If your English teacher doesn’t know that you are gay and/or a commie after you write an essay, are you even writing an essay

I. AM. HERE. FOR. THIS. ANALYSIS. Reblogging to add, I love how necessary it is to their love story that Jack waited for her. Phryne is so afraid of love, and doesn’t know how to do it, and is historically “””bad””” at it, and over the course of their friendship-into-romance Jack knows that. Yes, he’s got his own damage from his marriage and how that went, but he isn’t afraid of loving again - he’s bruised by what happened, but emotionally open. If he had given in to Phryne’s wiles he would be just another notch on her bedpost; another old friend, and maybe they would have stayed colleagues and sometimes-lovers, and been friendly with one another, but it wouldn’t be what we have now.  It’s the fact that they waited - that he resisted her right until the moment he didn’t, the moment she was ready for him - that means she’s unafraid of their future. They built a partnership, an equality, so that by the time he’s standing by her plane she trusts him to take care of her heart, and so she (finally) gives him her heart. Phryne and Jack both yearn for each other equally, but in different ways, and I fully believe their timing in realising that was perfect. They couldn’t have got together any sooner because they both needed time to find their own unique brands of courage.

Omg that is on point. Their relationship could so easily not have progressed to the point it does and gone off to become this kind of friends with benefits thing - which would have been interesting in its own way but I think ultimately destructive to both of them because I don’t think it would have changed the developing of Feelings™, it just would have made things messier.

It’s easy to see Jack’s restraint as something that protects him, but I think it protects the relationship in general because it would have been so easy for them to let their mutual desire ruin them, and instead they manage to keep dancing until she’s ready to deal with the fact that she’s gone and actually fallen in love, and he’s ready to deal with what it means to be in love with a woman like Phryne.

It’s true that the timing (and filming) is perfect because the tipping point comes when they are both ready to truly meet each other halfway.

I think Jack’s been ready for longer than Phryne, but seeing the moment she realises she wants to claim him for her own is so beautiful for a couple who’s foundation is literally partnership. The meeting in the middle is a gorgeous nod to their equality in all things, and I don’t think it could work any other way.

#also dude your tags about jealous Phryne 💯💯💯 YES#straight up I think Concetta is such an important turning point for Phryne#I think it’s the wake up call that she and Jack do not exist in a vacuum#and that (even if we know he’s far too gone to) he has no obligation to stick around#and I think that idea that Jack could actually leave is really important in kinda giving Phryne the courage to turn around#and actually acknowledge her feelings (via @viikirks)

OMG RIGHT??? Sure, Compton was the moment Phryne first felt bad about sleeping around, but Concetta. Ho boy, Concetta was the moment Phryne realised turnabout was fair play! She may be comfortable flinging with old friends and taking on quickie lovers - all power to her - but Jack; he is a one-woman kinda man, and if Phryne wasn’t going to get her act together and see their relationship through to its natural conclusion, then he’s tapping out, later gater, time to look for a viable option (or at least try to, poor lamb). Time to entertain the affections of a genuinely good, kind, funny woman who was willing to return the emotional availability that Phryne was, until that point, withholding. 

And that look she gives, as she watches their easy intimacy and sees the potential for more than just dinner - to me that look is a quick progression of:  a) excuse me who are you? b) Jack and I have a mutual thing going here c) which we should probably act on pretty soon d) because if we don’t, he will move on to someone who can give him what I’ve been too afraid and incapable of giving him until this exact very second, ie you apparently e) and I will lose him f) fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck I cannot lose him g) Hey Jack, who’s ready to jump into the deep end? *points two thumbs to herself* I’M READY TO JUMP INTO THE DEEP END h) *blasts Pink’s Please Don’t Leave Me from a boombox outside Strano’s*

The fact that it’s Concetta who called it is a really lovely touch too, because I think it drives home just how close Jack came to giving up and trying something else. And equally Phryne knew that; sat in her parlour with sad Italian opera and knew that she was completely in love with him, felt guilty being with anybody else, and very nearly missed her chance. Because this isn’t just another little game; Jack is his own person with agency, not a toy going along to her rules of engagement, and if he decides he’s had enough, he is well within his rights to try to love someone else. 

