Am I ever going to let Anika be a normal teen? And have something nice???
(Maybe. Who knows. I hope she gets a nice, warm blanket one day. And a nap. Maybe some Hot Cocoa?)
(She doesn’t.)
Anika tried to have sex and blew up a house party. That’s it. That’s the episode.
Miya and Jordan are so much fun to work with and I think I’ve said that in every show note about an episode in which they speak to each other. They’ve been around for a while (Miya and I met in my last semester of college, interning together at MTV, and Jordan and I went to college together) and I’ve had such a fun time getting to work with them on this and really shape their relationship around their fun, adorable energy.
The Anika/Cole relationship is one of my favorites in the show, because of how simply high school and human it is. I love giving Anika a chance to do things she’d do even without super powers, and seeing how those powers react in what we’d call normal milestones. There are so many things that feel unfair, but not being able to go through with a lame attempt at house party sex feels so beyond that?
It’s such a simple thing. She’s got powers she literally can’t control, her best friend is making her spandex suits and talking about great powers and great responsibility, and it’s way beyond anything she ever dreamed of. But there are always, I think, these small human moments where Anika wonders what it would be like if she could just be normal for a second. As much as grand destiny might mean something, sometimes as a teenager you just… want to not have huge expectations or wild requirements or any sort of standards to live up to. And I think that’s the hardest part for her.