I know that this is long over with, and that this has probably already been discussed to no end, but was it just me or was our friend Travis Strong seriously wronged at the end of the first season of Radio Free Roscoe? I was re-watching the tumultuous last three episodes of the first season in which the Trily drama erupted, and upon *seriously over-analyzing* the gang's situation I became suddenly aware of the fact that Travis got majorly jipped in that he was unfairly made to carry the brunt of the consequences of his kiss with one Lily Randall.

First of all, "The Awful Truth" and "All Or Nothing" both succeeded in wrongfully making Travis out to be the "bad guy" in this whole messy situation. Were the writers under the impression that we viewers wouldn't pick up on this and realize that the consequences of Travis and Lily's actions were unequally/unfairly distributed between the two??

I believe it all begins with Lily Randall, who was clearly the initiator of the aforementioned kiss. Now I can understand how someone might think that Travis was in the wrong, because while he didn't initiate the kiss he didn't exactly stop it either...and he knew he was with Audrey, and he knew that Ray had a thing for Lily. But still, it was Lily's bright idea to peck Travis on the cheek in expressing her appreciation of all his help and support of her music endeavors. In her defense, it can be said that she was after all an impulsive teenager who didn't anticipate that she would get swept up in it and end up smooching him on the lips...and he did have that certain unmistakably seductive quality about him....

Regardless, that does not excuse what she does next. Once Robbie opens the can of worms on the air after having wrongfully eavesdropped on a private conversation between Travis and Lily (which I will address later), Lily allows Travis to take the blame for something that technically was her fault. She kissed him, yet he took the blame for it by telling Ray that he kissed her. Meanwhile Lily continues to put Travis on the spot by demanding that he come up with a solution to the mess that she caused....what the hell is this?

Here you have Travis, a new import from Hong Kong who is just trying to get along in this town called Roscoe. And he meets this interesting group of kids whom he forms a kick-ass underground radio station with. But next thing he knows, the girl in the group is kissing him but then apparently everything becomes his fault...when he's never intentionally hurt anyone...If I were in his shoes, I would have said exactly the same thing he did when Lily asked him to say something -- nothing. How could she expect Travis to explain something that she started in the first place? Was Lily unaware that this whole situation was extremely confusing for him also?? He was the one risking three important friendships not to mention a previous relationship. But does Lily care about this? No, probably not..because Lily was too busy trying to decipher her own messed up feelings whilst dodging Audrey's suspicions, to even truthfully care about how it was affecting Travis. And while she did a lot of talking about owning up to it and discussing feelings (that whole "I don't care what you think, I care what you feel" line...yeah right), she did relatively little in terms of actually owning up to anything and basically bailed on him once the going got really tough and Robbie, Ray, and Audrey all got on his case. And what really gets me is that even Travis didn't realize what she was doing and continued to accept all the blame and finger-pointing that was being unfairly directed at him.

So even though it is kind of expected for Lily to pull a stunt like this (since as we learn later in the series, she can be rather self-centered at times, and she ends up messing Travis up yet again), I still have to blame her first for starting the conundrum that Travis is left in at this point.

Secondly, I blame Robbie for aggravating matters. Now the scene in "The Awful Truth" where Robbie is shown eavesdropping on a very private Trily conversation really gets my goose. First of all, Robbie was wrong for having eavesdropped. But more importantly, Robbie was wrong for having brought up Travis and Lily's personal business on the air and he was wrong for dragging Ray into the whole mess. We understand that Robbie is a man of the truth (or so he claims), and that he sometimes has anger management issues (torpedo rematch anyone?), but he still had no right to bring up something that should have been left for Travis and Lily to deal with by themselves. The last thing Travis and Lily needed was an angry Ray in the middle of everything, and that's exactly what Robbie got them by saying what he said during what I like to call the broadcast from hell.

In my opinion, Robbie should have kept his mouth shut. But no, he impulsively opens a big can of worms and causes everyone to storm off angrily, but then expects everyone to want to come back to the station to finish the broadcast???....I'm sorry, but was he kidding?! And for him to enforce in Ray's mind the idea that Travis was purposely trying to "snake" him was also not helpful. Robbie should have either gotten his facts straight with Lily and Travis before jumping to conclusions and telling Ray, or he should have just kept his mouth shut. I realize that he thought that he was doing the right thing in that it was only fair that Ray found out, but..he was wrong and that episode just served as a perfect example of Robbie showing a serious lack of good judgement.

Thirdly, I blame Ray. Now while Ray was depicted as a victim in the situation, the way he reacted to Lily was totally bogus. I'm glad that he gave Robbie a piece of his mind eventually, because let's face it...Robbie deserved to be told off by someone after what he did. But Lily, who was just as responsible (if not more responsible) for the kiss as Travis was, totally got off the hook with Ray...just because he liked her and in his eyes she could do no wrong. Gag me.

