Making this post so I can pin it to the top of my blog.
In the interest of keeping my blog organized and easy to navigate when looking for certain things (both for myself and others), I'm going to link a bunch of my more prevalent tags here.
Episode commentary and reviews: BTR rewatch
Gifsets: BTR gifsets, BTR interviews
The boys in every episode gifsets: every episode gifs (these can also be found in the general gifsets tag)
I always enjoy sharing lore/headcanons that I remember from the fandom during the show's original run, and earlier, I remembered the absolute chokehold the movie Miracle had on the BTR fandom (particularly the fanfic community).
If you're unfamiliar with the film, it's about the U.S. hockey team's victory during the 1980 Olympics. Became quite popular in the BTR fandom due to the BTR Fanfic Queen and Unofficial Leader of the Fandom During the Show's Run, Miss Fenway (who I've mentioned before). I believe she first mentioned the movie in her fic "Little Hollow"—required reading in the fandom back in the day—as James's favorite movie and continued to weave it into other fics as an important element in the boys' lives. Eventually, I think other fanfic writers adopted it as the official headcanoned favorite movie of the guys. I recall it being deeply associated enough with the fandom that even I sat down one night and watched it because I had heard about it so often in BTR fandom spaces.
i remember the pilot bringing up that he had anger issues, i do wish this was explored more. he had an edge to him in the pilot that was kinda sanded down in later seasons.
Big Time Rush Season 2, Episode 26: “Big Time Interview"
Highlights: An exclusive interview with Backstage Access and some underwhelming "fun facts" about the boys. A filler episode, but I'm gonna make an unnecessarily long post about it anyway.
So, this is a different type of episode than we're used to! It begins with Madison, the host from a show called "Backstage Access," introducing herself and saying that the half-hour is going to be dedicated solely to Big Time Rush.
There are a lot of episodes I've revisited so far that I didn't recall much of going into it, but I usually would remember chunks or the general gist. This is one I truly do not remember anything about at all. I wonder if it's one that wasn't played on reruns a lot.
This is exciting because it feels like a brand new episode for me. Let's jump in.
The boys do the "Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh" intro in the studio with the interviewer, and it's very cute the way they all laugh after.
If I have the time and am feeling insane enough, I should string together a compilation video of Kendall laughing in various interviews because his laugh is the greatest.
After the theme song, Madison says that it's the eve of the guys' second album release, which is titled "All Over Again." She sits down with them to get the inside scoop on what their journey to fame has been like. After asking if it's true that being in a band wasn't something they planned on, Carlos jumps in to blame James, and we get a clip from BTAudition.
Ok, wait, this is a flashback episode. That's kind of a bummer. I've always thought flashback episodes are boring.
After a long recap flashback clip from Audition, we return to the interview, where Madison asks Kendall if he would make the decision all over again if given the chance. Kendall says yes, and we go to a little background info on his character's life, complete with some childhood pictures of him.
We get told: "Kendall Knight, born in Shakopee, Minnesota, grew up a skating phenom with a secret love of music."
First of all, I like the mention of his love of music being a secret, because that fits with what I had talked about in my headcanon post about Kendall not only just passively absorbing and singing along to the 90s channel, but that he actually, genuinely loves pop music, boy bands and girl groups, and kept a tight lid on it until Katie sort of blew his cover in Audition.
Also, I can't for the life of me find the post now, but I know there was one I had come across a while back that talked about how unlikely it was that Kendall would have been a big hockey player in any capacity, given his age at the start of the series and the fact that he was still just playing high school hockey. It was basically crushing his dreams with realism.
Which makes sense, in a way, since if he really, sincerely was aiming to go pro, he would have ideally needed to be in the USHL by 16 to be on that track, along with having scouts watching him, and we don't get any indication during Audition or at any other point in the series that things were that serious for him hockey-wise. But on the flip side, it doesn't mean he wasn't being scouted. He does have that guy track him down in the parking lot of the grocery store in Concert and invite him to skate with the team at the University of Minnesota, so that's something. But he for sure wasn't in a junior league, because then he wouldn't have been able to keep playing with the guys on their high school team.
So, like. It wasn't completely impossible that something might have suddenly happened to propel him to NHL level stardom, but let's face it: it probably was not gonna happen for our dear Kendall. He made the right call going to L.A.
The interviewer then goes on to acknowledge Kendall's tendency to easily lose his cool, and we get a little montage of Kendall crash outs.
