Some things that I didn't really notice the first time around or just things I started to think about more after a rewatch.

S1E01

Eliza never says or hints that she has any physical attraction to Henry but she seemed open to casual sex when she says, "...just no backdoor stuff" to him, which I guess means she doesn't find him unattractive.

S1E02

Henry's mom (Jenny Higgs) and also his aunt (Talia Higgs) friend him and appear in his Facebook feed while he is facetiming with Eliza. His mom appears to not like Obama as she uses a #nobama hashtag in her posts. In a comment reply, his aunt invites him to bring a girlfriend/friend to Thanksgiving which she'll be hosting at her house that year. Sounds like a Thanksgiving episode could've been in the future of this series had it not been cancelled.

Henry's very last line where he said he will call her again in an hour to wake her up to check on her foot cast showed that he was great at listening and remembering things Eliza said in order to help her. But this gesture went beyond his usual business like habits. It was at this moment it no longer was just a work agreement for him. It showed him genuinely starting to care for Eliza.

S1E03

Henry admitting to Eliza that he was no better than her at workplace "friendships" showed that he could admit to his own faults. It also showed that he doesn't connect deeply with others similar to Eliza.

Henry found a way to lessen the impact of Eliza's anti-social behavior by having her eat over a trash can in his office where others wouldn't see her doing it. It showed that Henry had some flexibility in helping Eliza.

S1E04

Eliza started to make deals with Henry by asking him to do something in exchange for her to do something, which she would do again later on in ep 12.

I think this is the first and only time we hear Henry do narration/monologue when he described how the elephant vitamin became a success. Other times even when Henry is alone, Eliza is narrating what he's doing.

Eliza gave Charmonique a genuine compliment that she's the best mother ever. It was a nice moment and showed Eliza's growth.

Even though Eliza is presented as not being particularly smart she astutely points out the flaw in Henry's vita-nuggets idea. Henry gives her credit in front of Saperstein. Something he would do again in ep 9 about the diaper cream.

S1E05

It's in this ep where Eliza takes the initiative to help Henry but she does it by not telling him and surprising him. Although her help backfires by luck it works out with Henry's random uber encounter with a woman.

Henry "makes a move" while Eliza has a BF (what she laters calls "that smolder"). This would in a way be reversed in ep 9 when Eliza would make a bolder move on Henry while he has a GF.

I think this is probably the ep when Henry starts to have subconsious romantic feelings for Eliza but knowing she's with Freddy means he doesn't entertain the possibility. It's possible that Larry's mistaken belief that Eliza wants Henry could've also sparked Henry's feelings to come to the surface prompting his "move" on Eliza.

Some of the things Henry says during his outburst at the bar like he doesn't need help or that he does alright (with dating), I think are not true. I don't think what Eliza did to try to help Henry was the right approach and he had some justification for being upset but I think it did show that Henry was too closed off and unwilling to receive help. A similar pattern would recur in ep 6 and ep 8.

Henry says "For the record..." which Eliza would also say back to him in ep 10 and also in regards to relationships.

S1E06

It's the first time Henry needs Eliza to help him but he mostly doesn't let her as he's too focused on his own plan. It's also the ep where he says the meanest things to her when he thinks following her advice has backfired on him. Whereas in other instances he has some justification for being angry, in this instance there was none. Henry was a real a-hole to Eliza. I think this was the biggest thing that Henry needed to change.

In the end, one could say that the $16,000 Henry spent on horseback riding lessons didn't go to waste and was wisely invested into an apology to Eliza.

S1E07

The word "friendship" gets mentioned a lot in this ep but it feels more like the beginning of Eliza subconsciously developing feelings for Henry as more than just her one IRL friend. She tries to find excuses to keep Henry from reducing the frequency of their work sessions like pointing out little problems that she is clearly aware of and could just fix on her own. It's a good thing that Eliza is "on her own" for the first time at the conference as she needed to learn to rely on herself and less on Henry.

S1E08

Eliza tries to do something nice for Henry. The concert tickets were a good idea but the surprise party at his house was a bad idea. Again, Henry gets angry but appears to immediately regret it as Eliza also gets upset and walks out. I guess that's a tiny bit of progress for Henry. As usual he apologizes later.

