And now the final chapter of Annotated Elle - Girlboss Breakup re-watching.
Sunday
When last we saw our hero she was marveling about how the dress she was trying on was 'sparkly' and suddenly, the video makes a direct cut to Elle sitting on an ottoman in front of her blue couch. She's got pounds of makeup on, but its making things worse. She looks like she's been through hell; pale and gaunt yet covered in paint. Like Pierrot in a sleeveless white sweater. Not a whole lot of resemblance to the beaming, happy girl who was trying on dresses just a few frames ago. She looks like she's been crying for days. We already know why by the title of this video.
I'm going to take a slightly different format in recapping this section. I am going to roughly transcribe some Elle lines from the speech and offer commentary after each one.
"I think the last time I vlogged was at the CIBC Party on Thursday and I never ended the vlog because my life took a big turn"
Understatement of the century.
"I was expecting to have dinner with Joe and end the vlog and say 'goodbye, thank you for watching' like I usually do for all my vlogs but, um, I had a big shock that Joe decided to leave"
Whoever made the comment that Elle can't read the room is so right. You can see in Elle's face that she never saw any of this coming.
"So I go home and his suitcases were packed and he wanted to end the relationship (pauses a beat, averts eyes) and has ended it. (brief look of relief at having said it)."
A scene worthy of the first ten minutes of a Hallmark Christmas movie.
"What I am deciding to do by filming this is just to sort of rip off the band aid and just be honest with you right away"
She learned her lesson about doing that I suppose. Maybe that's why we got a long, drawn out spell of Unw'Elle at the end of Rick instead of any band aid ripping.
"Today is Sunday, and Joe left on Thursday and has confirmed that he does not want to work on things and does not want to try again or anything like that"
I can only imagine the pleading, bargaining, promises and eventually tantrums which must have sprang forth from Elle in a desperate attempt to stop him from ending the relationship. And I am just talking about while he was standing there with his suitcases. It must have been some show if she pleaded with him over the phone and email even more between Thursday and Sunday. 'Try again' is a really loaded statement. Has Elle has ever acknowledged that she wasn't a good at something and would not repeat her past mistakes if given a 'do over'? Joe knew better. Most people can't change just like that.
"So there's not point in trying to draw this out and such and I feel like being cagey about things would just cause me more stress and anxiety"
Elle was caught in a trap of her own making. She had shared so much of her home life that when everything about it suddenly changed, there was no chance of her going on and pretending nothing was wrong. Her princess façade was completely gone, and yeah, I bet that was a major source of stress and anxiety.
"And, you guys are my friends, and so I'm going to be honest with you however weird or awful that may be."
Unlike when her engagement imploded and Rick was the one to tell all her 'friends'.
"I am still very much in shock. I was not expecting this at all. I did not know that he was unhappy I did not know that he had any thoughts of ending the relationship at all and I think you guys will see that and know that from the footage before this."
This is why she made the entire vlog. She is so unable to read the room that she must figure everyone would watch it and be just as shocked as she was that Joe left her. Meanwhile in almost every recap day posted we saw scenes where Joe was pretty obviously done with her.
"I'm probably going to be in our place for another few weeks. Joe has given notice to the landlords that he is moving out and I have decided that I will not be staying here on my own. It would just be too painful, I think."
I think this is one of those Elle moments where she clings to that bit of truth in her statement. Context suggests the memories of Joe would be too painful. She loves that apartment. She dragged a giant enlarged photo of the view from it to the four different places she has lived since she moved out. Most likely it would be too painful for Elle and Ginette to write that big of a rent check every month. That’s probably the reason she is moving out, but it’s still painful and her statement is true at face value. I think if her mom was willing to take on the whole rent for that place she would have been fine eventually moving some other high-earning man into it with her.
"In the past sometimes breakups have led to a lot of creativity and growth for me. Its hard for me to see this one that way because it was sort of imposed on me rather than chosen by me as something that I wanted."
I don't think we know anything about Elle's breakups prior to Joe. I think Chris kicked her out and she pleaded with him for a while to take her back, so that one doesn't seem like 'something that she wanted' either. Are we really to believe that before Chris, Elle left a long line of brokenhearted men in her wake after dumping them?
"I think I am still going to try and make the best of it and create good content for you guys and grow my businesses and work on myself."
Two out of three ain't bad, right? I will say she started making some pretty awesome content as she circled the drain in the couple years after this breakup. She pushed her side hustles hard to her Karens. Working on herself? Maybe we misunderstood and she meant 'having more work done on myself'.
"Sometimes you only know your own perception and not the other person's"
And sometimes you can be so selfish you don't even see the other people you have positioned in your life to serve you.
"I know you guys will be curious behind his reasons to leave but, ultimately, you don't really know much less than I do. I am to some extent just finding out with you."
Insane statement. Even more insane that it could be true. When random people on the internet know about as much as you do about the feelings of your live-in boyfriend of 18 months, there’s a good chance you're a big part of the problem in that relationship.
"I thought that we were good and happy and yeah we talked about getting more serious rather than less."
I bet Elle talked about 'getting more serious' and Joe didn't say enough to pop her bubble. Also this is Elle. I can't picture her talking about getting serious being about love or feelings, but rather what her ring should look like, where it should come from, and at minimum, what it should cost.
"I really enjoyed the times we vlogged our relationship...it turns out that Joe didn't really enjoy that and it was one of the things he was unhappy about that I didn't know."
I bet Joe gave her a half-dozen good reasons why he was leaving her. Notice the only one she opts to include in her vlog is a relatively minor annoyance, but happens to be one that isn't directly her being selfish, greedy or tone-deaf. I can't imagine someone leaving their live-in partner of a year and a half based on that reason alone. They would ask them to leave them out of the videos and that's that.
"Ultimately it turns out that I can't help it because he didn't really enjoy those things that I did, I just didn't know it."
Read the room.
"I don't think anything’s going to change on his side. He's been pretty (big swallow, looks away) firm . . . about it."
Girlboss is not a fan of firm. Not when it comes to not getting something she wants.
"My mom actually came back into town to help me and be there for me. I kind of have her support in editing this and putting it up."
That’s awesome that someone was there to help her. It's actually pretty considerate of Joe to purposely time the breakup so that her mom would be in town because he knew that's straight where Elle would run. What's not awesome is how unhealthy their codependent relationship must be. You can just imagine her mom helping her edit the footage from the days prior. The Ginette in my head just rubs Elle’s shoulders as she sobs. 'Oh Mon Cheri, look! Joe is so happy you could have never known! This is his fault' Elle still can't read the room.
"Thank you so much for, I guess, being a part of the journey of my life good or bad and this just is what it is right now and I'm going to work on getting it to be the best it can be."
She didn't know it then, but it turns out 'the best it can be' would be dedicating her 30th birthday party to a celebration of country music and barbeque (things I haven’t heard her mention liking since) to please a man she had been dating for a couple of months. A man who would be gone before the end of January. It would be leaving her job, city, really everything about her life behind because another man who she barely knew was willing to marry her in a swampy suburb in Florida. I guess that’s why we all watch. It's certainly not for the ponte pants.
Shopping total for the day: $0
Running total for the Vlog: $1253
.
). 