I love Kendall. I love Kendall Knight so much. But what a departure from the guy we were introduced to in Audition. That Kendall lost his cool easily too, but in such a different way! Audition Kendall had the bad boy edge leading his reactions. He was ready to fight people when faced with a challenging situation. This Kendall flails and panics.
The guys then tell Madison about the Palm Woods being home to the future famous, and we get a collection of clips of some of our other favorite characters: Camille, the Jennifers, Guitar Dude, Jett, Lucy, Bitters, and Buddha Bob.
Nice little slap montage.
I forgot that Kendall was the recipient of her slaps in those first few episodes. I have to wonder if they were orignally planning to lean into more of a relationship dynamic between Kendall and Camille because I'm pretty sure the first four slaps we ever see her deliver are directed toward him. Logan doesn't get slapped until episode 5 (I believe), which is also when it becomes clear she has a thing for him, since she stops him from speaking to Jo and then also calls dibs on him at the end of the episode. She does call Logan hot in "Crib", though, which is episode 3. I guess once they solidified Logan as her love interest, they decided to have her stop slapping Kendall around. But still, her initially targeting Kendall had to have been a choice for a reason.
Hmm. Kendall and Camille as a couple would have been...interesting. I can't even figure out how that would have worked. I feel like early season one Kendall wouldn't have been able to stand her as a girlfriend and would have eventually snapped, and later series Kendall would be afraid of her intensity. The concept is intriguing, though. Now I'm sitting here trying to imagine a world where they're together, and I honestly can't figure out how it would go or how I feel about it.
I've mentioned it before, but I think Camille and James would have worked nicely as a couple. They're both dramatic weirdos.
Madison then has a question just for James: who he thinks is the best-looking in the band. Obviously, James chooses himself. What an odd question to direct just his way, though.
Like with Kendall, we get some cute childhood pictures of James and some character background.
We're told James was singing and dancing by 2 and using hair care products by 3.
There's a fun montage of James doing the fluttery finger thing.
Madison and the Backstage Access crew then go take a tour of 2J, and I like how she mentions that Katie is "the band's official baby sister" because YES, SHE IS.
Katie talks about how they're all one big, happy family, which leads us into a montage that spans from fights to motherly advice to moments of teamwork. I didn't realize that, at some point, Katie has grabbed each of the boys by the ear and dragged them somewhere.
Madison says that they're going to take a break, and that when the show returns, she's going to ask the guys a question they won't want to answer. They're very flustered about this announcement. When the show returns, Madison does the ol' bait and switch by saying, "The question on everyone's mind is....coming up later."
The boys are not amused. Kendall's reaction in particular is funny. He looks like a toddler throwing a tantrum.
Madison instead asks Carlos where his helmet is, and he tells her he had promised not to wear it during photo shoots and interviews, which is a surprising bit of continuity from "Big Time Break Up." However, Carlos's promise is immediately tossed out the window when Madison says she thinks the helmet is cute. He pulls it out of thin air and slaps it onto his head. We then go into some Carlos background, though it isn't particularly interesting.
We're told he's the son of a police officer, which we know, though Madison does specify "Minneapolis police officer" which caught my attention because does that mean the boys are from Minneapolis? I can't recall if we've ever gotten an official name drop on where they lived in Minnesota.
Also, Carlos was voted "most likely to marry a corn dog" by his classmates.
Crazy how much Carlos's kids look like he did as a kid. Rio especially has his exact face from that first picture.
We get a Carlos and his helmet montage and a general Carlos being chaotic montage.
Madison then asks the guys what it's like to work with Gustavo, and they all scramble to pull out notecards, and then proceed to robotically and nervously read what's written on them.
Together, their cards say: Working with Gustavo is wonderful. He is the best in the business. He is nice. We could not do it without him."
Very convincing, fellas.
Madison sits down with Kelly and Gustavo and asks how they keep the boys in line. Gustavo says all it takes is "a look". Kelly adds that it takes more than that; it takes "the face". They demonstrate to a bewildered Madison.
We deserved an episode where it was solely Gustavo and Kelly.
We return to Madison and the boys, where she again tricks them by almost asking them the burning question but instead pivots to giving them a pop quiz. She asks who's the only pop star on the charts to also be a member of the Future Doctors of America. Carlos struggles with this one.
It's Logie!
