Big Time Character Assassination Series: Kendall Knight Edition
With two seasons under my belt and two more to go, I felt this was a good point to create a series of posts ranting about each of the BTR boys and how their characters were tragically and catastrophically altered from their BTAudition/early-season-one selves.
I'm not going to be dramatic about this at all!!!
Naturally, Kendall is up first.
BTAudition will take up the bulk of this post, then other key moments and episodes will be chunked into smaller sections as we follow Kendall along the path of destruction from supposed bad boy to full-fledged goofball.
BIG TIME AUDITION
• Pilot episode, my beloved. Gold standard for establishing characters and dynamics right off the bat. We are sixteen seconds in when we're introduced to Kendall Knight, and we know who this boy is straight away.
Look at him. He's got the plaid peeking from the jacket. Beanie. Phenomenal eyebrows.
His first words are, "Opportunities like this come once in a lifetime, and when they do, you gotta grab it, and turn that thing big time."
Huh? Weird thing to say. What's he talking about? CAUSING TROUBLE. He wants his buddies to help him turn on the sprinklers and soak the girls field hockey team. Just. Just because! Because the opportunity is there, and this guy believes that if the option comes up to do something, you should do that thing.
Kendall Knight popped onto televisions that evening in 2009 and went, "Hi, I like to cause problems." Fantastic.
• A short while later, James is being annoying, singing and dancing on the couch. Kendall takes care of it by simply saying Carlos's name, which is apparently the signal for "Make him stop, and use physical violence to do it." Carlos tackles James, and they brawl behind the couch. Kendall smiles. Why? Because he has that type of command over people. Because he's in charge and he knows it.
• But don't be fooled by him having Carlos attack James! Because the moment someone dares to insult James, we get what is perhaps one of the greatest scenes in the entire history of television. Ever. It's true; ask anyone.
I mean. This is a very quick escalation. This is unhinged behavior.
This boy not only insults Gustavo's relevance, but decides in the moment to further express his fiery anger by yell-singing (complete with choreography!) on the table. He makes Gustavo fall backward. He kicks food and drinks on him. He has to be dragged away and then proceeds to fight the security guards.
Yeah, Gustavo is rude and unnecessarily harsh to James, but Kendall responds by literally committing assault. At eleven minutes into the episode, the audience is clearly being shown the type of guy Kendall is. Which is a guy who belongs in a juvenile detention center, perhaps.
• As we move our way through the episode, Kendall is just so unbothered a lot of the time. He just does not care. Doesn't care about this washed-up producer who thinks he has talent. Doesn't care about the offer to go to L.A. Doesn't care about the potential fame or money.
• And then we get to L.A., and oh, Kendall wants to be as disruptive and non-compliant as possible. He does not care about silly songs with "girl" in the title, and he does not want to take any of it seriously, and he'd much prefer to talk back and hit his friend in the head with the microphone and give smug smirks to people, thank you very much. He truly just wants to cause trouble and problems and stress for others. It's fun for him. Enrichment for Kendall Knight.
BTAudition Kendall has oppositional defiant disorder. He wants to hear directions being given and then follow none of them. He wants to strangle Gustavo Rocque with his bare hands.
The way Kendall is presented in Audition is truly as someone who has two modes primarily: 1. cool, calm, and collected & 2. angry
Yeah, we get some glimpses of him letting loose and being silly with the other guys, but you don't get the sense that it's his default. His default, as established through this entire pilot episode, is the stoic, confident leader with a hair trigger for anger. If all you have to go by is this single episode, you're left with a character who holds his friend group together with tight, calm control, who acts out because he does not like being told what to do, and is used to getting out of situations through manipulation and charisma.
He is, quite obviously, being established as the "bad boy" of this group. Not truly bad, no. More of the troubled type with a heart of gold who will commit crimes to protect the people he loves. But a show about a boy band needs a boy with an edge, and Kendall Knight is it. This guy is not rattled.
Take a good, long look at the above screenshots and kiss that version of Kendall goodbye, because he's about to begin his tragic transformation.
Big Time School of Rocque
• Kendall Knight: Schemer extraordinaire. The man with a plan. The guys get thrown into Gustavo's twisted version of school, and they immediately want out. Who better to take the reins and lead the way than our designated troublemaker?
