evix

Everyone sees the obvious symbolism: gloomy character with dark color palette 🌙 x cheerful character with light color palette ☀️

But it's so much deeper than that.

Drew, throughout season 1 and even in the spinoff, looks happy only around Jake. His softer, brighter side is almost exclusively reserved for him. Like the moon reflecting sunlight, Drew's emotional warmth seems to come from Jake's presence rather than from any inner source.

For freshman Jake, Drew is the light at the end of the tunnel. He's the one person who saves him from being bullied, the person who makes him feel seen when he needs it most. But again, that side of Drew’s is only reserved for Jake. No one else is the sun for Drew so he can’t reflect the light of anyone else.

And unlike the moon, the sun is its own source of light. In a way, Jake’s arc could be thought as abandoning the validation and approval he got from Drew (leaving the moonlight) and instead finding it through his passion within himself (embracing his inner happiness, sunlight).

Jake forms other close relationships. Other goals. His club. His music. And Jake has lost pieces of himself in the relationship with Drew. He can't fully be himself around Drew. He feels guilty, caught between Drew and the club, and time and time again he chooses the club—not because he doesn't care about Drew, but because it's a part of himself he’s learning to not give up.

The moon needs the sun to shine. The sun shines whether or not the moon is there. If anything, it’s almost like the moon is stealing the sunlight.

Drew is his best version around Jake, meanwhile Jake is at his worst around Drew.

What I really like is that Lia wanted Jake back in the friend group and wanted everything to go back to normal, but she still went to Jake and confessed that she was the one who sent the audio. She fully knew he probably wouldn’t forgive her and that she could lose him as a friend, or at least lose whatever friendship they used to have. She even said they didn’t have to stay friends, so she clearly went into the conversation expecting that outcome.

In the end, she was basically choosing honesty even if it meant ending up alone. She’s only really friends with people who are also friends with Zoey, and most of them would probably choose Zoey over her if it came down to it. I like to think Lia is the kind of person you’d hang out with in a group, but not necessarily one-on-one unless it’s superficial. The only person she really has that kind of closeness with is Zoey.

And then Jake forgiving her anyway????? Like UGGHHH. Are they stupid?

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Drew’s first instinct when figuring out how Jake could make friends with a group of people Drew said he’s supposed to hate is to assume Hailey somehow puppeteered Jake into it. The easiest way he can rationalize everything to himself is through the lens of control, and he fears Hailey is taking his control over Jake. Because that’s what Hailey must want, right? Control? There’s no way she could just want a friend.

I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that even though Drew is friends with a bunch of popular people, the people he’s closest with are the ones who started out high school having no friends other than him and each other. Because that meant he got to decide what they thought about everybody and who they interacted with. The other popular guys could ditch him to hang out with each other whenever they wanted, but Jake, Henry, and Liam needed him.

I’ve said it before, but I think the main reason he’s still good friends with Henry and Liam, despite them having the not-normal-ness Drew claims to hate in spades, is because they always listen to him. Even after he blows up at Jake, he has no doubts they will keep following after him, and they do. He is the one who gets to decide he is done with Jake, and therefore, so are Henry and Liam.

…And I think that assumption is going to end up being his biggest mistake. Whether it’s Liam or Henry who leaves next, I think that that decision will end up jump-starting the inevitable collapse of their trio, along with how Drew acts in season two.

i love when people dig into the bad parts of drew

We never really see Drew care about what Zoey likes he always seems distracted or annoyed. He assumes she only cares about his money, and because of that, he never looks beyond that assumption. So when she stops asking him for money he’s completely thrown off. (That scene where Drew brings it up to the jomies during lunch is so interesting to me.) If she doesn’t need his money anymore, then what does she need him for? He genuinely doesn’t seem to have an answer to that, and I think that’s what makes their relationship so hollow.

Zoey isn’t a good person by any means, but I think she knows, deep down, exactly what their relationship hinged on. She understands the role she played in it and probably realizes that, despite everything, they’re the kind of couple who could easily end up back together because they’re two sides of the same coin. They validate something in each other, even if it’s for all the wrong reasons.

In Drew's case Zoey's cheating wasn't only terrible to him, because of the beatreal he felt, but also made him feel like he wasn't masculine enough. (falling as a only provider for Zoey and as an man who is enough of a treat that people don't even try to get his girl) And dose forgiving her can be seen as a little pathetic? Yes, but also that makes Drew has a lot of more power in their relanctionship then he used to. It's only up to him whatever he wants to still be with her and since he knows about the cheating he sure is more strict on her, which leads to my next point.

That would put Zoey in a situation where she has little to no control over what happened and that's something that she's definitely not happy with. In season one she always was the one having a control over pepole and her social status (the way how quickly she added Maria to her friend group, when Lia did something she wasn't approved for, her confidence that teacher will believe in her side of the story after Milly attacked her). Even if she lost control for a moment (Jake blackmaling her, Lia sending the audio) she pretty fast finded a way to gain it back. But now, she wants Drew, his money and status they both share, and because she is on a thin ice with him she has to give him more of this control in order to earn his trust again. So now Drew is extremely jealous and overbearing to more hide his insecurities and Zoey has to give back some of her control, which is not easy fro her.