#hsmtmts: 304 (no drama)

[rinisbowen]

this kind of stems from my last post, the whole ‘doesn’t feel like it has enough weight for me comment’. 

i know i’m in the minority about really and genuinely enjoying season 2. i have my gripes with it, but honestly, i know tim and such wanted to get out of the darkness of season 2, as they described it, (what makes it funny is that on top of heavier vibes, and heavy external circumstances of filming during the pandemic and such, the cinematography style of season 2 was quite literally darker in a visual sense), but to me- the neat thing about season two was how much WEIGHT things had. like i enjoyed the way things like- actually weighed on characters and stories like- were deeper into the relationships and such. 

this season is a lot lighter, and happier, and more fun, which is exactly what they’re going for, but i do miss that sense of weight. like i’m not saying i want everyone to always be like- down and feeling sad or anything, i don’t mean it that way at all. all i’m saying is i want like- more gravity to the deeper situations that come up. 

carlos changed the cast list early in the season, probably trading ricky and himself or jet and himself, depending. we have no idea which, and it didn’t matter. yes this show does stuff like this- but there was no weight to the situation. he did it, maddox remarked on it verbally, and we all moved on. there was no sense of consequence, whether internal or external, with no actual feelings about it from well- really anyone?

i’m hoping that the letter... turns into something bigger than the cast list did, a throwaway line isn’t going to do it for me. whatever your thoughts on gina and ej, they need to have this out. i don’t want this to just be like oh it’s cool you kept this from me, i understand, unless the narrative makes it obvious that yeah no it is NOT actually cool... and that there are actually hurt feelings about it. the only question to remain at that point is whether ej realizes he did in fact screw up here or if he doesn’t see the feelings gina’s having about it the way he reacted to the veiled distaste in her comment about val... (that’s another situation i NEED them to do more with by the end of the season, but i’m not rushing that, i just- need the ej and val and gina’s perceptions of them situation dealt with. there’s time.)

obviously jet and maddox’s whole plot arc together is not even remotely sunshine and rainbows, but like even if we just talk about jet going missing and leaving camp and how his return was treated. the only reason jet going missing mattered was ej filling in at rehearsal as hans for the cameras, and then it was made to be about ricky and gina. that’s not emotional weight, that’s drama. he felt so bad about the way he was ruining things for maddox he LEFT CAMP. and that didn’t matter in the episode. it looks like the jet and maddox thing gets touched on again in 305 (i truly need people to know that they’re siblings, preferably by 306), but i just think the way him leaving was treated in 304 was odd. i liked that maddox was actually concerned, but she was the only one who actually like- cared that he was gone and not just that they needed a hans, or a partner for gina to sing with. no one even NOTICED he wasn’t there until they were going to start singing love is an open door. that’s odd... we have time to do maddox and jet’s story justice, we’re only halfway through, i just definitely thought ricky snapping at jet instead of like- continuing to support him and such as he’s been doing was a very strange choice in the latter part of 304... i get what they were trying to accomplish, but i think there were better ways to do that. 

i’m still hopeful that ricky’s getting his like- heavier storyline coming up sooner than later. they have four more episodes to have the other shoe drop for him and him to have to start taking a good look at what’s going on for him, and what’s been going on prior to this season that’s led him to ignoring all his stuff. i’m praying it’s not in the finale. i want happy ricky too, but i don’t want to watch him being fake happy. i want to see him like- genuinely enjoying himself without this weight hanging over his head that he’s been ignoring since he ran off to california without looking back in 301... this isn’t ricky being the happiest he’s been- this is ricky pretending to have a fun summer with no consequences when really- there’s literally no chance that ends up being the case.

we’ll see how it goes. i just- i do definitely miss the weight of season two. i don’t need it to be dark i just wish it had more deep impacts... 

