Scarlet (episode)

**#Scarlet** is the second episode of the fourth season of the Freeform drama series *The Bold Type*. It aired on January 30, 2020.

## Synopsis

Kat crosses paths with a closeted singer who had asked for help in coming out, Jane has her first mammogram and spirals into anxiety waiting for the results, while Sutton and Richard's long-distance relationship hits a snag.

## Plot Summary

After testing positive for the BRCA mutation a couple of seasons back, Jane is undergoing a routine breast exam to check for cancerous cells. Luckily she’s brought Sutton and Kat along for moral support and to grimace in sympathy pain with her while the testing contraption painfully compresses her breast. Once she’s done, Jane is dismayed to find out that the doctor won’t have her results for a couple of days. Preoccupied with the pending results, she’s distracted at work and even in her sleep, where she repeatedly has baffling sex dreams about Ryan that wind up with him either in doctors’ scrubs or disappearing mid-act. When she finally calls to get her results, she’s overcome with emotion to learn that she has the all-clear, admitting she was more afraid than she let herself realize. But when the weird dreams persist, Jane realizes they’re actually manifesting her mistrust of Ryan, who cheated on her last season.

On the work-front, Scarlet is gearing up for its first big digital cover now that the print edition has been discontinued. Of course, they need a cover by the launch party on Friday so everyone in the room is brainstorming possible ideas. In the end, it’s Jacqueline who comes up with the concept to launch the digital mag with a tribute to print, by collating all their covers from over the years into one stylized collection, covering 6 decades of fashion along the way. They also bring in Scarlet‘s first-ever editor in chief to interview and enlist celebrities they featured before they were famous — including America Ferrera and Kerry Washington — for video testimonials. Jacqueline also asks Kat to reach out to a singer they previously did a story on named Bella Diaz.

Kat hesitates and we later learn it’s because when she last met with her, Bella had asked for Kat’s help in coming out in that issue of Scarlet, but Kat didn’t end up going through with it when Bella’s manager intervened and asked her not to. When Kat goes to the studio to meet with Bella this time, she apologizes for not following through and Bella tells her not to worry because coming out isn’t as important to her as it was then. Later, Kat comes across some old pics of Bella with her pianist and realizes something was going on between them. When she talks to Bella about it at the launch party, the singer tells her they were in love, but the pianist split when Bella didn’t come out. Kat shares her own story about meeting Adena and coming out, but Bella says she’s still not ready.

Kat is faced with a past regret when she crosses paths with a closeted singer who had asked for help in coming out. Jane has her first mammogram and spirals into anxiety waiting for the results – and how Ryan fits into it. Sutton and Richard’s long-distance relationship hits a snag. And the trio discovers a secret about one of their coworkers.
Speaking of being ready, Richard is very quickly preparing to head out to San Fransisco for the job opportunity at his friend’s start-up. There’s just one problem: Safford no longer offers sabbaticals so Richard is now having to quit his job in order to go. Sutton encourages him to go ahead regardless but then starts worrying about this being a more long term situation than she originally expected. Her concerns are exasperated by the fact that she and Richard haven’t been having sex recently, and when he blows her off in the elevator for an appointment, she complains to the girls that everything is changing too quickly — indeed, Richard plans to fly out to the west coast that Saturday! But, oh boy, does Richard make it up to her. Not only does he find her at the Scarlet digital launch party and steal her away to have sex in the conference room, but he also asks her to marry him once they’re done dirtying the boardroom table.

Later that night, Jane is saved from having to come clean with Ryan about her trust issues by a text from Sutton asking her to come over to Kat’s place. Once they’re all there, Sutton shows them the ring and they all jump and scream in excitement. Back at her palatial apartment, Jacqueline isn’t having such an enjoyable time. Her husband quite unceremoniously tells her that — fed up with putting his career on hold for hers — he’s off to Ukraine to cover the Russian invasion.

## Cast

* Katie Stevens as Jane Sloan
* Aisha Dee as Kat Edison
* Meghann Fahy as Sutton Brady
* Sam Page as Richard Hunter
* Matt Ward as Alex Crawford
* Melora Hardin as Jacqueline Carlyle
* Stephen Conrad Moore as Oliver Grayson
* Dan Jeannotte as Ryan Decker

## Trivia

* Richard proposes to Sutton in this episode.