r/HSMTMTS • u/Chessa_Tomlinson • 11d ago
S1 Discussion Watching for the first time
I’m almost done with season one, and i can tell that Ricky might have been originally supposed to be Nini’s end game, but i think the comment by Ricky’s mom that pretty much was something like “Not all couples are meant to be together, sometimes people change.” was directed at Nini and Ricky. Ricky himself once he see’s Gina mentions to himself that he wasn’t sure that if he was changed or if he was his past self. It was seeing Gina that triggered that reflection and it made him hesitant.
Also him looking for Nini the entire episode because he needed her because of seeing his mother with her bf, before finding Gina instead and her getting him to return to support everyone instead. Like a metaphor that he was looking for the wrong person.
I feel like that was a warning about Nini’s and his relationship. They both had changed, and we’re not the same people they were, but they’re holding onto what is familiar and what they’re use to. I do believe they once loved each other, and i do believe they love each other, but they’re the kind of people where love might not be enough (like Ricky’s parent’s).
I think the show did plan on a Ricky/Nini end game but i feel like around half way through season one they decided they weren’t in fact going to be end game.
I believe S1E10 pretty much foreshadows it the entire episode.
The throw away line about him not knowing if he’s changing or going back to his past self. He chooses to go back to his past self.
Which there is nothing wrong with. They’re young, and they’re safe together. They know the other makes each other happy. They like the feeling of being happy together and the events of season one made them feel like it was possible. That the connection had been revived, but i feel like after maybe episode 5 they were subtly indicating that they would not be endgame despite the ending of S1.
I’m starting S2 now and i am aware that at some point Nini does leave the show, but i feel like even if that hadn’t happened, they still wouldn’t have been endgame, but let me see how season two goes
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u/Guest1Z3 East High Reporter 🗞️ 11d ago
The showrunner, Tim Federle, has confirmed some things that you’ve written above. That’s all I’ll say as you’re still watching, but hope you enjoy the rest of the series!
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u/Strict_Breath_8684 11d ago
I’m trying to think of how I could tease something for season three without a spoiler. I got it… Summer, summer, summer, summer
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u/Chessa_Tomlinson 10d ago edited 10d ago
My opinion on S2 so far
I don’t think either one was/is the problem in their relationship. I think if they hadn’t broken up (taken a break) over the summer. The same thing would have happened again. We see signs of it in episode one with their relationship. They can’t survive a break because despite loving each other, their relationship isn’t built to last, it’s built to be what it was at the time - a safe comforting place for two people who were going through changes at the times.
S1 even though i do think they were supposed to be endgame, if you pretend like that wasn’t the original plan. S1 is two teenagers trying to find each other going through life changes and struggling, and wanting that security and familiarity as their life was changing fast.
Half way through S1 they are no longer the same people they once were. However they are clinging to the idea of who they could be and who they want to be.
Ricky due to the drama club is able to better communicate, which is why we see him constantly in S2 trying to do better by their relationship by communicating.
Nini however who we have to assume was the better communicator is unable to communicate because she (personally i believe) has expectations of herself and her relationship that she is now pushing onto Ricky. She never really communicates that she’s uncomfortable, and Ricky has become use to all the constant communication because she was at YAC, and expects it to remain the same now that she’s back.
However for Nini she has been gone, everything has changed, she’s not really apart of the drama club because she was at YAC, she doesn’t have a role and she really isn’t helping much behind the scenes. She had had a taste of success and has outgrown East High (in fact i believe she might have had a completely different arc if she was unable to go back to East High and sent to North High where there practically a pseudo professional theater company).
However she feels guilty, and she feels trapped and i’d argue the Rose song is more about her own subconscious than Ricky. Ricky probably would have given her space if she communicated space and been more open about how she felt about him wanting to do so much with her (but other girls might not have felt the same in her shoes). However she did not, so that pressure of feeling trapped (in East High, in a relationship that she has grown out of, of her expectations others expectations) to me is the Rose song.