[laylakeating]

Ricky telling Gina that he’s proud of her is very telling. EJ didn’t tell her that and neither did Ashlyn who are arguably the two most important people in her life. EJ just got her flowers. Don’t get me wrong, it was a really sweet gesture but what he’s doing is no different than a husband working for his wife while thinking that’s enough and not being there for his wife emotionally. Ricky telling Gina exactly what she needed to hear was so thoughtful of him and he’s NOT dating her. Hmmm…

it makes me SO mad that both ej and ashlyn were so wrapped up in their own problems in 303 that they couldn’t even congratulate gina on something that she is very obviously MASSIVELY excited about. ashlyn spirals about being in the ensemble and ej tunes her out bc he’s the director now and apparently he can’t listen for five seconds. it just bugs me so much. like. SO MUCH. it’s not hard to recognise what gina needs bc ricky DOES THIS. they’ve had like. one day of rekindled friendship and ricky says exactly what she’s been needing to hear all day (something gina might not even realise she NEEDED to hear). and honestly? i don’t think it even sinks in how much he really means it. she kind of laughs it off but 304 proves that ricky is doing literally everything in his power to make everything perfect for gina and like. that’s love man. that’s TRUE LOVE.

[rinisbowen]

i just wanted to say quickly that there’s def a reason they keep bringing lily up. they should’ve sent her to camp for the sake of ricky’s arc, but that may have easily been a scheduling issue as well.

they broke up like- 4 days ago... ricky’s story arc involves him PRETENDING to be happy and ignoring all his deeper stuff that’s going on. a bandaid over a tank of gas. i’m not saying this in the sense of him having these intensely deep feelings for lily (though it’s clear he must’ve genuinely had something real with her to a certain extent given context of time and the situation we have them in in 301. argue with the wall.)

i’m just saying- whenever he’s forced to reckon with things and the other shoe does drop... she’s a part of what he’s going to have to reckon with. they could’ve just fully dropped the subject after ricky came the camp, or at least after carlos mentions her in 302. it would’ve been easy to do so. but she came up TWICE in the last episode. that’s continuity, sure, but if they really just wanted to ignore that it happened after the first time, they could’ve. they’ve done that sort of thing before. 

[rinisbowen]

i know we’re all looking at 305 so this is kinda old news, but since i have some free time rn, i’ve been meaning to say this- re 304 

there is something beyond just ej keeping the letter from gina that’s going on with val in terms of ej and gina. i’m not buying that being all that val’s talking about when she says “this isn’t complicated at all” when gina walks away after asking val to change the movie for kourtney (loved that btw, kourtney needed something nice like that and shoutout to gina for thinking of it)

like she talks about ej and gina both being good people... and when gina walks away she notes that it ‘isn’t complicated’ meaning that it IS complicated... maddox says they have like- an incomparable bond basically... 

idk if ej and val have History? of some sort... (like romantic history) maybe they were each other’s first kiss... or if she’s got or has had some sort of feelings for him prior... or if this is otherwise just some kind of concern about them that goes beyond the letter... 

but there HAS to be something more than just that letter. it doesn’t feel like it has enough weight for me? idk. maybe this is nitpicking, but i suppose only time will tell. 

[rinisbowen]

the caswell success training school- 

cash caswell is certainly an interesting man... like- what even IS the caswell success training school? 

i mean he founded it or at least donated enough money to whatever it is to have it named after himself and it’s a Success Training school so it’s not like ej’s being sent to military school like they do in other shows but... what is that? like a leadership academy program or??? i’m very confused  

[laylakeating]

now that rina is officially on again.. when do we think ricky realizes his feelings for gina bc that’s definitely going to happen right???? RIGHT?

