Second Chance is, and always has been, a rina song. Heres Why:
So second chance came on my shuffle the other day and for the first time I actually listened to the song like, thoroughly. And I'm genuinley in awe of how the verses actually foreshadow the arcs of each characters season three much, much better than they do season two. so heres an analysis of the entire song that took way too much time:
Right of the bat, ricky's line here is so rina coded its not even funny. at the time of the season two finale it wasn't totally clear what these lines meant, but as soon as season three gave us "can we just start over" it became clear that this line is obviously about Rina starting over, getting their second chance. Specifically from rickys side, because gina always gave it her all but ricky is the one who needed the second chance to prove that he cares about this relationship.
Now Nini's verse is not difficult at all to interpret. Shes leaving to go follow her dreams... thats it good talk.
When it comes to EJ, we know that this boy values gina as a person in his life so so much. his verse to me really reads as an EJ in hindsight of the breakup. Misreading the signs obviously had a meaning in season two, but also has a lot of weight in the lens of portwells season three miscommunication. I think this line hints at the fact that EJ is going to feel tons of remorse over the way things ended with Gina and that he will (hopefully) truly show that he can become a better guy soon.
Ginas verse was honestly very confusing to me for a while, i wasnt sure what it was saying. But this post by the lovely @blues-valentine finally got it to me! For season two gina, ricky is the scary option. he has put her through hell at this point and even though he is avalible now, shes not willing to risk that pain again. so she puts her walls back up, and she chooses the safer option: EJ. This frames ej as the temporary option, the one she chooses when shes on the run, they were never written to be permanent.
The post chorus is interesting because for 3/4 of them its just repeating the line from their verse that summarizes their main point the best. Self discovery for nini, a new chance for ricky, and a temporary fix for gina. But this line isn't in EJs verse at all! The only one to sing something different than their previous solo. To me this is showing us how EJ keeps finding himself in this cycle of similar relationships that he thinks are supposed to work out but never do. I would put a lot of money on the idea that in season four, EJ will find himself in an unexpected romance somewhere he never thought hed find it. He needs to break the cycle in order to really grow. yeah that sounds pretty gay i know but i promise i didnt mean that it had to be gay. i sure would like it to be though
The chorus gets repeated a lot through the song, but this one is the one that shows what it really means in terms of the songs message. Nini is finally getting her second chance to fly, now that she is free of the reigns that her relationship was putting on her. EJ truly does have nothing ahead of him but another chance to fall... and fall he does. (its worth noting his tone here is so defeated and broken though, like he really doesnt want to fail but its an inevitability of this relationship just because of the circumstance). Gina is desperate to know "what can make the tide turn" aka what does she have to do to just not get hurt! And ricky.... well ricky wants to know how to get the spark he once had with gina back and better than ever. These are the lines that actually show us what each characters second chance truly is.
And finally...
These are the parts of the song that to me REALLY set up the season three love triangle, and also foreshaddow the rina endgame of it all.
With the final chorus, ej and ricky have their own adlib lines that make it so. damn. clear. how this all is going to end up. the way ej says "it was just another chance to fall" is so definite, so sure. its clear that this is NOT just speaking about the little miscommunication that pw had in season two. its saying that the relationship as a whole was ALWAYS just another chance for ej to fall. and the pure desperation in "what does it take" just shows the way that ricky NEVER gave up on gina, even when it seemed like he did. and hes willing to do whatever he can to make gina happy, even if it means letting her go.
and finally, even though we've already spelled out how the entire love triangle is going to play out, we close the song by leaving one character behind and moving on with the three whos journeys we will continue to see throughout the rest of the show.
