Finished the chapter. I think the doctor being the "old friend" is the safest bet. It's weird for Elena to call him that, even sarcastically. Or rather, the thought process feels a bit awkward that leads to that sentence. But regardless, I think it's a 90% chance it's the doctor, a 9% chance it's Seferi (Elena might be assuming that he's around since she's just learned he's Joel's uncle), with a 1% chance it's Joanna (I'm thinking there was an off screen discussion between Joanna and Elena about another round of cosmetic surgeries or something).
Honestly, I don't really read this scene as "breaking character" by the sisters. Yes, they acknowledge that Elena is a disguise, but they're still clearly driving the events. There's an indifference to how weird everything should be and they treat the idea that feminizing Joel as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. They keep pushing that Andrew should want to stay as Elena. And how convenient that they've come up with a plan that will take down Toska that just happens to need Andrew to stay feminized up through the wedding. So if our previous opinion was that the sister's were involved/purposefully prolonging the feminization of Andrew, I don't think this part contradicts that interpretation. Especially if you assume one of these two was the blurred woman last part.
However, it's also pretty weird. While I could understanding making up this plot of "we have evidence against Toska and just need him here for the wedding to be arrested" to keep Elena feminized until then, I don't understand the need to tell Elena about Joel's feminization. It's such an extra step. Like, the sisters or Seferi could easily tell Elena that Joel survived the shooting and is in witness protection. And that they have evidence against Toska and Elena just needs to stay Elena a little bit longer until after the wedding. Bringing up Joel's feminization just draws more attention to the feminization, and also makes Joel an even bigger loose end.
Plus, what's the play here? Unlike Andrew, Joel didn't "sign up" for this feminization. He had his own plot going on that Seferi was aware of.
If the sisters were working with Seferi the whole time:
On the plus side, this cleans up a lot of the plot. Everyone is just gaslighting Andrew, as basically all of this Toska info is from Seferi. If the blurred woman is one of the sisters, this also lines up. As it then is easy to interpret the whole situation as Seferi knew what the sisters were capable of and went into the meeting with Joel planning on feminizing him and knew his "partners" were capable of it. He might find it personally distasteful to be trapping Andrew as Elena, but he's putting up with that because he has his own goal.
So the question is, what do they expect will happen? Joel wakes up feminized and happily cooperates with their plot? On the one hand, if their claims about Toska are true, maybe they're counting on that Joel will be worried Toska will have him killed out of transphobia. On the other hand, Joel's gonna feel pretty betrayed for being shot. Not to mention he's been up to his own plot this whole time.
But even still, they can't count on him. Clearly, Joel has been in no position to tell anyone anything. And we alreaedy know Seferi was the one that shot him. Going further, the whole detective thing doesn't make any sense. From Elena's point of view, the story is that Joel is being feminized as a disguise. And he's gonna turn against Toska due to Toska attempting to have him killed. But even as a disguise, doesn't it seem like being transformed to the point where you're unrecognizable might hurt your ability to testify against someone?
And again, we know the above is a lie. So in what capacity is Joel going to cooperate? Let's just say the detective isn't just another part of this plot. Then he's gonna have some major questions about why Joel is a woman now.
Really, we already know parts of that story are a lie. But if you think about it logically, it doesn't seem like this can be a way to actually arrest Toska. At least not through Joel. Really, the only thing this actually accomplishes is to help make Joel dissappear.
The one thing that sticks out to me is that it's really weird to blur out the woman last part, only to have the sisters revealed in this part. This makes me think the blurred woman in the last part is Marina and that's supposed to be a twist.
I've already mentioned before that I think a twist where Marina was intending on feminizing Andrew the whole time makes no fucking sense to me. So I'd rule that one out. What I'm leaning towards (with two variations):
1) Everything has been written purposefully vague and/or there's been some unintentional characterization. The sisters (and Nikos) were never plotting to feminize Andrew. The rough sequence of this would be:
Andrew and Marina arrive in Greece and Andrew becomes Elena and meets Toska.
Joel is constantly scheming and either wanted to sabotage the deal or at least manipulate it in some way. He hired Joanna to drug Elena.
