Asking for forgiveness is a funny thing. It can be awfully difficult to distinguish between a genuine desire to make amends and an urge for an absolution that may not be earned. And not even the most empathetic among us can ever truly understand how our words or actions affected another person. But there are also times the only purpose an apology serves is dredging up a lot of bad feelings.
Evie and Xavier do a lot of crazy fun stuff on this show (and the actors must love some of the hijinks they get to film), but part of no regrets means fixing wrongs in addition to slingshotting yourself down a road in a shopping cart. They’re now starting to look at the ways they can move on from guilt about their past misbehaviors, which in Evie’s case involves ditching her high school best friend, and in Xavier’s case involves a sort of butterfly effect situation.
Neither of their crimes is particularly unusual, but that doesn’t mean that the feelings involved aren’t legitimate, and that what they did wasn’t deeply selfish and thoughtless. But as both of them discover, a quick apology or the return of a stolen baseball card aren’t enough to repair the damage they’ve done. And the decisions each of them makes as they seek forgiveness helps both of them move forward, if in unexpected ways.
For Evie, this means doing more than just acknowledging she’s behaved badly, which is fair: knowing you’ve misbehaved doesn’t exactly do the same for your spiritual development as thinking in a profound way about how to rectify the situation. She has to move beyond the brief conversation with former high school chum Fern she’s been imagining and into doing something truly selfless. So far, Evie has been set up as the kinder, gentler part of the central duo on the show, and forcing her to think seriously about how she takes her own niceness for granted is a meaningful development for her.
Xavier has to make a parallel decision, in that he has to sacrifice something of his own (his pride) in order to be fair to Evie, who’s operating under the assumption that a monogamous relationship with him isn’t on the table. While Xavier hasn’t specifically been hurting anyone with his behavior, his apocalist allows him to lead a very self-centered life. He’s apologizing to people when he needs to, but at heart, he’s doing things that make him happy. For him, considering Evie’s needs above his own is a pretty big step, and also, notably, one that doesn’t actually help him with his apocalypse plans. Sure, he gets to have the relationship that he wanted with Evie, but he had to take real risks to get there, and now the longer that relationship lasts, the more significant his chances of heartbreak are. Presumably, getting his heart broken is not on the list.
No Tomorrow may have started as a romantic comedy, but as time goes on, it’s becoming more and more about how people become better versions of themselves. With the exception of Kareema, who is clearly perfect as is, all of these characters are taking big, scary steps in their lives in the hopes that it leads to something better. For a show with a fundamentally pessimistic premise (and title!), it’s turning out to be one of the most optimistic shows on TV. The most important message that comes across, time and again, is that it’s always worth it to try and grow, and to take risks.
Risks like, say, finding a new soulmate, who you haven’t realized is your ex’s former best friend.
Stray observations
- There has to be something Kareema wants that she’s been too afraid to try, right?
- “@Winniecoooper534 is real, and I’ve been catfished enough times to know.”
- Hey, Hank and Deirdre got together! And he made a really sweet gesture and just straight up made a move. For a show with a lot of romantic comedy tropes, it’s nice to see No Tomorrow cut some of the manufactured drama out of couples getting together.
- Where did Xavier grow up? Why would a British kid want a Frank Thomas baseball card? And why a White Sox card instead of a Mariners card?
- “Oh look, a food vendor. Can I order you some catfish?” Timothy is just trying to be a good friend.
- Speaking of Timothy L. Finger, I hope we get to see some flashbacks of him and Evie being happy together. So far, their relationship has been played for comedic effect, but they were clearly together long-term for a reason.