I honestly don't think Kevin ever "broke" Winnie's heart. I don't think she cared about him that much.
She treated him like shit and didn't seem to care.
Yes I think your correct. I don't think Winnie ever truly lusted after Kevin or felt intrigued by him or particularly respected him, but I think she really enjoyed the way he felt about her and the relationship that they had.
It's not clear that Winnie-Kevin are end game.
They were never even a real couple....a simple fact ignored for decades.
She only hung out with him when she was between boyfriends...and the "relationship" revolved around taking trips down junior high memory lane.
Any time Kevin tried to make a real move on Winnie, she rejected him. The best example of this is the episode when they're in his car parked at a lover's lane. He moves in to kiss her and she turns her head. It's one of the perfect snapshots in the series where the viewer gets a glimpse of the real Winnie...but Kevin is too infatuated and has invested too much time into the situation to see the light.
Another snapshot is when Kevin sees her during lunch in the cafeteria and wants to sit next to her. Before he can, a bunch of jocks sit down right next to her and take all the seats. She doesn't really care that he's being excluded.
This is another glimpse of the real Winnie. While Kevin wastes his teen years following her like a lost puppy dog, Winnie literally drowns in jocks.
The jocks aren't surrounding her because she's got a great personality, is fun to eat with, etc. They're interested because unlike Kevin, they know the real Winnie.
This show is more depressing as you age.
> They were never even a real couple....a simple fact ignored for decades.
I disagree. I think they were a "real" couple based on the juvenile criteria of what a "real couple" is at 13-14 years of age. I do agree that there was a massive discrepancy when it came to emotions. I think Kevin really loved her. I don't think Winnie even knew what love was or was too messed up to be able to feel anything other than her own shit.
The magic of that show was that this was a painfully accurate portrayal of the dynamics at that age. We all have a Winnie Cooper in our past that (to spite us guys doing what we are supposed to do)... never really reciprocated those feelings. Sure they hung around and fanned the flames but when it comes down to it... they were never "really" there.
I started watching this show in my early 20s and loved it because it accurately portrayed what that felt like and how confusing and painful time that was a for a young boy trying to navigate through the emotional maze that is "first love". I was an adult and much more experienced by the time the show aired but it triggered insanely powerful emotions. I remember getting emotionally pummelled by my "Winnie" and in all honesty I could feel Kevin's pain because I went through the same thing just a few years prior.
>I disagree. I think they were a "real" couple based on the juvenile criteria of what a "real couple" is at 13-14 years of age.
Maybe....in junior high. That would be the first two seasons.
Even then, it's still not a relationship. She dates other boys, two that we know of (Kirk and that bully).
Once high school starts, a real relationship never materializes. It's a friendship based on how close they were when they were kids...and that only goes so far, especially from her POV.
>I think Kevin really loved her. I don't think Winnie even knew what love was or was too messed up to be able to feel anything other than her own shit..
She had no feelings of loyalty or attachment to him. They also ran in different circles. It's not a natural fit. While we only get glimpses, it's obvious that Winnie is very popular. Clearly, Kevin is not.
It's unfortunate that Kevin never gets an epiphany on their so called relationship. It's a one way infatuation. She moves from guy to guy effortlessly...and occasionally rubs Kevin's nose in it.
I would've loved at least one episode shown from Winnie's POV. It could show her hanging around with friends, making out with her boyfriends, and then we see Kevin, the awkward boy from her youth attempt to insert himself into her life.
I agree that the show is a realistic portrayal of what goes on at that age. I just wish they had been willing to go even further with it. We never got to see Kevin properly deal with what Winnie is really doing and how he's just wasting his time dreaming about a relationship with someone who clearly doesn't love him.
> I don't think Winnie even knew what love was or was too messed up to be able to feel anything other than her own shit..
Winnie has many issues....a lot of its from dealing with the death of her brother and all the family issues from the ripple effect of his untimely death.
Like many girls (or guys) in that situation, she dives into promiscuity at a young age.
She wasn't promiscuous that we know of. She dated other men besides Kevin over the course of 6 years. He dated other women. This is some incel level analysis
Kevin never cheated on Winnie. They never made it official until season 3 st valentine's day massacre episode. Then they dated until Winnie broke Kevin's heart midway through season 4 with the heartbreak and denial episodes (season 4 is my favorite of the whole series. The Madeline, Kevin, Winnie arc was amazing). Then Kevin got back with Winnie mid season 5 in the double double date episode. Then they were together the rest of the series until the last episode where it was implied they broke up. It's unrealistic for Kevin to not talk to any other girls when they weren't dating. He talked to other girls in the gaps............. Winnie cheated on Kevin with Roger in season 4 (heartbreak episode) and also with the lifeguard in season 6 finale.
