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sun-undone · 1 year

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JJ feeling cornered and isolating himself in 1x07 vs in 3x04

welcome back to “how many ways can sof talk about one scene”

so i've talked SO MUCH about JJ stealing the money from Barry in 1x07 already (specifically here) but i just wanna rant about it a little bit more in comparison to the first jiara talk in 3x04.

so in 1x07, he steals the money and John B and the rest of the pogues are immediately trying to get him to rethink it, refusing to get into the twinkie with him and calling him out for his "crazy", impulsive shit. JJ tries his best to explain his reasoning, saying that they deserve some kind of reparations for the trauma of being held at gunpoint by Barry and also appealing directly to Pope by reminding him that he took the fall for him for Topper's boat. to me, this all reads as a desperate attempt to get the pogues to see that all that "crazy" stuff that he does is for them, at least in his mind. he's always trying to help them out and do right by them and perform these extravagant acts of service for them to prove that he's worth their love, but he doesn't know how to explain all of that, so he just goes on the defensive when things start going south in the conversation. and when it's clear to JJ that the pogues just don't get it (partially because how in the fuck is he supposed to explain it without also admitting how worthless and undeserving of love he feels), he walks away.

flash forward to 3x04, when JJ is starting to employ some of those same defense mechanisms from the 1x07 pogue fight in this conversation with Kiara. he has these blinders up again and is trying to protect himself by going on the defensive, ranting in fragments about how he has nothing and that Kie could never care about him and that she doesn't understand what it would take to even begin to help him, all of it building up to him finally calling her a kook, which is one of the few times that he actually goes on the offensive. and this is where we start to see the main difference between 1x07 and 3x04.

in 1x07, JJ felt cornered because of a lack of understanding, so he went on the defensive and ultimately isolated himself. but in 3x04, he felt cornered because of a wealth of understanding, so he resorted to the offensive, and once again ultimately ended up isolating himself.

JJ calling Kie a kook is the last ditch effort to get her to play into his self-sabotage. the defensive didn't work, dancing around the issue of her being from a different world didn't work, so now he's just gotta go for the killing blow and hope that she's the one to walk away so he doesn't have to do it first. he's purposefully trying to hit her where it hurts so that she'll blow up right back at him and realize that he's the piece of shit that he believes himself to be. and i think this reaction absolutely comes from Luke (as does the running away and the overall not believing that he's good enough thing, truly every bad trait of jj's can be traced back to that piece of shit i swear).

Luke is so good at fishing for people's insecurities and pushing until he gets a reaction (ie: 1x05 with JJ and 2x08 with Kie), so we can assume that that's where JJ learned this behavior from. of course, he's doing it in 3x04 more as a way to hurt and isolate himself, but let's not pretend like Kie isn't still very much collateral damage in JJ's own self-sabotage here. and of course, since JJ is actually a good human being unlike his father, we can see that he clearly regrets calling her a kook immediately after saying it. important differences there. when JJ is trying to use a trick from Luke cause his own tricks aren't working well enough, he can't stomach it.

and of course, that's only made worse when Kie still refuses to play along. she's not playing into his self-sabotage and giving him the reaction that he's trying to get out of her because she sees right through it all. she's being so gentle and understanding (while also still standing her ground and not letting him get away with calling her a kook btw what an actual icon), and it's so antithetical to everything he's grown up around.

she doesn't take the bait. not even a little bit. because she knows him. and so he runs. just like he did back in 1x07, but for the exact opposite reasoning.

Kie knows him too well, and i think for JJ, that's potentially even more terrifying than the pogues not understanding him enough back in 1x07. hence, taking a page from Luke's book and resorting to the offensive. not just walking away from Kie like he had walked away from the pogues before, but riding away on his bike. riding out to a pier and basically having a panic attack. everything about it is heightened compared to the 1x07 fight.

because being so vulnerable and so incredibly known by Kie, of all people??? his worst nightmare because it's also his greatest wish.

#i do not know what this is i've gotta be honest #just kinda kept writing #there's something here i just don't know if i explained or organized it well #but the point is i will never stop talking about that scene #that 1x07 scene used to be my absolute favorite to analyze but the 3x04 one has taken its place #so OF COURSE i had to take any opportunity to talk about them together #jiara #jj maybank #kiara carrera #obx #outer banks #obx3

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sun-undone · 2 years

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OBX details that make me feral (12/?)

