82 Thoughts I Had About About Episode 8 of ‘Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette’

Excellently, love storyWell, we’ve reached the penultimate episode of the show, and I’m… feeling oddly frustrated. (Not just because this episode was a tough sled, actually, but because we’re nearing the end of JFK Jr. and Caroline Bassett’s story and we all know how things are going to go.) At least we have the finale next week, and I guess we’ll always have the stunning good looks of Sarah Pidgeon and Paul Anthony Kelly?

Here are every thought I had about Season 1, Episode 8 – quite literally – Love Story: John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Caroline Bassett:

1. We get it! Carolyn smokes like Don Draper while her flight to Los Angeles is delayed!
2. I wish I looked this good sitting at home in a tank top frustrated.
3. Also, I commend Caroline for finding so many places to perch in her apartment. I only have two (bed and couch).
4. “A reporter’s book party in Midtown” was “very good.”
5. Oh Anthony 🙁
6. Sorry, is this a…Lizzie Grubman reference?
7. Is there another famous publicist from the ’90s named Lizzie that I’m not aware of?
8. Never forget that Grumman went to my high school, which is truly rewarding, as did Roy Cohn and one of the most high-profile “Cruel Child” anti-woke influencers. New York Magazine stories.
9. The layout of this loft is so weird.
10. Oh, Sade! Thinking back to their happy times 🙁
11. God, it makes me so angry that John refers to Caroline’s confidence and drive in the past tense.
12. You’re the one whose reputation trapped her in this attic like a lightning bug in a glass bottle, man!
13. As someone who has some experience with depression: often the best way to deal with a partner is no Suggesting that making excuses for them will turn you off.
14. KFC bucket discovered!
15. Caroline Bassett-Kennedy, you are a fast food star.
16. Alas, it seems that marriage is difficult.
17. Even if you are not internationally famous.
18. Oh my god, their schedule!
19. I would also be miserable if my year was booked out a year in advance (even if they were all luxury engagements).
20. “Every minute of the day is accounted for” is my real nightmare.
21. I can’t help but agree with John’s cousin that the lunch yogurt was “some Weight Watchers shit.”
22. However, the “no daytime TV” edict would give me instant hives.
23. Just like Caroline, I want choices!
24. John’s comment about “What a waste of a beautiful summer day in front of the TV” made me less enthusiastic about him by 30%.
25. “Fashionnow it’s a magazine. “
26. Say it, girl!
27. Okay, I have to disagree with Caroline about the midnight clam bake, that sounds good to me.
28. Well, writing about Lady Di’s car accident was smart because I’m now thinking about the similarities between her and CBK (which, I guess, the writers wanted me to do).
29. This obviously hit John hard, but him complaining to Caroline about whether the dishes were clean was also very unsexy to me.
30. It was so weird to see someone drinking out of a glass during the Ovala era.
31. I will never be offended by the behavior of liberal cisgender, straight, white people running at night.
32. Another pinfall for Radiohead!
33. Ah, a cigarette after a run. How 90’s.
34. Oh no, Diana is dead and Caroline is not in a good mood.
35. Neither, for that matter, is John, who is furious that Caroline keeps watching the news and dares to compare him and his sister to Diana’s children.
36. I don’t quite understand what he means, though; is he saying Harry and William are better off because they’re royals, or is he and Caroline better off because they live more normal lives? I mean, dead parents are dead parents!
37. John seems genuinely heartbroken, but his fundamental misunderstanding of what Caroline is going through is just, like…can you muster a little empathy?
38. Well, this is what made me cry my eyes out as John watched his mom suffer after his dad died and asked, “Why can’t she play with me?”
39. Same goes for Caroline.
40. “I watched her die twice, and now it feels like I’m watching you slip away.” Coin.
41. “You chose darkness”…I mean, is she a king? Or is she just depressed?
42. Then again, I don’t want to explain clinical depression to someone who grew up participating in JFK-level outdoor activities.
43. Oh, and it was very sweet and sad to see Caroline holding John and telling him to breathe after his mother died.
44. Oops, two years have passed and this is what happened no The Bessette Kennedy family is doing well.
45. Same loft, completely different marriage.
46. This photo of Caroline under the glass coffee table is beautiful.
47. Turtlenecks are back!
48. Oh, John is on crutches and Caroline is blond than before, so we must be about to have an accident.
49. Cleaning up after a dinner party is a real hot spot for marital disputes (as is finding a parking spot, for that matter).
50. The palpable tension in the air was stressful for my children of divorce.
51. John mentioned “my room”…oops.
52. I mean, do we have any evidence that John and Caroline actually slept in separate bedrooms toward the end of their lives?
53. I could google this, but I can’t.
54. I get the time jump and stuff, but that leads to an incredibly scary, Albie-playing energy between these formerly amorous spouses that feels a little out of nowhere.
55. Andre Leon Talley reference!
56. Imagine another version of history in which CBK is Fashion Girl (I am her union rep).
57. It’s a profound conversation montage, but I was reminded of how Caroline telling John that he made her feel “like I was this heavy burden you were dying to be free of” lost loverAmy Elliott Dunne wrote in her diary that her husband made her feel like she “should be abandoned if necessary,” which is interesting because Rosamund Pike played Amy in part because of (you guessed it!) Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy.
58. Sorry, the tangent ends.
59. Oh, honey, if after this long of marriage you still divide your social world into “your friends” and “my friends,” that’s great.
60. In the late 90s, when people said “your thing” did they mean someone’s job?
61. I’m not sure.
62. “Is this what you do alone in your apartment all day? Enjoy your life?” Ugh, shut the fuck up, John.
63. I mean, I would say that Pidgeon and Kelly really captured the exhaustion and pain of getting to that stage in a relationship where you just talk to each other.
64. Man, if you threw Jackie O. in my face when I was down, I would be freaking out too.
65. Oh shit, we’re going nuclear Problems with mom.
66. “You have no idea how lucky you are that I never introduced you to my mother because she would never encourage this…us.”
67. I’m a little dizzy! How despicable!
68. I totally get why Caroline then pulled out her mom’s trump card and told her not to marry John before the wedding.
69. Now we get to the substance of the conflict (John’s Senate campaign).
70. Set aside two lunches a week for your wife…what a prince.
71. “John, you’re not interested in me.” Ugh. sad.
72. Well, it’s good that John is showing a little vulnerability at the moment.
73. “I miss the person I fell in love with” is straight man gibberish, and Caroline rightly points it out.
74. “What you want is me cold, out of reach, shiny, like a trophy”………Tea!
75. I mean, I guess John really didn’t tell Caroline to give up on Calvin Klein.
76. Ladies, never, ever give up your job for a man!
77. “You are a son of America, and I am just another tragedy that you bravely endured.”
78. I mean, yes, it sucks, but John, don’t go to the hotel!
79. Okay, I know I say “Sarah Pidgeon’s Emmy” a lot, but watching a bereaved and completely abandoned Caroline cry gently as John leaves is truly heartbreaking in a way that I feel a lot of actresses can’t pull off.
80. Can I stop crying?
81. Indeed, I will be attending a dinner party soon and my eyes are scarlet.
82. Damn it, Ryan Murphy Industrial Park!