tjās growth just between 313 and 320 is such an overwhelming and inspiring thing to watch.
kira came up to him and he felt threatened and insecure so he put his walls all the way up and made a poor decision to guard himself.
his face just after kira walks away, you can tell heās overthinking every little thing he feels around cyrus. heās scared. it leads him to hanging out with kira a lot. then flash forward to 320 and he shows up to the party with kira. theyāre acting couple-y. then kira makes fun of cyrus and then you finally see tj stand up for himself. stand up for cyrus.
when she walks away, you see this face again.
ācyrus never made me choose.ā
āi guess that answers my question. see you around.ā and he has that feeling of insecurity again but you can also see the relief. heās letting his walls down all on his own right there.
then you fast forward to born this way. he started that song. the music stopped and he started playing the song and all eyes were on him. itās significant that they had tj start with the piano playing one of the gayest anthems ever. heās glowing. literally glowing and heās happy and heās letting his guard down.
and then cyrus goodman starts singing and this dude lights up even more. iāve never seen such a love struck expression. LOOK AT THIS.
heās like in love with him and heās singing and he couldnāt be happier. throughout the song heās just, glowing. and cyrus comes to sing with him and they look at each other when they sing and theyāre so happy. tj is so happy and comfortable. and he hardly ever stops touching cyrus like his arm is around him almost the entire time and he doesnāt care. heās full of literal glee.
and then comes the bench scene and tj truly lets all of his walls down around cyrus. kira is gone. cyrus is there. he doesnāt have to hide. he opens up about his mom a little, just to let cyrus know. and then when he said āiām not mysterious ask me anythingā it felt like a parallel to āiām not hidingā but heās really not hiding anymore.
then he opens up about his name, cyrus goodman is the only non-kippen that knows his name. heās really not hiding. then, then, THEN.
āis there anything else you want to know?ā and then the hand
and you can tell the exact moment cyrus realizes truly what is going on. he gets all confident saying āis there anything else you wanna tell me?ā and then⦠tjās face got me. his face always gets me because you can always see his emotions.
āyeah.ā he sounds so scared but he wants to tell cyrus and cyrus knows and you can tell tj has come full circle as a whole character. always scared to be open and always guarding himself behind a mean facade. to being open with the one person he can talk to like this. and then heās brave. āis there anything you wanna tell ME?ā and when cyrus says āyesā heās confirming that holy shit he likes him back. his feelings were reciprocated. and the thing that makes me the most proud is they were surrounded by people and tj reached for cyrusā hand. he grabbed his hand.
he interlaced their fingers and then he exhaled. he was scared but he took a chance, not knowing if cyrus reciprocated his feelings and when he realized, wow holy shit he does,he exhaled. he could breathe.
needless to say, thelonious jagger kippen I AM SO PROUD OF YOU.