Looking back at it now... my God! I can't believe all the hype surrounding TJ and Ian's relationship; in reality, half of it was built on nothing. They slept together for the first time right after Ian killed David his very first murder so just imagine the shock he must have felt. Yet, people describe it as "romantic"!
Tj's behavior was toxic and entirely selfish right up until the very end. Even in his final confession, he didn’t prioritize Ian's well being; instead, he demanded that Ian stay by his side, completely disregarding whether Ian actually reciprocated his feelings. It took TJ an entire decade to realize he wanted Ian, yet during that whole time, he treated Ian as personal property simply because he was obsessed with him.
We need to stop confusing toxic obsession with love. In the finale of wet sand, TJ's actions aren't a romantic breakthrough they are an act of emotional pressure. While other characters choose Ian’s freedom, TJ chooses control. He spent years treating Ian like an object he owned, and his final "confession" was just the ultimate extension of that lifetime of possessiveness.
And blaming the circumstances or other characters for what happened between Tj and Ian doesn’t change the fact that both of them were cowards; they couldn’t have one proper conversation without turning it into sex they were still repeating the same pattern. At some point, circumstances stop being an excuse you have to admit that they themselves kept choosing not to confront their problems honestly.
TJ claiming he “understands” Ian while joining a gang to impress him and building a mansion for them to live in together is honestly proof that he understood Ian the least. Even the other characters understood Ian better than he did. Their relationship gets described as this great passionate love story, but if it actually had the kind of passion people claim it did, they wouldn’t have treated each other the way they did. Their feelings also didn’t stay frozen in time. Tj eventually grew to genuinely love the gang and made it a priority, while Ian fell in love with Jo.
In the end, they chose each other because Tj was obsessed with Ian, while Ian came back acting like it was his responsibility to “fix” everything. He literally built a house and opened a restaurant for TJ to work in. It’s basically the story of someone finding a perfectly good partner and then going back to the toxic one because they think they can “fix” him. And Jo? Be serious. Denying that Ian loved Jo is genuinely absurd. Ian knew how to set boundaries with people interested in him, yet he let those barriers down for Jo. He respected Jo’s preferences, opened himself up emotionally, and wept bitterly when they broke up. That wasn’t some meaningless fling
And most importantly? It was Ian who chose to leave Jo. He was fully aware of the value of what he had and what he was walking away from, yet he ended the relationship knowing for certain that he had squandered the opportunity of a lifetime. He didn’t leave because Jo meant nothing to him; rather, he left despite knowing full well how much he meant to him. In my opinion, it is Ian not Jo who will never truly get over that relationship; after all, he was the one who ended it while fully realizing he had thrown away the chance of a lifetime. And now, here he is applying what he learned from Jo to his relationship with Tj a fact that is, in itself, deeply significant.
Let’s be honest the absolute denial surrounding Tj’s actions is exhausting. The man is actively destructive, and Ian is facing the consequences of that behavior. It is absurd to watch a community demand a toxic story and then panic when the characters actually act toxic. And you’re not too young to distinguish between right and wrong actions
Looking back at it now... my God! I can't believe all the hype surrounding TJ and Ian's relationship; in reality, half of it was built on nothing. They slept together for the first time right after Ian killed David his very first murder so just imagine the shock he must have felt. Yet, people describe it as "romantic"!
Tj's behavior was toxic and entirely selfish right up until the very end. Even in his final confession, he didn’t prioritize Ian's well being; instead, he demanded that Ian stay by his side, completely disregarding whether Ian actually reciprocated his feelings. It took TJ an entire decade to realize he wanted Ian, yet during that whole time, he treated Ian as personal property simply because he was obsessed with him.
We need to stop confusing toxic obsession with love. In the finale of wet sand, TJ's actions aren't a romantic breakthrough they are an act of emotional pressure. While other characters choose Ian’s freedom, TJ chooses control. He spent years treating Ian like an object he owned, and his final "confession" was just the ultimate extension of that lifetime of possessiveness.
And blaming the circumstances or other characters for what happened between Tj and Ian doesn’t change the fact that both of them were cowards; they couldn’t have one proper conversation without turning it into sex
they were still repeating the same pattern. At some point, circumstances stop being an excuse you have to admit that they themselves kept choosing not to confront their problems honestly.
TJ claiming he “understands” Ian while joining a gang to impress him and building a mansion for them to live in together is honestly proof that he understood Ian the least. Even the other characters understood Ian better than he did.
Their relationship gets described as this great passionate love story, but if it actually had the kind of passion people claim it did, they wouldn’t have treated each other the way they did.
Their feelings also didn’t stay frozen in time. Tj eventually grew to genuinely love the gang and made it a priority, while Ian fell in love with Jo.
In the end, they chose each other because Tj was obsessed with Ian, while Ian came back acting like it was his responsibility to “fix” everything. He literally built a house and opened a restaurant for TJ to work in. It’s basically the story of someone finding a perfectly good partner and then going back to the toxic one because they think they can “fix” him.
And Jo? Be serious. Denying that Ian loved Jo is genuinely absurd. Ian knew how to set boundaries with people interested in him, yet he let those barriers down for Jo. He respected Jo’s preferences, opened himself up emotionally, and wept bitterly when they broke up. That wasn’t some meaningless fling
And most importantly? It was Ian who chose to leave Jo. He was fully aware of the value of what he had and what he was walking away from, yet he ended the relationship knowing for certain that he had squandered the opportunity of a lifetime. He didn’t leave because Jo meant nothing to him; rather, he left despite knowing full well how much he meant to him. In my opinion, it is Ian not Jo who will never truly get over that relationship; after all, he was the one who ended it while fully realizing he had thrown away the chance of a lifetime. And now, here he is applying what he learned from Jo to his relationship with Tj a fact that is, in itself, deeply significant.
Let’s be honest the absolute denial surrounding Tj’s actions is exhausting. The man is actively destructive, and Ian is facing the consequences of that behavior. It is absurd to watch a community demand a toxic story and then panic when the characters actually act toxic. And you’re not too young to distinguish between right and wrong actions