She kicked off the season as the most nervous looking woman ever to board a trolley car.
Let's back up, though, because Julie’s story didn't have to go this way. "Belligerence," as Melissa so succinctly puts it, "has arrived." Episode two, however, brought a whole new layer to the proceedings, as a night out at a New Orleans gay bar went from Drag Night to "drag your roommate out of the bar before the bouncers do it for you" night. The season's first episode was dominated by Julie struggling - often refusing - to face up to the apologies she owed Danny and Melissa, which was stressful in the kind of way that watching someone dig a hole deeper and deeper for themselves while everybody else watches with expressions that very clearly read, "Wow, you're really just digging that hole, aren't you?" can be stressful.
Then there's the story of Julie Stoffer, who's been the focal point of almost all of this Homecoming season's most dramatic moments, and whose vibe has me more stressed out than any character on TV in recent memory. Episode two introduced the thoughtful, reflective, and deeply complicated story of Danny, whose boyfriend Paul at the time of the original Real World: New Orleans was in the military and bound by Don't Ask, Don't Tell strictures, a story that's been re-contextualized with the passage of time, and Danny admitting what a crushing weight it all was on him. There's also been the dishy rubbernecking of long-simmering bad blood between Julie and her ex-housemates, in particular Melissa and Danny.
Nostalgia has taken the front seat, as we've been re-introduced to the cast we first met as as twentysomethings. Over its first two episodes, the New Orleans season of The Real World Homecoming has been a tale of competing vibes.