RIGHT gunning for either like 304 or 305. i have no solid evidence for this just vibes <3

[rinisbowen]

i have an interesting theory:

you know how the docu series is a big deal, as the 305 description it seems like corbin and crew are desperate for drama and by the footage of the episode 304 he might accidentally create drama. we saw ricky walk out upset and corbin looking like he might have done/said something to get that reaction. we also saw ej walking out and what looks like a very uncomfortable ej/gina on the piano. i believe will happen after ej finds ricky and gina outside, probably she goes after him and ej later goes after her. anyways, i think this episode might kick start that level of insecurity towards their relationship. jett goes missing on the first practice so gina and ej end up reluctantly singing love is an open door. an interesting parallel to ejnini on season 1.

now comes 305, we know corbin is so desperate for drama that the team decides to give them drama, even if fabricated. i think ej will create something with ricky and gina, out of pettiness or simply to prove that he isn’t threatened at all, this obviously doesn’t go as planned and ej might accidentally kick started the rina/docu-series subplot. now corbin and crew will find the "love triangle" between their leads and director more interesting and decide this is the drama they want to follow. as for the bisexual story line, someone will get a fabricated story line about that but turns out it’s not that fabricated at all so in turn one of them confesses something related to it.

hi anon, so for the first part of this ask, i kinda covered it in this answer HERE, so i’ll just link it in the interest of time. that said i’ll note quickly, i’m unsure if corbin’s actually doing this by accident- it could well be that he intentionally made ricky upset enough to storm out in frustration.

—

but for the part about 305… hmmm…

i’ll start by saying i absolutely do not want to see someone outed through fake drama that hits harder and more personally in that sense. i hope they’re delicate about doing the bisexual storyline in the episode with all of the fake drama… we’ll see how it goes.

but for the triangle, bc that’s what most people seem interested in right about now 😅, i don’t think ej’s necessarily going to be out to prove he’s not threatened by them, but matt and josh did say in an interview that came out this morning that there is something of a competitiveness between ej and ricky this season that almost mirrors season 1 but like- less intense… idk. we shall see.

whether ej intentionally or unintentionally pushes ricky and gina’s like- ✨chemistry✨ as co-leads, and it potentially having been val’s idea or his or carlos, whoever… it’s going to backfire and we know this. there’s a lot of ways that the fake drama pushing ricky and gina at each other can go south, and one of these even being ej making gina uncomfortable bc he’s unaware of her complicated history with ricky… but we’ll see what way they choose. regardless i’d anticipate them getting closer from whatever happens here.

[rinisbowen]

we got a lot more clips from the no drama ep with corbin and channing. ricky storms off, ej leaves, ash’s awkward look to the camera at the piano and val tries to cover her face and walk away from channing (presumably after the portwell duet as they’re in the same spots), ricky trying to hug corbin, etc. the episode looks really interesting and fun! how do you think things may go down and what caught your eye?

yes! i saw that. i think ‘no drama’ will actually have well- plenty of that very thing in fact.

ej and ricky seem to storm out of / leave different rooms or at the very least different doors / areas… and ricky seems to have been set off by corbin in fact- whether that was intentional or unintentional… what causes ej to leave could be the camper disappearance? idk idk. time will tell.

val clearly doesn’t want the camera in her face- idk if she’s embarrassed by whatever the cameras just saw (maybe someone’s bad/awkward performance) and is like i want no part of the responsibly for this or if she’s just shy about being filmed in general. we shall see!

i think that duet- with ashlyn at the piano (i’m curious to see if they explain why she’s serving as their rehearsal pianist or if they just ignore it like with seb), looks pretty awkward. which makes sense if it is love is an open door with ej filling in for jet who’s probably hans… singing that song with his girlfriend who he may have just seen hanging out with ricky… could be a little bit- tense… perhaps even somewhat reminiscent of the ej and nini what i’ve been looking for moment as i’ve seen a few people suggest prior…

also we know now what the hug is about- which is cool. and i mean good for ricky that he does eventually get that hug. seven year old ricky would be proud

[rinisbowen]

i don’t think everyone will forget about ricky’s birthday, it seems gina is reading his bucket list on that scene of her snatching his paper away so she definitely knows his birthday is coming.

i don’t think her seeing the bucket list inherently means she’s going to know his birthday’s coming, but he would potentially tell her in that scene yes.

and i’m gonna be honest, when i say i hope people don’t forget his birthday, it’s mostly because i feel like almost none of them would even be aware it was his birthday…