'Everything's Gonna Be Okay' Episode 5: Matilda's journey is a realistic portrayal of navigating love and heartbreak with autism
This article contains spoilers for 'Everything's Gonna Be Okay' Season 1
In this episode, 'West African Giant Black Millipedes', we see how both Nicholas and Matilda explore their love lives. With Nicholas trying to impress his boyfriend, Alex's friends and Matilda hell-bent on exploring her sexuality, this episode touches on sensitive issues of sex under the influence and rape.
Starting off on a light note, Alex invites three of his friends over for dinner so Nicholas could meet them. The dinner needless to say ended well with a fabulous drag queen show and Alex's friends approving of his new boyfriend. As Nicholas figures out his love life, Matilda tries to experience high school the most 'normal' way she can.
Navigating life with autism is hard for Matilda, especially since she's a young woman with sexual and social curiosity. Dreaming of her upcoming days in college, she tries to reach all teenage girl 'milestones' like underage drinking and losing her virginity. Bringing her friends to a high school party, she's the only one that braves loud music, egotistical soccer players and girls who don't want to interact with her.
Matild is all giggles as she finds Luke but he tells her that he's not interested in her as more than a friend. Going through her first heartbreak, she becomes hysterical as she realizes that Luke doesn't want to date her because she's autistic. Feeling hopeless, she finds herself in a trailer with Luke's friend Zane, who listens to her as she explains her 'budding sexuality' and that she just wants to have sex. As she tries to kiss him drunk and crying, the kiss turns on the heat and the duo ends up having. As the innocence still flares with Matilda mentioning she was bleeding, Zane only asks her to not tell anyone about the encounter as he zips up his pants. When Genevieve finds out how Zane treated her sister, she and her friend Tellulah approach Zane accusing him of raping Matilda as she was drunk, crying and autistic.
The episode takes a realistic prescriptive on teenage minds and highschool life, showing how Matilda with autism runs on the assertion that she should be treated like a normal girl. The thing is there's a blurred line when it comes to comprehending 'budding sexuality' of an autistic individual, with everyone unsure of how to approach such a life-changing situation.