He comes up with ideas on the fly to get rid of the many teachers who make their way through the School of Rocque. Convinces Mr. Smitty to go follow his dream of pursuing music, utilizes the corn chowder his mom packs to convince a WWE wrestler that he and his friends are a bunch of vomit-eating freaks, and gives away Gustavo's car to get an elderly teacher to leave. He GIVES AWAY a car that is not his!!
• This is very much still Audition Kendall. He's playing games of mental chess with everybody. He may have agreed to give the whole boyband thing a try, but he's going to control every situation Gustavo puts them in as much as possible. In his mind, he's in a constant battle with Gustavo, and he is going to win.
Especially fascinating to watch the way he carries himself in general. There's like...a stillness to him for the most part? Sort of neutral expressions in a lot of scenes. Nowhere near the cartoony physicality Kendall (and all the boys) will develop as the series goes on.
Big Time Crib
• Still Audition Kendall here! Some quality scheming goes on in this episode, and it's all orchestrated by Kendall, who, at this point, is still consistently waking up in the mornings with the main goal of being a menace. 2J is a dump, and he's going to trick and manipulate as many people as necessary to ensure their apartment is de-dumpified. And he's going to do it with the confidence of someone who has never not gotten their way. Because this Kendall always gets his way.
He ropes Camille into posing as someone who works for Griffin. He appoints Logan as their Griffin impersonator. He delegates different parts of their plan to each of the other guys and also recruits The Jennifers when needed. He delivers this gem of a line when Logan starts questioning their plan.
• Overall, still a confident, collected Kendall who wants to get things his way and will do whatever necessary (within reason) to achieve it. He's the ringleader, and his buddies are his monkeys who do what he says.
• Also, this is going to sound weird, but I think there's even a difference in his voice in these earlier episodes. Early-series Kendall has a deeper voice than later-series Kendall. I've noticed it enough times now over the years that I'm convinced I'm not just making it up. I don't know if it's just that Kendall (Schmidt) was delivering the lines more calmly pre-cartoonified BTR or if he was purposely lowering the register of his voice, but I recall even watching interviews of him and the guys from this period and thinking "Huh. His natural speaking voice is a little higher than the way he sounds on the show."
BIG TIME BAD BOY
• This is it, friends. This is where Audition Kendall dies. I've mentioned it before, but I'm convinced that the effort required to be so incredibly bad in the span of such a short time obliterated whatever part of Kendall's brain handled delinquency and sanded away his edge. He had a finite amount of "bad" in his tank that was supposed to carry him through the rest of his life, and his battle with WayneWayne busted a hole in it and drained it. Tragic.
I don't think I need to go into too much depth of the events of this episode because this is a fan favorite, and everyone knows how it goes. We all love Bad Boy Kendall.
None of the other guys could have pulled this off convincingly. Know why? Because these are all things well within the capabilities of Audition Kendall. He really didn't have to dig very deep to unleash this side of himself. A boy who will jump up onto a table and sing an impromptu "Giant Turd" song while kicking things off of said table and into the face of a man who's a total stranger would 100% smash and destroy that man's office if given the chance. This is Audition Kendall's dream coming true
• And it's absurd to me that BTAuditon did so well at establishing this hot-headed, impulsive, defiant main character, then had an episode where Kendall is OFFICIALLY made the "Bad Boy" of their band, and then failed to carry it through to the rest of the series.
BIG TIME MANSION, PARTY, & JOBS
• These episodes are what I consider to be the first real glimpses into anxious, neurotic Kendall. We go from a Kendall who stares down challenges with confidence and charm to one who reacts with panic.
Prior to these episodes, we've seen Kendall do a whole lot of on-the-fly scheming. He threw himself headfirst into things and handled every hurdle that came his way with an attitude that bordered on indifference. Remember how I said he couldn't be rattled?
He is very rattle-able now.
• And like, he's still taking charge of situations, particularly in Mansion and Party, but there's a noticeable level of overwhelm radiating from him. He's no longer carrying himself with that air of: nothing bad is gonna happen because I said so. Previous Kendall would bend situations by sheer force of will and make things up as he went along. This is the beginning of a Kendall who is desperately grasping for control that he can't seem to find. He just loses his cool so quickly. It's as if he no longer believes in his own ability to handle situations.
