had just met. McQuaid doubted him, saying that it didn’t seem likely that a sophomore girl would have taken an interest in him that quickly, and he continued to hold these beliefs up until lunch when Kate greeted Luke as she passed by him at lunch. This small interaction instills a bit more confidence in him, and he becomes even more excited for their meet-up after school when the two of them plan to meet up.
Later on, Kate and Luke walked together to his house, and they began to get to know each other better. She talks about her favorite singer Tori Amos, and although Luke doesn’t know much about the music, he still takes great interest in everything that she was telling him. Every new thing he learned about Kate made him even more fascinated with who she was as a person. He becomes even more infatuated with her after their short walk. When they arrive at his house, he offers her the CD of “New Oasis” he had just received in the mail saying that he already had a copy of his own, but it is clear that he was mostly doing it in hopes of her taking notice of his interest in her.
Are They Good For Each Other?
Once they were inside the garage, their conversation shifted slightly from the upbeat one they had just moments before to something more personal and serious. After Kate asks about how he knows so much about cameras, he tells her how he learned almost everything from his father, a videographer. He has adverse feelings towards his dad that stem from him leaving Luke and his mother when he was only seven years old. He even goes as far as saying that if you were to look up “deadbeat dad” in the dictionary, a picture of his father would show up. Luke is willing to talk about the subject for a little while but quickly jumps to change the topic to asking Kate why she had decided to join the A/V club as she seemingly does not know all that much about the technology involved.
Kate explains that her father, who is the school principal, wanted her to join the ASB (Associated Student Body) so she could become more of a model student. She didn’t want to take up this opportunity and instead opted for joining the A/V club, which was a quieter group where she was able to feel more comfortable in the environment. Her personality differs from her father’s because she does not want to be as outgoing and seems slightly embarrassed of who he is. Luke, however, says that he finds her father’s personality interesting and goes on to ask about her mother. This is a topic she is uncomfortable with talking about but feels obligated to after Luke had opened up to her about his situation with his own family and shares that she had died when she was much younger.
The way Luke responds to her revelation is different from how people normally responded to it, which Kate seems grateful for. He didn’t press her for more information and instead tells her that they don’t have to talk about it if she doesn’t want to, but unlike other times when the matter had been brought up to her, she is willing to continue the conversation with him. She talks about how they made her see a counselor shortly after it had happened and expresses feelings of annoyance at how the situation had been handled. The wall that she had put up around herself crumbled just a little bit to the point where it was shown that she wasn’t the calm and collected person that she pretended to be. She mentions that when she had gone back to school after it happened, everyone had begun to ignore her, and it was almost like she had disappeared.
Kate seems grateful to have been able to talk to someone about what she was going through, as it seemed like up until this point, she had just been keeping everything bottled up inside. She saw this interaction as the start of a decent friendship with someone who understood what she was going through and didn’t isolate her or act like a charity case. Luke provided her the comfort and outlet she needed, and he was more than happy to help her, considering how much his feelings for her had grown just in the brief period they were alone together. To him, this was the start of an incredible relationship, and in his eyes, she would be the perfect girlfriend, but to her, he only seemed like a perfect friend.
Were They Doomed From The Start?
During this same day, Kate also took notice of someone. Unlike Luke, who had immediately known his feelings from the start, her situation was slightly different, and she was faced with new feelings of sexuality she had experienced before. At lunch, there was a dramatic performance put on by two members of the theatre club, Oliver and Emaline. The two of them immediately grabbed all of the students’ attention in the cafeteria after suddenly launching into a monologue that they had been practicing.
Their theatrics amused everyone, and because of this, it didn’t seem out of place for Kate to be watching them so intently. Her focus, though, was not so much on the actual performance but one actor in particular. From the moment Emaline entered the lunchroom, Kate couldn’t take her eyes off of her. At first, it seemed like she was only watching her because of how amusing her dramatics were, but after the scene had ended, her gaze remained on the older girl. She seemed fascinated by her and looked at Emaline the same way Luke had been looking at her earlier. Not quite understanding when she couldn’t seem to look away, she chalked it up to just being interested in the acting and nothing more than that.
Later on, when Kate is in Luke’s garage, she stumbles upon a magazine filled with pictures of attractive women. After looking at it for a few short seconds, she slips it into her backpack to look at it when she gets home. When she takes it out later that night, her father walks in on her, looking at it and viewing it as her just comparing herself to the models in the pages, whereas she admires them in the sense of attraction. The next day when Kate is in the locker room after PE, she spots the girl from earlier yet again. Unlike the previous time where many people were watching the show being put on at lunch, she wasn’t able to disguise her staring at just being a member of the audience.
