oh, i stayed with you too long

the banter in Jet-X between the three of them is good. it's funny how the earlier seasons tended to very much be Logan against Chase and Michael and then in s3 it's just a free for all where Logan and Chase gang up on Michael more while regularly having their own rivalry or it's just a free for all.

not really, Logan is not very loyal to Chase where Michael was always going to be, and he's used to butting heads with his roommates. likewise he's very self-assured, so he's not going to question his more callous and self-centered beliefs when it comes to something like money. he and Zoey are also shown to be pretty similar throughout the show, ie them thinking the same way in Hands on a Blix Van, so it makes sense.

i am inclined to switch up their sexualities depending on the fic i'm writing, e.g. i once referenced Quinn being a lesbian but have also put her with Logan. i very much see all of the boys (minus Dustin) as being varying degrees of bi, and i do like the idea of Nicole being a lesbian. i don't mind the idea of grey ace Zoey either, though bluntly i think she'd start off pretty conservative and not very open-minded.

point being it was a different set up and arguably something of a tougher production. certainly it was a more expensive one, thanks to the location filming, and the fact it's a big cast.

on a more speculative note, i wouldn't be surprised if tensions had started to rise behind the scenes because of this as well. Jamie talks a bit about it in her memoir (lol) where she wasn't well with i think PCOS/PMOS and you can see her and Sean being visibly disinterested in the video podcasts TeenNick was doing and they probably have the most noticeable dip in acting performances too. the writing is also bizarre in that it seems both more reliant on the Chase/Zoey romance e.g. dancing, the hand touch in Hands on a Blix Van, while seemingly being determined to not actually do anything with them, like in Son of a Dean or Zoey's Ribs. Dan is a pretty sloppy writer, as demonstrated by how bad the later seasons of iCarly and Victorious got, so it would make sense if Sean saying he was leaving forced him to lock in and write a script good enough to try and get him to stay.

it helps that Sean's acting is strong enough that he's able to sell both the emotion and the comedy of it, and elevate the material above just how tropey it is. especially in the section from Logan saying "someone looks mad" with a shit eating grin on his face to him storming in and arguing with Zoey is done pretty well, where a lot of other actors on Dan's shows would be full blown yelling but he's pretty restrained. s3 got a lot of mileage out of his anger, given how much it plays into the plot of Goodbye Zoey, and in that sense i think this episode is a kind of precursor. it also fleshes him out more. yes, Chase is kind and compassionate and in love with Zoey, but he's also mean and impetuous, and i think he's better for that.

s3, and i prefer her personality in s3 too

i've only seen iGoodbye once and i barely remember any of it, other than the really long, painful Dan cameo with the rock collection that manages to make him yelling in Chasing Zoey look quite abstemious, because at least that only went on for about four minutes, and the incredibly heavy handed literal flashbacks instead of just letting the viewer make the connection on their own. I'm curious as to what it would have been like had it not had to build up to the Sam & Cat spin off with the bike, or if the show had been smaller. it was fine overall, though the pacing there wasn't great, and i think the main thing Dan "denied" viewers was a firm answer to the shipping war stuff, which had blown way out of proportion by that point, so i understand the logic there. getting to see Carly's father was also very much a "thing" and i think people at the time liked that the episode leaned into the sentimentality of the ensemble.

gonna be honest and say the most in character thing for Logan to do would be to leave the note blank and/or say "you're on your own cupcake" at the end when they're all confessing their secrets. if he were actually going to do a major secret it would probably be something very sincere and private, like about his mother or his father. otherwise I agree with the fan theories, those are the most logical based on what we know.

there are other friendships i like but they can start to get into shipping territory, along with being more hypothetical because we got to see less of them. i would have liked to see more of Chase and Quinn being friends, and i think Nicole and Quinn worked quite well together in that one episode. i've always shipped Chase and Dana based on what we saw, but i think they'd get along really well platonically, and i would have liked to see more of Dana and Zoey being real friends, especially as Jamie and Kristin were close. similarly, i ship Chase and Lola but think their moments of friendship are genuinely sweet and touching, and would have liked to see more. i've said before i don't think Zoey/Michael is as unthinkable as most would, but i think Zoey in particular would really value having him as just a friend.

yeah i've previously written Lola, Chase, Michael, and Logan as being the ones who stay/end up in LA because they're the "creatives" and therefore remain friends, while Quinn and Zoey go elsewhere following their break ups and for the sake of their careers (though technically Zoey being a fashion designer would also maker her a creative but in New York as per the cliche). likewise i've had Logan and Lola specifically work together as director/lead actor specifically, preferably doing some kinda shitty horror movie. in general i tend to think of their banter as having an almost sibling like quality to it, but i also see Logan as confiding in her.

That said, I can definitely see Lola being overprotective of Quinn and making some vague threat if Logan hurts her, especially with how poorly Mark treated Quinn. Michael would probably have a comedic reaction, either going, "Aww, they match each other's freak" (an anachronism because that phrase was not a thing in 2008) or clapping before leaning over to Chase going "hey man, can you see them too? You can? Ok, did you happen to see an ox outside?" s4 Zoey is so chronically self absorbed it's hard for me to picture her reaction but I'd like to think it might be something along the lines of "I owe you guys a lobster" and saying they should go on a double date with her and Chase, especially as that would have been a cute callback to the fake double date in Quinn's Date.

I think she was written to be closest to Nicole so they have the biggest "bestie" vibe, and part of my headcanon is that the loss of Dana and especially Nicole is part of why she doesn't act on her feelings for Chase during s3. Just like him she's scared of that rejection and the loss of his friendship, especially because he means so much more to her. I think it's clear Lola and Quinn are closer with each other than they are Zoey, which she would know as well, which would likely increase the importance of Chase as well. That said, I can see it shifting a bit once they've reconnected as adults, where I think she, Lola, and Quinn could grow to be genuinely close, where as I think Nicole and Zoey growing apart was always a bit inevitable.

i'm probably inclined to keep them in s4 though. s3 is better written, but it's second half is pretty bad. i would have improved that by giving Chase and Zoey more couple moments, if not leading to them getting together at the end of s3, or possibly still having Goodbye Zoey but again having Chase in more of s4 and having him and Zoey continue to date via webcam. so if you get rid of James or give him to Lola as a love interest, there's more time to spend on Quinn and Logan's relationship, and the worst parts of s4's writing have hopefully been smoothed down a bit.

i can see Logan irritably thinking to himself "she's cute" as early as s2 and then being all "ew gross no??" at himself, which results in things like him mocking her in Robot Wars. as mentioned, they have genuine chemistry by the time of Chase's Girlfriend so i'd say something has developed on both sides by then, but neither of them are ready to face it. Quinn is arguably still committed to Mark, though canonically they hadn't even kissed by that point, and Logan was not keen on being in a committed relationship at all either. but they were increasingly close that whole season so i think that's when it was developing for both of them.

i actually do like the kiss scene in Chasing Zoey, both because Zoey initiates it and there's this air of sadness around it that's probably unintentional but kind of effective anyway

i've touched on this a bit in fics, like the jealousy one or the AU where she stayed in England with Chase, where it's her reflecting on how special their relationship and how it's clearly a step above all her other friendships are not really very platonic at all. in an ideal world i would have wanted to see her actually kind of lovesick, hence her having fallen harder. he's there like "well we can wait" and she's like "no we can't?? i'm flying over to you right now" etc. it's why Maui actually should have worked, he's there saying they can ease into it and she's there wanting to spend her entire summer with him and initiating plenty of kisses. but here we are.