Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Rights One of the Original Film’s Biggest Wrongs

“I was just a little bi-curious.” 
“Well, honey, I’m a little bi-furious!” 

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a lot of things—it’s creative, it’s hilarious, it’s sincere. But it’s also a product of the late 2000s and early 2010s, with all the ultimately unsavory elements that plague films of that era. From body shaming to Ramona’s (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) status as the poster child for the manic pixie dream girl trope, various moments from the beloved film have not aged well, to say the least. But lucky for us, author of the original comics Bryan Lee O’Malley and collaborator BenDavid Grabinski have blessed us all with Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, a meta sequel to the original film that follows Ramona instead of the titular Scott (Michael Cera), and rights some of those wrongs along the way. 

One of the most significant ways in which Scott Pilgrim Takes Off rectifies Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’s mistakes is in Episode 3, titled “Ramona Rents a Video.” In the original film, Ramona continually makes a point to correct Scott when he brings up the ex-boyfriends that he has spent the entire film fighting in an effort to win her hand. We finally discover the need for the correction when Evil Ex #4, Roxie (Mae Whitman), confronts Scott and Ramona, looking for a fight. Scott is shocked to find out that Ramona dated a girl, surprised that she had a “sexy phase.” Ramona brushes it off, claiming that she didn’t think it would count, that it “meant nothing” and that she was “just a little bi-curious.” Roxie, fuming, exclaims that she’s “bi-furious,” and then the fight begins. The show completely recontextualizes this problematic portrayal, lending actual weight and significance to Ramona’s relationship with Roxie, and elevating it beyond the butt of a biphobic joke. 

In the episode, we learn that Ramona and Roxie were actually roommates in college, and that they began a relationship while living in the dorms together. That is, until Ramona moved out without even saying goodbye to Roxie, ending their relationship with nothing more than one final look. In the episode’s most emotional moment, Roxie tells Ramona that all she ever wanted was for Ramona to see her, but she treated her like she was nothing by leaving the way she did. Ramona tearfully apologizes, showing just how impacted she was and is by the relationship in stark contrast to her blase attitude in the film. The moment is only elevated by the truly heartbreaking and powerful performances by Winstead and Whitman, who each bring a devastation and anguish to this conversation that solidifies this moment as the series’ best. 

In less than 10 minutes, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was able to turn a relationship that was merely an off-color joke in the original film into one of the best queer TV moments of the year. It’s a heartbreaking and devastating look into a relationship that was never allowed to blossom outside of the confines of four dorm room walls, a relationship that Ramona abandoned by playing into her own fears and tendency to run away from the people she loves. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off finally takes the relationship between these two women seriously, and it pays off in spades. As Roxie cries while laying next to Ramona in the aftermath of their fight, it’s impossible to see this relationship as anything other than significant and powerful, something that the film ultimately failed to convey. 

Maybe most importantly, this rectified representation isn’t without its flaws. It could have been so easy to overcorrect with this relationship, to turn Roxie and Ramona into these perfect queer characters that had an almost-perfect relationship for the sake of “positive” representation as a means of penance for the film’s missteps. However, that’s not the case here, thankfully. When Roxie first enters the video store, she tells Ramona that she has something the guys don’t: emotional intelligence. Ramona quickly bursts her bubble when she tells Roxie that she’s as clueless as the guys when it comes to feelings. And in the aftermath of their fight, Ramona tells Roxie that she would like to be friends, to which Roxie immediately replies: “With benefits?” That one tiny moment brings humanity and hilarity to her character, allowing Roxie to be more than just the scorned lesbian stereotype she once was in the film and bringing her closer to a well-rounded, tangible human being. She is heartbroken and sad, but she still finds it in her to shoot her shot with Ramona one last time. Before she leaves the video store, she kisses Kim (Alison Pill) in an attempt to chase those same sparks, to no avail. In the end, Roxie is, as Ramona said, about as graceful as the guys in her attempts to find love, but that just makes her character all the more interesting. 

More than anything, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off righted so many wrongs from the original film, but none more important than rectifying the biphobic portrayal of Ramona, Roxie, and their relationship. To watch as Ramona’s unaffected and even cruel attitude from the film is swapped for a genuinely moving, tearful reconnection and apology is extremely satisfying, and allows the series to give tangible weight to a relationship that always felt like nothing more than a joke. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off eclipses its source material in many ways, but its portrayal of queerness (even outside of Ramona and Roxie, with characters like Wallace [Kieran Culkin] and Todd [Brandon Routh]) is undoubtedly where it shines the brightest. And to top it all off, the end credits’ song for Episode 3 is queer Canadian icons Tegan and Sara’s “You Wouldn’t Like Me.” If that doesn’t show how deeply this series now understands the gravity of this sapphic relationship and its queer characters, I don’t know what does. 

Anna Govert is the TV Editor of Paste Magazine. For any and all thoughts about TV, film, and her unshakable love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you can follow her @annagovert.

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