#yes im alive btw

You know, I think the biggest difference between RoboMay and Melinda is really just the talking. 

Melinda doesn’t push, she doesn’t pry. (Maybe sometimes, when it’s for a mission or something). Other people give her information, or she figures things out in her head without asking. She almost always keeps her thoughts/questions to herself. 

Which, by the way, I think is anothergreat yin-yang aspect she has with Phil. Phil is constantly asking questions out loud. It’s how he thinks (i.e., the Tai Chi scene). He also pokes and prods and pushes people until they give him an answer. Phil and Melinda balance each other out that way. I’m not sure Melinda would have ever told Phil about seeing him when she died, except that he kept dogging her about it. RoboMay, on the other hand, DOES ask questions frequently and pushes for answers. About missions and information (especially about the Darkhold, of course), but also when it comes to Phil (which makes sense, because whether she knows it or not, she IS on a mission, so she naturally pushes). 

I think the biggest distinction between them is not that Melinda doesn’t think/feel the same way as RoboMay, but that with Melinda, there’s always something holding her back from actually sayingit. That’s why I’ve always headcanoned that Phil would have to be the one to cross the boundary in their relationship, because Melinda won’t do it–unless maybe she KNOWS he feels the same way. I don’t think Melinda would have told Phil to “start taking chances” the way RoboMay did, nor do I think she would have told him about going to Ireland together (at least not so obviously)–and not because she doesn’t wantto say it, not because she doesn’t feel the same, but because she would stop herself from saying it. 

RoboMay’s programming, on the other hand, lets her overcomeMelinda’s apprehension/fear/whatever it is that holds her back. It removes that barrier that Melinda created in order to stay distanced from Phil just enough that they didn’t cross that line between friends/partners and lovers. That’s why things have been progressing so quickly between RoboMay and Phil, whereas he and Melinda have been moving at a slower pace since the beginning of the show, and most notably this season. That’s my theory, anyway.