Lucy & Holly In The Show

lucy & holly in the show

contains spoilers for season one of lockwood and co and the hollow boy

i’m curious how a second season of lockwood and co would develop lucy and holly’s dynamic given the differences in lucy’s character in the show and how she interacts with other women - a bunch of musings/rambling incoming.

(i adore both versions with my whole heart)

in the books a lot of lucy’s arc is unlearning her internalized misogyny (specifically the idea that girls cannot be both feminine and strong and her nlog tendencies). it’s done in a way i think is very thoughtful - her judgement of other woman is clearly born from an insecurity in her own femininity brought on by starting work very young and constantly being told being an effective agent is the only thing that should matter to her (i believe it’s her mother that tells her “pretty is not your profession”). she has a knee jerk resentment of holly and kat because of this, because if they *can* succeed in both being effective agents and traditionally feminine, that means that it is possible and she, lucy, is in some way lacking. all this coupled with a burgeoning attraction to lockwood and she’s suddenly hyper aware of and sensitive about all the ways she isn’t elegant or refined or graceful (and completely unaware of that fact that lockwood likes her because she’s lucy, and because she’s brave and kind and challenges him). it’s a really well done arc, and if i hadn’t known going in, i would’ve assumed the series was written by a woman based on how nuanced and empathetically its written (honestly major props and kudos to j stroud for that one).

this isn’t, however, an aspect of lucy’s personality in the show. she’s still judgmental, prickly, and very much *lucy*, but it isn’t pointed specifically at the other female characters in the same way (she snipes at flo, but not in a way that is different from how she snipes at kipps or george, and doesn’t single kat out at all). this change actually makes sense to me, largely because lucy in the show is supposed to be 16, as opposed to her book counterpart, who is 13/14 at the beginning of the series. the same arc would be harder to pull off, because so much of it is tied to the particular moment we meet her in the books, and would have made show lucy look immature in a way that is less understandable (not to mention that while lucy as a narrator only really describes herself through the lens of her insecurities, the shows audience can see that ruby stokes is quite conventionally attractive). they also spend more time in the beginning establishing a meaningful friendship between her and norrie, and her having an important female friend prior to holly would change their dynamic. however, for the plot of the hollow boy to work properly, we still need that conflict between holly and lucy, and while it could just be a case of there being resentment about lucy feeling replaced, i had a few thoughts of other ways it could be developed that might be interesting to explore with these versions of the characters.

lucy is hostile to holly because she is still dealing with what happened to norrie and on some level feels like making another female friend would be disloyal or replacing her in some way. in this scenario, they could tie in those voice recordings she’s been sending to norrie, and use the moment at the end when holly and lucy realize they had similar trauma to resolve the conflict. holly’s been in a similar situation and she can finally talk about norrie in a way she hasn’t been able to with lockwood and george. you could have moments where lucy and holly are getting along and lucy is somehow reminded of norrie and instantly shuts down/goes back to being very businesslike. i think this would make sense and feel true to lucy of the show while also fitting into the hollow boy really well.

lucy’s mother in the show is more explicitly abusive than in the books, and she could be hostile to holly because she thinks she’s trying to “mother” her in some way. book lucy has a decent if strained relationship with her family, and sisters she’s close to. show lucy, however, was both verbally and physically abused and forced to run away (side note: i can’t see show lucy visiting her family like in the book, but think it’d be really touching to have her go visit norrie in the hospital, which could also make her a lot more vulnerable emotionally when she and holly first meet). this one could play out in a similar way to the books, with the final resolution being a moment of lucy realizing holly is just a scared kid like her (maybe a nice callback to her line in season one about being scared all the time). i also like this one because it could get more into the trauma of the kids who are forced into leadership/parentified positions too young, and maybe also echo some of kipps’ arc as well.

the show’s characterization of joplin is a bit different than in the books, and given the guilt lucy harbors for how everything with george went down at the end of season one, she could be very touchy about anyone new joining the group and knowing anything about what they are doing. i could totally see her watching holly and george get along and getting very protective, in the process unintentionally making george feel like she doesn’t trust his judgement anymore (which could set up some of the same protective feelings that lead her to leave at the end of the hollow boy).

anyway these are just my ideas and i’d be curious to hear other people’s thoughts!