Madison full-names him, including the "Hortense" thing that I've already mentioned in the past that I initially hand-waved away as an exaggerated memory or something the boys made up for fun to emphasize how controlling Mrs. Diamond is. But now that it's being brought up AGAIN in an official in-universe interview, I guess I have to accept it as canon. It bothers me because if Brooke really did make them switch to calling him Logan, we don't know when that happened. And so were they calling him Hortense previously?? Is Logan his actual middle name, or did Mrs. Diamond pull that outta thin air? What does this mean for fics that take place when the guys are younger? I refuse to write about Kendall, James, Carlos, and Hortense.
*sigh*
Anyway, I went down the Hortense rabbit hole and discovered that, since the 1980s, there are fewer than 5 babies given that name each year. It is SUPER rare.
Also, Hortense is exclusively a female name, which is news to me. I always thought Hortense was for men and Hortensia was the female version. But you know why I thought that? Because the "Logan's real name is Hortense" reveal was likely my first ever encounter with the name, so I assumed it was an old-fashioned name for guys. Alas!
And, from what I could find, there aren't any documented cases of men named Hortense, not even dating back as far as the 1800s. Here's some interesting info courtesy of "thenamegeek.com"
So...congrats to Logan for being the first male Hortense in the history of the world, I guess.
Anywho, we get a montage of funny Logan clips, then return to Madison, who finally asks the burning question: who's taken and who's available. The guys say they're all single, Kendall adds that dating in Hollywood is complicated, and we get a montage with the various love interests of the series so far, followed by Madison wrapping up the show and ANOTHER montage.
This episode is meh. Like I said, I don't love flashback and clip montage episodes. I feel like this one could have been made a lot better if the little facts about the guys' lives delved a bit deeper. They could have told us about their families, upbringing, siblings, etc. They could have focused on how the boys met. Given us info on their personal interests outside of hockey and performing. Idk. There was room for so much more.
Kendall pep talks: None. There were some in the flashbacks, but I'm not counting them since they're not new ones.
Episode MVP: Nobody, really. This was just a collection of clips mixed with a few minutes of the guys sitting for the interview.
Just started working on my character analysis series where I'm going to be taking a look at how the boys' characters changed from their Audition selves to who they are by the end of season 2.
Already having an absurdly good time putting Kendall's post together. I love Tumblr. Where else on the internet would I be able to go on essay-length tangents like this?
Update: Let's just say I'm, oh, I dunno...insane. Let's say my Kendall character study post is, by my standards, too long or I reach the 30 image/gif limit. Do I split into 2 posts, or is that nearing "Yeah, I'm not reading all of that" territory? How much Kendall is too much Kendall?
Just started working on my character analysis series where I'm going to be taking a look at how the boys' characters changed from their Audition selves to who they are by the end of season 2.
Already having an absurdly good time putting Kendall's post together. I love Tumblr. Where else on the internet would I be able to go on essay-length tangents like this?
Big Time Rush Season 2, Episode 25: “Big Time Secret"
Highlights: Betrayal. Betrayal everywhere. And it's all Lucy's fault.
We start in Lucy's tiny apartment, where she, the boys, and Camille are gathered. Lucy introduces a fun new game to them called, "What's the worst thing you've ever done to a person in this room that they don't know about?"
Kendall comes out swinging with a great response.
After Lucy accuses them of being a bunch of little scaredy cats, they decide to give the game a try. Lucy explains how it works: she spins a spinner, and whoever it lands on has to reveal one of their deepest secrets about something horrible they've done to someone else in the room.
Lucy is insane.
The spinner lands on James, and (naturally) his secret involves Carlos. He brings up Carlos's childhood camp crush, Heather Fox, and reveals that Heather had given him (James) a note saying that she had a crush on Carlos, but James threw it away because he ALSO had a crush on Heather.
Absolute jerk move. Carlos tackles James through the door.
After the theme song, we go to 2J, where Carlos is sitting on the couch and wearing an expression best described as murderous.
I'm so sick of the helmet, y'all. It never bothered me when I was younger, but I want to rip the dang thing off his head and toss it out a window.
Anyway, Carlos has evidently been silently brooding for fourteen hours. It's honestly probably the longest that boy has ever stayed still and silent for.
When Carlos does eventually speak, he again mourns how Heather was the love of his life. When Kendall points out that Carlos probably hasn't even thought about her in years, Carlos says that's pretty difficult to do considering Heather is the spokesperson for "Face Alive" skincare line.
