S02E06 | S02E08

S02E06 | S02E08

EJ and Gina talking about each other

first art post of 2022 and you kNOW that it had to be of my girl: miss gina porter

check it out on my insta art account too! <3

the feminine urge to gather everyone from the portwell nation to invade Twitter and take over #that fandom

the way her eyes light up everytime she looks at ej

You guys can keep talking about EJ making Gina happier or Ricky not deserving her, blah, blah, blah. Maybe you're right. As of right now at least. But the way she looked at Ricky last semester? EJ may love Gina more, but Gina will always love Ricky more.

first of all, thank you for acknowledging everything that you acknowledged in the first half of the ask. it makes my job a lot easier, tbh.

ej does make gina happier, anon. that would explain why she’s literally beaming around him in all of these.

see how her entire face lights up when she smiles around ej? how even her eyes are smiling?

now here’s gina smiling at ricky in - arguably - one of the “best” rina episodes.

she looks happy here. but it’s a calm, quiet happiness. she almost looks sort of resigned. her smile doesn’t even come close to matching any of the pictures from earlier. honestly, i don’t know where the idea that gina like(d) ricky more than she likes ej came from. the way she looks at ej is something straight out of a rom-com. pure, unadulterated, all-consuming happiness.

he was the one all along: part 1

one of the things i love most about portwell is that when you go back and watch the show knowing what happens, you have this realization, like “oh. ej was right there all along.” it’s so beautiful.

in all of 2A, when gina was hurting, and ej too, the writers do such a good job of developing their individual arcs to where they’d be ready to meet in the middle come 2B. their overarching character arcs are done so well and i love how much they compliment each other. how they were exactly what the other person needed. it was done in a way that you can’t help but think it was the most unexpected thing that could happen, but also the only thing that made sense, right from the beginning.

but even the little things always get me. there’s quite a few scenes where gina is pining for ricky and/or just dealing with a lingering crush on someone she knows is in love with someone else. and in so many of them, ej is present or referenced in some way. sometimes it’s obvious, other times it’s just little background moments. and in some of them, ricky’s own lines and actions serve as a really poetic foreshadowing for what’s to come.

in one of the very first scenes after the semester ends, ricky shows up with nini at the new year’s party. it’s the first time we see gina acknowledge ricky in any way and the first thing that makes us question what must’ve happened between them. but while she’s looking over at him, who’s in the same shot sitting right next to her? ej.

one of the next scenes where we see gina looking over at nini and ricky together is when they’re singing you are the music in me. who’s standing next to her singing in that moment? ej. and i wish they had kept in that shot of rini singing and portwell talking in the center because it’s so telling. she seems so happy and not at all bothered or jealous in that shot. and literally all their friends are looking at them and not the couple literally serenading each other which i find hilarious.

in episode 2, the scene that stood out to me the most was at the auditions when ricky came in late and they made a point of showing gina’s reaction to him. in this entire scene, ej and gina were standing right next to each other and put in the same frame every time they showed up onscreen. so when she looks over at ricky yet again, who’s standing beside her AGAIN? ej.

moving on to episode 3, this is the scene most of us have already analyzed in detail bc, looking back, it’s just so glaringly obvious what they were doing. gina telling ricky that every girl likes a sweet gesture, and when he says that she’ll get one too, she responds by saying SHE DOESNT NEED ONE?! bc she knows that the person she likes won’t be giving one to her anytime soon so she’s accepted that she can live without that and it’s no big deal?! PAIN.

i think what’s so interesting about this scene is, and this may not be the best way to word this but, at the time it’s just an example of how wrong rina is. gina mentions a sweet gesture to a clearly uncomfortable ricky who is stressing out about what to do for his girlfriend - so much so that he doesn’t realize what his friend is going through enough to offer any show of support or friendship, in fact just shushes her when he gets a call from his girlfriend, and acts awkward the entire time. which is why when she mentions sweet gestures he immediately goes “i think you’ll get yours too” - he knows it’s not gonna be him and he’s saying, “don’t worry, there’s someone out there for you. even if it’s not me.” but ofc gina doesn’t believe that. she doesn’t think that’s possible. so she says “i’ll live.” at the time, it really just showed us how ricky wasn’t right for her, how these two really weren’t right for each other.

it wasn’t until 2x05 that it really hit me that there was someone else out there who really could be that sweet guy that gina wanted and deserved. and it didn’t even have to be a big gesture. something as simple and small as asking how she was feeling was enough to show her that he cared. and i realized that this valentine’s day scene wasn’t just about how ricky couldn’t give that to her, but about how ej could.

and then that elusive word “sweet” came up again in 2x07, and again in 2x10, until i was sure this show was basically turning portwell into a couple from a rom-com. not that i’d ever complain. the freaking airport scene??? something i never would’ve dared dream of. the little sweet gesture of the granola bar that was wrapped up in the big sweet gesture of driving to the airport in the middle of the night to pick her up? and then saying he’d do it again tomorrow? all of it without her ever having to say a word? it’s just too much.

oh yeah, not to mention the literal plane ticket he bought to bring her back for opening night. and then told her not to pay him back for.

whereas ricky never give gina enough, even when she asked, ej gave her the things that she never dared asked for. the things that she was too scared to ask for and convinced herself she didn’t need.

they will never not make me cry.