I’m sorry Clockwork Orange, I know you asked to stop this thread, but I put some thought into this, and it isn’t exactly on the topic of bragging, so hopefully you and anyone else sick of this thread will be understanding.
Deleted item wrote:And you know why he's so mad at her?Because she embarrassed him in front of those people in that house-she hurt his poor, little,fragile ego
I think Jordan’s mad at Angela for several things:
1.) She is making up excuses A) Rayanne, B) Flu shot, for why she won’t sleep with him – it is lame and immature, and she should have at least been honest with him – she never really tells him until he comes by her house what she is thinking or how she is feeling. As audience members we get that Angela is a bit scared and very hesitant to actually have sex, but to be fair to Jordan, she never communicates any of this to him – she puts it off, changes the subject, but never says anything to indicate how she is actually feeling. Jordan (as we know by now) cannot read her mind, and really thinks that she is on the same track as he is. True, he knows that she needs to be persuaded (“just, entering” “This is the whole reason I didn’t want to start this in the first place”), but I really don’t think he considers, or has any reason to from Angela’s interactions with him, that she definitely does not want to have sex.
Also, Jordan reveals in this scene the value he places on honesty. While he never talks about it prior to or after this scene, it does fit with what we know of him as a character: From early in the series we see that Jordan is a mellow guy, who, although not entirely, is more mature- or tries to be – than his peers. Maybe it isn’t even maturity, but just an element of coolness? He would rather lounge than mosh at Tino’s; he is often on the sidelines (Halloween, at Louie's, Pike Street); he is always cool; he comments that Angela act young for her age … I think that honesty falls into this, honesty about one’s sexual desires at the very least. Jordan accepts that sex is a part of adult life: ‘it’s accepted, it’s what you’re supposed to do”, rather than fixating on “the fact of it” as Angela does. She is still fascinated by the idea of sex rather than the reality of it.
Side thought: Perhaps no one has modeled for Jordan what an adult
loving relationship Is like. To him this means sex. Jordan perhaps
does not know another way to be with Angela and consummate his
feelings for her – not that sex always means this for Jordan, but
he’s pretty sure that sex is a part of all female-male relationships,
which he is trying to have with Angela.
2.) Besides honesty/maturity, Jordan is attracted to Angela – watch him watching her at the end of “Strangers in the House” and in his car in “Pressure”. He wants to sleep with her, to be closer to her, and is understandably disappointed/frustrated when this desire is not realized. Especially considering that from his point of view he didn’t get any indication from her that it wouldn’t happen. I think that he is angry that she let it go as far as she did without telling him – they were there in the house, when was she planning on talking to him about it? It is hard for him to understand that she is still trying to figure out what is best for her. Jordan probably never experienced this ambiguity and therefore cannot empathize with her position.
3.) Also, Angela did pretty much ditch him in public, in front of his social peers, including at least on girl he used to sleep with. This is embarrassing for him, especially considering the manner in which she left: awkward, making excuses, bumping into Cynthia, not the cool “I gotta go” exits of Jordan Catalano. Of course Jordan is not happy with her for not sleeping with him, but I get the sense that it is more the style in which she did it that makes him angry – the lying, excuses, awkward (and in his eyes) uncool/immature behavior.
This is not to say that if she had confronted him with her reservations from the beginning that he still wouldn’t have broken things off (I think he would have*) but I think it would have resembled their goodbye at her house rather than the scene in his garage, which was prompted by frustration, embarrassment, and possibly a slight sense of betrayal.
*I do not think that given that Angela had explained to Jordan her reservations rather than avoiding the issue and thereby in a sense leading him on, he would have ended their “relationship” as it were. Jordan at this point still has not realized that he needs Angela (“In Dreams”) and has therefore not yet realized that there is more than just sex to a caring relationship (which I argue he discovers through his interlude with Rayanne). In “Pressure” Jordan expects a relationship to deliver sex, and he can afford breaking up with her because he knows she will still be in his life: “see you tomorrow.” Through substituting, for a night, Angela (for whom he has real feelings for), with Rayanne, (for whom he dislikes or is at least ambivalent about), and losing almost all contact with Angela because of it, I would argue that he begins to: A) learn what he really wants, and B) form a better understanding of a relationship. I think that when he reenters a relationship with Angela in “In Dreams”, he does so with the knowledge that there may be no sex involved.