You know, if James WAS interested in taking over his mother's cosmetics company, Heather would be the perfect girl for him.
Carlos attempts to attack James again, and Mama Knight tries to get the boys to knock it off by distracting them with her famous snickerdoodles. And it has always bothered me that there's that moment where whoever was in charge of editing and the audio of the episode screwed up, and you can hear Carlos doing his "gimme gimme gimme ahhhhhh" thing twice (as Mama Knight is still calling to them and then a few seconds later when they run for the cookies).
The boys go a little nutsy-cuckoo for the cookies
When Mrs. Knight asks why they aren't at the studio, they tell her Gustavo is stuck on the last song for the new album and that he's very grumpy. She suggest maybe some of her cookies will cheer him up and appoints Katie to go deliver them on account of Katie needing to learn to be nicer. She drags Katie out the door.
The delightful cookies only subdue Carlos temporarily, and he goes right back to being angry at James. Kendall says that according to "the best friend code", James has a duty to make things right.
James says that he is well aware of the best friend code, along with "the no dating ex-girlfriend's code, and the don't borrow underwear code," the latter of which Logan apparently violated in the past. Can't even fathom the desperate situation that must have led to that, because Logan seems like the type of person who would rather fling himself out of a moving vehicle than put on someone else's underwear.
James promises to make things right, and Kendall says that this is what happens when friends keep secrets from each other. He then gives a quick goodbye and goes to leave. James tries to get an explanation and receives sass in return.
Hmmm... mysterious
(This was one of my favorite episodes back in the day, so yes, I do very vividly recall what Kendall is sneaking off to do)
But let's pretend I don't! Kendall goes to Camille's apartment, and then the two of them head down to the lobby, where they behave very oddly with each other.
Lucy spots them, then casually mentions to Logan that she didn't know Kendall and Camille were dating, which makes Logan absolutely flip his lid. He tries to chase Kendall and Camille down, but they're already on a shuttle bus, off to do whetever secret thing they're doing.
At Rocque Records, Katie and Mrs. Knight present the cookies to Gustavo and Kelly. And while taking a bite doesn't solve Gustavo's song-writing problems, it does apparently make him feel like he's falling in love again for the first time, which implies that Gustavo has, in fact, been in love before. Would love to know the story behind that.
He wants the recipe, but Mrs. Knight (despite seconds earlier talking about how family does nice things for each other) will absolutely not hand it over.
James attempts to fix things between him and Carlos by presenting his buddy with a big box of corndogs.
Carlos only half-accepts the gift and tells James that Heather was also wronged in this whole situation. To truly make things right, James has to pose as an agent wanting to book Heather for a job so that she and Carlos can be reunited. He finds out Heather is at Colossal Studios nearby. Carlos takes off running to reunite with his long-lost love.
Kendall, meanwhile, returns to 2J to find that Logan is quite suspicious as to what he was doing that afternoon.
After some interrogation while some horror-movie sound effects play, Kendall flees the apartment and goes to find Camille and asks her if she told Logan about them. Camille says no but that maybe they SHOULD tell. Kendall says nobody can know that he "broke the code."
Hmmm 🤔🤔🤔
Over at Rocque Records, Gustavo presents the last song of the album to Kelly, which is an upbeat tune declaring his love for the snickerdoodle cookies. Kelly, too, can't stop thinking about the cookies, and she's sent a car to pick Katie up so that they can try to get the recipe out of her. Katie doesn't know it either (Mama Knight won't tell her until she's 21) but she say's she'll get it for $7,000. Kelly offers her $100, and Katie accepts the deal.
James and Carlos arrive at Colossal Studios and "accidentally" bump into Heather Fox.
Carlos enthusiastically tells Heather that they're in a band now, but Heather is not as excited or impressed as Carlos had hoped. She casually says they should catch up sometime and then leaves.
Logan is in Lucy's apartment, pacing anxiously over whatever is secretly going on between Kendall and Camille. Lucy initially doesn't want to elaborate on what she saw because, despite being the type of person who will suggest a game that revolves around admitting your deepest, darkest betrayals to your friends, she claims, "It's none of my business, and I'd like to stay out of it."
Logan won't accept this and suggests they play a game called "Tell me what you saw in the lobby."
He is unraveling.
