Okay, I know what you're thinking: "Spinner and Jane/Sean and Emma should have been end-game, the marriage was so rushed (fair), their relationship makes no sense" etc. etc.
But does it really make NO sense?
If your argument is that they barely had any interactions prior to their marriage, again, fair. I honestly wish the show had given us at least another episode or two exploring their relationship. I also wish it just ended with them either agreeing to start off as a regular couple or having a long engagement rather than going forward with the wedding.
But to say their relationship made absolutely 0 sense at all in the context of where they both were in life at the time? I think that's incorrect. It take a bit of reading between the lines, but when they ended up together I wasn't completely against it and the more I think about it, the more I agree with that outlook.
Now, my last post was anti-semma and I think I made some pretty valid points, to my own credit. Their relationship was on the rocks almost immediately after it began and we come to find that Sean works a lot better with someone else (*cough* ELLIE) than he does with Emma.
This post is mainly geared towards why I thought Spinner was a good pairing for Emma, but not as much how Emma was a good pairing for Spinner (hopefully that makes sense). To round all of this out I'll make another post later discussing more of Emma's behaviors from the lenses of her being with either Sean or Spinner.
In the spirit of fairness, I will start this off by mentioning that Spinner isn't a saint. He had some seriously terrible behavior in the middle of his run on the show that I'll list out here just to get it out of the way:
Emotionally (kinda-physically) cheats on Paige with Manny
Treats Paige like he owns her while she deals with the fallout from her SA trial
His bullying of Rick and agreement to go along with Jay's blame shift post-prank inadvertently (yes, inadvertently. I'll talk about that in a second) lead to Jimmy being shot and paralyzed and a gun getting pointed at Emma.
(brief pause here to point out that all of that happened during Spinner's worst haircuts in the show. coincidence? I think not)
4. Lies to Darcy about his sexual history, breaks up with her, kisses Paige, gets back together with Darcy, then cheats on her by having sex w Paige all within the span of like 3-4 days.
He's done a couple other questionable things but those are the ones that stick out to me the most. He did also have that homophobia arc with Marco but Jimmy putting him in his place and seeing how his attituded towards gay people encouraged the behavior of those that assaulted Marco, quickly changes his tune. This is also one of my favorite off-hand lines from Spinner:
(headcannon is that Paige introduced him to the actual show and he said he hates it but secretly loved it)
The only other thing I'll bring up in the context of negative boyfriend-Spinner points is when he says this to Craig in S3 after catching him cheat on Ashley:
"Dude, you are my inspiration, you're a man among men"
Another thing I want to cover here real quick before I dive into Spinner's positive relationship examples is his involvement in the shooting by Rick (see, I told you I'd get back to this).
I think in the context of a high-schooler with a history of bully-mentality that was close friend's with Rick's victim, his bullying of Rick was...kinda justified?! I'm not pro-bullying, but what the hell was Rick thinking returning to a school where he very knowingly put a girl in a coma. He could not have expected things to be kosher when he came back but I guess there's always "book smarts" and "street smarts".
I do agree that Spinner and Jay's (AND LEXI BTW...DONT THINK I DIDN'T FORGET HOW BS IT WAS SHE HAD 0 REPURCUSSIONS) prank took things too far, publicly humiliating Rick in front of the entire school (and local television). Side-note: I think making it a PG parallel to the prank in the horror movie Carrie was pretty cool by the writers, especially since you just knew after that prank he was gonna do something horrendous.
I want to point out one line from Toby, Rick's best friend pre-shooting, that I think works in the defense of Spinner in regards to the fallout from his bullying of Rick:
"I didn't know he was going to bring a GUN to SCHOOL."
It's the last thing you'd expect, especially as someone like Spinner whose worst repercussions as a result of bullying up until then was likely detention and being grounded. Did his bullying convince Rick to shoot up the school? Yeah, but so did:
1. Raditch dismissing Rick's concerns about Jimmy and his friends bullying him
2. The school board ALLOWING Rick to return to Degrassi in the first place, then protecting him during his return against the protests of the students (?????)
