#i will protect whitney kimberly and canaan with my life

[the-paris-of-people]

For those of you that thought Kimberly and Canaan were out of left field...

Oh boy, buckle up, because I am going to explain how Kimberly and Canaan make perfect sense together and the show has been building to them since their first interaction. I'm going to be examining their scenes together, their scenes in other romantic relationships and interactions with friends, and ultimately investigate the events of the finale, which culminated in them developing feelings for each other.

In the first scene where Kimberly and Canaan are introduced, Canaan takes advantage of Kimberly's naivete by telling her he has to work multiple jobs to support his family because his mother is addicted to crack. I personally love this scene because it reveals Kimberly's lack of exposure to POC and touches on her unconscious biases prior to coming to Essex, but it also establishes the fun, banter-y dynamic between Canaan and Kimberly from the get-go. Kimberly later stands up for Canaan and this choice was 100% deliberate on the writer's part for K/C relationship building. Christopher Meyer's background reactions (in a lot of these scenes) suggest he's in awe at the different side of Kimberly that's shown to him through this interaction. Kimberly may have that sweet, kind, girl-next-door vibe but she also has a backbone and is not afraid to stand up for herself. Moreover, Canaan's being in agreement of Kimberly's speech and their shared position at Sips together implies shared values that bind them together, at least in the affluent world of Essex.

A few episodes later, when she and Bela attend the comedy gala, Kimberly understands from Canaan that he and Lila are not being tipped well as caterers. She leaves them a large tip and announces to everyone that they are on financial aid, which elicits pity tips from the attending gala members. Canaan initially doesn't believe this will work, and he's so surprised and grateful to Kimberly for her shrewd assessment of the situation, he gives her a portion of their tips later. Again, Kimberly's resourceful advice surprises and compels Canaan, setting them up for a deeper connection down the road.

For those of you who don't regularly follow my blog, I'm also obsessed with Ben and Devi from Never Have I Ever (another MK show) and love that Ben acts to "save Devi from herself" and often is her voice of reason, pushing her to be a better person. Canaan acts as this voice of reason throughout the remainder of season 1 for Kimberly, reminding to focus on her Econ homework instead of obsessing over Nico because it's likely not worth it (a hard lesson Kimberly learns on her own), imploring her not to cheat because she cannot pull it off. The latter observation suggests that over the time period of working together, Canaan knows her, knows that she cannot cheat, knows that is the least discrete person in the world and she cannot pull it off (again, Canaan is right again) He even calls her cute during this conversation, yes he compares it to when Nemo gets mad at his Dad, but it's clear during this commentary that while he may be passing it off as a joke, he genuinely finds Kimberly attractive on some level.

There's another comment in this scene Canaan makes to Kimberly that sets them both up to be together. Canaan tells Kimberly he sees her with "more of a sweet boy" and describes a nerd. All we know about Canaan at this point in season 1 is that he's funny, sarcastic, DTF (with Whitney at this point), and kind, the "nerd" aspect of his personality hasn't come up - at least for now.

During season 2, Canaan and Kimberly embark upon parallel journeys to date a great person, but not the right person for them. We can argue Leighton goes through a similar journey in another post, but that's for another day. At the end of s1 and beginning of s2, Canaan dates Whitney (who btw I would die for, no Whitney slander in the comments please) and while the two are attracted to each other, have good conversation, and seem to get along, they seem to have different attitudes towards their family and academic goals. Canaan defends Whitney's mom to her for coming to make sure she was okay after the whole Coach Dalton (aka the most heinous man known to society) fiasco and has a much more clear plan about his career/future than Whitney while Whitney is still trying to navigate her nascent relationships with her mother and biochemistry. I want to make it clear that there is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with Whitney trying to figure that out and she's amazing and deserves the best and 100% deserves all the love in the world, but it's clear from the Zoe/phone incident (although CANAAN hello you 100% should have told Whitney and not invited Zoe to the Kissmas party) that Canaan values being with someone who's completely secure with themselves in order to build a strong relationship. It's notable that when Canaan is reassuring Whitney about Zoe he calls her "A dream girl" rather than "MY dream girl" and that may be reading too much into it but I think the article choice was deliberate on the part of the writers. Also before Canaan asks Whitney to be his gf, he compliments Whitney that the study geek vibe on her is cute. Again, interesting considering how he thinks the perfect guy for Kimberly as a nerd because she is one ... and at the same time he is also attracted to them.

