i think about tj’s turning point a lot. the exact moment he decides he wants to try to be a better person. i think maybe it’s a series of moments. in the show based on what we see, i’m inclined to say it happens between buffy’s mom coming home and the game tj wasn’t allowed to play.
tj finally passes the ball to buffy in 2x12, however he wouldn’t have if buffy hadn’t stood up for herself and the team back her up. after that he goes to cyrus’s bar mitzvah in which he seems like he’s trying to be civil with buffy. this is where it becomes interesting. because that means there was an off scream moment where tj made an active decision to be kind to buffy. most likely because this was cyrus’s bar mitzvah, he decided to be on his best behavior.
and yet, when we next see him in 2x17, he still holds some sort of resentment towards her. it’s probably just him projecting his insecurities, but still. he seems upset she figured out his learning disability and he gets buffy in trouble when he really didn’t have to. the moment i find strange is when he talks to buffy and tells her he’s back on the team. he’s not really trying to rub it in, but the way he tells buffy coleman wants to talk to her is interesting to me, like he’s aware what’s about to happen to her and he’s feigning pity. but then, as buffy puts together that tj has been manipulating her, he looks genuinely upset, and ashamed. and honestly, i don’t even think he necessarily regrets manipulating her at this point, i think he regrets letting buffy figure it out because he knows she’s gonna be mad at cyrus. i do think that later, this causes him to reflect on his actions a lot more and realize what he’s been doing.
the next he’s mentioned is that he signs buffy’s time capsule basketball, and then we next see him apologize to time capsule buffy. i wonder if he and cyrus had spoken since buffy left and if that played a part in his apology, because his apology in 2x21 while technically aimed at buffy, was mostly for andi, to show that he understands the impact of his actions and his remorse. because in 2x25 the approach is completely different for real buffy. he uses his actions to back up his words and chooses a completely different way of apologizing. we know cyrus orchestrated tj and buffy’s 1v1, i wouldn’t be suppressed if he also orchestrated tj’s apology to andi.
at the end of the day, tj’s change in character is hugely owed to cyrus, that’s no secret, but it’s very interesting to watch that weird time span where he’s realizing he wants to be different and learning how to achieve it and letting cyrus help him.
janainaart
theartofmadeline
snowghoul
germansingergirl
