'Faking It' recap: Literally all of the feels

Season 3 | Episode 3 | “Karmygeddon” | Aired March 29, 2016

“Karmygeddon” is hands down one of the best episodes of Faking It to date. It has everything a good Faking It episode needs to have: Drama, a breakup, and So. Many. Feels. There are more feels in “Karmygeddon” than have any right to reside in a single half hour of television. Let’s break them down:

Joy

First, there’s some true, utter joy in “Karmygeddon.” When Amy saw Karma kissing Zita last week, she decided it meant war and, as a lifelong best friend, she had some serious ammunition. She leaked a music video Karma made way back in her geeky, pimply, braces-wearing middle school days. The song is called “Hump Day” and the entire thing is a hilarious send up to Rebecca Black’s immortal classic “Friday.” Before you even think to be embarrassed for Karma or worried about her and Amy’s friendship, all you can think is, “Robin Sparkles who?”

Embarrassment

But the joy doesn’t last forever. Eventually, you feel deeply, deeply embarrassed for Karma. The video is humiliating. And awesome. Humiliatingly awesome.

Worry

Then you realize that Amy leaked this video and, as hilarious as it is, it’s also deeply, deeply embarrassing and OH MY GOD will their friendship ever recover?

Pity

You were pretty solidly Team Amy after last week’s episode (or at least, I was), but now that Karma’s trying to hold her head high in the face of horrific embarrassment, you feel so bad for her. She’s like the three-legged puppy at the back corner in the pound and you know she’s kind of wounded and pathetic but that just makes you love her MORE.

Pride

Don’t worry because the pity for Karma won’t last too long. Soon, she’s trying to enlist Shane to help her enact revenge on Amy and Shane resists. He insists that he’s Switzerland and, by golly, he seems to mean it. Sure, he accidentally gives Karma her big revenge idea, but this is a lot of growth for Shane. Let’s give it to him.

Anxiety

Amy might have gone bit leaking the “Hump Day” video, but she’s not an inherently dastardly person. She’s sweet and, for the most part, pretty chill. Karma is a tightly-wound Type A trying her hardest all the time (even before her SO CHILL summer love) to be Type B and she’s capable of exploding into terrible bursts of evil energy. And yeah, we knew there was some evil genius coming, thus the anxiety.

Shock

You had to kind of know Karma would manage to one-up Amy’s video leak, right? Well she does. Big time. She tears all the pages out of Amy’s journals and strews them around school. They’re numbered and it’s not clear if Amy just numbers her journal pages or if Karma did that herself, just to make it easier for people to find the pages they needed. Either way, it’s terrible. Amy leaked a video that’s embarrassing, but the kind of thing that can be laughed off and explained away as a silly childhood whim. Karma leaked every last one of Amy’s most personal thoughts and feelings (including a detailed description of a Karma sex dream). Yikes. So much yikes.

Eye-rolling

Is “eye-rolling” an emotion? I feel like it should be. After backlash for her journal stunt (mostly from Dylan, who’s very concerned with everyone being totally chill, all the time), Karma goes on a PR campaign to clear her name. She insists that it was a momentary lapse in judgment and that everything is good. Come on, Karma. Stop lying to impress a boy. Or, at very least, lie to impress a better boy.

Exuberance

Let’s take a break from Karma and Amy’s drama for a little B-plot. Lauren and Shane are after a specific page of Amy’s journal that references them and they find it…with Oliver! Yes, Oliver has returned as a nefarious creeper and it’s perfection.

Concern

Amy and Liam catch Dylan cheating on Karma and struggle with whether to tell her (and who should do the deed). Maybe we shouldn’t care about Karma after the way she’s behaved, but damn it, we do.

Relief

Even though Karma is sad about it, when she finally finds out about Dylan and they breakup we were (or maybe I should stop speaking for all fans everywhere and just speak for myself — I was) relieved. She can do better. Amy would be better. Liam would be better. Singlehood would be better.

False hope

When they’re both punished and sentenced to compost duty, it seems like Amy and Karma are bonding and making up. Amy speaks her mind. Karma saves Amy from a rat. There’s real empathy and emotion happening. Things are looking good.

Sadness

But in the end, Karma and Amy talk it out and come to some real, but very hard truths. Amy realizes that she might never be 100% over Karma, and she’s not sure what that means for the future of their friendship. Karma admits that maybe she does keep kissing Amy on purpose, not because she feels the same way, necessarily, but because a part of her likes that Amy is in love with her. It’s so selfish and so honest and I couldn’t believe the Faking It writers actually went there and let Karma say it out loud, but it was one of the bravest, most honest moments of television I’ve seen in a while and my favorite moment of the entire episode. It was also the saddest moment of the episode, which maybe makes me a glutton for punishment.