3. His parent's decision to enroll him back into Degrassi, or back in public school AT ALL. Hell, his mom makes him the victim when Spinner tries to beat the shit out of Rick for what he did to Terri.
4. Rick
5. Rick
6. RICK
Rick is ultimately to blame for the shooting. He was a psychopath as Ashley pointed out, which is one of the only times Ashley was justified in what she said LMAO
This was meant to be a quick side-bar, but I think it's important to point that out and make a mini-argument for Spinner in that whole situation. I also think Spinner faced appropriate repercussions of this by losing his friend group, his short-lived relationship with Manny (what was the point of this?), and getting expelled. Similar to the character arc of Holly J and the "I hate Holly J" debacle, Spinner got a wake-up call that jumpstarted his growth as a more grounded person.
Now, that aside, I want to address the positive aspects of Spinner in his relationships and why I think this helps in my defense for Spemma.
Spinner is a relationship kinda guy that doesn't like being casual. The best examples of this is during the Valentines episode where he wants to put a label on his and Manny's relationship, feeling disappointment that she doesn't feel the same. The other is when (unfortunately also included in his negatives) he kisses and later sleeps with Paige during the Darcy fallout, expecting that they would return to being a couple afterwards and feeling betrayed that she considered it a one-night fling. Later on he's also annoyed that Paige is toying around with him and Jesse at the same time (the plots in S6 were atrocious but they happened), wanting to be official with her.
Some may argue that's coming from a place rooted in the misogynistic desire to own a woman, but I don't really believe that (at least not with Spinner). That's just always been his understanding when it comes to romantic relationships between two people.
"Uhh, you girlfriend me boyfriend. You make me bathe daily, I make you go camping"
My next point: Spinner was protective of his girlfriend's in a (mostly) non-toxic way.
Paige:
* Shows up for her SA trial and assures her that he thinks she's awesome for taking Dean to court
* Takes the blame for crashing into Dean's car after witnessing the impact losing the trial had on her (unfortunately this did preface him treating her like shit but it's worth mentioning).
Darcy:
* Beats up Jay after he manipulated Darcy by lying about Manny.
* Cleanses his sins by throwing together a ceremony and studying scripture so that he can become pure again, as he knows it's important to her (Paige incoming to ruin that....ANYWAYS)
* Has to explain to her (lol) that men aren't just looking at her MyRoom page photos and that making them private isn't enough to keep them out of the eyes of the general public, which he was 100% right about.
Jane (his best relationship on the show and where I think he's at the peak of his character arc):
* Offers to intervene when Jane admits that Derek and the rest of the football team is assaulting her, ultimately not getting too involved at her request but continuing to offer his support
* While not on-screen to my memory, or perhaps he was never told, I imagine he would have been supportive of her after the revelations of the Jane Says 2 parter. (The wiki says he was supportive of her after being told but I literally cannot find a trace of that existing in the actual show).
Outside of these major points, the way he speaks to and about his girlfriends during and after his relationship with Darcy was really respectful to them and their points of view. Most stand-out example is this conversation between him and Jay:
Jay: I mean what kind of a hold does she have on you anyways... she that good in bed?
Spinner: It's not like that man, we don't even have sex.
Jay: No sex? Nothing? Are you kidding me, what's her problem?
Spinner: She believes in something, alright? Is that impossible for you to get through your twisted little brain?
Unlike Craig where the negatives outweigh the positives when it comes to relationships, the opposite is true for Spinner. While he does have his faults here and there, Spinner mainly has that golden retriever behavior with his girlfriends where he offers his loyalty, support, and understanding. He's got that infectious excitable personality, hypes them up when they're excited about something, and supports them in their time of need.
Here's my biggest point to Spinner, which I think is the biggest one when it comes to arguing for his relationship with Emma:
He stands up for people
Who convinced Paige to let Rick come with them on their trip so that Terri wouldn't be alone with him?
Who, in the same episode, tries to make Rick pay for what he did (ultimately regretting that he resorted to violence)?
