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I saw that you mentioned in a post a while ago that Ricky and EJ both held up a mirror to each other. Can you elaborate that idea?
yes! i say that especially about them in season 1, but i still think it's true to an extent to this day.
altough caswen's dislike for each other stemmed from their feelings for nini, i think the fact that they were ricky and ej made it significantly worse for both of them. when i say they held up a mirror to each other i always follow by saying that both of them had plenty of things they didn't wanna look at. having a mirror held up to your face is incredibly uncomfortable if you're in that position and can make you lash out at the person who's doing it. i don't mean that they're super alike and therefore "mirror" each other when i say that, the exact opposite, actually. everything one of them thinks they lack and is insecure about, the other one seems to have. so, simply by existing as they are, they piss each other the fuck off and it doesn't take much at all for things to escalate. ricky is just that person for ej and ej is just that person for ricky, it doesn't have to be on purpose.
ricky is very insecure in his talents, very insecure about trying out theater, and ej was putting out an image of himself that was overly confident, ESPECIALLY in his talents in theater, and that's the guy who got the girl he wants. when ricky tells ej "the way you dance is totally normal and not at all weird for a regular high school kid" (which i understand is a line that can be interpreted in different ways because of matt cornett's actual dancing skills, bless his heart), that's the perfect representation of what actually bothers him about ej. ricky struggled with the dancing in season 1 and just the theater of it all, and he saw ej excel at what he seemed to lack in. he couldn't insult his skills so instead he tried to act like it wasn't a fault on his part that he wasn't better at dancing, it was actually EJ who was WEIRD for getting it right. kinda like when a child doesn't get what they want so they go around saying they didn't want it in the first place.
ej, on the other hand, always knew his overconfidence was nothing but bravado. i've also mentioned before that i think while he saw nini as someone real and that made him like her more, i think he also saw ricky as someone real... and that made him dislike him more. ricky was trying something new, putting himself in a vulnerable situation for nini in many ways, and altough we as an audience know that doesn't come easy for ricky at all, ej probably didn't see it that way. all he could see was a guy who seemed to be able to just do the things he was most afraid of. let go of an image, not just "stick to the status quo". the bathroom scene between caswen is probably one of my favorite scenes in the entire show, it really puts this into perspective. ej is seemingly lashing out at ricky, but he says the lines "just stop acting", "why can't you just be real?" and "don't try so hard, it's embarrassing" LOOKING IN THE MIRROR. it's perfect! ej finds a way to beat himself up about the things he hates about himself by lashing out at ricky, as if these are things he hates about him. classic projection.
while in the topic of projection, we can fast forward to season 2. caswen's relationship is totally different now, mostly thanks to ej's growth. ej's no longer projecting an image of himself that is perfect and has everything under control, he's actually being more genuine, so, one, his alleged perfection is no longer a threat to ricky because he knows none of it was true, and two, he no longer resents ricky for being more genuine because he also took that same leap of faith and is trying to be more true to himself too. even then, in the basement scene in 2x10, we see ej admit pretty easily that he feels he has even less of his shit together than most (something he would've NEVER done in season 1, especially in front of ricky bowen) and ricky shows that his judgement of ej is still a little clouded, and to me, very obviously clouded by his own projection. he assumes ej is saying that because he's struggling to stay single, which is just not true given context, and... listen. ricky bowen? poking fun at someone because "they don't know how to stay single"? in season 2 of hsmtmts? that scene is literally under the definition of projection in the dictionary. however, you can see how one-sided the whole thing has gotten. ej doesn't really take offense in what ricky said (not that it was ill-intentioned and MEANT to be offensive, but come on, caswen acted like children in season 1 and back then that would've absolutely started something), later goes on to admit his fear of rejection and actually be really vulnerable and honest, so... ricky can project all he wants, it seems like it's just gonna bounce off ej now.
all of this is why i think ej is the perfect person to help ricky in his character development. maybe he can still hold a mirror to him now but more like the ghost of character development yet to come! i think seeing them have an actual genuine conversation and help each other intentionally for once would be an amazing pay off, i really hope we get that and i do feel like season 3 could be the perfect moment for that.