I think the most important part we have to take into consideration with Gina and EJ’s relationship is that they both really wanted it to work. Both of them tried and, to some extent, fought to keep the relationship afloat.
We have Gina who pretty much stuffs her feelings for Ricky down, down, down. (and we know her feelings are still there for many reasons, first of all she never got closure, also the “who said anybody would” line in 3x01, “and for the first time in forever i won’t be alone” look she gave ricky in 3x02, and so on!) She does this to completely focus on her “Summer of Firsts” with EJ.
Then we have EJ who had this pile of responsibility packed on top of him at the last minute and has completely abandoned Gina (yes it’s not his fault! but it still happened) despite promising her the best summer of fun. Even though a lot of lies and secrets and miscommunication came to the surface due to his new position as director, they still managed to make up in during the beginning of 3x06 “Color Wars”, and focus on the rest of the summer.
Even though her and EJ were back to how they were, EJ still wasn’t around. Ricky, himself, asks where EJ is and asks EJ where he’s going. Like even Ricky notices EJ keeps leaving Gina. Again, I know it’s because of his responsibility, and because he was with Miss Jenn the whole episode (I won’t even get into him lying to Gina again about Miss Jenn, but maybe another day) but it still happened. I think a funny thing to also point out is Gina stating how much she wanted Blue team to win for her and EJ, and Blue team.. lost.
This is when I feel like Gina really thinks of one last big gesture to give EJ to really salvage their relationship. Ricky (my son who loves her so much and just wants her to be happy) helps her set up this adorable “Kiss the Girl” inspired decoration with the canoe. They bring EJ to surprise him and that’s where Gina asks him to prom. EJ immediately shuts her down and claims it’s because they don’t allow dates to the prom, to not hurt anybody’s feelings. I could get into how much his delivery towards rejecting Gina’s Promposal bothers me, but again.. that’s for another day. At the end of the day, he just said no! Then he told her he had to get back to work so they should just sit there for a little bit and wait for the fireworks. I believe that Gina interpreted that as EJ telling her to just sit there and wait for either of them to feel something for the other again and she asks “is that a metaphor?” but EJ reiterates that no there are real fireworks and they’ll be “any minute” now. And the fireworks never came.
Going back to what I said in the beginning, both EJ and Gina wanted the relationship to work. EJ even tells her he’s going to fight for her to stay in Salt Lake. But the fireworks never came. You can put as much effort as you want into a relationship, you can want a relationship to work out reallllyyyyy bad, but sometimes you’re simply just not meant to be? Sometimes a pair just isn’t compatible. Sometimes a couple loses their spark and their passion after that initial honeymoon phase. and that’s okay. There doesn’t need to really be a (strong) outside force, or a super clear explanation as to why the fireworks didn’t come. They just weren’t meant to be.
It’s also important to point out that Ashlyn asked Miss Jenn about Mike Bowen earlier in the episode and how she knew she wanted to get on the boat with ricky’s dad and Miss Jenn answered fireworks! The scene right after Gina and EJ’s was Ashlyn’s realization of her sexuality. The fireworks came for both Miss Jenn and Ashlyn, but not for portweII and the look they both make at the end, really shows they know it too.