An unqualified and unsolicited analysis of JJ's defense and coping mechanisms in the first half of 1x07

Okay huge disclaimer (this is how you know it's gonna be good):

I am by no means an expert on this stuff!! I’m just someone with a psych degree who likes to think too much about fictional characters’ psyches when there usually isn’t enough evidence to accurately do so. With that being said, the Pogue fight in 1x07 over JJ stealing 25K from Barry is one of my all time favorite obx scenes because I just think that the way that JJ acts and reacts throughout it is so incredibly interesting. And this is just one potential theory for his actions in this scene (and a bit of the aftermath), but I’m sure that there are an infinite number of possible explanations.

Why JJ takes the money in the first place

Okay so I think it's probably pretty clear that he's acting out here, doing something that he knows is probably a bad idea in the long run and actively ignoring the Pogues' trepidations. And acting out is actually an immature defense mechanism that is characterized by impulsive, often self-destructive acts as a way to (unhealthily) protect oneself against negative emotions that arise from stressful situations.

JJ has definitely just been thrown into a stressful situation when he and the rest of the Pogues are held at gunpoint, and then that stress grows exponentially when he realizes that Barry, someone who he sees as a facilitator of his father’s addictive tendencies, is the culprit.

In a split second, all of the stress that he's already feeling gets inexplicably tied to Luke, which automatically triggers a bunch of other negative emotions and thus, other defense mechanisms, leading JJ to go rogue in the bulldozer kind of way that he does.

With more defense mechanisms dogpiling as JJ starts scouring Barry's trailer, I think displacement could also potentially be in play here. Displacement is another immature defense in which someone reattributes their negative emotions for one person/situation to another person/situation, usually one that is easier to control or less threatening.

In this case, I think that JJ could be so deadset on "justice" for the incident with Barry because he is actually craving justice for the situation with his father.

This makes sense because the connection between Barry and Luke is very salient for him in this moment, and he actually has some semblance of control and power over Barry right now (since he and the Pogues had just beat him up on the road), whereas he feels he has none of that over Luke. So maybe he can't relieve some of the angst he feels over his father, but he can steal Barry's money and enact some sort of "justice".

One more interesting thing I just wanna point out that doesn't really have to do with defense mechanisms is that JJ clearly doesn't take all of the money that he finds in Barry's stash.

This little detail makes me stop and think every single time I rewatch this scene (which is more often than I'd like to admit). Even when he’s acting on impulse and already has some major defensive blinders up, he still maintains some level of moral compass/conscience by only taking 25K. Stuff like that just makes JJ such a complex character and ugh I love him okay moving on

How JJ handles the ensuing Pogue fight

Okay so this one is super super interesting to me, and this is the part where I might be thinking WAY too much and trying to fit JJ's behavior into the boxes that I think he should fit into, based on his history of abuse. I think I've got some pretty compelling evidence, but y'know, grain of salt and all that.

So splitting is yet another immature defense mechanism in which someone can only see themselves or others in terms of personality extremes: either all good or all bad. The person is unable to integrate nuance into their perceptions of the self and others, usually due to being raised in a chronically unpredictable environment.

Seemingly on a dime, the person can switch from seeing themselves/others as untouchable heroes to instead seeing themselves/others as worthless weaklings or hostile objects. When confronted with the potential anxiety of having to reconcile their contradictory views of themselves/others, they unconsciously choose whichever perceptual extreme is more salient in the moment. I think there is evidence of JJ using this defense mechanism throughout the series, but especially in 1x07.

Splitting of the self In terms of JJ’s self-image, I feel like he has two settings: 1) incredibly high confidence, cocky JJ, and 2) incredibly low self-esteem, “good for nothing” JJ.

In the few montages of social situations in which we’ve seen JJ, he seems to have no problem being the center of attention. I can't really get a good screenshot of it (and i still can't gif i'm sorry), but I'm definitely thinking of that very first montage in 1x01 when John B is introducing everyone, and we see JJ literally in the center of a circle, animatedly regaling people with some surf story. But there's also this moment in 1x01 where we can more clearly see JJ right in the middle of another party circle, with everyone's attention on him.

It’s also heavily implied that he’s a player who is highly charismatic and just good with people in general, a skill that he knows he has and often takes advantage of (like lying on the spot in 1x03, 1x05, and earlier in 1x07 in order to help the Pogues out).

He tends to come off as very cocky, especially when coming up with plans, as he often overestimates his own abilities and underestimates those of others. This happens more in season 2, but think of any of the times he comes up with a plan and genuinely believes that it'll work, even when everyone else can realize that it's ridiculous.

