however long it takes.

If you really think about it, EJ was a superficial Hans (they sang liaod, he wasn't spending enough time with her, she didn't know what EJ stands for and the promposal thing) and Ricky a superficial Kristoff (they sang wdykal, he sang Kristoff Lullaby, he spent time with her and was a decent friend). If you look more into it, EJ was fighting for their future and sacrificed that summer of fun for that, while Ricky was free and spent time with her bc he didn't have anything else to do. And when you think about that, the parallels to the Hans/Anna/Kristoff love triangle feel so cheap. It's funny that Ricky wanted to sing liaod with her when in my eyes he is the Hans of the story.

Now, if you think about the prev seasons (s1 and s2), EJ is Kristoff and Ricky is Hans. Just like Hans, Ricky got her attention the first time she saw him (you can call it crush at first sight).They both bonded over shared home drama (Hans/Anna and Ricky/Gina). Ricky is the first crush gone wrong, who didn't reciprocate the feelings, while the right guy, EJ, was right there all along (with whom she didn't get along at first and didn't consider him a love interest until later; def not love/crush at first sight). EJ, just like Kristoff, brought her back (the plane ticket) just for her to get rejected by Ricky (he chose Nini over her), just like Anna by Hans. Idk, but these parallels feel much deeper and satisfying. The setup for s3 was right there but they tried to twist the story. What they did in s3 felt so cheap. Also, now adding the s4 plot (the hat plot) where Gina basically wrote to Ricky that she loves him (after knowing him for two months) parallels Anna wanting to marry a guy she just met (aka Hans).

If they were trying to do the she fell first he fell harder trope with Rina, they failed miserably.

It’s very clear to me they had to change the whole story in S4 because Olivia left. There was no need to insert fake scenes and pass it off as a “flashback”. Did Tim seriously expect me to watch that forced contrived BS and expected me to say “OH! So that happened! It was Gina all along” 🤡 Hell no.