After Lucy reenacts the twirling with Logan, he's sure that Kendall has broken the don't-date-ex-girlfriends code but needs more evidence before "unleashing the fists of fury." I would love to see Logan attempt to beat Kendall up. I can't decide if it would be comical, with Kendall just sticking out a hand to easily hold Logan back while he swings at the air, or if Kendall's bewilderment combined with Logan's rage would result in Logan actually being able to take Kendall down.
Logan convinces Lucy to put on a tree hat (that means you're officially one of the gang, Lucy!) and wait in the bushes to spy on Kendall and Camille when they return on the bus. What Logan sees does nothing to ease his growing paranoia. Kendall and Camille exit the bus, arms around each other, with Kendall commenting, "That was very fun" and Camille adding, "And let me say, your moves are very smooth."
Kendall then senses they're being watched and drags Camille into a nearby supply closet, where he regrets ever doing whatever it is they're doing. We then learn exactly what they've been up to.
A secret so dark, one's brain can hardly process it.
Kendall explains that back home, hockey players and figure skaters were always at war over time on the ice, and the animosity between the two groups ran so deep that Kendall and the other boys promised to never figure skate.
It's really funny that they felt the need to make that promise and turn it into a code, because it's such a specific thing. Like...were any of them really at such risk for becoming a figure skater that they had to specifically make a rule about not doing it??
Anywho, some figure skaters from Minnesota called the hockey players cavemen on skates and said they could never do a double salchow or death spiral, so Kendall evidently made a secret promise to himself that one day, he would prove hockey players are just as good as figure skaters.
I mean, good for him and all, but this is also funny because it's specifically JUST for him. Those figure skaters who were mean to the hockey team back home aren't going to know, nor will they care, about his figure skating revenge. Nobody in L.A. is gonna give a hoot about some hockey-player-boyband-boy learning how to do a double salchow or death spiral. This is solely to give himself the inner satisfaction of knowing that Chet and Mimi Camerelli were wrong. And I love that, at some point, Kendall discovered Camille was a figure skater and knew that his time had come.
Btw, these are the moves Kendall mentions and is likely trying to learn:
Carlos and James are by the pool, where Carlos is reminiscing about all the fun times he and Heather had at camp. James is satisfied that he did everything he could, but Carlos creates a "try harder code." James then goes to some extreme measures and helps to recreate their camp experience so that Carlos and Heather can have the love story they were robbed of.
We return to the snickerdoodle plot, where Katie discovers where the secret family recipe is hidden.
It calls for some pretty standard cookie ingredients, such as butter and flour, along with some not-so-standard ingredients like bottle caps, toothpaste, and elbow macaroni. Gustavo, Kelly, and Katie run to the kitchen to whip up a delicious batch of cookies.
Lucy catches Camille and Kendall preparing to leave for figure skating practice and confronts them about dating behind Logan's back. They reveal the truth to her, and Kendall swears her to secrecy by creating the new friend code. Lucy warns them not to leave through the lobby on account of Logan hiding in the vending machine to spy on them.
It is substantially more difficult to sneakily spy on people when you're confined to a small, glass, rectangular box, so I think this goes to show just how much the perceived betrayal has decimated Logan's IQ.
Dude is on FULL DISPLAY, and couldn't even chase after Kendall and Camille if he wanted to.
Campy Wonky Donkey is in full swing, complete with marshmallows (and fire), canoeing in the itty bitty Palm Woods pool, and James and Carlos gluing their hands together with what has to be the world's most terrifyingly strong glue considering the fact it bonds them together instantly.
When it goes to them still glued together during the second campfire but somehow holding the stick, it instantly made me think of that scene from Spongebob.
Also. Absolutely no reason for them to need to stab the stick through their glued-together hands when they both have a free hand still. I love them; they're so dumb <3
Logan is at Lucy's apartment, sulking.
Also, he's wearing plaid! A very unusual choice for Logan. Perhaps he had his backstabbing, plaid-loving friend on the brain when he was choosing his outfit this morning.
Lucy tells Logan that there's probably nothing going on between Kendall and Camille, and after today, they might not even sneak around anymore. Logan knows that Lucy knows something he doesn't, but she won't spill the beans due to the new friend code.
Logan's last fraying thread of sanity snaps, and he grabs Lucy's axe guitar and takes off running.
Starting to lean more toward Logan being able to take Kendall in a fight.
