Becca then rushes to the bathroom for some time alone, only for Phoebe and Georgie to come in talking about her. Hiding in the stall, she overhears her mother criticizing her seemingly dead-end career path by calling her a glorified secretary; Phoebe tries to defend her, saying that Becca getting consumed by her first husband was understandable given how hot he was and that sometimes you have to let people do what they need to do, even if it seems like their priorities are out of whack. Hurt by her mother’s words, Becca says goodbye to Andy and heads to her dad’s place to spend the night; however, once she gets there, she sees the type of presence that Sabrina has and wonders whether it’s possible to put things back to where they once were. She then spots a New Years Eve photo with Lolly, a free spirit who only ate cereal and developed a secret language with her that was made of only movie quotes, and remembers, perhaps driven by her loneliness, the type of close friendship they once had. Jamie comes into her room and finds Becca getting emotional over Lolly, so after he reminds her that everybody wants to go back and fix things in their past, she goes outside for some air.
At the newsstand, a man in line tells her that she looks like she’s trying to solve a puzzle and gives her a Buddhist proverb before leaving. As she wonders whether she’s met this man before, Becca heads back to her dad’s building and gets in the elevator. However, while she goes up in the elevator, she flashes back to another New Years Eve with Lolly, this one less fun than the other one, before passing out. Becca wakes up and things seem different. She tries to wake Jamie up, but he brought a girl home and doesn’t let her open his door; her parents are pleasant with one another and exchange a kiss even though they’re divorced; Phoebe offhandedly mentions that Becca’s going to be the first one of them to get married; there are no pictures of Sabrina on the wall; and Jamie’s room has VHS tapes and a disc man. She confides in him about her feeling that she’s having a very vivid dream that it’s 1995 and he confirms to her that it is indeed 1995 and that she’s marrying Sean later that day. Growing more anxious, she checks the photo album that carried her wedding photos, only to find a series of blank pages and a saved invitation to her wedding with Sean. Becca then heads to Lolly’s apartment where she’s visibly overwhelmed upon seeing her best friend for the first time in a decade. However, Lolly takes Becca’s altered demeanor as signs of needing something to eat following a months-long wedding diet and cracking under the pressure from Georgie.
Once Lolly pinches her, though, Becca realizes that she’s actually in the year 1995 – this isn’t a dream. To prove this, she tells Lolly about getting together with dorky Andy, who’s currently dating Melanie, a temp she hired; Patrick Dempsey getting cute; and Lolly getting gonorrhea from a guy at Lollapalooza, the latter being something 1995 Becca couldn’t have known then. But Becca also pieces together that Lolly was the one who slept with Jamie that morning and that she’s going to break his heart. Freaked out at the entire situation, Lolly decides to leave and warns her not to take muscle relaxers or see Sean. Becca doesn’t listen, though, as she assembles an outfit out of the hodgepodge of baby doll dresses, overalls, and giant flannel in Lolly’s apartment and heads to Sean’s apartment. Even though he’s unpredictable, malicious, insecure, resentful, and has a bad temper, he was the best sex she ever had, so she revisits her favorite aspect of their relationship one more time. Except afterwards, she’s regretful considering that she was just engaged in 2014 and that she knows she and Sean are headed for a breakdown in their relationship. She expresses to him that she’s not sure they should be doing this and he gives her the time to think that she requests, though he’s clearly upset at her sudden burst of cold feet. At home, Becca cries to her father about being unable to marry Sean. However, he assures her that while he understands if that’s the decision she makes, he’s never seen her face light up like it does when Sean walks into a room. You don’t find that more than once in a lifetime. When her mother comes into the room, though, Becca asks whether she’s happy in her marriage, given how often she and Lincoln argue. Georgie responds that that’s how they communicate and even if things were bad enough for a separation to occur, the grass isn’t always greener.
Their conversation gets interrupted by an upset Jamie, who’s coming directly from a breakup with Lolly; he’s upset that Becca stuck her nose in his business, but what Becca takes from the conversation is that Lolly believes her. If she didn’t believe her, she wouldn’t have broken up with him in the first place. Becca finds Lolly at their neighborhood bar and Lolly acknowledges that the Becca to her side is not the same Becca that she talked to yesterday. She doesn’t know what happened, but she believes her friend and decides to get the scoop about the future – Becca divorces Sean; Jamie has multiple stints in rehab; people stop using AOL e-mail. While Becca won’t bring up the fight that she knows is years from happening, all because there’s a possibility that she could change the course of their friendship, a guy at the bar talks to her about having a rough day and quotes the same proverb she heard at the newsstand. Once she shakes hands with him, she realizes that this is the guy she met at the newsstand, although she doesn’t mention their connection to him for fear of seeming crazy. After she’s paged by Sean, Becca meets him at a park bench and allows him to spill his heart to her; he says that she makes him want to be a better man and that while she thinks they’re destined to make the same mistakes, he knows that they’re meant to be. Before he goes, he gives her a milkshake.
Becca goes home to get ready and receives a piece of jewelry from her mother, who claims that this is the “old, borrowed, and blue” part of her wedding. Even though Georgie wants her daughter’s wedding to be perfect, Becca assures her that searching for perfection is the best way to miss out on the little things in life. Becca makes it to the chapel and while she’s walking down the aisle, she sees Andy and Melanie in one of the pews. Her mind remains conflicted as she makes it to Sean, who she wonders if she’d be able to change, yet she makes a decision that she might not have made if not for this experience. When her turn comes to say “I do,” she flees the scene with Lolly in hand, stopping only to tell off her boss for being on his phone at her wedding. Pledging to do things differently with this new opportunity, Becca takes Lolly to the bar, only for Sean to arrive shortly after.
