The Do-Over

“I missed Nick Stark’s oversized jacket as I walked down the empty hallway. I’d been frozen solid since the minute I’d handed it back to him in the parking lot. I knew Josh wouldn’t have anything that utilitarian in his locker—his light-knit navy cardigan was as warm as it’d get—but I was so cold that I’d probably swing by to pick it up.”

Emilie wishing for Nick’s oversized jacket over Josh’s cardigan contrasts the emotional and physical sense of comfort she experiences with each character. Nick’s jacket is comfortable to Emilie in a way she admits Josh’s staple cardigans could never be. This comparison foreshadows Nick’s role as someone who provides greater authenticity and emotional warmth toward Emilie, contrasting with Josh, who fails to provide what Emilie truly seeks in a relationship—evidenced here by his cardigan’s shortcomings.

“It was the day where it was all supposed to happen for me. For once, instead of sadly commemorating the anniversary of my family splitting off into two separate units, I was supposed to feel the rush and say the words. I’d done my homework, I’d found the perfect guy, and today had been earmarked for love.”

The way Emilie talks about her love for Josh is logical and methodical. She refers to their relationship growth as “doing her homework” and implies that the feeling of love she embraces going into Valentine’s Day means they are “earmarked” for love. By framing this step in her relationship as a checklist item, Painter implies that Emilie does not truly love Josh. Rather, a pursuit of a “perfect” relationship motivates her, hindered by rigid expectations of how and when it should develop further.

“My dad and his perfect new family were moving to Texas. And he had no qualms about leaving me behind. How could he even consider moving across the country without me? In his defense, the dynamics between my parents and me were so dysfunctional that he probably had no idea how much he meant to me.”

Emilie’s sense of abandonment reflects the familial dysfunction she experiences and unmet emotional needs. Her resentment toward her father highlights her loneliness and the communication barriers within her family. She struggles with feeling like her parents don’t value her enough. However, due to her fear of rocking the boat, Emilie has never explicitly expressed her feelings to her parents. In doing so, she hasn’t allowed them to recognize and address the issues she sees in their family.

“It’s easier to just say what the people want.”

Emilie’s matter-of-fact statement reflects her habitual tendency to suppress her authentic feelings to align with others’ expectations. This tendency to prioritize others’ comfort over her own reveals an approach that undermines her desires and contributes to greater internal turmoil. The advice from her grandma to express her true emotions challenges Emilie’s pre-established patterns and underscores The Importance of Authenticity. Eventually, Emilie will heed her grandma’s advice, but here, she remains loyal to people-pleasing tendencies.

“I pictured Josh and felt my heart literally get heavier in my body. Because if he wasn’t a match for me, what did I know about love…or anything? It’d been hours since I’d left school, and I felt like I should be finding some perspective, but instead I just felt empty.”

Emilie’s physical reaction to her realization about Josh indicates a significant internal conflict. The heaviness she feels, as if her heart suddenly weighs more in her body, symbolizes her disillusionment about their relationship and her questioning her understanding of love. This emotional weight marks a discernable shift for Emilie. Despite all her planning and checklists, she realizes they are futile after all. This realization is startling and terrifying for Emilie, as she does not know how to approach life without excessive planning, evidenced by her feelings of emptiness here.

“Was it my fate to crash into him every morning for all of eternity? I knew that couldn’t be right and there had to be some explanation, but I was really starting to get freaked out. I’ll pretend that I’m all right and everything will be fine—it’d always worked for me in the past.”

Emilie’s reaction to the repeated encounters with Nick highlights the challenge that unexpected occurrences present to her. Her impulse to first seek some sort of explanation and then attempt to dismiss her discomfort by pretending everything is fine reflects her reliance on logic and avoidance. This passage also hints that Nick is essential to the lessons Emilie must learn before she’s able to move forward. The latter half of the passage where Emilie prefers to pretend she’s alright suggests a key lesson Emilie must learn: Pretending to be anything but her authentic self will not get her out of the time-loop.

“What if these repeating Valentine’s Days weren’t karmic punishment for something I did in a past life or some other horrible reason? What if they’re a gift, an opportunity to right a day that went so very wrong?”

In this quote, Emilie struggles to understand the purpose of the time loop. At this point, Emilie believes she must perfect the day according to her original plan. For a perfectionist and excessive planner, this presents a compelling possibility, evidenced by her use of the word “gift.” However, the time loop serves a greater purpose: to convince Emilie that her current approach to life—one guided by excessive planning and perfectionism—is what can improve rather than the day’s events.

“I just…I don’t know. I really had my heart set on a perfect Valentine’s Day this year so I might’ve forced things.”

