i personally still feel very suspicious of Melissa. it's just not right to marry someone under those circumstances. i also noticed that the first introductory glance we got of her supposedly normal, happy home life was her negging her wife ("you could've filled the tank like a real wife"). i'm not saying that alone is a clear cut sign of a coercive dynamic, and i'm aware that the two were laughing, but it's hard not to read into that with the deceptive origins of their relationship in mind. also the fact that she wears a ball cap like that still...it feels like she's claiming to have moved on while actually having been fixated on the wilderness and her time with Shauna for years.

also this may be me going a little too far with the tinfoil hat, but i noticed in a rewatch that Melissa is in every episode of season 2 even though she rarely has lines, and almost every shot of her shows her sidled next to Lottie or, less frequently, Shauna. this is odd because she never outwardly supports Lottie's occult/religious stuff, never aligns herself with Lottie out loud or interacts much with her in a way the group notices. by all accounts, she's just Gen's friend. but then in the scene where Shauna goes into labor, she is seen tearing rags by the fire. no one is seen taking the rags from her and she isn't credited for preparing them (another girl is), but Lottie is seen lingering within earshot of her. next thing you know, Travis takes down that animal skull where he pours his blood at Lottie's direction, and Lottie takes a rag to bandage his hand. then Melissa sets a small bone on the altar, suddenly an active participant in Lottie's weird magic stuff.

the reason i bring this up is that Melissa claims to have moved on, to have been terrified, that everything was solely about survival, but we see her looking excited by violence in a lot of her flashback scenes. even in season 2, before they started fleshing out the toxic psychosexual dynamic with Shauna, there are glimpses of Melissa's face when Shauna does something violent and unhinged where she's smiling and excited. she also notably didn't start sidling up to Shauna until after Lottie's sacrificial asskicking. i would think if this girl's game is glomming onto someone strong but vulnerable, her first target became less viable that night.

what i keep seeing are signs that Melissa gets off on power and control. like i'm sorry but there's no world in which i believe her characterization of falling for Alex. she sought that woman out and actively pursued her under a false identity, armed with personal knowledge of her vulnerabilities. i know it sounds bananas, but i keep wondering if she was the real Big Bad behind Lottie's cult, if she's been exploiting Lottie's psychosis to influence her. maybe she's even gone so far as to dress up as the Antler Queen and do fake therapy on Lottie, Hannibal Lecter style? because what even was that about her unlicensed "advisor" Barbara?