Who stood up for Marco after seeing that Linus' intentions were more rooted in homophobia rather than Christianity?
Toby and him were never friends, but who's the first to stick up for him when he's getting harassed by Lakehurst students?
(to me, that was the full circle moment. He used to be Johnny but his growth and change put him on the other side).
We all know Emma is known for protesting what she thinks is wrong, that was one of her central traits in the beginning of her run on the show with continued examples up until her departure. Spinner never organized a large-scale protest, but he knew when someone was in the wrong and stood his ground. Plus, so many times on the show there were instances where he misunderstood something, was given an explanation, and then understood that persons point of view. He probably wouldn't stop eating meat for Emma, but he at least accepts that's something she believes in and respects it. Oh, how do I know that?
Well, let me introduce you to the one scene I bring up first when people hate on Spemma. Ehem...
SEASON 9 EPISODE 13: HOLIDAY ROAD
After returning to Degrassi during her bike-a-thon with Kelly, the two call it off after Kelly expresses his resentment towards Emma for their lack of "fun" during their charity fundraiser. After a disastrous presentation and admitting to Snake that Emma is failing, she visits the Dot and asks Spinner for a burger. His response?
"Rebound eating? It's no way to end up in the wonderful world of meat"
He could've easily been like "Hell yeah!" but he wasn't. He knew her beliefs and although he didn't understand them, like at all, refuses to let her break that part of herself.
What follows is a conversation that I really think lends itself to why they work well from my perspective.
They share a heartfelt conversation about meeting the expectations of other people, how he overcame them and ultimately ended up in a better place. He says that staying was just 'me'. What does Emma do after that interaction? Chooses what's best for her, which, at that moment was dropping out of college. We later learn at the beginning of Degrassi Takes Manhattan that she chose to enroll at TU.
I don't think that her going back to school is what stands out to me, but it's the fact that she chose TU, which Spinner points out is close to home. She could have gone anywhere, but she clearly wanted to be somewhere close to her family and a place she knew her friends would revisit frequently.
Both her and Spinner were happy with where they were in life by the time they got together, and where they were paired well. Spinner really loved his job at The Dot and didn't have any plans of leaving anytime soon, and Emma wanted to be somewhere close by to the people she cared about. It's a win-win. I'll also point out this interaction from Pt3 of DTM:
Manny: So, you're gonna give it all up for a guy who manages a coffee joint?
Emma: Give what up? Not everyone wants to be a Hollywood starlet you know.
She didn't feel like there was anything she had to forfeit for Spinner. She felt like everything he had to offer was enough for her to be where she wanted to be. Something else to mention here is that historically-judgy Emma had literally 0 negativity towards Spinner managing The Dot as his career, neither in their previous interaction in E13 nor during this conversation with Manny. You don't even see a moment of hesitation or regret from her in this.
She only questions things after causing one of the greatest examples of miscommunication I've ever seen between two people, when she probes Spinner with questions at Manny's request:
CAN YOU JUST BE STRAIGHTFORWARD WITH THE POOR MAN? WHY DID SHE GO ABOUT IT THIS WAY LMAO
(Sidebar: coming back to this post after a brief pause I see now that I jumped straight into DTM without starting from the beginning so I'm gonna rewind a little bit and do a proper review here)
So, you sit down to watch Degrassi's new special air on TV that starts with Spinner and Jane being a couple and ends with Emma and Spinner getting married. Yeah, WTF?
I think the way Spinner and Emma get together is what ultimately lends itself to so much of Degrassi fan's hatred towards this pairing. I do agree that I wasn't all that pleased with how it started, but it isn't enough for me to say I hated the two of them being together entirely. I actually remember watching the 4 parter for the first time and by the end thinking "aw, they're actually really cute". I was honestly shocked to find just how many people get so annoyed by their existence as a couple.
My first question to you is this Spemma haters: If you can suspend your disbelief for a second, would you have hated them together as much if they were given the same time to be explored that other couples were given?