Emilie’s admission here of forcing perfection represents a moment of self-awareness and reflection of her unrealistic expectations and approach toward the Valentine’s Day time-loop. Here, she’s beginning to realize that her desire for perfection might be impossible to attain—not because of personal failure but rather due to the nature of life. This realization is a key step in Emilie’s character development, which necessitates she move away from forcing things.

“When I woke up the next morning to that god-awful song, I realized that I had no idea what to do next. I still thought I needed to change things, to fix things, but I couldn’t figure out what, exactly. I made a new list. To-Do List—February 14 (again) Take different route to school. Convince Mrs. Bowen that she must honor scholarship.”

Emilie’s insistence on still creating a new to-do list since the events that transpired on the previous Valentine’s Day illustrates her continued adherence to control and perfectionism. Here, she wakes on a new Valentine’s Day with the same plan as the days before, only with a different route to the same destination. Her repetitive actions here signify her inability to adapt and address the root causes of her dissatisfaction. This quote reinforces how Emilie will need to confront The Futility of Excessive Planning, something she does not yet understand.

“I don’t know what the terrible thing is that you’re dealing with and can’t talk about, but when all else fails, I say fuck ’em.”

Nick’s advice to Emilie mirrors the earlier counsel Emilie’s grandma offered. While each sentiment is different, each emphasizes the importance of expressing authentic feelings. Nick’s blunt advice offers insight for Emilie in dealing with others and herself. For a people-pleaser and excessive planner, Nick’s approach provides an alternative pathway—one where she rejects the need for constant approval or suppression of her true emotions.

“I was meticulous with my intentions, doing my best to be extra nice to everyone and extra attentive in class. I even smiled when I passed Lauren, Lallie, and Nicole in the hallway.”

In a last-ditch effort to achieve the perfect day, Emilie goes out of her way to be kind to everyone. Her exaggerated kindness and increased attentiveness demonstrate the extreme lengths she is taking to ensure her perfect day. Smiling at Lauren, Lallie, and Nicole, three mean girls at her school whom she dislikes, represent her singular focus on achieving perfection, even if it means acting in ways she would not normally.

“I smiled up at him, but a tiny part of me was wondering if he’d kissed Macy. And if he hadn’t, had he wanted to? Had they talked and flirted as they’d gone on the coffee run? He looked the same as always, but something inside of me felt different when I looked at him.”

Though this Valentine’s Day, Emilie does not have confirmation that anything happened between Josh and Macy, the previous time-loop where she witnessed Josh cheating has tainted her perception of their relationship. As much as she’s tried to pretend otherwise, Emilie can no longer ignore the glaring issues in their relationship. This passage reflects a discernable shift in her growing awareness of the underlying issues in their relationship—foreshadowing her desire to seek more genuine connections with Nick.

“As he insisted on putting it on me, I said nothing, dreading the rash that would cover my skin within hours. Because I’d told Josh an entire story—last week—about how silver made me break out. Yes, people sometimes forgot things, but it had been a long story that included a trip to the ER and he’d commented on how if we’d been dating at that time, he would’ve smuggled in a pizza for me to eat. So now he was buying me silver? I pushed that down, though, for the sake of a perfect day, and watched him open the watchband.”

The gift Josh gets for Emilie is the final nail in the coffin of their relationship. His inability to remember an important detail she told him about being severely allergic to silver symbolizes larger issues in their relationship that Emilie has avoided thinking about in the past to preserve their mirage of perfection. Emilie’s decision to suppress her needs and allow Josh to put the bracelet on despite her allergy, however, reveals her continued desire to maintain the allusion of a perfect day and appease others—even if it is at a dangerous disservice to her.

“‘I love Mom, but you are my home […] You didn’t know because I never said anything. I’d never wanted to rock the boat.”

Emilie’s honest confession to her father marks a discernable shift in her character development. Her ability to express her true feelings openly after avoiding conflict for so long, including with her parents, demonstrates a new embrace of honesty. By comparing her dad to home, Emilie cements her father’s importance in her life. This conversation ultimately produces promising results about his move to Houston and her impending fate. It also makes her feel much closer to him than she’s felt in a long time, demonstrating The Importance of Authenticity over choosing to not “rock the boat.”

“When I went up to my room that night, I was buzzing with happiness. I felt closer to my dad than I had in ages, I hadn’t wrecked my car, a summer program was still a possibility, and Josh and I had had a perfect Valentine’s Day.”

Emilie goes to bed feeling more positive about her day because she managed to succeed in some of the items on her to-do list, evidenced by Painter’s description that she was “buzzing with happiness.” However, the time loop continues because she has not yet addressed the deeper issues regarding authenticity and perfectionism. Additionally, Emilie and Josh have not had the perfect Valentine’s Day, further demonstrating her inability to let go of an unfulfilling relationship.

