Always a Catch!

Episode 9

Is there anything more annoying in a romance than a situation that could be solved with one conversation? Possibly, but bear with me on this, because this episode establishes Mimi as The Trope Breaker. Typically, in a situation like Aida and Placido's, the characters spend a torturous amount of time dancing around each other, spinning out their inability to work things out as long as possible in order to create tension. People like Renato and Raimondo would flit around them ineffectually, wishing there was something they could do to make these two fools see that they love each other and that there's no reason not to be together. It's tried, it's true, it's very irritating.

And that's where Mimi comes in.

Mimi is the stand-in for every romance reader who has ever shrieked in frustration while reading. For everyone who has said, “screw this” and skipped ahead fifty pages. She's everyone who has just wanted to sit down and have a talk with one of the characters to help them see that they're being stubborn over nothing, only she can actually do something about it, because this trope-laden romance is playing out in her own world. Mimi is all of us when she coaxes Aida to recognize what's right under her own nose.

All of this is even better when you factor in that Mimi isn't an idiot about it. She's a good friend, and she genuinely wants Aida and Placido to be happy. So she gently sits down with Aida and listens to her, offering understanding and love while Aida largely works things out for herself. Mimi's role is to circumvent the impending angst storm by just being there for someone who needs her. She does point out a few things, but mostly she's simply supportive, allowing Aida to reminisce and to think about the ways Mimi has demonstrated that you don't need to play by society's rules to be happy. When Aida thinks about how all the light and color went out of her world when Placido began treating her like his brother's fiancée, that reminds her of how Mimi encouraged her to do things she thought she couldn't. Mimi is the proof that she never had to stop being that little girl who chased a boy, chucking chestnuts at his head, and that there's no reason she can't still be that girl. Being perfect will only get you so far. Being yourself is the much better option.

It is interesting to learn that Aida used to be more like Mimi than she is presently. As she remarks to her friend, she was trained out of that, which is why meeting Mimi when they were younger was such a shock. Mimi defied everything Aida had been taught about being a proper lady, and while she did need to learn some conventional etiquette, she found true love by maintaining her own balance between that and her boisterous, active nature. When Aida stops Placido's impending duel, that's what she's doing. She's spent too long being Lady Aida to truly revert to her younger self – and let's face it, we do all grow up eventually, whatever that looks like – but she can recapture her less ladylike pieces. Little Aida would absolutely have proposed to Placido if that's what she wanted. Present-day Aida doing the same is triumphant because she's standing up for herself and what she, and not her father, wants.

And telling society to stuff its silly rules about women's damaged reputations if their fiancés leave them is just the icing on the cake.

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