Girl Rules Episode 6 Analysis: Perspective Changes Everything

One of GMMTV’s strengths as a production company is their screenwriters’ tendency to play around with point of view (POV). A great example of this is Pluto the Series. Just check out our scene by scene break downs of this series to learn more, particularly episode 11. Girl Rules continues this pattern most notably with Prim and Bambi’s relationship. The POV switches between these characters emphasizes how unstable their relationship is (and I would argue they are the least stable relationship in the entire series).

Just like Pluto, moments between Prim and Bambi as depicted on screen are subject to the main POV character. For instance, in the first 4 episodes, their college flashbacks all read from Prim’s POV which makes sense because they are presented as her memories. As we discussed in our Pluto Ep 11 breakdowns, memories are affected by multiple factors including our emotions at the time of the event (i.e., a strong positive emotion will paint the memory as a happy one) and the passage of time (i.e., memories become less vivid over time).

By leaning into character POV to tell Girl Rules, the screenwriters have created a cast of unreliable narrators, leaving the audience to interpret what we see on screen. But if the characters are fallible, then what is the truth of Prim and Bambi’s relationship? To answer that, I think it’s important to dive deeper into Prim and Bambi’s individual points of view.

Prim’s POV

Prim’s memories with Bambi during college are mostly associated with happiness— flirting over music, blowing out birthday candles in the bathtub, asking Bambi to be her girlfriend, etc. Prim reminisces with these memories the most when thinking about her relationship with Bambi. Much like Min, Prim is hung up on the good moments from her past relationship so much that she can’t move on. But unlike Min, Prim is reluctant to forge a new, healthier relationship. Instead, she dives head first into her old dynamics with Bambi, one where Prim plays the role of caretaker.

Seamlessly adopting the caretaker role stems from Prim’s background. Like Gorya, Prim does not come from a family of means. In fact Prim’s family struggles to get by in the absence of her father. As the eldest child, Prim takes on the financial burden of supporting her family while chasing her dream of becoming an award winning director.

The reality of her home life is one source of friction with Bambi— the only child and heiress to a fashion empire. When Bambi fails, she falls back onto the safety net of her family’s wealth. Prim, however, doesn’t have that luxury. When Prim fails, her family doesn’t make ends meet. Due to this, Prim feels immense pressure to succeed and this shapes her personality. Additionally, her abandonment issues from her father instilled an extreme sense of self reliance in Prim, and a strong aversion to unreliable people— an irony that is not lost on Prim given she is in love with Bambi.

When they first started dating, Prim and Bambi were in their early twenties coming into adulthood. They were both figuring out who they were and what they wanted. Naturally this would lead to moments of friction as they push boundaries and establish which lines are not to be crossed. Interestingly, we don’t get glimpses into these less than idyllic moments when Prim recalls their college years. We get them from Bambi. If you’ve been watching the series closely, this shouldn’t be surprising.

Prim is the biggest walking contradiction in the series. She constantly says one thing and does another. This behavior is a defense mechanism that most likely developed during Prim’s childhood along with her abandonment issues. Think about it, when Prim was young and financially supporting her family she had to maintain a confident facade that she had everything under control. If she was struggling Prim couldn’t show that to her mother and younger sister. In short, Prim protects those she cares about by shielding them from her true feelings.

Taken together, Prim’s caretaker instincts and unwillingness to express her feelings partially explains why Prim and Bambi’s relationship runs hot and cold. When Prim asks Bambi out for the second time, her motivation wasn’t solely to get back together with Bambi because she was ready and wanted to (Prim very much still wanted Bambi’s honest account of her year long disappearance first). In a way, Prim gets her answers, just not from Bambi, and the truth changes everything.

When Prim learns that Bambi is not okay after Zee’s death, her protective, caretaker instincts kick in. She asks Bambi to be her girlfriend to shield Bambi from the hurtful past by ushering in a happy future. Prim repeatedly tells Bambi they should leave the past in the past, which is sweet when you take into account her motivation to take care of Bambi and make her happy, but is ignoring the past really what Bambi needs? Or is Prim projecting her POV onto Bambi by choosing to keep Bambi’s truth concealed?

