Most likely her dad was attending the party anyway. He saw the HOTs and assumed his daughter would be with them. Since Arieth was
supposed to be there, the other HOTs would support that notion, even if they hadn't seen Arieth recently...
I was afraid that might be the case.
I appreciate that Jill's birthday date was a vital part of her path, but it really is ridiculous for her to reject the MC because he had already agreed to help a sick friend when she tried to spring a surprise party on him. DPC probably just wasn't paying attention to the implications of the scenario, but it's definitely a blunder in execution.
I've always thought Jill should have arranged the date with the MC first, then Sage would ask him for help. Even in that case tending to Sage would be a reasonable call, but it's no longer a slam dunk. And at least Jill would have
some grounds to take the MC rejecting her date personally.
Alternatively, you could make Jill's final decision based on the dick pic in Tybalt's presentation; if the MC takes the pic and someone recognizes it, Jill will dump the MC. If not, Jill feels comfortable enough to give him a shot (assuming he otherwise meets the requirements, of course).
I'd say it's exactly the opposite. The way he hard reset Maya's tuition crisis, stonewalled development of nearly every subplot, and will be releasing an Interlude to reintroduce Zoey all suggest DPC's going to be drawing out the game for quite some time.
I agree, and it's hardly unique to Sage. The MC made a big deal of following his heart in Episode 4, now he can't be bothered to tell M&J that he's finally ready to attach strings a season later. Bella insists on discussing elephants before getting together with the MC, yet barely approaches the topic of her marriage. Jill is the only girl whose relationship seems to reflect a genuine status change after the MC has his heart-to-heart with himself over breakfast.
That's why I have the unnerving suspicious that Season 3 is just going to be a series of roadblocks that weaken the chosen relationship and allow the MC to spend more time with Zoey until we are forced to make yet another choice in Episode 12. I'm sincerely hoping that will not be the case, but I'm not feeling all that optimistic at the moment.
Actually... it just occurred to me that perhaps the reason the MC didn't mention anything to M/J is so that they could remain a fallback option at the start of Season 3 if the MC got shot down by the LI he tried to choose. That would suck.
Hopefully I'm just becoming a bit paranoid...