In Eliza's apartment when she's with Larry and Charmonique, there's writing on the wall that says, "Remember to look people in the eyes!" that wasn't there in ep 7.

S1E09

Henry's blunt rejection of Wren seemed like foreshadowing to his "rejection" of Eliza that would occur in ep 10. Although ultimately they were different situations.

Eliza wears a white tank top that says "I NEVER LIKED YOU ANYWAYS" while sitting in bed with Freddy. This is probably an allusion to Freddy not being the right guy for her.

At the end, Eliza says, "Henry and I were going to be together...or else." What does she mean by "or else"? Something like "no matter what" instead would've seemed more appropriate. There is probably no deeper meaning to it but I found that last part an odd thing to add on.

S1E10

Eliza wears a black zebra t-shirt that also has the words "SAVAGE ALWAYS TOGETHER" near the bottom which pretty much refers to the nature of Eliza & Henry's friendship/morethanfriendsship.

After talking with Raj, Henry opens up to the possibility of a romantic relationship with Eliza. But after talking with Freddy, he changes his mind and questions if Eliza's feelings for him are genuine. Would things have turned out differently if he hadn't talked to Freddy? With Henry still being in a relationship with Julia, I think he was unlikely to admit his feelings to Eliza on that night regardless. Eliza wanted everything to happen quickly while Henry needed things to slow down. Eliza's feelings are understandable but she was essentially pressuring Henry into breaking up with Julia, which wasn't fair to him.

Presumably Julia leaves after overhearing Eliza & Henry's argument so at this point Henry has to choose who to go after first to try to explain things (and maybe apologize). He chooses to go to Eliza first which is telling. But where does Henry go after leaving Eliza? He returns to the karaoke party after all the other company people except Saperstein are gone. He clearly didn't see or talk to Julia during the time he was absent (as per Julia's voicemail) so I wonder what he was doing.

S1E11

Even though Freddy had a point about Eliza moving away from him whenever he tried to get serious it doesn't excuse him for putting his own fear of losing her ahead of helping her. It was disappointing that Eliza fell more for Freddy after his explanation but it made sense given her state of mind at that time. I do wonder if Eliza would've come back to this moment and realize the difference between how Henry and Freddy acted when she needed help. Henry has always had Eliza's best interests in mind which can't be said for Freddy.

I'm unsure why Henry felt that he needed to hide his breakup from Eliza, who becomes giddy when she finds out. Even Henry doesn't seem that bummed out about it. Julia got a raw deal, being dumped by surprise for being "boring".

S1E12

Eliza says Henry doesn't control everything she does and says but then takes a call from her sister because Henry told her to. I think it's a subtle hint that the teacher-student arrangement between Henry and Eliza would have to end at some point in the future. Freddy also questions how their relationship can survive with Henry's continued involvement in Eliza's life (even though that was something agreed upon between Eliza & Henry before Freddy entered the picture).

Henry knows not to take a banana from the batch that Eliza's sister brought. Eliza also threatens him not to and he complies. I think it was a funny but nice way to show they cared about what the other does. Eliza doesn't care at all what Freddy does in this instance.

S1E13

Henry inadvertently showed Eliza a more vulnerable part of himself for the first time, that he pretended to be good at skateboarding. Seeing Eliza support him in overcoming this even if he failed at it and broke his arm was a nice reversal of roles. Henry also gains more admiration for her after listening to her outside the bookstore about how she worked hard to change her younger self which in a way is the opposite of what he did by lying about his lack of skateboarding skills. Henry seems to be inspired by Eliza from this moment. It also showed how both of them put up a facade to protect themselves.

Eliza wears a pink sweater that says "Nobody's Perfect" when Henry is trying to encourage her at her apartment. This likely alludes to Eliza's own pursuit of "perfection" as it relates to Corynn.

Eliza inadvertently let Freddy see her old high school photo but it was the first time that a part of her inner self was shown to someone other than Henry. She appears to fall more for Freddy when he reacts playful and positive to this. It makes the cancellation of the show sting a bit more since it adds a bit more apparent distance between Henry & Eliza romantically.

The first lyric of the song that plays over the ending montage is, "I promised you I'm never giving up." which could be a callback to the streaming version of the pilot where Eliza asked Henry not to give up on her.

