'Love Life' Episode 5 Review: A blast from the past unravels Darby's delusional fantasy
Spoilers for 'Love Life' Episode 5
In this episode, 'Luke Ducharme,' viewers were taken into Darby Carter's (Anna Kendrick) high school life at a boarding school, one that she applied to herself. The show follows its course of 'one man per episode' but this time we're introduced to Ducharme, Darby's first "experience at rejection." In the last episode, we saw Magnus Lund (Nick Thune), Darby's fourth man from the series of relationships from Episode 4, propose to Darby. We were then left with that cliffhanger. In this episode, we get the answer to our question, with just a 30-minute detour into Darby's past.
Darby is seen at a therapist's office at the start of the episode, wanting to look "inward." She tells her therapist that she's been having trouble with her relationship — her inability to express herself has been affecting her connection with Lund. While the therapist is quick to call her a "pleaser," Darby reverts saying, "well now, I'm angry" only to find out that she had been "steamrolled" by Lund. She explains that if she objects to an opinion, he would get mad and break up with her, to which the therapist replied that she was afraid of rejection. The solution was to dig deeper as Darby is asked to recall the first time she had experienced painful rejection and we're then introduced to Ducharme. Let us tell you, you'd hate him at first, but you'd hate Darby more.
Darby and Luke in high school
After spending thanksgiving break cuddled up and "hooking up" with Ducharme, Darbys expected a relationship out of him. He, on the other hand, was an ass**** that didn't pay her any mind after the break was over. "He's a player," warned Grace, Darby's roommate. After ignoring Darby's desperate actions for days, she finds Ducharme walk out of a steamy session with Grace. But instead of telling Grace that she was mad about the way she was disrespected in the scenario, she lied, saying she had cancer and that's why she was crying. She received the love and attention she wanted from her peers and even gaslit Ducharme to be with her. "I love you, I'm sorry I hurt you," he had said to her. You can imagine, of course, that she got caught and later withdrew from the boarding school. Her parents, finally, show some sort of interest in her as she explains that she's sad and wants to be home.
Present day
So, Darby, at present, is being gaslit by Lund, and so she follows his wishes, unable to express herself. She had done the same to everyone at the boarding school, gaslit her peers, teachers, and even Ducharme. That trauma from her childhood has continued on to encompass her adult life. Turns out, therapy didn't work for Darby as she never went back. We would have hoped that she would begin to work on her mental health. But, nay, it seemed as though the therapist was used as a filler character so the storyline could take viewers back in time to an event that they hoped would justify Darby's current actions. Her therapist had asked her to "reflect on what it is that makes you feel like you don't deserve to be loved." She clearly did not want to give that a go. She did acknowledge what she did back then was stupid though, so brownie points.
The reason why Darby quit? This is the reason the British narrator gives us: "Because digging deeper would require her to upend her entire life which was built on the carefully constructed fantasy that getting married was some sort of proof once and for all that she was loveable." Yes, in the end, we find out that Darby accepted Lund's proposal.
While this episode has Darby some sort of depth, it was already highlighted in the first episode. She had always felt invisible when it came to her parents, and in this episode, we found out the drastic move she had pulled in high school to gain the attention she was being starved of. Lying about cancer was a little too extreme of a narrative for a series that showed the cliched view of a 'love story,' if you ask us.
New episodes of 'Love Life' will be released every Thursday on HBO Max.