• He can still scheme. He ultimately finds a way to pull things together in the end, but it's not smooth. It's not done with that flashed smile like when he dangled Gustavo's car keys in front of their teacher and told her to get lost. It's done because he's being fueled by anxiety. THAT is what will be the primary driving force behind Kendall Knight from here on out. ✨Anxiety✨
Let's jump ahead to season 2, shall we? (If you've made it this far, I'm giving you a virtual high five)
WELCOME BACK BIG TIME
• Ahh, the boys have gone on their first little tour, BTR has been established as a band, and we're back for another season of fun.
Oh, and Kendall is going to have only three emotions now, btw: consumed by panic, jealous rage, or trapped in the depths of depression. We get all three in this episode!
• Best get used to seeing flailing, too, because that's going to be the primary way he moves his body from now on.
• No, but, for real. Watch Kendall in Big Time Audition, take in his demeanor, his body language, the way he speaks, and then watch this episode. Of course, this is due to the show becoming much more cartoony, plus the natural flanderization that happens to many characters, and you know what? I think Jo had a lot to do with this, too. Something happened to Kendall's brain when he fell in love. It rewired some stuff.
Anyway, he's a jealous, overreacting doofus in this episode.
BIG TIME SNEAKERS
• Kendall is once again being driven to the point of madness by the mere existence of Jett Stetson. I love Jett, but his introduction really did a number on Kendall's character. Of course, Jett isn't the cause of what's happening to Kendall, but he sure does exaggerate it.
And listen. I've said many times before that I absolutely love Kendall Knight at every point in the series. He is a wonderful character. But they gave us such an interesting, dynamic version of him in those early episodes and then yoinked him away and flung him to outer space. Audition Kendall does not exist anymore in his pilot episode form.
• This episode includes a scene where Jett is insulting Kendall (as per usual), and Kendall responds like this
Now, let's say we pluck Audition Kendall straight from that episode and drop him into this scene. You think that guy is gonna ask for permission to hit someone? (okay, maybe, out of respect for his gf and not wanting to cause problems for her) But also! Maybe not. Maybe Audition Kendall is flinging himself over the desk and tackling Jett to the ground. Maybe he's gonna walk over and stand nose to nose with Jett like he did with Gustavo, and just stare daggers straight into Jett's brain. Maybe he leaves the building calmly and orchestrates a master plan to get Jett written out of "New Town High" and put into another show.
THAT is the stuff Audition Kendall would do. He would be cool and calculated about everything, not giving himself jealousy-induced aneurysms and sabotaging Jett and Jo's scenes with all the tact of a five-year-old (as seen in Welcome Back Big Time).
BIG TIME GURU
• I LOVE this episode. Could part of the reason be that there are fleeting glimpses of the person Kendall used to be?
According to Gustavo, Kendall is still regularly talking back, so there must still be wisps of Audition Kendall in there somewhere.
• After sassing Gustavo (causing steam to shoot from his ears), the guys run to 2J, where Buddha Bob saves them from being hacked to pieces by their knife-wielding boss. Kendall has a moment of reflection after, where he admits he does tend to talk back and decides perhaps he should start being less difficult.
You know what would make this little scene great? If it actually reflected the way Kendall has been acting whenever we've seen him with Gustavo. Like, this could be a fantastic piece of natural character growth if he had retained his Audition personality! Imagine if he was still defiant and butting heads with Gustavo at every turn. That "I should apologize and listen" moment could have been a nice realization for him. And it wouldn't have even had to stick since Gustavo ends the episode by telling them that he doesn't want them to change.
• Anywho, this episode presents us with a much steadier version of Kendall than we've seen in a long while. It's almost like the writers were reminded of the character who originally existed and went, "Oh, right. Maybe we should, like, refer to that? A little bit?" So they gave us one episode of Kendall who is level-headed and anchored and confident, and then all the writers got amnesia again of the entire first part of the series.
BIG TIME BEACH PARTY
• The majority of Kendall's plot here revolves around his relationship with Jo nearly being destroyed because he doesn't have enough of a backbone to tell a girl to leave him alone.