Because here's the thing, so many of you love to say "This came out of nowhere they had 0 interactions before this". So did many couples on the show? I get that this is directed more towards the concept of them agreeing to go through with the wedding, but it's one of the greater-used arguments against them being a couple at all.
My second question: Where's this attitude towards Manny and Jay?
I mean, they move pretty quickly into engagement as two people who barely interacted with each other prior to getting together, no? I think the show exploring their relationship dynamic more than we get with Spemma is why a lot of people actually like the pairing (especially considering he does some shady shit during their relationship like steal from the pawn shop and swap her self-tape with their sextape, which he filmed without her knowing btw).
I mean, we get to see how Jay supports Manny in dealing with her manipulative professor boyfriend (ick), and giving her the confidence to continue pursuing her career all while supporting her in that journey by getting her there. We also see how Jay is down bad for Manny during their time apart ( in one of my fav Spinner-Jay scenes).
We don't really get to see how Spinner would support Emma as her partner during a tough period of her life. There's examples from his previous relationships that leads me to believe he'd be a great source of comfort, but we as the audience don't get to see that and I think it hurts their couple cred a lot.
Getting back to the 4-part rollercoaster of DTM, I watch it and every time I feel like Emma is acting a lot different than she usually does. She seems...happier and more easy-going than she usually is? And I think that's because she's fresh off her charity bike-a-thon and notably has a different outlook on life. She was able to drop out of Smithdale, broke up with a boyfriend (that clearly hated her by the end lmao), spent some time alone to reflect on what she really wants while doing what she loves, and followed-through by making another decision she felt was best for her by enrolling at TU. She just genuinely seems happy at the beginning of this special.
Another side-bar, I think this is Miriam's best performance (outside of the ED two-parter) in the show. Like are you kidding me the comedic timing of the pt3 intro with Spinner had me genuinely laughing my ass off.
So, poor Spinner has a bad day. He learns his girlfriend that he just got matching tattoos with not only plans on moving to a different country, but fucking cheated on him with DECLAN?! And that Holly J, who typically stands on business, didn't tell him??? Then after all that, returns to find that the employee he just hired fucking burned down the building like YEAH, I'd be a depressed pile of shit after that too dude.
I think it'd be understandable for Emma to not interact with Spinner after this interaction post Dot blow-up, but she checks in on him again at Degrassi (how'd she know he was there btw? I have to imagine she asked Manny who asked Jay). She tries to cheer him up by cracking a joke and joining him in playing basketball (I will say she acts a little ditzy here but I still thought it was cute).
Not only that, but afterwards we see them in Niagra Falls with Jay and Manny. In the first few seconds of that scene this is said:
Spinner: This is AWESOME I've never been to a casino!
Manny: Emma thought you'd like it
Like she's literally going out of her way to cheer him up and I just find that absolutely adorable of her?? There also had to have been some off-screen conversation between Emma and Manny for her to have said that, and to not intervene when they're getting cozy at the poker table later.
Emma: Who needs education when you have luck?
Spinner: I wouldn't know actually, you have heard about my life lately?
Emma: Well, sometimes you gotta make your own luck... the key is to take big risks
THAT'S LITERALLY WHAT THEY DO BY GETTING MARRIED. THEY ARE TRYING TO MAKE THEIR OWN LUCK BY TAKING A RISK AND GETTING TOGETHER HELLO.
Sorry for yelling but I just re-watched that scene and it was the first time after dozens of rewatch marathons that I noticed it was literal foreshadowing and I got excited.
I also just re-watched pt3 and again, laughed at Miriam and Shane's performance in that intro.
cackles were cackled, anyways
Later we get this cute scene that expresses Spinner's sentimental mentality towards life where he shows Emma his "Spinner Shrine". Emma pulls out a folder and asks "Is this my grade 9 health food project?" (UMMM it was grade 8 actually DEGRASSI WRITERS ya IDIOTS. Also Spinner said it led to him growing little Spinner in class but throughout and at the end he learns it was hormones. I wish they changed his line there to be something like "It's a reminder of ..." not "it led to". Also he didn't boycott the cafe because of it like he says he did, he boycotted it because of bugs. I find it odd the writers didn't double-check this or that one of the actors didn't recall it enough to correct it)
Aaaanyways, they boink after that interaction and spend the night together. Spinner's downstairs all excited to be cooking breakfast for Emma, singing her a little song. Emma finds a box of Jane mementos and decides to call the divorce lawyer to avoid being his rebound, which, yeah that's fair. SO HE THROWS IT OUT IMMEDIATELY.
