#michael runion

03/2009

In preparation for The Bad List (and as a teaser for our eventual The Tragic Love Life of Ryan Ross: Part 6), we’ve decided to revisit one of the strangest episodes from Ryan and Z’s former relationship.

Basically, Ryan and Z aren’t actually married, but there was a brief time in 2009 when they pretended to be.

In summer of 2009, Ryan Ross had become everyone’s favorite target for harassment and scapegoating. There was the cocaine picture (below), Keltie still trying to ruin his life, and... oh right, the whole “leaving Panic” thing.

Everything seemed to be going downhill fast...... except for his new relationship.

They started off as friends, then likely became more than that, but of course nothing was official. And Ryan’s life post-Panic was suddenly shrouded in mystery. Many fans didn’t even know Z’s name or anything about her beyond her appearance.

That more or less changed in early August, when Ryan essentially confirmed their relationship and made everything infinitely more confusing in one fell swoop. It began innocuously enough:

But then, well......

This was just as out-of-context as it appears. (All of these Tweets are in chronological order, for what it’s worth.)

Ryan of 2009 definitely had marriage on the brain, so it’s not like this came completely out of the blue. Within the course of seven months, he had proposed to Keltie, nearly eloped with a stranger in Cape Town, and experienced this exciting evening with Z.

It appears that two of their friends, Alex Greenwald and Michael Runion (who were both in JJAMZ and Phases with Z years later) were also tangentially involved throughout the evening.

Sadly, all things must pass. Ryan finally put down his phone and fell asleep at some point, only to have a rude awakening in the morning: the joy and beauty of the previous night was not going to last forever.

Later that evening, Ryan followed up with some more important news.

And then he left things on a strangely poignant note, which echoed throughout the rest of his relationship with Z and even left its traces on their friendship to this day...

As you can imagine, the fandom response to all of this was insane. No one knew quite what to make of Ryan’s frenzied night of Tweets, and the question of whether or not he was legally married became an uncomfortable elephant in the room.

Here’s an original fan response to this drama, posted to YouTube on August 9, 2009:

Whenever I see fans today speculating that Ryan and Z may be married (it’s arguably a more popular rumor now than ever!), I always think of this ridiculous event. And now, maybe you will too. ;)