I'll give him some grace on account of Sandy being a wackadoo who doesn't want to take no for an answer, but he really is so skittish and unwilling to put his foot down. He just sort of nervously flails around the beach with her until he's ultimately forced into a drag race.
Do I think Audition Kendall would never find himself in this position to begin with? Yes. If he did find himself in this situation, do I think he would have resolved it swiftly and then gone on to enjoy the rest of his beach day? Yes. Is it possible that Kendall just gets nervous around girls and would be reduced to a head under a bucket even in his Audition form? Also yes.
It just seems to me that he's at his worst characterization-wise when Jo or any other girl is involved. He loses all sense of self.
OK, LET'S WRAP THIS UP
The remainder of the season pretty much keeps in line with where Kendall is in terms of characterization. He's wonderful. He's a big, lovable goofball. He's just not the guy we met in Big Time Audition anymore.
Audition Kendall took a stressful situation and made it everyone else's problem. He managed to turn a pop song into an act of violence. He had fame and fortune dangled in front of his face and scoffed at it. He was composed under pressure.
Current Kendall doesn't death-stare anybody down. He spends a surprising amount of time flinching. He spirals easily and is motivated by anxiety, not angst. End of season 2 Kendall would pass out at the things Bad Boy Kendall was able to do.
That is someone physically incapable of peeing into Gustavo's desk drawer.
I like softer Kendall—I really do—but it was such a shame that we started the series with a blueprint that wasn't followed past a handful of episodes. It would have been so interesting to follow Audition Kendall through the series. (That's a fun AU to think about!)
I've seen a lot of fans say they wish the show would have been made for TeenNick instead so that it could have been aimed at an older audience and given them more room to add some serious elements. That would have been nice, but I don't know if it ultimately would have worked for what they needed the show to do (that is, appeal to a wide audience, a significant portion of which were young kids). Still, imagine a world where Big Time Rush was more of a typical teen show, where Audition Kendall could have been given room to thrive, and maybe even turned up a few notches! I guess that's what fanfic is for. (I personally write my BTR fanfics with Audition Kendall in mind)
For what it's worth, Kendall Schmidt is so stinkin' endearing that they could have done ANYTHING with his character, and it would have worked. It did work. And honestly? I feel like the version of Kendall we get later in season 1 and through the rest of the series is closer to Kendall Schmidt's personality/demeanor. Those of you who keep up with my posts may recall a few instances of my mentioning of "dainty Kendall". Cannot stress enough that this is not a dig, but merely an observation of Kendall Schmidt's natural way of carrying himself. His body language and many of his mannerisms are very delicate. Very loose and sort of soft? These were the gifs I had made to try to convey what I was talking about.
It's mainly in the wrists, I've concluded, but it carries over into the way he moves in general. Like, that above? That's all Kendall Schmidt.
As I mentioned, Audition through first few episodes Kendall has a stillness/control to his movements that later series Kendall doesn't. Yes, partly due to them cranking up the cartoon dial, but I also genuinely think Kendall (Schmidt) was comfortable in the role and sort of just being himself.
Thanks to anyone who read this whole thing. :) It's ultimately a silly post, but I sure did have fun writing it.
It really is interesting how Kendall Knight changes so much in such a short amount of time. I would've loved to have been a fly on the wall in the writers' room, just to hear how that decision was made.
As the show goes on, the other guys' characters also start to reflect their real-life selves: Logan gets more in touch with his wild side, while Carlos slightly tones down the crazy (e.g. he stops wearing his helmet as much). I don't think this applies to James, but he still becomes a very exaggerated version of his former self.
I recall even watching interviews of him and the guys from this period and thinking "Huh. His natural speaking voice is a little higher than the way he sounds on the show."
Kendall Schmidt himself pointed this out in their Frosted Tips with Lance Bass interview (timestamp 35:57). Lol.
Very entertaining analysis! I'm looking forward to the others.
For the character ask game: Carlos, since you've mentioned that he was your favorite back in the day. :)
Wooo! Thanks for dropping into my ask box :)
First impression: While I can't remember my exact first impression of Carlos from when I originally saw the show, I have to imagine that it was something like this 😍
Impression now: Still love him. Absolute sweetheart of a guy, but I do find myself wishing they hadn't made him so exaggeratedly immature.