“What more was there to say? And it felt good, doing something. Instead of being dragged along by my life, I was leading the charge with my fingers wrapped around its scrawny neck. For good or bad, this day was all about me proactivating the shit out of my life.”

After telling Mrs. Bowen how Emilie really feels about losing her spot in the journalism fellowship, Emilie feels empowered. Rather than being “dragged along by my life,” which depicts a lack of control, Emilie is “leading the charge” with her fingers wrapped around the neck of life, demonstrating her ability to reclaim control. While she has always avoided sharing her real feelings aloud before for fear of inconveniencing others, Emilie now recognizes the control she gains in being proactive about her life at the moment. Her newfound ability to take change and express her true feelings represents a notable departure from her previous patterns of passivity and people-pleasing.

“I wanted to squeal as wild energy floated through me, encompassing me in the thrill of just living for the moment; for my moment. For whatever moment I wanted to be encompassed in, if that made any sense at all.”

At last, Emilie embraces her Day of No Consequences. Her exhilaration, which causes her to want to sequel due to feeling “wild energy” and the thrill of living in the moment, marks a notable change from her previous obsession with control and perfection. Rather than feeling comforted at the idea of sticking to a predetermined plan, Emilie embraces spontaneity and freedom—a key aspect of her character change. Here, Emilie is a character who can finally recognize The Futility of Excessive Planning and The Reality of Imperfection, open to whatever opportunities may arise.

“But you usually dress like a sorority girl who color-codes her daily planner and secretly hopes to marry a senator. This looks real, like you’re not trying to be a Ralph Lauren influencer.”

Painter demonstrates Emilie’s character change throughout the novel in her fashion choices. Emilie’s departure here from her usual fashion choices symbolizes her increasing desire to make bold, authentic choices. Her tight leather pants are so unlike her usual uniform—one that visually represents her penchant for organization and optimizing her future—and signal Emilie’s commitment to embracing her authenticity, something others recognize as looking “real.”

“I had no idea what I was doing, but I kissed the tip of his nose. Because this wasn’t about boys and girls and love and attraction, this was about a human soul needing to feel seen. I knew that because even though it wasn’t comparable in scale to what he must be feeling, I felt that loneliness often. Every time my mom forgot it was her weekend or my dad left me a note telling me to just order a pizza because he and Lisa and the boys already had dinner, I felt like I was all alone in the world.”

Emilie’s decision to kiss the tip of Nick’s nose, a departure from what she deems as a typical display of affection between boys and girls, reflects her understanding of shared human loneliness. Her recognition of her feelings of abandonment allows her to connect with Nick’s experiences. This moment of intimacy demonstrates how Emilie and Nick find connection and affirmation with each other, with the time loop continuously bringing them together.

“I rolled my eyes and nodded, nervous to let someone see all those past vulnerabilities but confident that Nick was safe to share it with.”

Emilie’s nervousness about revealing her vulnerabilities with Nick demonstrates her initial skepticism toward openness. However, confident in Nick’s safety and embodying the Day of No Consequences, her actions evidence Emilie’s character development. After discovering how good it feels to be truly seen and known by someone else, Emilie decides to not go back to how she was before.

“And it had nothing to do with my lack of preparation. For the first time in my life, I didn’t give a shit about my grades. All I cared about was the fact that Nick was ignoring me. Avoiding me. Two days before, he’d been making out with me in the dark on the side of my grandma’s house, but now he couldn’t even smile or say hi or just acknowledge my existence?”

After the time loop ends, Emilie experiences many additional realizations that reflect a shift in her understanding of what truly matters. Her hyper-fixation of perfection in school seems small in comparison to other factors in her life, including her romantic interests and overall happiness. Her love for Nick feels more authentic in comparison to the affection she previously felt for Josh, which makes it all the more painful when faced with his sudden avoidance.

“So…what? You’re going to avoid happiness completely because it might float away?”

Emilie voices a key internal conflict with which Nick still struggles. Due to the grief he’s still experiencing after losing his brother, Eric, Nick is unwilling to open his heart to anyone else, fearing he may lose them too. Here, Emilie highlights something Nick must overcome if he wants to enjoy a romantic relationship with her.

“My brain immediately went to I must have misunderstood—I’m so sorry. My mouth actually opened to say it. But I hadn’t misunderstood. And I wasn’t sorry.”

In the past, the old Emilie would have apologized to Nick for rejecting her romantically even though she knew the truth of the matter—she hadn’t misunderstood his interest in her. Her resolve to not apologize to spare his feelings even while he’s hurting hers shows her character growth, as she no longer feels the need to people please.