Date: March 21, 2022 07:40 pm Title: "I hope that someone gets my message in a bottle"
I will start off with something that I have mentioned numerous times before: I hate Jewel. I hate her voice, that fucking song, the fact that I had to hear her sing over and over again on a CD at my previous job. Therefore, I will never like that *that* was Pam and Roy’s song.
Now that that’s out of the way…
TD MY HEART!!! Ugh, I wish I could just shake Pam and be like “GIRL DON’T LEAVE WITH ROY. PLEASE DON’T!” Poor Jim, to have to witness her make that choice a SECOND TIME?!
I also really LOVED how you handled his DUI and everything. It was beautiful.
And that flashback to the convention OUCH MY HEART.
BEAUTIFUL, TD! I loved this!
Date: March 17, 2022 09:20 am Title: "I hope that someone gets my message in a bottle"
Not going to lie, I was getting worried when we got to this point of S3. We're really getting into what I've always considered the lowest point of the JAM relationship. As always you wrote it really well.
With everything Pam's going through you really get the real sense of why she'd get back with Roy. She's hurting, lonely, feeling unseen, and even a bit betrayed. Despite everything, Roy was a steady and constant part of her life for years. I fully get why she'd be so drawn back to that sort of comfort zone. Though I'm very glad she stood up for herself and told him no to sex. I could see why she might go that route, but the way you describe her feelings here, it makes complete sense that that kind of physical contact isn't what she really needs.
Pam's flashback to where Roy asked her to bail him out was a great counterpoint. How she was starting to really be honest and stand up for herself. Yet she still can't quite tell the whole truth.
Jim's flashback stung too. To hear Pam is out on a date I'm sure would have hit his heart hard. After the two rejections on Casino Night and then being lost in all this thoughts over the summer, yeah I don't blame him for needing a moment.
Then at the wedding, you really paint the picture as to why he's so upset. He'd been trying to just stay friendly with Pam, even though he knows it's never just friendly with her. Then to see her walk out with Roy, yeah makes sense he'd throw up the walls and get kind of defensive.
Date: March 16, 2022 09:04 pm Title: "I hope that someone gets my message in a bottle"
This notion of Pam feeling worse due to the little hints of hope she's getting feels spot on. I'd imagine Jim of all people can probably relate well to it. If it weren't for that, maybe she (or he in earlier seasons) could just move on and start to heal. But it really tears the scab right off.
I continue to love this notion of Roy capturing her, intentionally or unintentionally, at vulnerable moments and her just kind of rolling with it. Feels important and fitting to their story. There's a good mix of genuine happiness and also glaring red flags that this relationship should not have survived high school graduation in your take on their history.
"But his attention makes her weak. Attention of any kind has always made her weak." OW. Oh, this Roy... like, he's clearly doing his best and his best is just... still not at all good.
"It’s more than drunk, it’s quite clearly disorderly." Too true. Ugh. Again. Roy showing a lot of signs of not taking Pam's no seriously here. And him taking her bailing him out of jail as a sign she's prepared for a come-on is too Roy for his own good. Him needing to be reminded that there was a long time for things to change between him asking her to marry him and her breaking it off is ALSO very Roy.
The transition between Pam and Jim's past POVs STINGS. And I think you did well capturing the devastation of Jim realizing that she's left Roy and STILL doesn't want him.
"It’s amazing what being fought for can do for one’s self-esteem." Yeppers. I think this is a good insight.
Oh, Delilah. She must just be clamping a hand over her mouth some days.
Yikes. The ending. Ow. OW.
Author's Response: Thanks as always for your review and your help. Writing Roy is more fun than I thought it would be, heh.
Date: March 16, 2022 05:02 am Title: "I hope that someone gets my message in a bottle"
Arggh- I just wrote a whole review and then going back to check something I lost it --man I hate that- anyway I'll start again.
You really got at the loneliness, jealously and regret that was going on inside Pam at that wedding.
I'm also fascinated to see the takes on how Pam and Roy got together. Yours with the history of the song sheds new light on her choice to leave with him. His showing up again, while the song played, while she was at her weakest - I could see how she would need the comfort of something familiar even if was something she knew was still not right, but there was hope it could be.
--He doesn’t tell her that, however, and she falls asleep with “Fields of Gold” still echoing inside her head as she lay in Roy’s arms. She can’t help but feel like she’s gone home with silver.--
This to me what the golden line of this chapter. There definitely is a intentional use of symbolic gold throughout this show and I just love when it is featured in fics and I love how you point out the contrast here.
So it is Pam that he calls to bail him out when he gets the DUI? But it makes sense - they may not have been right but that history doesn't go away in an instance and yeah, who else would he call? That it presents him with the opportunity to ask her why, I'll take that too.
I did notice how she even sort of blames herself for not telling him sooner how she felt (sign it is still that just post season 2 Pam who is still growing) but glad she stood her ground even if it still hurt her to see him that way.
What worked so well was the juxtapositioning of those last lines of this flashback with the opening ones Jim's - nicely done. How he hears about the date and his musings over why she hasn't told him:
--There’s only one answer, really, and he hates it: it’s because it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t matter. What happened with Pam and Roy has nothing to do with him, and that much is obvious from her clear intention to move on from all of it.--
Oh poor Jim here.
And poor Karen at the end- she's just the bandaid (He won't kid himself - oh but you are Jim) - right now Jim's like a child thinking its the bandaid that makes the boo-boo not hurt.
Another well done chapter. So much so I wrote my review twice.
Author's Response: Thanks for taking the time to let me know what you think, I truly appreciate it!
Date: March 15, 2022 12:19 pm Title: "I hope that someone gets my message in a bottle"
The wedding is the episode I hate the most because it really feels between Jim’s ‘hypothetical’ and Pam staring at Jim and Karen all night, there was a glimmer of hope for them, which just got trampled all over.
Having said that, this chapter as much as I didn’t want to read it (not your writing, the content!), was really well done. I ached for Pam just wanting to be held, and Jim’s flashback piecing together about the wedding being called off was really great.
Author's Response: Thanks for powering through... things will get better soon. :)
1 [Report This]Date: March 15, 2022 10:53 am Title: "I hope that someone gets my message in a bottle"
Jim is really getting on my nerves.
He uses Karen as a buffer between Pam and himself,
but he can’t see that Pam is doing the same thing with Roy because of Jim. 🤦r05;a92;a039;
Jim can’t see that he’s the one pushing Pam towards Roy because he’s too busy thinking about his own hurt feelings, and treating Pam like trash.
I can understand why Roy would want an explanation for Pam breaking up with him right before their wedding. However, I can see why Pam wasn’t completely honest with Roy considering how crazy he can get, and especially since Jim was gone to her.
In many ways Jim is no better than Roy. Both guys are very selfish, juvenile and makes their relationship with Pam all about themselves. At this point in the season Pam (and even Karen) should have told Jim to F off.