The Bold Type season 4 premiere review: Times are a’changin at Scarlet Magazine
By Andi Ortiz
The times, they are a’changin at Scarlet Magazine. Here’s everything that went down during the season four premiere of The Bold Type.
Even when you’re fighting the good fight, there are going to be some casualties. But at Scarlet, plenty of people are willing to go down with their general.
After ending season three of The Bold Type, with Jacqueline defying the Safford board, putting out a completely improved but unapproved Fall issue, and suddenly disappearing the next day, we kick off season four right where we left things: chaos.
Unsurprisingly, Jacqueline was fired. For anything else to have happened would’ve been unrealistic. And again, unsurprisingly, it takes all of five minutes before Kat, Jane, and Sutton are back in the fashion closet — oh, how we missed you old friend! — hatching a plan to fix everything.
Tiny Jane is the most heated of anyone, and is ready to go straight to Jacqueline to find out why she’s just… accepting this.
It is admittedly odd seeing that Jacqueline has gone down without a fight (or a pitchfork, as Jane suggests). But we have to remember that this is Jacqueline, and this isn’t the first time she’s ruffled feathers. We may have loved every second of it, but the company has not.
At least Jacqueline went out on a high note, creating Scarlet’s most inclusive issue ever, right?
Well, not if RJ has anything to say about it. Naturally, he’s trying to make sure the Fall issue never sees the light of day. But if we’ve learned anything, it’s that the Safford board hasn’t learned anything. They certainly haven’t figured out that a determined — albeit slightly buzzed on rosé –team of Kat, Jane, and Sutton, is virtually unstoppable.
In perhaps their boldest move yet, the ladies break into the magazine’s printing plant to steal some of the only copies in existence of Jacqueline’s final issue of Scarlet. Sutton even does it in her underwear, so she doesn’t ruin the dress she stress stole.
Naturally, it turns into an awkward, hilarious strip tease, and a poignant reminder of how empty the last six months have been without these women.
Now that we’re past hurdle number one, it’s time for hurdle number two of the night! Because obviously, the best laid plans by this trio inevitably go awry. The issues were only given to those directly involved in creating it — so when Jacqueline’s final letter from the editor breaks online, the hunt is on for the Scarlet employee that leaked it.
Though the ladies initially wonder if Jacqueline herself might’ve done it, it never seems like a real possibility. She’s too smart and dignified for that, though there is something fun about the idea a season of Jacqueline giving point-blank middle fingers to Safford. Maybe one day.
For a hot second, it actually looks like Patrick himself might’ve been the leak. But, as Kat points out, he only fights the occasional fight. Patrick was more than happy to push rosé roundups to keep RJ happy.
But, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who the leak came from. What matters is that Scarlet isn’t Scarlet without Jacqueline. The backlash is strong enough to build a case for her rehiring, and she even gets sweet subtle revenge on RJ in getting him to both help a worthy cause and embarrass himself in heels.
Here’s the rub: Scarlet is now strictly a digital publication. Which is… okay, right? We can work with this. At the very least, it means we don’t have to deal with another whole season of arguments over “the dot com.” It’s not a thing, it never was, and the term is getting exactly the send-off it deserves.
Now that things are relatively stable professionally, it’s time to worry about the ladies’ personal lives. Richard is going to ask for a sabbatical to go to San Fransisco to pursue his dream, Ryan’s back from his book tour, and Adena wants Kat to give her some space.
Plus, Alex is officially single again, since Angie is going to be on The Bachelor. It’s not the most relevant plot point, but it’s worth noting if only for a chuckle.
It should be a fun season.
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