But despite this, we’ve also seen JJ express incredibly low opinions about himself, usually related to his status as a Maybank. Once again, I feel like this is more upfront in season 2, but you can definitely see it shining through when he takes the blame for Pope in 1x04 ("You know where I'm from"), or even just through the "nothing to lose" thing in general. He is the one who came up with that motto in the first place, potentially because that idea of having no prospects is already so salient in his mind. And of course, we see where this portion of his self-image comes from in 1x05 when Luke calls him a "worthless piece of shit". (hey btw fuck luke maybank)

This may just be more of a feeling kind of thing, but from everything we’ve seen from him so far, I highly doubt that JJ has a very nuanced perception of himself that healthily reconciles these two extremes. It seems like whenever we get any insight into JJ’s psyche (which admittedly isn’t very often), he’s only ever expressing one or the other. Half the time, he sees himself as this overly capable, vigilante-like figure, and the other half of the time, he sees himself as trash.

Splitting of others Okay now we finally return to the Pogue fight in 1x07. I think we can see this other version of splitting when the Pogues get mad at JJ for stealing the 25K. Most of the time, I think it’s safe to assume that JJ views the Pogues very highly, maybe even too highly. He has an extremely positive perception of them because they’re his found family, and he’s (potentially overly) attached himself to them in lieu of his blood family. When they start showing negative emotions towards him, he (subconsciously) doesn’t know how to reconcile that with the super positive perceptions that he has of them, so he immediately switches to seeing them as hostile and goes on the defensive. JJ is totally unable to have a nuanced discussion about what’s happened because he’s already in defense mode. This then triggers the use of other immature defense mechanisms like rationalization,

denial,

and more acting out (this looks stupid without a gif but you know what i'm talking about okay he shoves John B against the Twinkie),

until he eventually shuts down completely and walks away from the conflict, an avoidant coping mechanism that he assumedly falls back on frequently, judging by how John B later describes it as “a JJ thing”.

Some other dialogue/acting details during the Pogue fight that do in fact make me feral

"Pope, I took the fall for you, man!"

This line is the only moment in this scene where JJ’s deeper emotions of dejection and desperation are seeping through (that little quiver when he says “man"???? oooooooh Rudy Pankow thank you so much for your service), while all of his other lines and actions are clouded by defensive anger. It absolutely breaks my heart because I feel like he’s trying to express that all the “crazy shit” that he does is for the Pogues, but he doesn’t really know how to verbalize it properly or fully, so he just kinda blurts this out as an incomplete rationalization. And when Pope responds by saying that he didn’t even ask JJ to do that for him, I feel like that just makes JJ shut down even more because it’s like Pope is rejecting his act of selfless friendship.

"I just did. Pay it back."

I adore the way that this line is disjointed because it gives the “I just did” part a double meaning. At first, it seems like JJ is saying that he just acted selflessly for Pope without being asked to (“I didn’t even ask you to do that.” “I just did.”), but then he decides to continue on, shifting the meaning of the phrase to instead connect to how he just got the money to pay the restitution (“I just did. Pay it back.”). Because of that tiny pause in the dialogue, you can literally hear and see the last bit of vulnerability fade away from JJ’s speech as he covers it back up with his defensiveness, which subsequently reaches its highest point as he decides to completely distance himself (both emotionally and physically) from the Pogues.

(this drone shot of JJ walking off on his own makes me so emotional because he looks so small. it reminds me of other drone shots that are used to convey a similar type of emotional smallness/loneliness in 1x08 with John B after he's escaped Ward, and then in 1x10 with John B and Sarah when they're stranded in the ocean)

How JJ copes in the aftermath of the Pogue fight

After being rejected by his found family, JJ immediately goes to his blood family in search of love and validation, unconsciously or maybe even consciously knowing that Luke will ignore the immorality of JJ’s actions, which the Pogues were unable to do.

It always breaks my heart how childlike this reaction is. After a fight with your friends, wouldn't you also just naturally want to go to your parents for some comfort? It's like JJ completely ignores the threat of Luke in this moment because this primal craving for love is stronger than the potential danger of the situation. God it's so heartbreaking, but this scene really reminds you that JJ is still such a kid in so many ways. He's been forced to deal with adult situations and stressors, but his emotional level hasn't really caught up in some key domains, which potentially contributes to his frequent use of these immature defenses and coping mechanisms.

And for a bit, he does get the validation and acceptance that he’s searching for, as Luke praises him and offers him a beer, which is a depressing but very in character way for Luke to express his love. But this comfort is also very quickly ripped away from JJ, which ultimately leads him to the hot tub incident (shocker, i have things to say about that scene too, but that’ll be in the next post cause this is already way too long).

If anyone read all of this, let's be besties right now i love you mwah

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#so this took way too long and it's not perfect BUT it's mine #pls let me know if i'm crazy and don't make any sense #god i could really talk about jj maybank for days huh #sof thinks too much about obx #obx #jj maybank #john b routledge #pope heyward #luke maybank #obx s1 #obx season 1 #outer banks

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