Gustavo, Kelly, and Katie make the putrid cookies
After some guilt-tripping from Gustavo and Katie, Mrs. Knight confesses that her famous family recipe is just ready-made snickerdoodle dough with more sugar added.
It's like that episode in Friends where they're trying to recreate Phoebe's grandmother's famous cookie recipe, and then it's revealed that she just used pre-made Nestle Tollhouse dough.
Love Mrs. Knight's line, "I made up the part about the secret family recipe because I'm a loser, okay?"
Gustavo is thrilled that he can finally finish the album.
James and Carlos are saying goodbye to Heather, and she asks to speak privately with Carlos. We think our sweet boy is about to get a kiss or a love confession, but instead, Heather tells him she has a crush on James and gives Carlos a note to give to him. :(((((
Horrible. Disgusting.
I feel so bad for poor Carlos. It must be exhausting living in James's shadow all the time. James takes his food when they go out to eat, forces Carlos to swap dates when he doesn't want to, and is always getting the girls despite not deserving them.
Ugh, my inner Carlos girlie is alive and well, screaming from the rooftops about how Carlos deserves the world.
Carlos considers throwing the note away just like James did to the note meant for him when they were kids but he can't. You know why? Because Carlos is a GOOD PERSON with a GOOD HEART.
He hands the note over to James, who is super excited until he sees the look on Carlos's face and his conscience kicks in. He tosses the note into the trash and tells Carlos "Supermodel spokesgirls will come and go. I hope. But best friends are forever."
James coming in to redeem himself last minute like he always does.
Kendall and Camille come running out of the Palm Woods to jump on their shuttle bus, Logan runs after them wielding his axe, and Carlos, James, and Lucy take off after them as well. Everyone meets up at the rink.
James and Carlos got glued together again, btw
Lucy begs Kendall to just tell the truth so that eveything will stop spiraling out of control. Kendall takes a deep breath and admits that he and Camille are in love, because that's apparrenty a less terrible confession than his real one.
The other guys scream about the ex-girlfriend code being broken, and Logan is about to go full axe-murderer on his best buddy, when Camille gets Kendall to tell the actual truth.
He reveals his twisted secret to everyone
When this episode originally aired, you couldn't scroll more than 3 posts in the fandom without seeing a gif or screenshot of this moment.
After the initial shock (Carlos passes out), Logan tosses his axe aside and says that he's all better.
Kendall explains that he wants to prove the Camerelli's wrong, and that he couldn't tell any of them because of the code. And guess what? Yeah, they may have screamed at first, but after hearing how Kendall is doing this to prove something to himself, the guys become supportive.
"Go get 'em, my shiny, glittery, best bud," Carlos says. James tells him to go and prove the Camerelli's wrong and to skate like the wind. Kendall is confused by the reaactions.
With newfound confidence and the love of his friends surrounding him, Kendall goes to take the figure skating world by storm.
Stick to hockey, sweetie.
I want to know exactly what went wrong. They were obviously fine during their many sneaky practice sessions. What happened during the competition that led to them being so injured? We'll never know...
Logan suggests they all play a friendly game of truth or dare, which is NOT a game that you should suggest after all the paranoia and betrayal and anger everyone experienced. Candy Land would have been a better fit for this scenario.
The spinner lands on Carlos, he chooses truth, and we cut to the other boys and Camille chasing Carlos through the lobby.
End of episode.
I love this one. It's one of the funniest of the season, and has stuck with me all these years because the fandom really went wild for it. I'm enjoying the way Lucy is adding to the dynamic, and I also really like when Camille gets worked into the storylines.
There's sort of a trend through the series of Kendall hiding parts of himself from people, isn't there? Doesn't want anyone to know he sings along to 90s pop songs, doesn't want Jo to know he's a werewolf (though that's a silly episode, but still), totally closes himself off post-breakup with Jo and can't express to the guys how he feels ("Why won't you let us in?!"), and felt so bound by some dumb code they made as kids that he'd rather sneak around and have people think he's dating Camille than admit he's figure skating.
I feel like. He just doesn't trust that people will love him for ALL of him. He has such a need to be a censored version of himself, which, again, I think ties in directly to his control issues, desire to be a leader and guy who has it all together, the anxiety he very clearly experiences, and daddy issues he's got.
Just. Just calm down, Kendall. Take a breath. You are a mess.