Here's where it really kicks off for me. Their scene after meeting with the divorce lawyer exemplifies everything I've been saying about where they're at in life:
"I love music, but I don't want to be famous. I love my job, but I don't need to be rich. I love my loft, my city, my friends, and I don't like change. But I'm glad one thing did, and that I found you."
"Who needs fame or money when everything you could ever want wakes up beside you."
Emma's history of boyfriends that are aggressive, manipulative, dishonest, unsupportive, or cheat on her leads her to someone she genuinely feels safe with and I don't think that's something to gloss over. She's been around him long enough to witness how well he treated Jane and she knows that his wants in life match hers. They do say "I love you" here and similar to the marriage I feel like that's a little quick, but I interpret it as "I love what you represent for me" given the dialogue they just shared.
Also the next time they're on screen they're watching a movie (Clown Academy btw I would've loved to see how Spinner convinced her to watch that LMAO) and she does this cute little bite thing I just GAH they look so cute together I can't.
I'm sorry but I never saw her this giddy with ANYONE else she was with.
To my point that Emma felt safe with Spinner, Jane calls immediately after this (girl pls) and Emma encourages Spinner to get it. You do see a moment of hesitation but she decides to trust that nothing will come of it, and he doesn't prove her wrong.
We've already briefly mentioned their insane back and forth in pt4 that lead to a misunderstanding but another thing I want to cover about that is Spinner doing the boy-calculus in his brain about wtf she's thinking and trying to ease the pressure she might be feeling by agreeing to wait and see before going forward with their ceremony (SOMETHING I WISH THE DEGRASSI WRITERS DID).
I find it funny that the first person to talk to him after this is Peter, Emma's ex, and his reaction to hearing about their wedding was so funny to me. Honestly whoever wrote/directed this entire side of the DTM plot was a comedic genius. The Holly J/Coyne side had it's moments but the twincest part was completely unnecessary.
In a bid of doubt for his future with Emma, and with himself, Spinner laments about his insecurities in life and feeling like a loser. But his wise spiritual conscience of a boss comes in and says:
"Sometimes, good things come from accidents"
So naturally, Spinner after hearing this...
I love that he just darts past them at first it's so funny to me.
He, in front of her family and Manny (the most important people in her life) expresses his feelings for her to the shock and awe of poor Snake who never catches a fucking break.
"Emma, I want the rest of our lives together to start NOW. I don't care if it started as an accident... Mr. Simpson, Mrs. Nelson, I've been though stuff. I know how precious time is, and sometimes you don't know what you're looking for until... it burns down your place of work"
Spinner just stays earning straight W's for Spemma
And with that, we've arrived at the wedding day meaning I'm almost done with this long ass post. Yay!
Spinner has an initial interaction with Jay where he asks why Jay hasn't tried talking him out of this, and Jay says "If I thought that Emma was a stone-cold heartbreaker like Jane, I would physically prevent you from going through with it." I think if anyone would know what's best for Spinner it'd be his best friend. But if that wasn't enough, Jane arrives looking completely deranged:
Her whole b-plot in this episode that I haven't mentioned yet is her driving from NY to Toronto to convince Spinner not to go through with it. The SECOND she sees him, she stops herself and questions everything.
His long-term ex girlfriend, the one who (maybe aside from Jay) probably knows him the best, looks at him and sees that he's GENUINELY happy. Not just momentarily excited, but happy. Enough to keep herself from stopping what she no longer believes is a bad idea. Not that S8 Jane has the best sense of judgement, but it's important that we get her perspective from her.