Emaline catches her watching from across the room and decides to go over to her. She spoke to Kate for a few short seconds before grabbing her hand and placing it on herself, claiming that Kate had touched her inappropriately even though that was not the case whatsoever.
Rumors started flying around after this had happened, and Kate was suddenly the laughing stock of the entire school. She starts being called homophobic slurs and even had one written across her locker. She had tried to act like nothing was going on, but her father ended up finding out about all of it and called her into his office, where he once again missed the idea of her possibly not being straight. After this, he asked for the bullying to stop, but not much changed even after that.
Everything Sucks!: The Cover-Up
Although Kate was being made fun of by many people in her grade, the one person that it hurt the most coming from was Emaline. By this point, she had pretty much realized that she had feelings for her and was distraught by how far Emaline had gone to just make a fool out of her. Eventually, all of the rumors traveled around the school to where it was hard to find anyone who still thought of her the same way, except for Luke.
McQuaid had overheard someone talking about the situation involving Kate and told Luke about what was going on. Luke ignored all of this and created an elaborate video that he planned on showing the entire school to ask Kate to be his girlfriend officially. Despite all of the rumors and warnings he was receiving to not go through with his plan, he streamed the video over the school news so that everyone was able to witness him asking her out.
Luke was overjoyed when Kate agreed to go out with him and was relieved that she felt the same way about him, even though it was the exact opposite. Kate had only said yes as a way to escape all of the nasty things flying about the school at that time and thought that if she had a boyfriend, no one would question her on whether or not she had tried to make a move on Emaline. She was just using him as a cover-up, and he was oblivious to all of it.
How Luke And Kate Fell Apart In Everything Sucks!
As Luke and Kate’s “relationship” progresses, Kate begins to feel more and more uncomfortable with it. To him, she was the perfect girlfriend, but to her, he was just a friend. When Luke decides it’s time to start bringing their relationship to another level, he believes the first step is to kiss her. She is very much against this idea because she is not attracted to him in the slightest bit. He, of course, is still blind to this and attempts to kiss her in the auditorium, where she pulls the fire alarm to get out of it and ends up setting off the sprinklers, which ruined all of the theatre sets for the upcoming production. Luke covers it up, so she doesn’t get into trouble, and because of this, all of the people in the drama club begin to harass him, including Oliver and Emaline.
It started with just a few prank calls but eventually escalated to where his phone would ring every two seconds. To put a stop to this, he decides to attempt to make peace with Emaline and her friends by going over to the now ruined theatre with Tyler, McQuaid, and Kate to attempt to talk things out. The night ends with a game of spin the bottle where Luke and Kate are told to go into a closet together, where Luke can finally kiss her. As soon as they pull apart, everything clicks in place for Kate, and she tells him that she believes she is a lesbian.
Luke is in denial of all of this at first but eventually realizes that she is not straight. He still has intense feelings for her and does not want to end their relationship, despite it being evident that she has no romantic feelings for him. He proposes that they continue to date but only as a coverup for Kate so that she isn’t forced to come out or confront her feelings for Emaline, but in actuality, he doesn’t want to let go. They continue to stay in their fake relationship.
Still, Kate is uncomfortable throughout its entirety because Luke is constantly trying to get her to fall for him, even though she has already expressed to him that she is only attracted to girls. Luke eventually realizes that what he was doing to her was unfair and gives up on trying to make their relationship work. After seeing how much damage he had caused, he does his best to repair their friendship which seems to work. Although he is no longer forcing something that could never happen, his feelings for Kate remain intact, but by this point, he knows that he needs to get over it.
Everything Sucks!: Kate’s Journey
Kate had been having a rough time figuring out who she was as an individual from the start, and trying to figure out her sexuality just made things even more complicated. Until her sophomore year, she kept to herself and stayed in the background, but Luke tried to push her to become more outgoing and show everyone who she was. The issue with this, though, was that she wasn’t even sure who she was.
Kate’s Relationship With Emaline
Emaline was a significant person to Kate from the very start. Even though she caused so many issues and damage from all of the things that she did, she was still one of the first people Kate ever truly had feelings for. She was also the person who helped her figure out that she was a lesbian. Throughout the season, Kate’s feelings for her never wavered, no matter how cruel something Emaline did to her was. Her attraction seemed pointless to her because Emaline never showed the slightest bit of interest in Kate for the longest time and was even in a relationship with Oliver. Despite all of this, Kate was still overjoyed when Emaline joined the A/V club to start in the movie and was excited to spend more time with her.