But Concetta doesn’t let him, and he acknowledges that, until this other thing is resolved, he can’t be with anyone else, and he waltzes back to Phryne’s with a bottle of red to tell her the ball is in her court and hello I’m here to play so up your game sweetheart because it’s party time. A challenge which, having just dealt points a) -> h), she’s all too happy to accept. 

g) Hey Jack, who’s ready to jump into the deep end? *points two thumbs to herself* I’M READY TO JUMP INTO THE DEEP END

h) *blasts Pink’s Please Don’t Leave Me from a boombox outside Strano’s* 

Dude you got me over here crying and laughing and crying laughing. But seriously, all such fantastic points. I totally agree about it being Concetta who calls it, because I think those couple of episodes at the beginning of Season 3 where they go from almost having their moment and getting so thoroughly thwarted (thanks Henry), to Phryne sleeping with Compton, to a sweet, kind woman basically proposing to Jack - you can 100% see how and why he pauses. If I were Jack, I would pause. I would be sitting at home sippin’ on my whiskey like ‘fuckit well I guess this is all a sign’, and it kinda takes Concetta going ‘sweetie, you’re so far gone, and not for me’ for him to break out of that maudlin state where he’s thinking maybe him and Phryne aren’t going to happen after all.

Then, like you say, once that’s broken he is 1000% here to play and Phryne - having had her own revelation of points a) through h) - is 1000% ready to meet him on court and then oH WAIT THE NEXT EPISODE THEY PLAY TENNIS HAHAHAHAHAHAIHATETHISSHOW

*I need to edit this as I am mildly inebriated and my brain smushed together season 3 episodes all together but you know what I stand by my point about tennis even if there’s like 4 episodes inbetween 😂😅💀

#I think we may now be playing meta tennis

The only kind I’m good at. No but for REAL! The tennis thing is PERFECT because there is no doubt anymore. In the beginning, if you look at them and who they are and whether they “will” on this will-they-won’t-they, there are too many doubts. She’s too flighty. He’s too staid. She’s too flirty. He’s too honourable. She won’t settle down. He won’t play along. She wants sex. He wants a marriage. All these points of difference which are invariably points of contention on their road to resolution, and again, the timing on this works because we needed all that time for those problems to work out. Phryne is still sexual and flirty and uninhibited, but somewhere along the way she wants Jack to be okay with that and still love her for it. And he’s still the counterpoint and the stable one who would love to go steady, but he learned to love her fun instead of resent it and would gladly forego some traditions for her sake. 

They get to this exact moment where she feels guilty sleeping around and he can’t commit to anyone else, precisely because they have resolved - either alone or together - all the reasons they would stay apart. And so a HUGE part of 3.5 is them playing UST tennis but loving the game all the same because they BOTH. KNOW. IT. WILL. HAPPEN. … And that’s why it’s so fun!!!

I’m gonna try this again sober now 😅 but seriously, that clear (if technically implicit) development of their relationship where it evolves from flirtation to actual wooing is so brilliant, and why I love the second half of S3 so much. Somehow the sexual tension in their teasing ramps up by 1000 whilst also becoming more intimate and tender. I mean the neck stroking scene of 3x04? Swoon. Here are two people who have finally started to realise that the ball in this tennis match is their hearts not their genitals.

And it’s interesting because I was resistant when I first started S3, the fangirl in me annoyed at the interfering presence of Henry, and Compton, and Concetta. In reality though, I think that stalling is completely vital, because don’t forget if it hadn’t been for Aunt P and her (un)fortunate timing these two straight up woulda fucked at the end of 2x12. Which brings us kinda full circle to the whole “this could have happened earlier and could have been a giant shitshow because the emotions weren’t quite there yet” idea.

