The Apritello Kiss

The Apritello Kiss

I didn’t make my own Tumblr account until mid-November and my posts weren’t searchable until over a month later, so I’m a little late with posting my thoughts on different episodes. Naturally, I’ve been dying to talk about the kiss in “A Foot too Big.”

I saw another post shortly after the episode aired that perfectly illustrated my thoughts and feelings on the kiss, but once I got my account and tried to find the post so I could like or reblog it, I couldn’t find it. Basically I know I’m not the first one to post these views on Tumblr, and I’m not trying to be unoriginal. I just am unoriginal.  I don’t think April was trying to lead Donnie on. She just didn’t know how she felt about him until she realized she may lose him.  Earlier in the episode, we see her feeling totally awkward about getting the music box, and while we pretty much all agree the music box was adorably sweet, it really is the kind of present you give to someone if you’re going steady. They weren’t in a relationship. Maybe if it didn’t have a heart on top, or a picture of him inside, or if he didn’t stand there awkwardly smiling and not saying anything after he gave it to her, she might have been more receptive.  Also, as she told Casey in “Within the Woods,” their families are gone and/or mutated. She’s not in a very relationshippy place, and that’s ok.  When Donnie said, “I won’t be bothering you with music boxes anymore. I get it now. Donnie is to April as Bigfoot was to Donnie,” her face didn’t look happy or relieved. She looked kind of sad.

I don’t think it was pity, though. If she gave him a pity kiss, it’d probably be on the cheek, not the lips. If it were pity, she would not have called him “my mutant.” April just wouldn’t do things like that if she didn’t mean anything romantic by them. I think this is the moment when she discovered her true feelings.  In “The Invasion,” she shut Donnie down when he tried to tell her how he felt. I can think of two reasons why she reacted the way she did. 1. She probably didn’t want Donnie to say anything that he wouldn’t say if they weren’t about to be killed. 2.She may have still been hoping for a normal life (as she did in “Mutagen Man Unleashed), and maybe she was trying to convince herself that Casey would be more likely to give her a normal life. At least he’s human.   She was more touchy-feely with Casey in “The Invasion,” but in all previous episodes that’s not the case. She always brought Irma along on their would-be dates (“Of Rats and Men,” “The Wrath of Tiger Claw,”) and she’s disturbed by his physical advances (“Plan 10,” “A Chinatown Ghost Story,” etc.)  I think April has slowly come to realize that her life will never be “normal,” and at any rate, Donnie seems to have a lot more moral fiber than Casey.  I think the kiss demonstrated that she did not want to loose the chance of being with him. It was a, “Look, I’m not ready to be your girlfriend, but please don’t give up on me,” kiss. 

So why did she walk away? She’s probably still kind of shy and insecure about liking a mutant (even if she’s one herself). Besides, she’s only 16; she’s not going to handle these things perfectly.  Why did she ignore Donnie in “Buried Secrets,” when he told her to check him out? She’s always had the attitude of “Not now, we have stuff to do.” She’s just task-oriented. She may have also felt a little embarrassed about the kiss. Plus, it may have been one of those “Give ‘em an inch an they’ll take a mile,” situations… and she knows how she feels about him now, but maybe she thinks the kiss was a bit too much and in that moment she was trying to over-correct.  Some people think the kiss was a mistake on the writers’ part and that now it’s like it never happened. I don’t think so. April’s behavior in every episode since the kiss has shown an increased warmth and affection for Donnie, aside from that “Check me out, April,” incident. She even kissed him on the cheek again in “In Dreams,” and gave him a neck rub in “Race with the Demon.“  Poor Donnie’s never been good at figuring out people’s intentions on his own, so hopefully after the last four episodes, he’s begun to understand something. We may not have seen them dtr afterwords, but we can see that the kiss scene was clearly a turning point in their relationship, and not just April leading him on with some pity kiss that’s been swept under the rug.