Lily has got to be the queen of messing with guys' heads only to turn around and go, "Oh, I'm sorry..did I do that? My bad.." and be on with her evil agenda, but then complain when they've wised up to her little antics and have moved on. Even though she's RFR's token girl next door, Lily is one of the most manipulative girls I've ever seen on television, ranking not too far behind Degrassi's Paige Michalchuk and RFR's very own Kim Carlisle (as sweet as we know Kim to be at heart, she's still a master manipulator)...and believe me..after having spent four years at an all-girls high school, I can identify a truly manipulative girl when I see one (believe it or not, Parker Haynes was pretty strategic in her manipulations too, but that's for another blog entry).

Even if it was subtle at times, Lily still had an evil streak about her that bore it's ugly teeth much more prominently in RFR's second season, but here...even though the writers don't directly point it out, you just know that she's aware that she's getting off pretty easy with Ray and Robbie in this whole situation most likely because: a) she's a girl, b) Ray adores her, c) she's already best friends with Ray and Robbie but knows that they are still leery of Travis since he's new, and d) technically she wasn't supposed to be aware at the time that Ray liked her...

For Travis' sake, none of this is fair. But I digress. Now, even though the final scene between Lily and Audrey is pretty sad for the fate of Lily and her only girlfriend at that time, it was actually somewhat satisfying since Lily had up until that point gotten off pretty easy. While we have Audrey to thank for someone finally holding Lily accountable for what happened, Audrey wasn't perfect herself. In fact, lastly I blame Audrey for the stress that Travis incurred during the final two episodes of the first season. In the final scene at Mickey's between Travis and Audrey, Audrey is well aware that something is on Travis' mind since he is acting strange. However, unlike a proper girlfriend who would actually try to understand what was troubling her boyfriend and then reasonably talk with him about it, Audrey chooses to put him on the spot yet again by giving him one of the most ridiculously executed ultimatums ever...you have 10 seconds to give me a reason to stay with you??? Come on Audrey, get real...Who says that??

Now you may think, "Well, Audrey did try to ask Travis what was going on, but he just pushed her away." I'm sorry, but blatantly confronting him about Lily in the cafeteria and then asking him to pick up some jock's milk carton on top of it, is hardly trying to understand what was going on with him. Audrey definitely scored a zero on the supportive girlfriend scale in that episode. She claimed that Travis was "hard to read", but what she obviously didn't understand is that when you are dating a guy like Travis Strong, you're going to encounter that a lot..especially when the guy is in the midst of an emotional crisis. I believe that Travis just needed time and space to sort his feelings out before he discussed them with Audrey, but she just wasn't patient enough to let him do that. And I don't blame Travis for not wanting to talk to her about it anyway.... because I mean, let's face it -- Audrey was scary.

So at that point, for poor Travis, not only are both Robbie and Ray under the mistaken impression that he was purposely trying to "snake" Ray, but Lily is giving him a hard time over his (understandable) inability to offer a solution to their "transgression of conduct parameters", and Audrey, his own girlfriend, is no more supportive since she is too busy suspecting foul play in their relationship to even listen to what he has to say...and people wonder why he blows up in the cafeteria and nearly punches Waller's lights out....not surprising, folks. Not surprising..

The writers effectively made Travis out to be your typical "troubled" youth, when really the kid was just stressed and confused and no one could quite understand why when it was all so painfully obvious. With Travis being new and constantly at risk for being relocated again, it was even more pertinent for him especially to develop consistent, supportive relationships. But these last three episodes seriously attempted to jeopardize his progress in accomplishing this. Although he eventually triumphed over what was a great test of his character, it is still pathetic when the one guy who needs a supportive social net the most is pretty much given the cold shoulder by everyone except Principal Waller. Now that's just sad...

What is even more pathetic on Robbie, Ray, and Lily's parts, is that although they were all pointing fingers at Travis, it was Travis who ultimately reminded them that the drama they were experiencing was not reminiscent of the spirit of RFR. It was Travis who finally stood up (okay well..sat down to intercept Cougar Radio's broadcast) to convince the trio not to give up on Radio Free Roscoe. This is pretty remarkable on Travis' behalf, seeing as he could have easily just said, "Screw this, I don't need this. I'm going to become a photographer for The Oracle.", like he had originally considered. It took a lot for him to rise above the petty drama and forgive and forget hard feelings for the good of the station.

So while I'm sorry this was such a hellas long post, and still say that the writers were wrong in thinking they could pull this one over on us, it is no longer stuck in my craw...and no, none of this is coming out of a Nathan Carter bias or anything of that sort. This is all purely objectively speaking. Of course. ^_~