The TikTok algorithm is a cruel, unforgiving place. But perhaps nothing’s as shocking as scrolling and coming across a poor, defenseless wiener dog watching the climactic “Jo, we gotta have it out” scene from Greta Gerwig’s masterpiece Little Women.
“A HORROR MOVIE BEFORE BED??? HE’S JUST A BABY,” one commenter cries. “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO HIM?” another needs to know. It even transcends language, with someone adding, “Ele se traumatizando💔” You don’t have to speak Portuguese to know what that means.
Although just 13 seconds of a pup watching a tablet, this post has over 4.5M views and 940k likes. It’s also far from the only viral moment of this critical sequence in which Timothée Chalamet’s Theodore ‘Laurie’ Laurence proposes to Saoirse Ronan’s Josephine ‘Jo’ March.
The latest iteration of Little Women may have come out only six years ago, but we’ve lived lifetimes since then. And still, the movie persists online. Especially this scene in which Ronan and Chalamet go head-to-head, declaring their feelings (or lack thereof) to one another across a gorgeous sunsetting hillside.
The question is, why has this become so iconic? Obviously, it’s well-written and cinematic, but you can say this about all of Gerwig’s work. Very few sequences are dubbed “the female Roman Empire.” There has to be more, and so let’s dive into what makes this scene so goddamn good and an internet darling.
1. Dating in the great outdoors
Most of 21st-century dating is spent lying down in the dark, looking at a screen, swiping, and trying to come up with cute-but-not-too-cute non-sequiturs. It’s nice to watch something that feels (and looks) BIG.
Is anything more important than finally confessing your feelings and putting it all on the line? Chalamet’s Laurie looks like he might throw up at any moment, and we’re right there with him. Plus, the setting matches the enormity of the scene, a gorgeous backdrop of nature turning against the tick-tocking sunset, and it all backs up the drama Gerwig has queued up:
LAURIE: It’s no use, Jo; we’ve got to have it out.
JO: No, no, we don’t…
LAURIE: I’ve loved you ever since I’ve known you Jo — I couldn’t help it, and you’ve been so good to me — I’ve tried to show it but you wouldn’t let me; now I’m going to make you hear and give me an answer because I can’t go on like this any longer.
Spoilers for a book from the late 19th century—you’ll be okay—but Jo and Laurie don’t end up together, which makes this all even more climactic.
Sometimes we just want to run around in the great outdoors professing love and emotions instead of hoping that someone clicks a little button next to our probably-too-mannered prompts.
Life’s big, even these relatively small moments. It’s nice to see something really hit the spot. Also, it doesn’t hurt to just scream along to a monologue sometimes. It’s the “You can’t handle the truth” of love-sick Brooklynites.
2. The names
Since Little Women dropped, everyone involved in this sequence has somehow become more and more prevalent. It’s like the NBA All-Star game for Hollywood, except it’s watchable.
Gerwig directed that Barbie movie (you might have heard of it), which made just under $1.5 billion, spawned enough thinkpieces to fill a bookstore, and somehow boosted the color pink. She’s now working on a pair of The Chronicles of Narnia movies for Netflix and is one of the most important directors we currently have. To help matters, Chalamet and Ronan are two of the internet’s most darling darlings. Between the two of them, since Little Women’s release, we have a Willy Wonka, a Lady Macbeth, a Paul Atreides, an expecting mother, and a culture-defining Knicks fan. We’re also now in the Kardashian-Jenner universe, because that was always bound to happen.
Watching this scene feels like the next step for two of the greatest actors of a generation. There are no extras, just one location and two icons duking it out, à la Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Heat.
“When we did the camera tests before we started filming, it was completely in costume and we had a full set behind us and we shot on location and it all just felt quite real,” Ronan said to Vanity Fair five years after Little Women. And there was like a movement or there was like an energy, this sort of restlessness that seemed to come out that day that both Greta and I really responded to.
“I think I had so much energy on that job. I don’t think I’d done anything else that year. So I was so desperate to get back on set and was so excited about getting the chance to play Jo March. It was just like a dream come true.”
You can feel that vitality and “restlessness” seeping through the pores of the scene. You don’t even have to know the behind-the-scenes history to know it’s there. It’s a piece of culture made just for you (and also everyone else, but mostly you).
3. We’ve all been there
Let the individual who has not fallen in love with a friend, professed that undying love all at once and then been heartbroken throw the first stone. I’m certainly not picking up any stones to toss. In fact, you can just take all these stones away from me. I don’t need to see them anymore.
Anyway, Little Women came out over 150 years ago and is still as resonant as ever, for all sides. It doesn’t matter if you’re the heartbreaker or the heartbreakee; these few minutes hit as hard as basically anything else over the last decade. Maybe we’re just lovesick over here, but it’s nice to see that people have been clamoring for one another in the exact same way for centuries now.
Life’s constantly changing. It’s always reassuring to have a constant. Even if that constant might be a scene from Little Women that ruins your life again and again and again. Please keep the memes, lip-syncing, and first-time watches coming. It’s nice to see someone new join the club.
