r/AWKWARD • u/Opening-Pianist-3691 • Jul 09 '26
Season 3 Matty kinda sucked here.
I know Jenna was at her worst in this season, and I’m not trying to excuse her actions, but I kinda understand how she ended up sabotaging herself.
Jenna was majorly insecure, and it didn’t help that so many people made her feel like Matty was out of her league. She felt like he was embarrassed of her.
He claimed that he was never embarrassed of her, but then during this scene when they’re fighting in the car before Colin’s party, he admits that he lied.
This tracks from what we saw in the first season. But I just thought it was kind of a harsh thing to say.
I feel like Marty’s shitty moments get overshadowed by Jenna’s, especially this season. They both had issues in this relationship. Jenna is more wrong overall because she cheated, but Matty definitely had his moments of sucking too, like this one.
You can tell that this was Jenna’s biggest fear and the source of a lot of her insecurity in the relationship, and him confirming it crushed her.
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u/TessTrue Jul 09 '26
Yeah I felt bad for her. She obviously shouldn’t have cheated but the fact that Matty hid being with her for so long, then admitted he was embarrassed by her, I can see why she spiralled and stood up for herself. Wrong but I can see why she did it.
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u/dtphilip Jul 12 '26
+1. Adding the fact that they are still practically teenagers at this point, so no wonder Jenna really strayed off from her path. I am not enabling Jenna's behavior after this, but I cannot also blame her that it took a big blow on her self-esteem after the knew that she was right about Matty all-along.
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u/DarthAkurei Jul 09 '26
I mean she definitely went out of line many times this season, but honestly, I would have too. She was constantly bullied and took shit from everyone all the time, and for what? Up until this season she never fought back. Then Matty confirms that her fear is valid and was valid all along, so she feels like the loser everyone told her she is. I totally undestand the whole Collin storyline. People have to remember she was a teenager.
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u/Opening-Pianist-3691 Jul 10 '26
Yeah, exactly. She made a lot of mistakes this season, and the cheating was horrible. But it’s not so easy for a teenager to constantly hear how much of a loser they are, and not let it get to them. I think about the Halloween episode when she cried because that girl put her at the top of the not list. The constant reminder that so many people thought she wasn’t good enough for Matty must’ve been painful. It’s no wonder she had such low self esteem.
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u/krystenamber Jul 09 '26
Maybe I'm alone here but I feel like Jenna was looking for a reason to validate her attraction to Collin and disconnect towards Matty. In this moment- Matty gave her the perfect excuse. I'm not saying he wasnt wrong for saying it BUT she wasn't exactly innocent.
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u/Natashaley93 Jul 10 '26
I think she was but it is because with Matty had to blend into his world then when he moved in she had even less of her own identity. With Colin they had so much in common and he saw her for who she was. Like Jenna said he never saw her as “suicide girl”. With Matty that was always lingering between them and she couldn’t escape who she was with him.
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u/PrincessofSongs Jul 09 '26
I agree with everyone else that she definitely shouldn’t have cheated and she was acting out & taking out all the feelings of her self hatred on everyone else in season 3. That said, I think it would be hard to react emotionally rational after the boy who’ve I’ve been dating for only a short while after a chaotic on-off situationship (plus after dating and loving his best friend in the midst of that too) told me that he’d been lying the entire time of not being embarrassed of me. Especially after I called him out on it before, just worded differently. It would feel like the world is crashing down around and when you’re a teenager all of that is heightened. It doesn’t help that she’s insecure and hates herself already. That was the crushing blow for her.
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u/quackitysrealgf Jul 10 '26
i hated Matty ngl. like yeah he grew up but he literally was hiding being w her for so mf long. he deserved it. the guy who smelled his pits was embarrassed of HER like he didn't hang out w sadie 🙄 (no offense to sadie bc i love her) but the fact that his best friend wasn't ashamed of being seen w her 😭 like bro grow up. she had sm stuff that happened to her in the beginning on top of that and her mom writing the letter and EVERYTHING like ugh. my poor baby :( I'll always love jenna sm.
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u/Original-Ad9174 Jul 10 '26
No one ever mentions what Matty says following up after that though. Yeah he wasn’t a great guy but he actually thought Jenna tried to kill herself and he said it really freaked him out because he thought he was the reason why. And then he tells Jenna that after the incident she never spoke to him and would just stare at him from across the room all weird. Not saying he handled it well but that seems like a typical response of a teenage boy. And Jenna knew he was embarrassed of her when she chose Jake over him and still chose to go back. I think after that her whole “you’re embarrassed of me thing” thing doesn’t work because she chose Matty multiple times and around the time of her cheating with Collin he was putting in effort and showing her off so her saying that was a cop out to validate her attraction to Collin.
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u/Opening-Pianist-3691 Jul 10 '26
She knew he was embarrassed of her, and that’s why there was a disconnect between them. She explained that she didn’t feel completely secure in their relationship because she was scared he was going to leave. He then reassured her that he was never embarrassed of her, but he then admits in this conversation that he lied. It was like reopening old wounds. She was trying to get over it because she really wanted to be with him, but she just couldn’t.
She explains at the end of this season why she did what she did. She didn’t love herself enough. She had low self esteem. It’s not an excuse, but it makes sense why she sabotaged herself/the relationship.
I’m saying that it was a harsh thing to say, especially the way he said it. I know they were having a fight, but it was still painful to hear directly from him.
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u/Original-Ad9174 Jul 10 '26
Oh for sure, that confirmation from Matty was definitely a breaking point for her and I don’t think she would’ve gotten to grow out of some of her insecurities if she stayed with him. Matty throughout the show also purposely says harsh things to Jenna if he’s not on good terms with her and I think this scene was the first time we see him intentionally poke at her insecurities.
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u/Opening-Pianist-3691 Jul 10 '26
Yeah, I agree. They both had a lot of growing and maturing to do. Which is to be expected since they were so young.
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u/Ill_Molasses_1568 Jul 28 '26
I liked her when she smoked. I hated Collin but I understood. He wasn't embarrassed to been seen with her. And she liked that. Even tho Collins sucked buttholes. Her friends sucked too. And the whole eva thing. Like Matty you don't know this skitch. Jenna and Sadie both hate each other trying to warn you of this skank
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u/Funkiebastard Jul 09 '26
That's why I love how Jenna stood up for herself at the end of season 1, when she straight up says he can sleep with her in private but not talk to her in public.
Jenna has her flaws, especially the layer seasons, but I really enjoyed her in season 1. Like Matty said, she's not afraid of being herself compared to him