Continuing from Part 1: 

While Peter's grievances about his relationship with Jason sound more trivial than Jason's problems which involve getting disowned and potentially worse, it is made abundantly clear how easily and how frequently Jason is able to put on the straight man act- particularly when watching the musical itself. In the song 'You and I', Jason flirts with other students onstage and doesn't show a hint of discomfort at all- which is necessary to his act but considering how often he must act the straight man, but you can see why Peter is concerned he's not as important to Jason as Jason is to him. In the same song, Peter continually tries to sincerely bond with Jason and bring him out of his shell of internalised homophobia but Jason always prioritises his straight man act over Peter. He flirts with Peter only when they are alone and are implied to have sex, but Jason seems perfectly fine to Peter interacting with women in the same way and then Jason tells him afterwards that it isn't real. Peter wants their relationship to be a substantial, real thing whereas Jason is too scared to admit to himself or Peter that their relationship really is so important to him, so he tries to console Peter with poetic lines ('Take a look in these big blue eyes and you'll understand' comes to mind) as he prioritises his popularity. This leads to Peter feeling as if he's pouring his soul into a relationship with someone who doesn't feel as strongly as him; which isn't true, but Jason is too caught up in his internalised homophobia to sincerely admit it to Peter.

There also seems to be a dynamic relating to gender roles in their relationship; this is similar to Falsettos, except it is not a central theme and neither is it as defined as the one in Falsettos. Here, Jason is notably the more stereotypically masculine partner while Peter is the more stereotypically feminine partner. Jason plays sports, flirts with girls, does not talk genuinely about his emotions very much and seems to be more aggressive than Peter. Meanwhile, Peter is usually the one being teased by Jason and relating his emotions sincerely to Jason- which is more associated with femininity. Similarly to Whizzer in Falsettos, Peter gets fed up of this dynamic that takes root in internalised homophobia and toxic masculinuty, which adds to all the reasons he and Jason end up breaking up at the end of Act 1 (does this count as a spoiler? this is just how musicals work in Act 1). However, in this version, Jason is a lot more sympathetic than Marvin is, as he is a child who has not only grown up to believe certain things but also has little agency over being openly gay because his dad is abusive- whereas Marvin himself was the abusive parent in Falsettos.

SPOILERS IN ITALICS:
Right, so the ending. The ending was-- so sad. So very sad. Spoiler alert! Jason dies after overdosing on drugs. Quite a bit to unpack here. By the middle of Act 2, Jason has privately accepted he is gay but doesn't know where to turn with this knowledge but God. So! Mr. Priest Man (the priest who took Confession in the Catholic Church...I know nothing about Christianity, let alone Catholicism, please have mercy) told him to repress himself and be absolved in the eyes of the Lord. And Peter rejects him when he asks to run away because Peter can't bring himself to run away from being gay anymore- he's done with feeling guilty about who he is, and that's his character arc since telling his mother and his conversation with Sister Chantelle. And then the song Bare, oh my gods- the USE of dramatic irony is absolutely gut-wrenching because Peter thinks they're getting back together and Jason is finally comfortable openly being with Peter but NO, this is Jason saying his goodbyes before dying because that's the only way he can see himself getting free. It's like Jason cut short his own arc when it could have concluded in a satisfying way, like Peter's, because of the sheet guilt he was feeling- all a culmination of what he did to try and straighten himself. All of his misdeeds were because he couldn't accept his identity and justified his actions as long as they were in a "straight" direction (relatable), leading to him having sex with Ivy and lying to Peter. Just-- gut-wrenching. When Sister Chantelle was telling Peter God doesn't make any trash, if only Jason had been in the room too and maybe he wouldn't have seen death as his only way out? But this is just wishful thinking in regards to Jason's death, really. The "what if's" with this one are STRONG.

Trigger Warnings: Teen pregnancy, drug abuse, LGBT suicide, fatphobia, abusive parents, BYG (bury your gays), etc.

Yeah so thank you for reading all this, it's an astonishingly good musical despite the clichés and the BYG trope that we never seem to be able to get rid of, even in the best stories. I want to write more about it some other time, and I've already started that, so yeah I hope you liked this. There's not enough BAPO content out there and I decided if I could barely find any, I would make some.