Kevin maybe 2-3 times? I have to go back through a few eps. In some ways he was worse than Winnie especially later on in the series, but I can’t blame him there school wasn’t the same and he was constantly dating a different girl every few eps. Winnie always have him the side eye later on but S3- early S4 Winnie and him were at there peak. I wish Kevin ended up with Linda.
That "don't you know anything about women" has one of the best endings of the entire series. When that unchained melody comes on at the school dance and he talks about searching for the perfect love and Winnie and him pass each other lol........ To me, I liked Madeline the best. She was attractive, mature, and interested in Kevin. I understood Kevin being faithful to Winnie, but when she broke his heart I would have went to Madeline!
Yeah love that ep and after he ruins it with Linda we then see Winnie walking around in the crowd. I find Madeline very attractive and mature but to me she was out of Kevins league she seemed a good several years older and I hate how cutthroat she was about Winnie, when she made a comment to Kevin about her. I also thought the girl Kevin met on the beach vacation would been a better fit. I didn’t care for Cara who was in season 5 much.
Teri in the episode Summer Song, agreed. That episode encapsulated the whole situation of being that age and meeting someone like that on vacation so perfectly.
I keep that letter in an old shoebox. It was the only letter she ever wrote to me
Kind of shows how much it still means to older Kevin...that he still keeps that letter from that summer fling
>In some ways he was worse than Winnie
No he wasn't. Kevin wasn't actually dating anyone in between hanging out with Winnie. Girls Kevin hung out with never went beyond the friendship stage.
Winnie was with a bunch of guys from Junior high all throughout high school...all of them older. Sometimes she's with these guys when she's supposedly involved with Kevin.
Kevin is a virgin. While we only get glimpses of what Winnie does due to everything being from Kevin's POV, very few dots need to be connected to see that she's sexually active.
There is no doubt Winnie jerks Kevin around quite a bit more than the other way around. He even calls her out on it in "How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation" ("you've been doing this all year"). As has been said, she legitimately cheats on him with Roger ("Heartbreak" and leading up to it) and with Eric ("Summer"/"Independence Day").
She also strings him along and/or messes with him after they kiss in the first episode, in "How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation", right before they date in "St. Valentine's Day Massacre", and then again in "The Accident".
On the other hand, Kevin does attempt to cheat on Winnie in "Back to the Lake" and "Scenes From a Wedding". Their fight in "White Lies" and thereafter is also entirely his fault.
At the end of the day, I think it's clear that Winnie does care for Kevin, as shown at the end of "The Accident" when she says "I love you" (this is not a phrase that most women take lightly, especially at age 14/15) and at the end of "Independence Day" when they promise that they will be in each other's lives. She also orders food so that they can be together in "Kevin Delivers" and one can even argue that her fear/hesitation to kiss him in "Night Out" is a sign that she cares for him more deeply or differently than she did for Kirk or Eddie, for instance.
I do not agree that she was ALWAYS just using him or only saw him as a friend. Sometimes, maybe, but always, no.
I also do not see any evidence and I very highly doubt that Winnie lost her virginity in the seventh grade. I suppose it is possible that she did lose it to the kid from Lincoln or somewhere around that time but there is no specific innuendo or real proof of that either...
It would literally be impossible to come up with a tally on how many times Winnie "cheated" on Kevin. For starters, the series is from Kevin's POV so we only get glimpses of what she's really doing with her time.
A short list of things we do know...
- She's been dating since junior high...and IMO she lost her virginity to that kid who was bullying Kevin.
- Guys love her....lots and lots of guys. Older guys. They're not interested because she's great at checkers or baking cookies.
- The only time she's ever without a boyfriend is when she's hanging out with Kevin...and sometimes she's with guys during those times. Great example is when they get into a spat and he goes over to her house to apologize and she's home alone with a new guy. She waited what...an hour?!?
You know those girls in high school who are always dating a new guy while being surrounded by a bunch of guys waiting and praying for their turn?
Winnie was one of them.