It’s actually a real pleasure to watch these two wonderful characters, diametrically opposed in their views on romance, find a way to make something work for them on their own terms. It’s never a case of them expecting or even wanting the other to change, and I think had circumstances been different (no reconciliation after Blood at the Wheel for example) it’s deeply realistic that they would have decided that this thing between them would never work, rather than either of them even attempting to effect any change. Thankfully, they do reconcile, they do continue, and what it leads to is instead a journey of adapting priorities.

Does Jack prefer traditional romance? Yes. Would he marry Phryne if that was something she herself was inclined towards? Certainly. But his journey is finding that actually relationships can be more than just the traditional format and still be real and meaningful and beautiful. Does Phryne enjoy casual sex? Hell yeah, and good for her! Does she have an opposition to commitment and traditional romance? Boy, does she. But Phryne’s journey is learning that to love someone doesn’t have to mean compromising or trapping yourself, but can be its own form of empowerment. Jack learns that love can take priority over tradition, and Phryne learns that it can take priority over fear, and both of them learn that it taking priority doesn’t have to rob them of any agency when the person you love is happy to meet you halfway.

“Here are two people who have finally started to realise that the ball in this tennis match is their hearts not their genitals.”

Hello God? I’m deceased will you let me in please? I know I’m late to this party but it was really important that I come back with my Starbucks and make sure this quote stands out. Hello God? Hello? 

OMG ANYWAY, yes, exactly, all of this, I couldn’t have said it better myself. That transition in season 3 to wooing (perfect word usage there) makes the audience and the characters themselves realise that they’re actually in this for real now and enjoy the process of it. Aunt P foiled one gaudy night, Henry foiled another, they both got a taste of “the other side” (ie, other people, ie jealousy)… and all of that equated to the two of them deciding to commit to this thing between them no matter how long it took. They never say it out loud - they never have to say it explicitly - and yet we know they are playing the same game here. Everything becomes tinged, not with will-they-won’t-they, but instead with this wonderful anticipation of when. 

And it’s perfect that they profess their love and then she runs away in her plane. That’s exactly as it should be. It’s the most blatant symbol of their love, because she will never be tied down to him and he will never stop her from going, and yet… AND YET. We know, without there being any follow up, that they get back together somehow. Does he go after her? Does she high-tail it back to Oz? Do they meet in the middle (*waggles eyebrows*) and travel Europe together first? WHO KNOWS! But they both made the choice not to break away from one another, such as after Blood at the Wheel, and they both made the choice to commit to each other and nobody else (waltzing for Christ’s sake, I mean honestly). 

In that choice, after everything they have experienced together and all the highs and lows they have seen in their own relationship, in that choice we plainly see their commitment to meeting halfway, not in spite of their differences, but embracing them. Learning to love them in a fear-conquering, all-encompassing, lose-all-reason kind of way. 

It's never too late to come back to a meta party (not in Phryne Fisher's house, that's for sure). Once again I agree with all, and I think you have summarised perfectly.

It's very important to me (and I think to all of us) that it is a case with these two of finally embracing the difference rather than letting it be a point of contention until one yields more than the other. Because that's what love actually is, and yet the example that is splashed over most media, heterosexual or otherwise, is that one must or should change for someone they love, and it's an unrealistic and unhealthy model. Those who don't or aren't willing to change are portrayed as selfish (and it is oft the woman who is painted in the negative light here, unwilling to change herself, let her male interest 'break down her walls').

Little media tends to portray things the way these two are, where difference doesn't mean incompatibility or change, it just means adventure. Phrack could easily go all kinds of wrong in the end, just like it could go so many kinds of right. That's what makes their journey such a beautiful and relatable one. They're jumping off the deep end with each other, but it's not a jump that either of them is making against their will, rather it's one that in the end they're both excited to make - so long as they're making it together.

look, if you cannot be in public barefaced without being self-conscious & feeling like shit, then your decision to wear makeup is not a choice freely made