"I was gonna try to convince you to come back with me to New York, but, it wouldn't work. You belong here."
Also, he absolutely did not have to do this, but he tells Jane that he forgives her for breaking his heart. Like she did not do anything to earn that forgiveness really but he does it anyways because he's a GOOD PERSON WITH A GOOD HEART.
Manny witnesses the goodbye cheek kiss Jane gives him (which lasted way longer than it needed to and was WAY too close to his lips) and...
Manny don't play about her girl Emma bruh
I never noticed that Jane decks tf out of her here but watching and recording this to make the gif had me cackling again like girl why did you punch the holy mother-loving hell out of her LOL.
The ceremony is short and sweet, kinda like this relationship's run on the show, and we leave Spemma with the final scene that makes me genuinely like the two of them together.
As Jane leaves the wedding to join back up with Holly J and Declan (who atp are probably done dealing with Jane's bs), Spinner and Emma spot the three of them on the dock. Spinner explains to Emma that Jane showed up to get closure (which, is kinda true but not really).
Emma doesn't even question it dude, she's like yeah, whatever I won and invites them back to the reception. No argument from Spinner btw, which he'd be completely justified in doing seeing as the three of them were all involved in the betrayal that hurt him. He's just happy to be celebrating with his wife.
As they depart, Janes second-to-lasts line in the show is:
"That fairytale was never mine."
(I'd argue it was if the writers didn't fuck up your character dynamic, but in the situation we were given... yeah I agree)
SO, outside of mentioning that they had dinner with Emma's parents and they're planning on buying a house in S2 of DNC, we've reached the end of the Spemma arc.
I want to preface this by saying if DTM was it's own standalone movie unrelated to Degrassi I'd think it was a genuinely fun and cute romcom, which I think is what the writers were going for while trying to stay true to the character backgrounds. Think about this being the blurb on the back of a DVD case:
[MAN] is feeling on top of the world. He's got a great girlfriend, a great job, and great friends. All comes to a head when he discovers his "great girlfriend" cheated on him with a rich snob from New York. His peak quickly shifts to his concave until he's revisited by an old acquaintance and sparks fly, leading to a quickie wedding in Niagra Falls. Is this a horrible idea, or the best decision he's ever made?
Like, c'mon. This is literally the teen-drama version of "What happens in Vegas". That movie came out two years before this special was aired so I really wouldn't be surprised if the writers drew inspiration from it. There's also a tonal difference in comedy with this special that I really feel isn't present in any other Degrassi episode, even the previous 4-part special Degrassi Goes Hollywood that aired a year before. I mean, they tried with that one but it didn't stand out to me in a good way like this one did (I have beef with the way they tanked Paige's character).
There's just so many perfect comedic beats and lines from both plots of this special that are great. Who could forget this line from the other storyline?
This post isn't meant to be a DTM support post, though I might return to make one someday to give the special it's flowers.
As I wrap up this long...LONG post, I want return to my argument for Spemma and express again how much I feel that the fans of this show just don't give them the consideration they deserve. I understand guys, Sean was the first boyfriend Emma has on the show and their arc ended in S7. That's a huge amount of time to spend exploring the two of them together that her time with Spinner sadly doesn't get.
I admit that to you there's an extensive suspension of disbelief that goes into you liking Spinner and Emma together. You have to really think about how these two, that have known about each other their entire adolescence, can start their relationship and get married two days later. You have to imagine interactions between the two of them that happen off-screen during and after the special. You have to analyze the two of them and their respective histories closely to understand why they could potentially work.
But to me, watching this, I knew it just as much as Jane and Jay did. As much as the situation itself is crazy, the two of them together isn't.
Spinner and Emma offer each other what they've both been looking for: Stability.
I hope I've made it clear enough with this and my last post that I'm not a Sean hater, not even a Semma hater necessarily, but I think despite the discourse and dismissal from the general fandom, these two do actually work in their own crazy way.
With that, I'm done. My fingers need a break. Peace out.
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