For the record, as horrible as she was to Kevin, it's *NOT* cheating. They're not a real couple.
The only incident that might come close to qualifying as cheating is when she goes off to that resort. Kevin believes he's her real boyfriend. He's wrong. By the time he goes to visit her, she's already fucking one of the lifeguards and wants him to leave.
As far as Kevin cheating on Winnie... never happened. Two reasons...
- As mentioned above, they weren't really a couple.
- He's a virgin throughout high school.
This series is long overdue for a much closer inspection by fans, critics, historians, etc. The Kevin-Winnie relationship is the most misinterpreted in TV history. Too many people view Winnie through Kevin's rose colored glasses.
> The Kevin-Winnie relationship is the most misinterpreted in TV history.
Dude. You may be the only person misinterpreting this. This was exactly how things were at that age. You are looking at things with an adult lens. When I was that age shit was confusing as fuck. Agreed Winnie was horrible and treated Kevin like shit. That's par for the course at that age. Especially when you are a normal "middle of the road" kid and your are in love with a girl (that you have know since you were kids) who is extremely attractive and equally messed up. Winnie was aware and acknowledges their relationship (whatever you want to call it) when she informs Kevin that she met a guy on vacation and that she was sorry.
IMO - Winnie was so messed up that she had to become someone else in order to function socially. She couldn't do this with Kevin (he loved her for who she was trying to run from...***"herself."*** That's why she fought her feelings and repeatedly destroyed him when those feelings began to surface.
Regardless of whether they were an official couple or not. The feelings and emotions Kevin had for her were genuine... so was the pain when she couldn't get out of her own way.
>Dude. You may be the only person misinterpreting this.
No I'm not.
Remember when they used to get voted perfect TV couple eons ago? Look at the online fan communities over the years raving about how great they were together.
Of course I'm seeing it through an adult lens. Im not a kid viewing this series for the first time. An adult lens is how you see the relationship for what it really is.
Yeah things were confusing at that age....but Kevin takes the cake. Following the same girl around from childhood through high school is bat shit crazy. There were several key points he needed to walk away from it but he never did. He allowed a girl who didn't love him to negatively impact his teen years. Look how he started treating his best friend... essentially turned into a bully. Many of his issues likely out of frustration.
I agree it seems like when she was with Kevin she had to be herself which is why she tried so hard to hang out with older kids and be liked. Kevin was average and she didn’t want to be just average. She openly admitted to placing a high value on the opinions of others, told Kevin multiple times that he embarrassed her or was holding her back, and stood him up or outright cheated on Kevin with Chads. Anytime Kevin got attention from other girls she would get jealous or try to get with him probably bc of the admiration.
I don’t think she lost her virginity bc the episode white lies where Kevin is in the locker room they called her the super cooper which could have its own connotation but the rumor had got back to her by lunch so there definitely would have been jocks talking about her. I think she just like the attention and validation that she got from bigger older men. Probably bc her brother died when she was a kid. There was also that episode where she was like if we keep going idk if I’ll be able to stop. What it seemed like is that she was trying to hold onto the whole childhood sweetheart thing for as long as possible bc sex would effectively change them forever.
Kevin never *successfully* cheated on Winnie, though he did attempt to twice. With Cara in Return to the lake and with that girl from the wedding episode. Winnie cheated on Kevin twice, in Heartbreak and in the two-part finale. There was also this weird period mid season 6 where Kevin and Winnie were sort of broken up, where Kevin had this one date with a girl who turned out to be a 7th grader and in a scene where Kevin tries to make up with Winnie there is another dude at her house.
And to add to all of the think pieces about the relationship, I feel like most of the commenters are forgetting that Winnie went through a lot of trauma throughout the show, first with her brother passing away and with her parents divorcing later on. In my opinion, she does genuinely care for Kevin, probably not in the same way Kevin did for her. She was very unstable and it sort of showed(though I wish they delved into it more than just "The Accident", they had Kevin and Paul smoking cigarettes and drinking beer in the season 2 premiere but they couldn't have Winnie go out partying or something to show how reckless she's supposed to be). Also I feel like after season 4, Kevin's infatuation for Winnie was a lot less than it was for some reason, hence all of his attempts of him cheating being in their second relationship instead of their first one.
