Independence Day
Episode 4 of With Love begins with a beautiful montage. Santiago and Lily grow closer together over the months that follow their encounter at the burger joint. Santiago even meets the family too, along with a romantic birthday celebration at home. When the montage finally ends, we’re coming up to Independence Day. We’re also on the verge of seeing Lily and Santiago moving in together. I mean, it’s a little rushed isn’t it? That’s precisely what bothers Jorge too, as he expresses his concerns to Lily. He calls her out for rushing things but she shrugs off his concerns. Meanwhile, Jorge Sr and Beatriz attend couple’s therapy. They’re discussing things together and being open but when it comes to physical intimacy, there’s a massive roadblock there. Neither of them have moved beyond hugging and their therapist, Mia, knows that they’re dodging the crux of the issue here. In order to solve things, she wants them to spend the entire day just focused on themselves. They’re also given sex dice too, along with a harsh but hilariously dark joke from Mia about their relationship. While together, they begin using the dice but they’re immediately interrupted by the kids needing help. Although they leave the room, there’s no denying that this is a good step forward for them. After helping Lily with her move, Beatriz finally opens up in the car. She admits their romance has fizzled out and she’s felt alone for a long time. She’s unsure whether they’ll even be able to save their marriage at this point. In the midst of all this, Jorge is about to start a brand new venture. Specifically, he’s about to open up a food truck. Now, Henry has his own work situation going on, given a big opportunity to head out to LA. In order to make a go of this, Henry suggest Jorge join him. Only, Jorge refuses to do so and doesn’t want to leave his family behind. Family has always been a big part of their relationship and it would appear it could be their undoing as well. Elsewhere, Sol meets Charlie for the first time but there’s a lot of awkwardness between the pair. When they’re left alone, Charlie hits out at Sol’s attempts to try and converse. Eventually though they patch up their differences, discussing the differences in upbringing and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. As Lily and Santiago head out and visit Jorge at his food truck, the pair get talking abut marriage. Santiago doesn’t want to get married – ever- calling it expensive, impractical and a waste of time. He wants to just live together and be in a stable relationship. Lily though, is full-on with the white turtle doves and wedding bells. Realizing they have very different goals in life, Lily understands that they’ve rushed into living together. In the heat of their fight, Santiago breaks the news that her parents have been fighting and keeping it a secret. They’re far from the perfect marriage she’s been led to believe. Now, although the pair have been fighting, that afternoon Beatriz and Jorge Sr. wind up kissing which eventually leads to so much more. While they’re together, Lily and Santiago patch up their differences and decide to work through their problems together. Unfortunately Jorge Sr, right after having sex, decides he can’t move past Beatriz’s betrayal after all and walks away.
The Episode Review
What is with all the fade edits this episode? Honestly, it’s complete overkill and gives off this cheap gloss on what’s otherwise a pretty enjoyable episode. There’s a lot of nicely placed diversity in this too, and the inclusion of characters like Charlie and Sol help to break down boundaries and challenge conventional norms on how characters are usually portrayed in romcom scenarios like this. Lily and Santiago being polar opposites in their fierce depiction of how they view love is one of the better examples of this. While the pair running into each other constantly is something from a fairytale, their actual storyline is anything but – which is nice to see. In fact, Beatriz and Jorge Sr. are arguably the only two in this show that actually have a vanilla and formulaic plot. There’s a lot of interesting characters here, although Nick is notably missing from this chapter. Whether we’ll see him again in the finale or not though, is anyone’s guess. Even if this episode slips up with its editing and leans a bit too hard into melodrama, With Love continues to deliver a decent bout of romantic drama. Roll on the final episode!