Kendall pep talks: none, but his friends gave him a nice one before his disastrous competition
Big Time Rush Season 2, Episode 24: “Big Time Superheroes"
Highlights: The return of Hawk, but like. Things are even weirder this time around.
We're at Rocque Records, where the guys are finishing up recording "Blow Your Speakers Out" for their second album, which is finally complete. They're all psyched to have reached this important next milestone in their career! What could possibly go wrong for them??
Remember Hawk? Because I totally forgot about this guy. He's made parole, but judging by his maniacal laugh and "caaawww!" once he leaves the correctional facility, I have my doubts that he's been legitimately rehabilitated. Hmm...
Gustavo, Kelly, and the boys all gather around the computer as the files for their new songs upload. They celebrate and then start making their way toward the digital storage room to grab the hard drive, but are stopped in their tracks by Hawk, who has the hard drive clutched in his talons. This exchange got a good laugh out of me.
Hawk is out to get his revenge by holding their second album hostage. James pulls a bandana from his pocket and dramatically says, "This looks like a job for...him," but Kendall shoots the idea down right away. Hawk soon calls on his henchmen and promptly disappears in a puff of smoke.
Meanwhile, in 2J, Mama Knight hears a strange sound coming from the sink and peers in to find a horrifying black goo rising up from the drain. She screams, and we cut to Buddha Bob and Bitters investigating.
Buddha Bob ominously declares, "It's back," but Bitters won't let him elaborate when Mrs. Knight asks what he means. He does NOT want his residents to know that the danger that lurks in the piping of his apartment building.
Back at Rocque Records, a sassy and sarcastic detective basically tells the gang that he's going to move the investigation along at a leisurely pace because he's got other things to do than get a hard drive back for a boy band. He tells them to just download their backup files if they need the songs so badly. They run to the control room to search for the files on the computer, but Hawk has also hacked into the files and removed them. Instead, they find a link to a website for a new artist promoting some familiar-looking songs.
Hawk has found a new star and is using him to record and release all of BTR's songs. Let me tell you, Hawk may be crazy but he works very efficiently. It's been like an hour since he stole the hard drive, and he's already got a hot new artist and album ready for preorder.
We hop back to the Palm Woods, where Katie demands answers for whatever it is that her mother is being so secretive about. Buddha Bob tells her that Super Clog is back and he wants her, Mrs. Knight, and the boys to all leave town for a bit. He explains that, five years prior, a similar clog nearly destroyed the Palm Woods and sent residents running for their lives. Katie doesn't quite believe the tale until she catches a glimpse of the terrifying goo herself.
Over at Hawk Records, a small child is recording "Blow Your Speakers Out."
Love how Hawk hasn't bothered to change out of his costume.
The boys and Gustavo and Kelly arrive at Hawk Records, still unsure of what their game plan is. Well, James has a game plan. He once again says that it's time for "him", and starts spinning around, but the other guys stop him before he can undergo whatever transformation was about to take place.
Kendall has come up with a more realistic plan than becoming crime-fighting superheroes. He thinks they should just break in like normal people and steal their hard drive back. They divvy up tools and head off toward the building to commit a crime.
Buddha Bob and Katie, meanwhile, attempt to defeat the Mind Flayer Super Clog with a dinky plunger, but it just gets sucked into the sink. Buddha Bob says that the (apparently sentient) blob of grease and hair will retreat back into the pipes now that it knows it's being hunted. This leads to a horrifying little scene up in 2J.
This episode is insane so far, but it makes more sense once I saw it premiered on October 29th and was the Halloween episode.
The gang breaks into Hawk Records. James does a beautiful somersault into the room.
They search around for a minute but can't find the hard drive. Gustavo tells them, "That's because you're not thinking like an evil producer, and I do because I sorta am one." Great line. Gustavo is evil producer adjacent.
He quickly locates a button inside one of the awards on Hawk's shelf, which opens up a secret compartment in the wall, where their hard drive is being hidden.
Just as all seems to have worked out nicely, Hawk appears with the police and accuses BTR of stealing his stuff. The gang says to just play what's on the hard drive, and the cops will see who it really belongs to. Instead of being filled with BTR's recordings, though, the hard drive contains a video of Hawk performing a new song he's written called, "I Love the Police."
Hawk is HYSTERICAL.
This guy thought through every angle.
The boys and Gustavo are tossed in the slammer.
I remember that Logan yelling, "This is so bad!" was included in the commercials for the episode.
