Spoilt, materialistic, and self-centered; when I started watching Schitt’s Creek, this was my first impression of Alexis Rose (played by a stunning Annie Murphy). She was the exact kind of person I try to avoid in real life.

But boy did she surprise me! Of all the lead characters in Schitt’s Creek, Alexis won my heart. She had an extraordinary character arc that stood apart from the remaining characters. And as the series came to an end, instead of a spoilt brat, stood a graceful woman who was mature enough to understand when to let go and was soaring high toward her dream.

Schitt’s Creek starts off with the Rose family being forced to move into a small town that Johnny Rose, the patriarch, bought as a joke for his son. While the family (comprising of Moira Rose, a fading television actress, David Rose, the elder son, and Alexis Rose, the star of this blog post) slowly settle into the new environment and get their life together, they also slowly get to know each other. It is during this phase that we come to know about Alexis’s slew of secret adventures and a string of meaningless relationships.

While we are surprised to know that she emerged safe and alive amidst all her scary adventures, all these give us a glimpse of her spoilt, careless nature. But luckily, all this also refined her to be a street-smart individual who knows how to get her way around things. In a broader sense, she knew how the world worked.

Alexis Goes Back To School

alexis rose goes to school — Image Courtesy: EW

The first major advancement in Alexis’s character arc comes when she decides to go back to high school so that she could enroll for a college degree. Point to be noted that she is in her late 20s when she takes this call, a phase in one’s life when people might not really consider such options. But Alexis knew her way forward.

While she rekindled her academic journey, on the way, she also strengthens her relationship with David and the two can be seen giving major sibling goals. One of my favorite scenes was one where David shares how he was always concerned about Alexis while she was away on her adventure streaks across the globe.

When David sits in the car, extremely nervous about his driver’s test, Alexis has his back and tells him exactly what he needed to hear; “Trust me, people aren’t thinking about you the way that you’re thinking about you”. While David did pass his test, what Alexis said, stayed with me. We often take ourselves more seriously than we should, making it difficult to feel ourselves fully. Alexis, with all her sass and quirk, knew herself well enough.

Alexis's Relationship With Ted

Her relationship with Ted is when her character arc really peaks. When she falls in love with Ted again, she is an entirely different person from when she first met him. Instead of swooning over materialistic things, she starts to see the finer emotional details that make a relationship beautiful.

The maturity and grace with which she handles the entire relationship showed how much she has grown as a person. When it became clear to her that they both want different things, she elegantly calls it off, with all her love and respect for Ted still intact.

It requires another level of maturity to let go of the person you love the most, and that too with this much amount of grace. The wonderfully shot breakup scene showed us that not all breakups have to be ugly and can be a mutual decision between two people who have immense love and respect for each other.

Alexis's Career Growth

After her successful graduation, Alexis quickly grows in her career, getting some gigs in which she excels like a true professional. Alexis has always been someone who knew how to get a job well done. Might be her adventurous teenage and early 20s, Alexis Rose is indeed a street-smart person who knows her way around.

With her exceptional PR skills, she not only helps David with the contract for his apothecary shop but also helps her mother Moira with her film promotion. She actively takes up interesting opportunities that come her way and opens up her own PR firm “Alexis Rose Communications”.

Conclusion

"Spoilt, immature girl being successful" is a trope that we have seen in several sitcoms, for example, Rachel Greene from FRIENDS, but what makes Alexis different from them is not just her exponential growth and self-discovery, but how she retains her individuality amidst this interesting journey. Her little quirks and mannerisms, and a sense of fashion to die for, all remain the same as they form the core of who she really is.

Alexis exudes a unique blend of sensitivity, emotional depth, and unyielding resilience, pursuing her dreams both in her personal and professional life. However, what truly sets her apart is her ability to recognize when it's time to release her grip, even if it means letting go of someone she deeply cares for. This captivating combination of traits makes her character genuinely inspiring. In her own words, “I don’t skate through life David, I walk through life, in really nice shoes”.

Anjali’s Substack

From Spoilt to Sensational: The Remarkable…