Post series lingering thoughts & questions

There are various directions the show could've taken with the Eliza-Freddy relationship and how it could've affected Eliza's individual growth (and Henry's as well). It leads to some questions like:

How far would Eliza and Freddy's relationship have gone? What would've ultimately caused their breakup?

Would Julia have returned at some point after finding out that Henry was actually not with Eliza?

Would Henry have waited for Eliza to be single or would he have told Eliza his feelings while she was still with Freddy?

I like to think that Eliza still has Henry's jacket/coat (from ep 9) and that in a future episode she would look at it and be reminded of her feelings for him. Then in a scene later when she does try to give it back to him again Henry would tell her she can keep it because it looked better on her anyway.

I was surprised by how many small moments and details there were that give insight into Eliza and Henry. It feels like each episode was densely packed with them, some of which are easy to miss on a first viewing. While Eliza had more "practical" things to improve, it was more noticeable to me on a rewatch what Henry needed to improve. I also noticed more how the same patterns would repeat in different situations. I think it showed that establishing real lasting change can be hard and both Eliza and Henry need multiple reminders and attempts at it.

Although the realization of Eliza's and Henry's feelings for each other happened very quickly it surprisingly didn't feel rushed to me. As much as I would've liked to see them become a couple within the 13 episodes, that would've felt too rushed if it had happened (plus it appears to me that the cast & crew had already finished shooting all 13 eps before the show got cancelled so they couldn't significantly change anything anyway).

Two contrasting characters like Eliza & Henry would likely not work in real life. But in this show Eliza & Henry are presented as two sides of the same coin. They share a common experience of loneliness that each dealt with in opposite ways. They both have trouble connecting with others but I think they connect with each other because they are both looking for the same thing without consciously knowing it. When their time together stops feeling like "work" and they begin to realize how they've changed emotionally due to each other's influence, their friendship starts to shift towards something more, something that is unknown territory for both of them. Their differences could be complimentary rather than conflicting but they haven't figured out how to make it work yet.

I have a hard time thinking of something comparable but I also don't watch a lot of romance movies or series either. Still I think this show even 10 years later remains one of a kind. The premature cancellation makes it almost sadder than some complete stories with actual sad endings.

https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types (more details if you click on them)

On Weibo, some fans say ENFP for Eliza and INTJ for Henry. Or ESFP and ISTJ. I'm thinking a mix of ESFP and INTJ.

• ENFP: Campaigner - Enthusiastic, creative and social free spirits, who can always find a reason to smile.
• ESFP: Entertainer - Spontaneous, energetic and enthusiastic people - life is never boring around them.
• INTJ: Architect - Imaginative and strategic thinkers, with a plan for everything.
• ISTJ: Logistician - Practical and fact-minded individuals, whose reliability cannot be doubted.

I think Charmonique is ENTP, mostly because of the sarcasm lol Debater: Smart and curious thinkers who cannot resist an intellectual challenge

Sam Saperstein seems like an ENFP.

And Bryn might be ISTP based on her DIY projects: Virtuoso - Bold and practical experimenters, masters of all kinds of tools or ISFJ towards her friend group - Defender: Very dedicated and warm protectors, always ready to defend their loved ones.

Eliza mentioned her birthday is a week after October 18 in episode 12 "Stick in the Mud", but that would have been a Saturday in 2014. In episode 8 "Traumatic Party Stress Disorder", she said her next birthday landed on Tuesday. Since the episodes aired later than the dates referenced, I wanna guess Eliza's birthday is on October 27, Tuesday in 2015. That would be 9 days (a little over a week) after Bethany's first born. I just saw a comment on FB saying her being a Scorpio is perfect (if we're going by the old astrology dates).

I'm not too sure about Henry's birthday. All I know it was on a Saturday in 2014 lol. I've also seen Chinese fans guessing the characters' MBTI personality types.

Just some random ideas of future episodes and events that I think could've occurred after episode 13.

Eliza birthday episode - Henry enlists the help of Eliza's neighbors/book club friends to hold a surprise birthday party and bake a cake for Eliza. Freddy also makes plans for her birthday. Henry calls her but it goes to voicemail. He leaves a message wishing her happy birthday and asks if she'll be free to meet later that day. As Eliza does not suspect a surprise birthday and at Freddy's insistence she doesn't call back. When she arrives home she finds the cake with a card from Henry.