James attempts to break them out by using his bandana to pick the lock, leading to one of my favorite lines of the episode.
I hope this isn't the first time Logan, or any of the other boys, has brought this up. I hope there have been multiple other instances of James doing something utterly bonkers, and then the rest of them later quietly discussing how to get their buddy into therapy because Something Is Clearly Not Right.
You know, when I made my headcanons post a while back, I didn't mention anything specific for James mental health or diagnosis-wise like I did for the other guys, but his relationship with reality is pretty tenuous now that I'm thinking about it. There's the whole talking to himself in the mirror, using a different voice thing like he's got a Norman Osborn/Green Goblin deal going on. There's the complete denial when they go back to Minnesota in BTConcert ("I am dreaming. You are not real. The concert's in one week! *unhinged laughter*"). And now whatever superhero delusion he's got going on that makes him believe a bandana can unlock a jail cell.
Something's going on with that boy. This is the type of thing 2011/2012 era BTR fanfic writers would have grabbed onto and ran with. Probably would have written a 35-chapter saga about James slowly descending into psychosis or something. For all I know, a fic like that does exist out there somewhere. There was a fic for everything back in the day.
Anywho, Kelly bails them out, and the police commissioner tells them to stay out of his way and away from Hawk Records. We immediately cut to Gustavo asking how they're going to get back into Hawk Records. Suddenly, Hawk appears on a monitor nearby and tells everyone his new singer is already onto song 6 of the album he stole.
With the stakes even higher now, Kendall finally relents and gives James permission to transform into his superhero persona: Bandana Man.
What is this episode.
James tells everyone that the "Supertastic Super Six" are going to defeat Hawk Records. Gustavo thinks this is a ridiculous plan, to which James asks if any of them have a better idea.
James ignores every single raised hand.
We briefly return to the Palm Woods, where Super Clog continues to cause chaos and terror. As residents flee with their luggage, Bitters finally gives Buddha Bob permission to do whatever he needs to get rid of it.
Back at Rocque Records, Kelly compiles every article of clothing they have so that everyone can put together their superhero costumes. We get a fun montage while "Blow Your Speakers Out" plays.
Evidently, James has some pretty strict superhero attire standards, because he shoots down Kendall's option with a single look.
Soon, everyone finds some appropriate superhero wear.
It's all literally just the outfits they were wearing back home in BTConcert.
Kind of boring, if you ask me, boys. I feel like you could have been more creative.
The Supertastic Super Six is officially assembled. (Kelly is Bowl Head)
They head to the van to defeat Hawk.
At the Palm Woods, Buddha Bob, Katie, and Mama Knight defeat Super Clog.
The Supertastic Super Six arrive at Hawk Records and get into a cartoony fight with Hawk and his henchmen.
It's episodes like this one that make me sort of understand why my mom could not STAND this show. Like, she wouldn't even be in the room if I was watching it because she found it unbearable. Now, I obviously (STILL!) find the show very enjoyable, but also. I get it. I can see how someone might feel like they're losing brain cells watching this show.
The commissioner and other officers soon show up, and Hawk initially tries to act all innocent again and says he was attacked. The commissioner, though, orders Hawk to be arrested. He and his team looked into who recently bought a hawk costume at the local costume shops, and they found some clear evidence.
Hawk paid $142.62 for that ridiculous costume!
Oh, and he also helpfully left a comment card stating that his reason for buying the costume was for revenge.
They take Hawk away, and Zwagger hands over the hard drive, which is returned to our superheroes. They get nervous that the commissioner is going to arrest them for interfering with the investigation, but they're instead given a job helping out with disasters the commissioner is too busy to handle himself.
(They're saving a cat from a tree)
End of episode.
Gonna be real: don't love this one. It's fun enough for a Halloween episode but pretty blah as an overall episode. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and decide this isn't canon because it is WEIRD even by BTR standards. Let's pretend that this is all a dream one of them is having after eating too much sugar before bed. Or maybe it's a wild story Carlos comes up with on Halloween Eve during a storm that knocks the power out, and they're all sitting around bored.
Kendall pep talks: none
Episode MVP: James. Love me a delusional himbo who comes up with a plan to save the day.
there’s James, on the right, holding his utensils properly while cutting his steak… and
then there’s Logan, on the left… holding his utensils with a fricken grip cutting his steak …like I do.. which is not the proper way to hold them when cutting food… wowÂ
