Did Michaela Coel's Jigsaw Puzzle Obsession Birth An Abuse Catharsis for FKA twigs?

Everywhere woman Michaela Coel was among the stars to covers the November 2020 Innovators Issue of WSJ Magazine. Coel won the coveted annual cover for her work in Television. Lynsey Moore styled Coel in elegant woman looks lensed by Tyler Mitchell./ Hair by Cyndia Jarvey; makeup by Ammy Drammeh

Clover Hope wrote the interview, with a Michaela Coel storyline well covered on AOC. One data point got our attention, however.

The ‘I May Destroy You’ star became totally obsessed with jigsaw puzzles during her summer lockdown. Having finished five 500-piece puzzles and purchased equipment including a lamp and roll-up mat to preserve her work, Coel recruited friends to join her.

The “coterie of puzzlers” were known to work their jigsaws until 2am in Coel’s East London apartment, simultaneously watching episodes of ‘I May Destroy You’.

“During a summer of stress amid a worldwide pandemic, a show about sexual assault was somehow comforting, in part because it proved the infinite possibilities of simply surviving,” wrote Hope. The story of one close friend — FKA Twigs — stands out, in particular.

FKA twigs, was also so obsessed with puzzles that she invested in 3-D versions for her London recording studio. “I promise you, making a puzzle feels the opposite of being on Twitter,” says twigs. “It’s like your mind opens up. It feels like you’re expanding and you’re creating new neural pathways in your brain, which are really helpful for critical thinking and problem-solving.”

Fresh off her puzzle-making, creating new neural pathways in her brain experience with Michaela Coel, FKA twigs filed a lawsuit on December 11, 2020 in Los Angeles Superior Court. The musician accuses her former 2019 boyfriend Shia LaBeouf of sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress writes The New York Times.

“I’d like to be able to raise awareness on the tactics that abusers use to control you and take away your agency,” FKA twigs, 32, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, said.

“I’m not in any position to tell anyone how my behavior made them feel,” he said in an email to The New York Times. “I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations. I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt. There is nothing else I can really say.”

We toast the therapeutic benefits of puzzle-making, and the not-yet-fully-realized impact of Michaela Coel’s ‘I May Destroy You’ on human relationships worldwide. Coel is simply brilliant at picking-open scabs that fester and harden, often building a self-defeating delusion of self-reproach among victims. Whether the aggressor is a misogynist, racist, religious bigot — or all of the above, rolled into one explosive human cocktail — Michaela Coel is supremely adept at knocking on the doors of our human psyches.