Just What I Needed - Blog Posts

Finally googled if anybody discussed the meaning of "Just What I needed"

So here's the link to what people think the song is about. https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/5845/ Basically, if you gender-flip the song, I think it fits Tina's relationship with Jimmy Jr. She has no idea why she likes him and he's not that healthy to be around but he's just "what she needed" anyway. It's a cynical, dark song about a toxic partner that the singer shouldn't be with but they are drawn to the partner anyway in short. So yeah, not the most positive song for Tina the poor girl. Though not sure if that was the intention on the part of the showrunners to signal that Jimmy Jr. is toxic or they just thought it was a good song for spin the bottle?

Honestly, I just want to see the Hormon-iums end credits be analyzed. More specifically how each boy of the 4 reacted to Tina kissing them. I mostly only care about Zeke and J Ju obviously. Jimmy Jr. and Tina are obviously more confident and have no hesitation because they kissed before. However, I just find it cute that before Zeke kissed Tina he tilted his head and raised his eyebrows as if to say "Are you sure you want to do this" or "you ready for this" (at least that's how I interpreted it). The point is, there was some hesitation before the moment. After it happened, Zeke was shocked and his eyes opened faster than Tina's did. Even though the end credits aren't canon, it's still interesting to see all the different ways the kissing was animated and it wasn't just a copy/paste kissing animation.

Hey there! Thank you very much for your patience! And thank you so much for this very interesting request and I agree with your analysis but let's take one step after the other.

As always this is very much just my opinion! My interpretation! My headcanons! (sorry for any mistakes).

First I want to take a look at the kiss with Darryl.

Because I think there is something interesting to take into account. I want to think Tina chose Darryl over Peter in this moment because they kissed before in "Can't buy me math".

I like to think they are still friends. We all know Tina loves kissing but many scenes make me wonder if to her it does not always has to be romantic. She just likes to kiss without the prospect of finding her one true love through it. Maybe it's all practice?

The first kiss is very quick, just a peck and means nothing. Darryl even wipes his lips while Tina is monologing.

And now let us look at the other kisses. I gif-ed them.

Nameless Boy #1: I feel like this boy knows what he is doing. They near each other without any hestiance, both having their eyes open at first. He realises that he is not closes enough, peeks and closes the distance. It's simple and short and there is no romantic intent or passion. Tina doesn't smile and it's just a short soft peck. Her eyebrows rise after the kiss but I guess it's suprise because he closes in rather fast and she is pushed back a bit. Let's get over with it XD

Nameless Boy #2: I wonder if that was his first kiss. He goes in with closed eyes. Makes me also wonder if Tina realised her mistake from before. She has her eyes open until she knows she is close enough and only at the end she closes her eyes. Again the kiss is a very soft short peck. What I really find remarkable is how he his eyes fly open. He looks so suprised. Not sure because it is over already or if it was better or worse than he thought? Also it does not feel romantic. Again it's short and Tina does not smile!

But I headcanon that since Louise coached her Tina is a really good kisser. She also had a lot of practice xD. Either way, if it was his first kiss... good for him :)

Zeke: As you said, there is this questioning look on Zekes face - tilt of his head down wards, raising of his eyebrows - before he moves in. Interesting is, that Tina moves at the exactly same time so the communication of her agreeing must has been somewhere we aren't able to see.

This is after the episode "The Oeder Games" in which Zeke told Tina the second time that he likes her. And this is also after the episode "Stand by Gene" in which Tina considers Zeke as a potential Love interest - even if only for a second.

I'm not sure if it just me but Tina seems to smile a bit more than with the others? I'm not 100% sure though. But what is happening is that this kiss takes a bit longer. Still quick but longer. It's also not one of them moving while the other waits, no the both move at the same time. They reach the middle at the same time and both have their eyes closed. They know where they have to move! And what I really love (like you mentioned!) is after they move away from each other Zeke looks so suprised like "first kiss with Tina!!!" and his eyes actually snap open because (I imagine) he wants to see her reaction. And Tinas reaction is amazing. Because her eyes OPEN SO SLOWLY?! She moves back, her mouth returns to it's normal position - maybe a slight smile - and then her eyes slowly open. Like she thinks that was better than she thought.

This is so different to the other two. It's also soft but different soft... holy shit.

Jimmy Jr.: Last one. Jimmy Jr. is the boy she had kissed most of the times at that point. They had been on-and-off in the last five seasons. Here too, both move in at the same time. They know what they do, they have done this before BUT the last gap is closed by Jimmy Jr. This kiss seems to be like the least soft. We also don't see the after-kiss. Right after this it cuts to black.

What is interesting is that there is also not going on much on Jimmy Jr.s face. His eyes drop at the beginning and I wonder if it's because he has to figure out how much he has to lean down so he can reach Tinas lips. Tinas eyebrows lower while she is leaning in but immediately raise up right before the kiss. She also seems to smile a bit? Compared to that JJs expression is sill very neutral and that is so in-character. He always seems so distant and there is never shown any reason why he likes Tina.

Maybe he likes to kiss Tina? She is probably is very good at it but in this case it's also just a game?

I'm honestly stumped about Jimmy Jr.

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So, I hope you enjoyed that. As an (almost) last thought: I was very confused about you saying "the credits are not canon" and wondered where that came from? And then I realised that sometimes that might be true XD For example when they are just pixels. But stuff like this here I actually consider canon, as well as some of the the scenes when they are back in the restaurant. Maybe not the singing part but Tina kissing all the boys at the party? Yeah that seems like it can work. But in the end I guess it's up to us what we want to add to our (head-)canon.

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Now to the very last thought. I looked up the song "Just what I needed" by The Cars

But the lyrics gave me nothing. So if anyone wants to do a deep dive into analysing the lyrics, be my guest!

I thought I had posted this

Anyway this doodle was made entirely out of impulse and the need to cheer my friend up