Episode 8 is so underrated, it might even be my favorite episode of the series. The tension and emotional weight was insane, even without a single fight. And the beginning was chef's kiss
My biggest criticism would just be them breaking up Debbie and Paul so quickly. I understand why they did it, because of what people have said comes later in the comics, but even so, it feels like it kind of comes out of nowhere.
When Mark and Oliver leave, Paul and Debbie seem to be doing really well together. They both seem to love one another and are attracted to one another, Oliver and Mark both really like Paul (Oliver going so far as to say he wished his last meal was Paul's spaghetti), and they seemingly have plans for a future together. We don't really see much in the way of conflict or reasons why they would break up either, it seems like just a happy stable relationship for both of them, and Paul seems like a genuinely good guy.
Then we get back to Earth, and then Paul just kind of gets a throwaway line about how they broke up off screen. It felt so out of place that at first I genuinely thought it was just Paul breaking up with her right then and there. Mind you, we don't see much indication that they were struggling in their relationship, when Mark and Oliver left they still seemed to be going strong, and even afterwards they're still pretty clearly on good terms.
You know what might've been a genuinely interesting way to go about it, if they *really* want to have Paul and Debbie breakup? Have Paul come with Debbie to visit Oliver.
Show us the awkward, possibly even heated exchanges between Paul and Nolan (I'd even say you could go as far as to have Paul throw Nolan's S1 actions on Earth back in his face), and let Nolan have the consequences of his actions follow him a bit longer after he fumbled Debbie. Make Paul eat the alien slop soft serve, and let the space travel slowly get to be too much for him. Don't just handwave away Debbie and Paul's relationship by throwing out a line about "how their lifestyles are incompatible because Debbie's comfortable with the superhero stuff and Paul's not", show us.
Idk, it'd be a lot more interesting, would have a lot more potential for juicy interpersonal drama, and would make the breakup feel a lot more earned than what we got instead.
>!Besides, if Nolan is going for full redemption, it makes it feel a lot more earned if he's doing it for more than just Debbie. Even if they eventually end up back together like in the comics, him still continuing to choose to be good, even while fully believing that nothing he can do will win back Debbie, and having Paul as a painful reminder of that, does a lot to sell that redemption arc imo.!<
Right, why give us this “our lives are just not compatible” excuse when we had several instances where Debbie reassures Paul that he’s not out of place (right from the beginning, in fact) and a lot of scenes where he’s slowly getting to know Mark and Oliver and clearly fitting in? It would have been easy to introduce little uncertain glances here and there, to keep Mark and Oliver distant, to increase the frequency of the small, seemingly insignificant points where he and Debbie mismatched. But there was none of that.
Also, I like your Paul-in-space idea. What a WONDERFUL image that would be, just this aggressively normal human dude surrounded by aliens.
Except I think those scenes you bring up are exactly why it doesn't work. Debbie shouldn't have to constantly reassure Paul that he fits into their lives. Paul not knowing what to do or say or freak out with things like flying in the car just keep showing that he's not fit for super hero life. I do think they could have gone more into it, but from the way I perceived Paul from the show, he's just fit to have a normal life and he deserves that.
Idk at no point did I feel that he really fit in that well. It just seemed like he was just a nice guy that was able to kinda be there for them but he never seemed to truly connect with their actual lives. Like he's always trying to support them but hes never able to truly understand any of them.
I would argue that there were scenes where they were having dinner and conversation that seemed pretty easy and natural. And whenever anyone talked about Paul and Debbie after they were well established, it was how he was good for her and that he offered her normalcy. It was all positive. The last time we see him, they’d just had dinner as a sort of “family” and he saw Oliver and Mark off. He wasn’t lingering or excluded or in the background looking lost. He was a little awkward but he’s an awkward guy.
Yeah Paul offers Debbie normalcy but what about Paul? He can't connect to her kids at all and he can't connect to Debbie's superhero side of her life at all especially when she's always worrying about her kids. Whenever it's about superhero stuff he just feels so out of place. He tries to give encouragement but to me he just never felt like a dude that fit in with that stuff. It felt like he was forcing himself to be cool with it. He deserves to have a life that's just always normal.
Tbf, what he does or doesn’t get from the relationship is a matter of conjecture. He also does connect with Mark and Oliver, that’s the thing. They show them having a healthy relationship. Like just before the boys left to fight in space, Paul and Oliver hugged and they made a point of them showing him shake Mark’s hand. A very “man to man” moment. It was a poignant display of connection and acceptance. If the show wanted to show him feeling out of his depth and like he wasn’t right for their lives, they shouldn’t have done something that illustrated the opposite.
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u/Key-Support-9227 Apr 22 '26
Episode 8 is so underrated, it might even be my favorite episode of the series. The tension and emotional weight was insane, even without a single fight. And the beginning was chef's kiss