Still Up Season 1 Episode 7 Review: The Horse

AppleTV’s Still Up is a lot of things.

It’s quirky, funny, endearing and heartfelt. It has characters I’ve grown to love.

But after Still Up Season 1 Episode 7, I have no idea where this is going.

It’s clear that Veggie loves Lisa. And I’m fairly certain that Danny would jump at the chance to have a real relationship with Lisa that didn’t center on late-night phone calls.

But what does Lisa want? I’m not even sure that Lisa knows.

And that’s a problem because with only one installment left in Still Up Season 1, will she figure it out?

Things are tense between Lisa and Veg. Veggie is trying so hard to be helpful, and that’s part of his personality. So, where someone else might find Veggie’s sleepy-time tea and sleep-inducing yoga videos overbearing, Lisa does seem to realize that it comes from a place of love.

But Lisa hides a lot from Veggie, like the fact that she hates his parents, especially his mum, as we heard her tell Danny in this Still Up quote.

Christine is lovely. She is full of positivity. She’s just actually a really, really nice person, and I bloody hate her guts.

Lisa

And in her defense, I can understand why Lisa doesn’t say that to Veggie. Not only is it his mum, but he adores his parents and has an especially close relationship with them.

But as I talked about in my review of Still Up Season 1 Episode 5, Veggie’s mother is a manipulative bully who just happens to do it with a smile.

If Lisa doesn’t find the courage to be honest with Veggie about how she feels, it will either mean a life of silent misery for her, or the tension will eventually tear them apart.

Further complicating matters is Poppy. Veggie loves her, and Veggie’s parents treat her like their grandchild, which makes the possibility of a breakup all the more heartbreaking.

And as viewers, we really don’t know Poppy. She’s more a child in the background than a character we’ve spent any time with.

That’s a loss to the show because I can only imagine how much more difficult this might feel if we’d gotten to see the relationship Poppy and Veggie actually have.

But Lisa shouldn’t settle, and Veggie shouldn’t either. As Danny tried to tell Veggie, everyone deserves someone who truly wants them and not just the best version of themselves they try to show the world.

What I’m saying is we’re all trying our best, you know. Most of our life, we walk around feeling like we don’t fit in. That we’re just letting people down just by being who we are. But all it takes is that one person, you know, to see you. To really see you and decide that they want to be with you no matter what.

Danny

Have any of these people found that one person, the one who wants them, quirks and all? The first season is almost over, and I can’t answer that question. 

Danny and Amy are far too new. Lisa and Veggie are at some sort of a crossroads, although, as of yet, they’re not talking about it.

And Danny and Lisa are a complete unknown, at least as anything more than friends who stay up and talk all night on the phone.  

Veggie didn’t just end up at Danny’s. You don’t go for a run with a bottle of wine! He was searching for Lisa.

I can’t even blame Veggie for not completely trusting Lisa. She’s not entirely honest with him, and he knows it. But he doesn’t call her out on it or know how to fix it. And the things she isn’t sharing with him, he knows she shares with Danny.

Veggie: I can’t remember the last time I was up at this time.
Danny: Yeah, I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t, to be honest.
Veggie: It’s like when I’m sleeping, there’s this whole world of Lisa’s that I know nothing about.

Lisa does have an entire life that happens while Veggie is asleep. It’s not quite as bad as having a second family somewhere, but it’s still hurtful to feel left out, even if Lisa doesn’t mean it to be.

And did Veggie have a valid point when he told Danny that Lisa needs to grow up?

At first, I thought it was harsh, but it’s also not much off the mark. Lisa is a single mother who relies on Veggie to take care of her daughter because of their relationship. But is she taking advantage?

When Lisa checked into the sleep clinic, she didn’t take it seriously and got herself kicked out, mostly for talking to Danny. She acted more like a teenager than an adult trying to fix a serious problem. 

I wish we knew what reason Lisa gave Veggie for why she came home early. I can’t imagine it was the truth.

And talk about the hobby horse in the storage unit. Veggie’s father made it for Poppy, and Veggie loves his father, so it means a lot to him, and it should.

But Veggie and Lisa’s relationship would be so much more authentic if she could tell him that, as much as she loves the gesture, she finds it creepy, and it scares the heck out of her around the house.

Then perhaps they could decide together the best place to keep it, like a closet, instead of Lisa sneaking it into a storage unit.

I was relieved to see she put it into storage because, for a moment, I was fearful she’d thrown it away!

But as often happens, one lie, or a lie of omission in this case, leads to another, with Lisa having to write a note about why she’s taken a walk in the middle of the night so she can secretly go out and get that horse out of storage so Veggie will never know.

Then we have Danny, who is at his own type of crossroad.

During Still Up Season 1 Episode 6, Danny battled his panic attacks and left his home for the first time in three years because he believed Lisa needed him.

When he made it all the way to the laundrette only to learn that Lisa had made it home on her own, it was a wake-up call.

Although it hasn’t been said, Danny seems to realize he has feelings for Lisa, but she’s with someone else, so he’s putting distance between them.

To be fair, he should have a conversation with Lisa about that so she’s not worrying about him. But if he had, then we wouldn’t have had that delightfully awkward scene with Adam on his knees outside of Danny’s apartment.

When Danny was running to find Lisa, he found Amy instead, and in one of the biggest shocks of the series, she’s forgiven him for chopping off her finger–accidentally, of course.

But Amy had pegged Danny’s relationship with Lisa as a problem during their first date. Will seeing Lisa at his door, even virtually, send her packing once again?

And even though Lisa will likely tell Veggie she was dropping that adorable little cat off to David’s, she was in the middle of telling the cat how amazing Danny is.

Will this be the confrontation that Lisa and Veggie need to have, the one we’ve been waiting for all season?

We’ll just have to tune in for the Still Up season 1 finale to find out.

In the meantime, hit that SHOW COMMENTS button below to tell us which couple you’re rooting to see together.

Then come back to read our next Still Up review here at TV Fanatic.

New episodes of Still Up drop Fridays on AppleTV+.

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