“Big Emotions” – Big Love for ABM

By Gemma Jacob

A train is halted because of a suspicious package. A young lady wearily descends the stairs from the platform with her luggage. She sits despondently on her suitcase as she dials a number on her phone. The message she leaves tells us that there has been a suspect bag found on the train and she’s unsure of whether there will be another train. She asks the person to return her call. She leans back against the steps; we all know she is in for a wait.

When we next see her she is still sat in the same spot. Waiting. Her phone notifies her of a message. Almost immediately a smile spreads across her face as she reads the words on her phone screen, ‘Hey good looking, need a ride.’ Her phone rings and her smile becomes even wider. She answers the call as she searches the surrounding area, presumably for the caller, “Where are you?” Then we see.

Stood waiting by a car we see the caller, her girlfriend, holding a big poster like they do at the airport, emblazoned across it in big red letters, ‘My girlfriend.’ She runs up to her and they kiss as she swings her arms around her. In a chivalrous displays of love uncommon in the modern era, ABM’s young lovers – Aster and Vivian are reunited after months (possibly weeks, but life feels longer at that age) apart. Romance is not dead.

Sometimes the world conspires to place you in exactly the right place, at exactly the right time, with exactly the right person. In those moments when every cosmic force is aligned and intent on making you happy it is difficult not to fall completely and utterly head over heels in love. And whether you are lucky to have felt that moment even once, or are still waiting to feel it, there is a part of you that knows it exists. It is this part of you that allows you to perform such grand romantic gestures, and it is this part of you that makes you smile, and at times ache, when you watch the stories of the young lovers play out on ABM.

The big emotions of our favourite characters mean grand romantic gestures are not uncommon in ABM’s dealings with love. When Aster realises how silly she has been ignoring Vivian’s calls and messages she thinks nothing of making the vast 30-minute commute that keeps them apart to show up in her love’s doorway unannounced. Vivian and Archibald both scour the city in search of their respective loves in the Season One finale, with Vivian overriding any fear to kiss Aster at the end of the episode, even though her classmates are stood only a few metres away. Jonathan too, in a musical interlude, channels his emotions and uses a song as a love letter to Sophie.

It is not just the large displays of affection that speaks to ABM’s audience; it is the smaller moments too. One of my most favourite scenes happens in episode four of S1, when Aster and Vivian are alone in Aster’s Upper Westside apartment. They are sat opposite each other enjoying being in each other’s presence, unable to come up with any plausible reason why they should not stay like that forever.

However, these rather big emotions can often lead to big heartaches. What was initially a rallying of friends on Archibald’s part to prevent Elisabeth from once again going nuclear, turns into a veritable meltdown of every relationship in the ABM-sphere, including the burgeoning relationship between him and Elisabeth. Archibald puts up walls because he believes Elisabeth is not who he thought her to be. With Elisabeth’s neurotic tendencies this is the last thing their relationship needs. Though we have yet to see the reaction, I am certain that Jonathan will not think Sophie’s kissing of Vivian was a goods thing for their broken relationship. However, whether this will finally convince Sterns that he has no chance with Vivian is to be seen.

Of course, the most notable casualty at the end of S2 is the relationship affectionately dubbed VivSter. The emotions involved in this pile-up are perhaps the biggest of them all. Vivian and Aster’s relationship was no longer on the tumultuous keel of the first season. In S2 Aster was the best possible version of herself, despite there being several moments when she could have justifiably not been. We should have perhaps known that it is when our favourite couple are at their most happy they are also at their most vulnerable.

Vivian and Aster have never been afraid to love, and I think this is why they are so many people’s favourite couple. There have been many things that have been issues for them, namely Vivian remaining closeted in Westchester, however, you never doubt that these two are very much in love and belong to each other in a way they never will to anyone else. In the beginning of their relationship Vivian, with relative ease, declared in writing, ‘I’m with you’ when Aster was still tentatively exploring how Vivian felt. This is why the events of the S2 finale caused such a visceral reaction amongst ABM’s viewers and have proved so divisive.

We are waiting for someone, Vivian, Aster, Archibald, Elisabeth, Jonathan, anyone, to perform some incredibly grand romantic gesture and for everything to be okay again. Perhaps not even a big gesture is needed; it could be the smallest of things, like crossing the street, for everything in their worlds to be put right. I know that it will take more than a single gesture, however grand or small, to resolve many of the issues raised at the end of S2, but the optimist (or perhaps romantic fool) in each of us hopes for those moments.

There is no denying that the biggest emotions involved though are those of the viewers, especially the fans. I make that distinction, because whilst ABM has an increasing number of viewers I believe that those emotionally invested in these characters, and the continuation of the show, are its true fans. And we are many. We are the ones whose mouths are left agape at jaw-dropping cliff-hangers, who are either screaming in horror or whooping for joy at the events that unfold, and smacking our hands against our foreheads when the wrong words are said.

In episode five of S2, when Vivian asks Aster what is they have that Jonathan and Sophie or any other high school couple don’t, her answer is simply, ‘Love.’ This is also true of what sets ABM’s fans from its viewers, and fans of other shows. There is a genuine love for the characters and this cast and crew. I have seen overwhelming support for every project any of the cast or crew is involved in. In the months since the S2 finale aired the respective supporters of Team VivSter and Team Sophian do not fight any less ardently. This site, is an absolute labour of love.

We, the fans, are the ones with our hearts on the line as we wait for S3 and news that there will be more ABM once the promised five episodes are aired. We are so intrinsically linked to these stories, beautifully crafted and told in the ABM-verse, that we don’t want to think of not being able to be caught up in the emotion of it all, however big and tempestuous. As much as we hope the hearts of our favourite characters are not broken once S3 begins; we hope that neither are ours.