I realize many out there will disagree, but I argue that Jordan, like Brad, “is surprisingly perceptive.” For as many times as Jordan misunderstands Angela, there are many when he does:
“What, you miss him?” Jordan understands from just a look that Angela misses Rickie and needs to be reassured by seeing him.
“I have this philosophy…” in “Life of Brian,” Jordan anticipates what Angela wants from him, and what information she is trying to get from him, and responds with a philosophy that gets him off the hook of making any more definite plans with her.
Jordan and Angela share personal information with each other early in their relationship: Jordan confides in her that he has difficulty reading, and she turns to him when she is feeing depressed and alone in “Strangers in the House.”
Although Jordan at times hurts Angela, he is aware of it and makes a start to fix things: In “Pressure” after he infers that she is, “abnormal?” he is aware of how this hurts her, and does want to take it back. This may not directly prove that he knows her, but is evidence that Jordan is aware of Angela. (YES! I know that we can argue that many times Jordan does not know what Angela needs or feels, but that does not cancel out the times when he does.)
Jordan knows her locker combination, he knows her phone number, he has seen her cry and attempted to comfort her, they have joked together (“Your mother says you like me”), he confides in her (about his band breaking up, his dream to be one of those guys who make snow, like as their job, his learning disability, his academic career, his frustrations), he learns how she feels about sex, he has seen her deal with the pressures of driving/growing up, he has seen her walk out of a class two times, they have kissed, he knows that she surprises him with little things like updates on the condition of his cuticles … He loves her, we can never say how well Jordan knows Angela because so much of their relationship is left out of the story of My So-Called Life. At the point he realizes he loves her, Jordan himself isn’t quite able to say why, but perhaps it is enough to say that he loves her, and however you may rate it, Jordan and Angela do have a relationship, and they do indeed know each other, to a degree. One important thing to remember when discussing this topic is that Jordan does not claim that he has known her all along, but that sometimes he feels like he really knows her – from their misunderstandings and awkward exchanges he has come to know and trust Angela Chase.
“When were they like total strangers?”
I think what Jordan is referring to here is Angela’s recent liberation from her obsession. Just as Jordan has come to know Angela as a person and “a friend, or whatever,” he has also come to know her as a constant in his life, someone who is always there for him to listen to him and wait around for him, until one day… As discussed on another strand, it is reasonable to believe that Jordan has seen Angela talking with Cory more than just the one time we witness it, and he is noticing that he no longer has her undivided attention, but probably it is more that she seems to be trying to make him jealous that is the side of her that seems strange to him. Even after they broke up, they were still seeing ach other everyday, and it was evident that they were both still interested in each other (“I’ll see you tomorrow” ‘”you must have me, as your own, you can’t live another day knowing others could possess me” “it would be different if we were… but now you’re just a friend, or whatever” “you could have sex with me if you really wanted to help” ) and now she is ignoring him in the halls.
“Is she even aware that Jordan cares for her? Because it sure didn't look like it when she was flirting with Corey”
I would say that she is flirting with Cory exactly because she knows he cares for her. You do not try to make someone jealous if they don’t care about you, I doesn’t work that way.
How does Jordan know that Angela knows about the "incident"
I’m not sure that he does. Jordan has his own moral code: he never lies, he approaches Rayanne after they slept together to check in (his actions in this scene indicate that his is somewhat of a ritual for him – an obligation after a hook-up, and he feels bad about sleeping with Rayanne (who he really doesn’t like) rather than Angela. I don’t think he knows that Angela found out when he approaches her with a pen, but rather that he is full of regret and wants to reach out to her in a way to refortify their relationship. It is an act of conscience that motivates the pen conversation.
MarsJunkie wrote:~and after she found out they had sex, she was different. She didn't care what he thought anymore.
~When he tells Rayanne that sometimes he feels like he knows Angela and sometimes he doesn't, it makes me think he might not know that she knows. (IMHO)
Re-screen this episode, your sequence of events is off.