Everything’s Gonna Be Okay reinforces Matilda’s sexual agency

At the halfway point of the second season of Freeform’s Everything’s Gonna Be Okay, in typical fashion for the show, a lot of complex relational dynamics have been explored between Nicholas and Adam, but also Matilda and Drea.

While in the show’s two-part premiere, Matilda and Drea broke up due to Matilda realizing she was, indeed, straight, despite her deep love for Drea, as the season has gone on, she and Drea have rekindled their partnership, agreeing to be sort of platonic girlfriends.

Part of this arrangement allows Matilda to hook up with men outside of their relationship. This first came to fruition in this past week’s episode, “California Banana Slugs” as Matilda invited a random guy from the Internet over to her house while Drea, Nicholas, and Genevieve watched in horror.

While Nicholas’s brotherly (and limited parental) instincts initially tried to prevent the situation from happening, Matilda reminded him she was of age, that they owned equal parts of the house, and that he couldn’t really do anything to stop her.

Instead, Nicholas busied himself with hovering over Drea and attending to her emotional state. While Drea and Matilda are both on the spectrum and the series regularly showcases their in-depth conversations about feelings and thought processes, they are still children (even if they are technically of legal age).

And young adults often make decisions they believe are completely sound and thought through that will in fact hurt them later, regardless of whether they are neurotypical or neurodiverse. While Drea insisted she had no problem with the arrangement, Nicholas and Genevieve, along with the audience, could see the fallout waiting to happen.

Yet, it was an important episode to remind Nicholas, Genevieve, and the viewers at home that neurodiverse people are just like everyone else–human beings with agency who can make their own decisions, and make their own mistakes, too.

What do you think about Matilda and Drea’s unique arrangement? Tell us in the comments below!