On the flip side, we have Kimberly who begins a little romance with Jackson. Jackson seems like a great, nice guy who really likes Kimberly, which is a refreshing break for my girl considering she had been through the ringer and back with Nico, losing her scholarship, and donating her eggs. However, yes she has this great, hot guy who's into her- the issue is, she's not into him and she feels they don't fully understand each other. Jackson initially doesn't participate in the food worker's strike even though it's near and dear to Kimberly's heart, she's incredibly passionate about social causes and is helping organize the movement as well! Once Kimberly explains she wants him to support her, he does, but to Kimberly, she shouldn't have to explain. She feels Jackson immediately should have understood how the strike was important to her- worker's rights are in her core belief system (see: her upbringing and her speech at Sips in the first episode), and she should have a partner who immediately is willing to join which again, why I think it's intentional that this episode highlighted that Canaan helped her with the strike and was her team member while Jackson did not. After a conversation with Lila and Canaan (in which Canaan seems VERY jealous, might I add), she realizes how much it bothers her how little she and Jackson have in common. She doesn't get his EDM/country playlists, his love of wrestling, and while Jackson is willing to learn about the things he cares about and doesn't think that it's a big deal, it still doesn't seem like it's fully resolved.

In the background of these relationships, Kimberly and Canaan are orbiting each other. They update each other about their lives at the coffeehouse, they complain about Lila getting drunk on power, they work together on the strike, Canaan is there to observe Kimberly being supportive and prepping Lila for her manager interview, all until their journeys converge in the final two episodes of the season.

When Kimberly learns that Canaan is getting an award from the econ department, she's so excited for him and encourages him to attend. Canaan, who initially wasn't go to, has all of these dormant feelings for Kimberly that have developed over the past year which come to a head when he realizes how grateful he is to her for being so excited and supportive for him. He nervously invites her to the econ banquet, but because he's calm, collected, Canaan and he knows she's dating Jackson, he passes it off as a back-up invite. At the banquet, Kimberly, who is of aware that Canaan is kind, funny, and handsome, discovers a different side to him and sees that he's also humble, intelligent, hard-working, and cares about his family deeply, which reflect all of Kimberly's own positive qualities and values. On a value level, she realizes they have more in common than Jackson and Kimberly. They've worked together the whole year, there's been a small flame flickering between them, and once they're finally in a more romantic context, it's the match that lights the fire. Once he and Kimberly have that conversation about Canaan's mom's Alzheimer's, which is sure to come up in the future if I know Mindy's shows, she realizes that her hot work friend is much deeper than she knew he was, and she's interested in him and wants to know more, enjoys and wants time with Canaan more than she wants with Jackson. I don't think that Kimberly broke up with Jackson because she realized she had feelings for Canaan. I think she broke up with him because she realized, upon spending time with Canaan, she didn't have feelings for Jackson. Meanwhile, Canaan enjoys Kimberly's fun energy and openness at the banquet- she constantly is talking about how much fun she's having and wants to know more about his life and his mom and even though she's not cool or chill or fun, she's so unapologetically herself and happy about the way she lives her life and conducts herself (even when she almost eats the flowers off Canaan's dessert) and Canaan's into it.

Throughout the entire series, the writers set Canaan and Kimberly to get together. They always got along, were good for each other, balanced each other out, have a great platonic chemistry, and needed to date other people to realize the qualities they valued in each other as future potential partners. I know a lot of people wanted a classic "slow burn" situation and I was a little disappointed they didn't do it with them, but upon reflection, I actually like the route the writers took. They dropped little hints that Kimberly and Canaan would get together, and when they finally saw each other in a new light, away from work and their friends, and got to know each other more deeply, they realized they wanted to explore something more. Honestly, it's super realistic to have that one event that puts your hot friend in a new light and to just go for it and date afterwards instead of dragging it out. Based on the very first episode though, and even the whole first season, it's obvious they were setting up some kind of conflict between Kimberly and Whitney over dual interest in Canaan so while I think the situation is shitty and low-key devastates me, it was ALWAYS bound to happen and didn't just "come out of nowhere." Anyway, I urge you to rewatch the series and watch Canaan and Kimberly's interactions closely, it surprises me that there was so much uproar over them getting together when although not completely explicit, it was built into their arcs in s1 and s2.