The club took a trip into the desert to film a couple of scenes for the movie, and all of the members went except Oliver. As it turned out, Oliver had officially ended his relationship with Emaline, causing her to feel heartbroken for the majority of the trip up until she shared a room with Kate. They had begun to spend more time together from the filming of the project and had even hung out a couple of times outside of school, but it was always just for work. Staying together was different, though, and Emaline began to see Kate in a different light.
The two shared a moment which then prompted their relationship to further, but because Kate was still “dating” Luke at the time, they didn’t officially get together. After the first screening of the movie, Kate and Emaline finally get together and end up kissing on the stage after the rest of the audience had filtered out. As this was the finale, there wasn’t much information about how their relationship continued, but we can assume that it most likely worked out considering how heavily infatuated they were with each other.
Everything Sucks!: Luke’s Damage
Even though Kate eventually got the happy ending she deserved, getting to that point was not easy. One of the main difficulties she had to deal with was her entire relationship with Luke. Luke never wanted to hurt her in the way he did, but he was so caught up in his feelings that he didn’t even begin to consider Kate’s. He spent most of their time together trying to force her to feel a certain way about him that she had made clear was never going to happen. Even after she came out to him, he continued to flirt with her and do everything he possibly could to make the attraction mutual.
Understandably, Luke would want the girl he liked to feel the same way about him, but the way he went about it was not sufficient in the slightest. Although he may not have completely realized what he was doing at the time, the way he treated Kate was horrible. She was struggling enough to figure out why she was feeling the way she was, and having someone constantly throwing himself at her just made it so much worse. He was unintentionally unaccepting of her and was so blinded by his emotions that he pushed aside the entire fact that she was a lesbian.
He had started by being an amazing friend towards her and was someone that she could be herself around but turned into someone who wanted to change her to someone who benefited him the most. Kate’s feelings were constantly being invalidated by someone who she thought she could trust. During that time in her life, she needed someone to support her, and Luke was the opposite. She most likely would have come to acceptance with herself far earlier if he hadn’t been involved.
The Accuracy Of Kate’s Journey In Everything Sucks!
The process of everything Kate went through to come to the final realization of her sexuality mirrors how the many teens going through the same thing figured it all out. Despite all of the parts involving the filmmaking and Luke’s borderline obsession, the core of the story remains as being very relevant to many young people’s struggles. From the very beginning of the show, Kate was shown as a realistic teenage girl with problems that weren’t forced to make her seem “relatable” to the audience. Because of this, viewers were able to connect with her character on a more personal level as she was dealing with the same issues many of them were.
Seeing Emaline in the cafeteria that day was what was shown as the start of her storyline. She quickly developed a crush on her but was confused by why she did. Until then, the thought of being attracted to girls hadn’t even crossed her mind. Her bedroom walls were covered in posters of boy bands and “teen heartthrobs,” who were very popular amongst teenage girls at the time. Except when she saw that girl at lunch, everything seemed to change.
When all of the rumors began to circulate Kate at school, things just became even more complicated. It got to the point where even if she wanted to talk to someone about these brand new feelings, she couldn’t. Everywhere she went, she was faced with extreme unacceptance of something that she barely knew anything about. After kissing Luke, she knew for sure that she was not attracted to him or any other guy for that matter. She and Luke end up finding a quiz in the library about whether or not she could be a lesbian, and her results end up showing that she was.
Many teenagers trying to figure this outlook for resources and quizzes similar to that because they want to find the reasoning for why they had these feelings. Similar to how Kate was relieved when she got it all figured out, people who are questioning tend to feel part of a weight lifted off their shoulders when they can put a name to what is going on. The other half of the weight, dealing with all of this, remains, though.
Once she had a decent understanding of her sexuality, she was then faced with having to come out to people, specifically her father. She had already gotten a negative reaction from Luke and an even worse one from most of her classmates, who only knew about it from rumors. Her dad had been reasonably oblivious to all of this, but not in the sense where he was unwilling to accept it; he didn’t realize exactly what was going on.
He always was an understanding parental figure and did his best to try to compensate for what Kate didn’t have from missing her mother. Because of all of his effort, Kate felt like she owed it to him to try to make his life as easy and happy as possible, which in her mind meant staying in the closet. This again mirrors the real-life feelings people have of not wanting to be a burden and the fear of being unaccepted. One of the reasons why this show is so important to many young people is because of how realistic it is. There aren’t many forced television dramatics in her story; it is raw and feels real rather than forced. It doesn’t glorify everything she had struggled with to feel the acceptance of her sexuality and instead helps the viewers see her entire story.