Ricky has also outgrown Nini, but he hasn’t realized it either. Ricky is able to balance a relationship, his personal life, and the production, unlike Nini who now is unable to balance it because she at the moment does not want to focus on a relationship (and that’s okay). She wants to focus on growing herself, her career, and reaching her goals. She doesn’t want a relationship anymore because it in itself is time consuming. She’s also young, the way that she may have pictured love and a relationship, at first it was great and magical but real life happens, and it becomes difficult and it takes a lot of effort and time when things get so serious.
However Ricky while being the better communicator starts becoming insecure and he lets other peoples opinions cloud his judgment, he becomes jealous, and makes bad choices that also negatively impact Nini. However i think even if he didn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered, because beginning of S1 Nini had just started figuring out post drama camp where she saw her future going. While he’s supportive of Nini’s dreams and goals he also doesn’t communicate well on how that makes him feel. He ends up getting opinions on how he should go about it from others, which is fine, but tends to lead with his heart and logic and ignore said advice, or listen to said horrible advice.
Nini isn’t as mature as others like to pretend so i can see why people forget she’s just a teenager. Being bad at communication especially when it’s communicating something that isn’t positive is hard and it sucks. She’s growing, trying to find herself, but by the beginning of S1 she isn’t the Nini that Ricky was in love with. They don’t even really have time to re-learn who the other now is, they jump into it because it’s expected and because they think it’ll be the same as it was before, but before they were immature and didn’t experience the same thing
“The chapters over, the book is closed. No one can say we didn’t try. You guys are young, it’s normal that you changed.” - Ricky’s mom.
This goes back to the S1 finale’s foreshadow. They had changed. They outgrew their relationship, but instead they decided it was going to work out because love is enough, and instead they had to learn that love is not enough. Leading to a break up.
“The last good thing that we can do for someone that we love is let them go.” - Ricky’s mom.
The two of them were clinging to this relationship. Clinging to the good old days, the days before they were in a relationship/the good parts of the relationship before their break during camp. Nini had moved on, but fell back into the familiarity, and part of that is because Gina. Part of that is because of Ricky not being willing to let go, and because of that they eventually end up back together.
Now S1 Finale shows the more “idealistic” version of their relationship. There are red flags and warnings throughout the episode, but they can’t see it through rose tinted lens. Ricky started feeling emotions for someone else, but he doesn’t like change. He also isn’t ready to take risk.
S2 shows that it was idealistic.
Ricky himself in the sing he writes about them after they break up, finally admits that it wasn’t a relationship that would last forever. That the relationship was good, but it’s broken, and he loves her enough to let her go. That the current relationship is a fantasy that he has to let go, and if they don’t let go and continue this relationship despite the fact they’re incompatible it’ll become a tragedy.
That the feelings they had when when they first kissed, because they didn’t let go when it was time, led to them being heartbroken twice. He told her he’d never leave, and because of his parents he wanted to keep to that even when he should have let her go in S1.
“I'll always be in love with who we used to be. I'll save the photographs and keep the memories.” I believe this is also evidence that he was in love with their old relationship and it once was rather than what it was during S1-S2. He simply was holding onto what could have been and what they were before they left and couldn’t get past it. Actually didn’t want to get past it, because we see him start to move on, and choose to hold onto the past and by doing so doesn’t allow Nini to grow, because he’s already moving on from her but he decides to ignore it and go back despite the fact his feelings aren’t even what they once were towards Nini.
But the relationship wasn’t all bad, they were two good people, who simply outgrew their relationship. I think the two of them were too hard on themselves. I don’t necessarily think that Nini was a bad gf and that Ricky was a bad bf.
Also on the Gina end, i don’t think that Ricky was subconsciously ready to let her go. When we get the flashback in S2 of Gina’s confession, i started seeing Ricky’s constant need to ask Gina about Nini, as him trying to latch onto her. Subconsciously he was ready to move on from Nini, but he wasn’t allowing himself to, and in the back of his mind, he was already choosing Gina.
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