In their second attempt at a relationship, Prim focuses on creating happy memories with Bambi just like the ones she fixates on in the past. But in episode 6, we see our first sign of unresolved conflict emerge. When Bambi intervenes with Prim’s father, instead of initiating an honest discussion with Bambi, Prim reacts with an emotional outburst designed to hurt Bambi. Not only was this immature, it was a sign that Prim doesn’t fully trust Bambi which is a big barrier to being fully truthful in their relationship.

Bambi’s POV

One of the more interesting POV choices in the series is Prim and Bambi’s break up. While Prim fixates on Bambi breaking her heart, the actual breakup flashbacks are from Bambi’s POV. The POV choice for this flashback indicates Bambi may have a more complete view of their relationship.

From Bambi’s memories we get the context of why they broke up: Prim values chasing her dream more than girlfriend. In the flashback, Prim lets Bambi down on Bambi’s birthday…. Very interesting considering this entire series starts with the sacred promise Prim and Bambi made in the bathtub to always celebrate Prim’s birthday together. Prim sulks when Bambi doesn’t uphold this promise, but Prim feels little to no remorse for not reciprocating for Bambi’s birthday.

When Bambi points out that Prim let her down (more than once), Prim is immediately defensive rather than empathetic. Prim displays the same behavior she did in episode 6 when Bambi intervenes with her father— emotional outburst. Interestingly, Bambi is depicted as the emotionally mature and rational partner during the break up. Could this be because Bambi has these qualities or because Bambi thinks she does (given this is her memory and therefore her POV).

Regardless, Bambi initiated their breakup because she was setting a boundary with Prim. As an only child, Bambi expected to be the center of affection in all her relationships which was in direct conflict with Prim’s current phase of her career (one where she needed to work insane hours to succeed). Bambi recognized their relationship was turning toxic as neither partner was fully getting what she needed. In essence, love alone wasn’t enough to solve their problems.

Bambi also guards her true feelings, but unlike Prim, Bambi does this out of self preservation. She lies constantly to conceal the truth, entertain herself, or capture Prim’s attention. The most honest moment from Bambi is when she told Prim she was scared to lose her. These words ring true especially in the context of Zee’s death for which Bambi is partially responsible for.

Outside of Prim, Bambi doesn’t appear to have a support system. She doesn’t have any close friends and has a complicated relationship with her mother. In the aftermath of Zee’s death, it seems like Bambi didn’t have anyone to turn to and so she turned to artificial comfort.

For Bambi, partying and attention seeking are cries for help. Bambi sought Prim out when she was most vulnerable (and engaging in regular substance abuse) because Prim was her last chance at happiness. Sadly, I think Bambi has reached a point where Prim’s affection is the only thing keeping her from falling apart, and perhaps on some level, Prim knows that given she knows Bambi so well.

Putting Prim and Bambi into Perspective

Now that Bambi and Prim have reconciled, everything is perfect. According to Prim, they are letting go of the past and moving forward, but can they really move forward if they don’t address the past?

Ignoring reality to keep the peace rather than rock the boat by addressing hardships is Prim’s brand, and while this creates momentary happiness, it won’t cure Bambi’s trauma. Bambi needs help beyond Prim’s love like therapy and/or grief counseling which we finally see in episode 6. But notice during the therapy session Bambi is convinced she is cured as long as she has Prim’s love… but what happens if Bambi loses it?

The next time Prim and Bambi get into an argument, what’s to stop Bambi from falling back into substance abuse to cope? To quote Nick Nelson’s wise mother from Heartstopper…

Bambi and Prim have to confront the ugliness of their past together (hopefully in therapy), because if they don’t, their relationship is doomed, again.

Want more? Check out our past episode analyses:

Girl Rules Episode 2

Girl Rules Episode 3

Girl Rules Episode 5