Please. Anything but that. Hit me with an obvious reveal, so obvious that a child could have guessed it, I'd take that over having my 'expectations subverted'. I've had enough of that for one lifetime.
Hear hear!
Jolina is the linchpin to the plot, the email was sent from her shop, which started everything. Jo and Bella might be an item, or it might just be a professional relationship, though it's been suggested several times that Jolina has a preference for women. The fortune teller might have also alluded to it, the sister and her blonde lesbian more likely refers to Jo/Bella than Katie/Debbie.
Also, if you're on Jenna's route, there is a scene where you spy on Jo through her webcam and some super detective in this thread figured out that it's from Elaine's kitchen.
I've never been comfortable counting that shot as evidence because it's not clear how to tell the difference between an in-game clue and an out-of-game reuse of an existing kitchen asset. Lily's parents' home is more or less the same as Jolina's apartment, for example, but I'm pretty sure that's a coincidence and not meant to be a plot point. It might be the same with Jolina's kitchen sharing the same assets as Elaine's.
Jolina working with Bella synchs up with the fortune teller, fits the hints at Jo preferring women, and would explain a few oddities in her behavior, but there's no solid evidence linking them otherwise. And it's not clear why Jolina would stay over at Elaine's house if Jo and Bella are conspiring against her (rather than Bella coming over to Jo's apartment), nor why Jolina would set up her laptop on the counter of a house if she was only there for the night.
In short, the image of Jolina in that kitchen can support either possibility depending on our point of view - like most of the evidence about the gold digger.
Not to mention the fact that Bella and Jo are probably the only LIs who never take no for an answer, for most other women, you get a simple 'not interested' choice and romance is never brought up again. But these 2 girls just keep going after him over and over again. I mean come on, I know the MC is a good looking and smooth talking charmer, but it's still a bit odd, especially for Jo who barely knows the MC.
Lastly, she only brings up leaving town if she is in a relationship with the MC (probably to test how serious he is with her). Otherwise she only asks if he knows any cheap motels in the area and doesn't bring up some supposed job that she has taken on the other side of the country. I am pretty sure Jolina isn't going to disappear from the game even if you don't invite her to the BH.
Eh, I think Jolina will take no for an answer. She's very flirty, but she dials that back significantly if the MC never plays along. She won't even ask the MC for a place to stay unless she's dating him - unlike Bella, who's tried to invite herself to the beach house nearly every time we see her recently.
I agree that Elaine has every right to look out for herself. But it's rather hard to sympathize with her considering how unceremoniously she yeeted the MC, a 19 year old kid who himself had no security, out of HER house. Not only that, but she went above and beyond in being evil and petty towards him, when she told him that even if he has no means of residence and is really struggling, doesn't mean he can return.
Even if it truly was because of her guilt and shame, still doesn't justify her actions. She could have let the MC stay at the Beach house or done 100 other things that didn't involve kicking a barely legal adult out of his own house immediately after his father's passing, without a support system.
Well, that's the thing. If Elaine did spoof the MC's address to send the emails that kicked the game off, then perhaps she was trying to give him a support system? After all, if the only goal was to sabotage the MC's inheritance, she should have sent the email only to Monica. But we know that some of his other friends also got emails allegedly from the MC asking if the MC could stay with them; if the MC had accepted one of those other offers, he might never have reconnected with Monica. So as diabolical plans go, this wasn't a very good one.
Obviously this all speculative, but it could fit with a scenario where Elaine needed the MC out of the house but wanted to make sure he had somewhere to go. Of course the question then would be why would Elaine want the MC out? It seems unlikely she would have known the will terms at the time (and if she did, then she probably knew the MC's terms as well). Perhaps it's as she first said: she was overwhelmed and pushed him away out of habit, but then why bother ensuring he could land on his feet?
Again, there's evidence something is amiss, but it's hard to pin down precisely what's going on.
I think Elaine probably never even went to Jo's cafe. The email was sent by Jo at Bella's behest. If you let Bella stay at the BH at the end of Chapter 22, she tells you how Elaine supposedly lifted you contact info from your phone, but she could have done the same thing herself.
She lifts the info from MC's phone and gives it to her tech savvy partner who sends the email to Monica and kickstarts the whole plot.
Elaine must have gone to the Cafe at some point, otherwise there'd be no footage of her entering it to misuse. I don't think Bella has the resources to mimic Elaine and the cafe well enough to fool the MC. The question is when Elaine went and what she went there to do. As always, both innocent and malicious explanations are plausible. Hopefully that will finally be revealed in Episode 23.