Favorite moment: Don't know if I can pinpoint one specific moment, but I do like Carlos a lot in BTFans and BTContest. I think those episodes showcase who he is at his core.
Idea for a story: The other day, I was thinking about BTMove where it's mentioned that Carlos ran 2 miles to get James hair gel when he ran out during a school dance. I think that could make for a cute little story. But I'm also tempted by ideas that involve a little angst as well. Exploring a side of Carlos that goes beyond the endless optimism he seems to exude on the show.
Unpopular opinion: I cannot stand the helmet. Not sure if that's an unpopular opinion or not, but yeah. Wish that thing would have disappeared after season 1.
Favorite relationship: Romance-wise? I loved him and Stephanie King. I wish she would have stuck around and been a long-term girlfriend for him. I think she could have brought out a really nice, more mature side of Carlos while still being game to have fun and pull pranks with him. Friendship-wise, you can't beat James and Carlos together.
Favorite headcanon: I have two, I guess. The first is the very popular ADHD headcanon. I mean. It's hard not to have that as a top headcanon for Carlos. And the other is that he's the oldest and only boy of four kids.
You're very welcome! Carlos really did deserve more storylines (and a girlfriend).
In an early interview, Carlos PenaVega was asked what he hoped would happen to his character in season 2. His reply: "I hope that, somehow, Carlos just loses his helmet." 😂
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 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
To those who have never visited it: You're not missing out. I browsed r/BigTimeRush every day for about two years. I now check it at most once a week. I haven't used my account in a couple months.
It began as a fun little corner of the fandom. Drama would show up only occasionally. I watched it morph into, basically, a concentrated version of BTR Twitter. On steroids.
For all their faults, other platforms let you choose what you want to see. In the subreddit, you see everything. Every single hostile, pessimistic, downright disturbing thing. Don't even get me started on the rumors—people will apparently believe anything. It's very frustrating.
I got to experience the hostility firsthand. I was downvoted, patronized, and lashed out at, just for politely disagreeing. One of the mods banned my first account (details here).
There are still good moments, of course. But more often than not, r/BigTimeRush is a mess. The folks who can't get away with their unhinged behavior elsewhere? They go to Reddit.
Anyway, thank you to everyone who participated in this poll! A big shout-out to @btr-project's latest post.
My Reddit to Tumblr Story (YogurtClosetevery669 to BTR-Project 98)
Hey y'all! Remember when @cant-get-enough-btr-forever did a poll this week about the BTR subreddit and most of the results have never even seen/heard of it? Well... you're most likely better off. This is not my typical post & you guys didn't ask but here's my story of my experience within the BTR subreddit (and the website in general).
I was u/YogurtClosetevery669 and this was my avatar. Side note: look how cute it looks? Don't ask about my username though. As much as I do like yogurt, it's a strange username.
I was active on a few subs, and one of them was the BTR subreddit. I started doing appreciation posts, to spread a little positivity and find my stride within the community. One of those posts that really caught on was about the male BTR fanbase, and that got A LOT of warm comments and upvotes. I loved hearing the many stories from the guys' perspective and it somehow motivated me to keep going with it. I would also converse here and there with the other users in the comment sections and DMs. It was good for a while, or so I thought.
The last post I've done on the @YogurtClosetevery669 account was how vocally bummed I was not being able to go to a BTR show last year at the IRL Tour, despite my best efforts to get tickets. Then, soon after 24 hours, my account got banned. Permanently. I did try to get it back, used different accounts, etc, to no avail. Personally, I think Reddit thought I was a spam bot account since I post regularly. I will say, I did miss making friends that I had on the platform. In fact, that's how I virtually met @cant-get-enough-btr-forever, she can vouch that. There's a few gems of amazing, pleasant people in the BTR subreddit. However, there's a few people that just LOVES to spread negativity/drama or rumors. One user has especially made her mark I think to make the BTR subreddit miserable whenever she posts about the guys personal lives (iykyk). (THIS IS NOT FOR EVERYBODY IN THE SUB WHO ACTS LIKE THIS, BTW.) Nowadays, since I left the platform, it kinda died down since the tour wrapped, but it persists somehow through these kinds of posts through some users. Not like I can't comment on there anyways, I barely interact with the sub due to my circumstances.