Eliza comes into her own episodes - Henry needs to visit his mom and deal with an urgent family matter. Not wanting to disturb Henry, Eliza goes to Freddy when facing some challenges but he isn't very helpful or gives bad advice. She manages to overcome these challenges herself (sometimes by recalling previous advice from Henry) and gains more self confidence. She recalls what she told Henry about him hiding in his relationship while not being in love and realizes she is doing the same thing with Freddy. She tells Freddy that even though they've had fun they haven't made each other better people so it's best that they break up for good this time.

Rebuilding the OTP ship episode - Eliza embraces being single. After wondering how Henry is doing with his family, she decides to check in on her mom and sister and also look for a gift for her sister's baby. Henry, recalling his past overly harsh and hypercritical behavior with Eliza, changes tack which enables him to resolve his family issues. As he prepares to return home he realizes how much he misses Eliza. He looks at her instagram and notices that there no longer seem to be any photos with Freddy. Henry scrolls some more and finds the old photo of the two of them with the white horse. He sets it on his phone's home screen. At that moment Eliza calls him and asks how he's doing.

Henry man's up episode - It starts with him in front of Eliza's apartment door but then flashes back to earlier that day. Henry had run into a series of increasingly ridiculous and improbable mishaps/obstacles that kept him from arriving at Eliza's apartment (the last being the elevator at Eliza's apartment being broken). With a blue rose in hand, he says, "Eliza, I love you." Her eyes begin to water as she responds, "Took you long enough, dummy." As they spend the night together it begins to rain outside.

Private Karaoke episode - Henry plans to take Eliza to a reunion concert of her favorite boy band but it gets cancelled. Instead they go on a noraebang date. They sing various songs. Henry tries to make up for the concert cancellation by doing a song & dance cover of Eliza's favorite boy band song much to her amusement.

A musical finale episode - A series of song & dance numbers ending with Eliza & Henry in formal attire performing a waltz (under a chandelier) in the style of My Fair Lady. Afterwards they go outside on the balcony to watch the fireworks. Henry turns his gaze over towards Eliza and then hers to him. As they lock eyes for a moment, Henry says, "Eliza, thank you for not giving up on me."

Felt like compiling some of what I thought were Henry's most encouraging and/or supportive words (plus some apologies) to Eliza throughout the series.

s01e01

Eliza: You don't even want to know where I had to stash my phone.
Henry: No phones, no wedding selfies. Today is about focusing on a beauty other than your own.

s01e03

Henry: I know how important it is for your digestion to eat standing up.
Eliza: Actually, that's just an excuse I use...because growing up nobody ever wanted to sit with me at lunch. Now I'm just kinda used to it.
Henry: Well in that case...is this seat taken?

s01e04

Henry: I'm really proud of you. You really did a good job tonight.

Saperstein: I could dip you.
Henry: Actually sir, it was Eliza's revelation.

s01e05

Saperstein: She's the perfect +1.
Henry: Actually sir, she's more than a +1. She's VIP.

Henry: Eliza, I'm sorry. I wasn't listening to you. You weren't hurting me this weekend, you were helping me.

Henry: That exclamation aside, I don't want you to think I value my job more than I value...our friendship.

Eliza: You worship me.
Henry: I do not worship you.
Eliza: Admit it, just admit it, you worship me. It's okay.
Henry: I...I have grown accustomed to your face.
Eliza: Thank you.

s01e09

Henry: Eliza, this is a good idea and I want him to know it's yours.

Eliza: A little bit of you, a little bit of me.
Henry: That seems to be the winning combination.

Henry: Eliza, try to stay off your phone tonight. The only thing that should be glowing at that table is you.
Eliza: Heh, glowing.

s01e13

Eliza: Henry, I don't need you to be right, right now, okay?
Henry: Okay.

Security guard: You're not cool.
Henry: No, I never was...
Henry: She is.

Henry: I don't want you to give me a lap dance. I want you to stop feeling sorry for yourself and start standing up for yourself. You have a lot to be proud of.
Eliza: Yeah!
Henry: Yeah!

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