Additional thoughts and observations:
-“They’re having a baby?” “Like, a human baby? That’s gross.”
-“I turned the ringer off and now it’s like I’m living on a silent desert island. So eerie.”
-“What am I going to do without you, buy my own English muffins? Forget it, I’ll just starve to death. Whatever.”
-“That’s so Freudian. It’s like…other penis envy.”
-“I should really teach a seminar.”
-“But I really love AOL.” “I know. And AOL loves you, too.”
-Non-Exhaustive List of 90s Songs Included on Hindsight: Dee-Lite “Groove Is in the Heart”; Ace of Base “The Sign”; EMF “Unbelievable”; Notorious BIG “Big Poppa” ; Liz Phair “Never Said”; Alanis Morissette “Head Over Feet”; The Cranberries “Linger”; Spin Doctors “Two Princes”. And yes, every song was released prior to October 1995 – “Head Over Feet” wasn’t a single until 1996, but the album it came from was released June 1995, so I’ll allow it.
-Also, amazing taste, whoever acts as music supervisor for Hindsight.
-I thought this was pretty well-structured. The photo flashbacks were a fun way of getting our first taste of Lolly, while the party introductions got some necessary exposition out of the way quickly and gave us some important first impressions. Plus, going into this show, I expected the reveal of Becca being in 1995 would’ve been saved for the tail end of the episode, so for it to occur in the first 15 minutes or so was a nice surprise. It makes me think that this will have some pace to it.
-As far as the actual time travel, I have to admit: the logistics don’t concern me. How it happened is less important than why it happened and what happens afterwards; this isn’t the type of show that can handle an in-depth look at time travel or anything, so I’d rather it focus on the emotion behind Becca’s journey above all else.
-The most important lesson from Sixteen Candles is that we all have our Jake Ryan out there waiting for us. All it takes is being upfront about what and who you want in order to get them.
-I like that the show attempted to fill out Becca’s 2014 life and didn’t necessarily judge either life that she lived. Things were how they were and are how they are, so it seemed more interested in allowing her to find her way to the life that she wants vs. condemning/endorsing what look to be her options. Although it seemed to be tilting toward Sean around the time of the milkshake, I appreciated that the show pushed Becca out into the great big world instead and had her choose Lolly’s friendship over either romantic relationship in her life. I’m all about positive portrayals of female friendship on television and seeing Becca grab Lolly’s hand and run out of the chapel was quite empowering, to say the least.
-Why do you think Lolly and Becca lost contact? It was apparently something that the latter said and we know the friendship ends on the eve of 1994, but Hindsight was fairly tight-lipped about anything else to do with the incident. How much the show underlined Lolly’s relationship with Jamie makes me think it has something to do with that – maybe Lolly got pregnant and Becca wasn’t happy, given that Jamie had problems with substance abuse? Maybe Lolly was the one who got Jamie into drugs in the first place? I’m curious how long the show will draw out the reason for their split.
-I also wonder whether we’ll see Becca smoking. TV is very shy about showing smoking except for villains, to indicate promiscuity, or in period pieces set at least 40-50 years ago, so having a lead character smoke would be an interesting change of pace.
-The role of pop culture in this series will be interesting to watch. For the pilot, it was a lot of references and an assurance that Lolly and Becca bonded over their love of movies/TV/music, but I wonder just how pop culture will be used in Becca’s time in 1995.
-The best representation of Becca’s friendship with Lolly was Lolly’s face while Becca told off Simon. That look of delight mixed with pride and even a little envy told you everything you need to know about them.
-How do you think Xavier (the guy from the newsstand) plays into all of this? Is he Becca’s guardian of sorts, with his goal being to keep her safe and keep the present preserved while she’s on her journey?
-I thought Patrick Dempsey was cute back then. I mean, Can’t Buy Me Love? C’mon. If Lolly and Becca love Say Anything, they have to love Can’t Buy Me Love. It’s the law. -I appreciate a good Susan Powter reference, even if it’s just visual.
-Becca getting Simon to fire Melanie – a sign that she’s going to make a play for Andy? And would she even be satisfied with someone like 1995 Andy, considering that he hadn’t grown into himself quite yet?
-However, I think I’m rooting for Andy, if only because I think the message that TV sends about passion being the A #1 important factor in determining the quality of a relationship is a little gross. It’s very important in relationships, but to me, it’s not important enough to be able to overlook the laundry list of negatives that Sean has. Also, good sex does not make a good relationship. Love yourself, readers.
-So, how do you think Becca will get home? Because let’s face it – they won’t leave her in 1995 forever. My guess is that it has to do with reigniting her friendship with Lolly, as she had a flashback to the day their friendship fell apart right before she time traveled. I’m guessing that once the two become friends again and work through what happens in 2003, Becca will return home and attempt to rekindle her friendship with Lolly in real life. Whether she walks out of this experience wanting to be with Sean, Andy, or a third party we haven’t met yet, though, remains to be seen.
-Next week on Hindsight: Sean confronts Becca about leaving him at the altar, while Becca adjusts to her new position as VP of Publicity and Lolly clashes with Becca over Jamie.