I've learned some few things about Reddit with my experience:
The site is like a very hive-minded, biased mindset full of echo chambers. When you voice your own opinion on any topic, and goes against the general consensus, you'll be downvoted at best, banned at worst. Sometimes, for no reason. During my time on Reddit, there's certain popular subs (popculture subs, fauxmoi, Millenials) that feel like that one singular voice represents the whole sub and it's the ONLY voice that matters. It's very high school lunch table mentality. It gives more space for negativity & people obsessed with having the last word in arguments. Especially the snark communities. Those people I find more dangerously obsessive than the fans are, it's insane.
Because of the anonymity, the usersas really get to say anything, and repeat it in many forms to the point where it gets annoying. Basically the spamers and trolls. I won't say no names (obviously b/c IDK who that person is in real life) but there's a person I befriend few years back and he seems harmless at first. However, as time went on, his posts has gotten absurd. For instance, this user is obsessed with Pitbull and every time he posts, it's some form of invasive asking of BTR and Pitbull collab, or a list of unreleased songs from the ELEVATE album he got on YT years ago, he swears to the bible that it's real. Another user claims that every childhood show he watched is good for a show that's mostly disliked. Luckily, other users really don't pay them no mind.
The reason why I made the move to Tumblr was bc it was always a site that I “used” but never that deeply, if you know what I'm saying. I had accounts over the years, but it was always to scroll and like a post, much like Twitter. When I started doing this BTR project two years ago, I've thought about what other platform would be perfect to display what I came up with, other than physically with a book. Can't really use Reddit anymore for obvious reasons. Same reasons for Twitter. I barely use Facebook as it is. I've thought about Substack, but let's be real, that site is full of intellectual essays and insight, it's no place for me to chronicle my personal nostalgic story of a childhood show/band. Tumblr, so far, just allows me the space and canvas to say whatever I want to say, and like minded people would follow and resonate. No judgment, no fears. Also, since I'm smart like that, some of my BTR Reddit appreciation posts have become the journal entries I've curated. If you wanted to know how I come up with these journal entries, here's why. Well, that and I have them stored on my notes app on my phone for almost two years now. And the fact that I'd always chronicled my BTR journey back in the day, but never to a “bigger scale” to do so.
Since @btr-project made it's social media debut during the holidays, the posts that I've been making genuinely find their way to the people who are meant to see them and I made friends along the way. I've been regaining my stride on Tumblr thanks to this side project blog, and so far so good imo. It's now been one of my favorite things to do. Thanks to those who been there along for the ride. More content coming soon!
If you have read through this entire thing, thank you for coming to my TED talk and I'll give you a cookie if you do (🍪)
NOTE: More exciting news: the @btr-project IG account has now reached 100 followers!!
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… wow
"Mean Girl alert. And why are they always blonde?"
Impression now
I'm kind of surprised we didn't see more of her, but I'm not mad about it. As Kendall so eloquently put it, she was spoiled, pushy, and mean...though, she was also self-aware. Maybe she would've gotten nicer over time.
Favorite moment
"Because I never date anyone prettier than me."
Idea for a story
She meets The Jennifers. I need to see them volley insults back and forth.
Unpopular opinion
I don't think she needed more screen time than what she got.
Favorite relationship
While she did make him miserable, her dynamic with Logan was pretty funny.
Favorite headcanon
Mercedes had always wanted to work in entertainment, but her father made her stick to the business side of it. She ended up getting a music business degree and manages Griffin's music division to this day. Also, she's been married a few times.
I think it's cool that he's good with his hands. He actually has talent, instead of being nothing more than a dumb bully.
Favorite moment
When he showed us his immaculate Palmwoods model.
Idea for a story
Katie figures out how to use him as her personal bodyguard. Very random, but I can't think of anything else.
Unpopular opinion
Wait, what are the popular opinions about this guy...?
Favorite relationship
Logan is the only person he ever interacts with, so I guess I'll pick him. Lol.
Favorite headcanon
Here is my one single Ozzie headcanon that I just came up with on the fly: His father is an overbearing mechanic. He is rather cold towards his only son, but taught him everything he knows. This would explain a lot.