During the dinner, Joel realizes Elena is a man and is familiar with Toska's bigotry. He wants out from under Toska (maybe with Toska out of the way, he gets more power?) and knows Seferi hates Toska. And with the help of his Uncle and Gjoka, come up with a plot to gaslight Andrew into staying Elena.The plot point of Toska returning for the wedding is true, and such they need a wedding to occur to arrest Toska when he arrives. Maybe one of them tells Nikos this and that's why Nikos proposes to have the wedding. In this scenario, he gets into the fantasy too much because he's a pervert, but we're not supposed to read malice in how he's written.
Joel fucks around too much and is increasingly a liability. Marina does in fact start investigating and speaks to Seferi. Seferi half lies that this is all Joel's fault. But they still need Joel to arrest Toska. Or maybe more crucially, they're worried Joel will tip of Toska. Marina proposes feminizing Joel to use as leverage just so that he can't run to Toska.
The above is admittedly weak. I don't know what the point of feminizing Joel is, but we know two things.
1) Seferi went into the meeting with Joel planning on feminizing him.
2) It doesn't seem like it was originally his idea since he has to confer with the mystery woman whether it will work.
Regardless, Marina is working on getting the pieces into place to arrest Toska, as she's operating under the belief that Toska is actively going after her family. Seferi is the only one to know this isn't really true, and is just stringing them all along so that he can get Toska back in Greece to be arrested.
None of them counted on Andrew having memory loss and deciding to fuck Nikos. This ultimately doesn't change their plan, but it does strain Marina's relationship with Andrew.
Regardless, Seferi's "deal" with the detective might actually be real, and maybe that's what Marina sleeping with the detective was all about.
Through all of this, Nikos and his daughters are blissfully unaware and just following the script they're told.
2) The sisters (and Nikos) are actively plotting to feminize Andrew. The rough sequence of this would be:
Andrew and Marina arrive in Greece and Andrew becomes Elena and meets Toska.
Joel is constantly scheming and either wanted to sabotage the deal or at least manipulate it in some way. He hired Joanna to drug Elena.
During the dinner, Joel realizes Elena is a man and is familiar with Toska's bigotry. He wants to blackmail Nikos. Instead, Nikos pays him off. And with the help of his Uncle and Gjoka, come up with a plot to gaslight Andrew into staying Elena.
Seferi hates Toska and sees an opportunity to get him arrested. But he'd need Joel's info to use against Toska, and under normal circumstances there's no way Joel would help. The plot point of Toska returning for the wedding is true, and such
he needs the wedding to occur to arrest Toska when he arrives.
Joel fucks around too much and is increasingly a liability. Marina does in fact start investigating and speaks to Seferi. Seferi half lies that this is all Joel's fault. But they still need Joel to arrest Toska. Or maybe more crucially, they're worried Joel will tip of Toska. Marina proposes feminizing Joel to use as leverage just so that he can't run to Toska. Or maybe she just thinks it would be poetic justice given how Joel is involved in feminizing Andrew.
Marina works on getting the pieces into place to arrest Toska, as she's operating under the belief that Toska is actively going after her family. She's unaware that none of this is true.
None of them counted on Andrew having memory loss but Nikos takes advantage of Andrew's vulnerability and believes that Andrew is sufficiently submissive that he's been made compliant. All of this strains Marina's relationship with Andrew.
Regardless, Seferi's "deal" with the detective might actually be real, and maybe that's what Marina sleeping with the detective was all about. She meets with Seferi as the blurred out woman to confirm that she's set her pieces in motion (detective, and that feminizing Joel will work).
I tend to think the 2nd one is a bit more sensible, but I think the twist will be that this was all the first one. And that's why it will be a "happy" ending (based on Melissa's biases).
Nikos wasn't evil and now gets a trophy wife. The daughters have a mother again. Seferi gets revenge on Toska. For being a scheming weasel, Joel gets feminized. Andrew becomes a hot milf (maybe with her unlocked acting skills, and absurd body proportions, maybe Elena has an easier time getting roles). Marina gets out of a marriage with a loser.
I'd still find that ending deeply unsatisfying, but I see where that kind of ending might be in the cards.