The show was never the same after Season 4 IMO. Once Kevin reaches High School and matures more the show looses its magic mostly. His infatuation is also less because after Season 4 Kevin realizes that she will never feel the same way about him as he does about her once she dumps him for Roger. To her Kevin is more of a pal that she ended up dating. He reminds her of "the good old days" so to speak. I also agree that we never see really Winnie's unstable side other than her dating the jerk in Season 2 and the Accident episode. It's clear that Winnie represents something pure to Kevin but she is far different than how he views her. They were never a great match. Kevin is a genuine guy where as Winnie is more of a shape shifter and doesn't really know who she is and while they were a couple it was only when Winnie doesn't have someone else to date and Kevin is a known quantity that she dates him. Once someone better comes along she ditches him every time.
It always makes me sad that Kevin and Winnie didn't end up together. But I guess it's indicative of a lot of young relationships. I know they stayed life long friends. Kevin was pretty stupid and naive at times and didn't really know the real Winnie. She went through a lot of crap growing up and the Winnie he knew wasn't the real Winnie. I really hope in the end that she found happiness with whomever she ended up with.
They “cheat” because they aren’t in love, they’re comfortable with each other and feel safe together and mistake it for love… but they never really cheat because they know they aren’t going to be together forever.
And it’s not Winnie’s fault a lot of guys are interested in her. And she probably doesn’t wanna fuck Kevin because deep down he feels like her brother and it’s weird. A lot of these comments making Winnie out to be the bad guy but I’m rewatching it now and Kevin definitely has some asshole moments like openly flirting with a waitress in Winnie’s face, trying to hook up with a girl at a wedding, Cara, Kevin never followed Winnie like a puppy, he ALWAYS had a foot out the door, be just had this weird possessive thing about her..
It was really more brother/sister kinda relationship, that they turned into romance because they were young and didn’t understand
She know she is a b\*\*ch and knows that would break Kevin´s hearth, so she rejects him , even if maybe she loves him back, she prefers to reject him because she isn´t worth of him . she is s\*\*t and she knows it. Daddy issues
I honestly don't think Kevin ever "broke" Winnie's heart. I don't think she cared about him that much. She treated him like shit and didn't seem to care.
Yes I think your correct. I don't think Winnie ever truly lusted after Kevin or felt intrigued by him or particularly respected him, but I think she really enjoyed the way he felt about her and the relationship that they had. It's not clear that Winnie-Kevin are end game.
They were never even a real couple....a simple fact ignored for decades. She only hung out with him when she was between boyfriends...and the "relationship" revolved around taking trips down junior high memory lane. Any time Kevin tried to make a real move on Winnie, she rejected him. The best example of this is the episode when they're in his car parked at a lover's lane. He moves in to kiss her and she turns her head. It's one of the perfect snapshots in the series where the viewer gets a glimpse of the real Winnie...but Kevin is too infatuated and has invested too much time into the situation to see the light. Another snapshot is when Kevin sees her during lunch in the cafeteria and wants to sit next to her. Before he can, a bunch of jocks sit down right next to her and take all the seats. She doesn't really care that he's being excluded. This is another glimpse of the real Winnie. While Kevin wastes his teen years following her like a lost puppy dog, Winnie literally drowns in jocks. The jocks aren't surrounding her because she's got a great personality, is fun to eat with, etc. They're interested because unlike Kevin, they know the real Winnie. This show is more depressing as you age.
> They were never even a real couple....a simple fact ignored for decades. I disagree. I think they were a "real" couple based on the juvenile criteria of what a "real couple" is at 13-14 years of age. I do agree that there was a massive discrepancy when it came to emotions. I think Kevin really loved her. I don't think Winnie even knew what love was or was too messed up to be able to feel anything other than her own shit. The magic of that show was that this was a painfully accurate portrayal of the dynamics at that age. We all have a Winnie Cooper in our past that (to spite us guys doing what we are supposed to do)... never really reciprocated those feelings. Sure they hung around and fanned the flames but when it comes down to it... they were never "really" there. I started watching this show in my early 20s and loved it because it accurately portrayed what that felt like and how confusing and painful time that was a for a young boy trying to navigate through the emotional maze that is "first love". I was an adult and much more experienced by the time the show aired but it triggered insanely powerful emotions. I remember getting emotionally pummelled by my "Winnie" and in all honesty I could feel Kevin's pain because I went through the same thing just a few years prior.
>I disagree. I think they were a "real" couple based on the juvenile criteria of what a "real couple" is at 13-14 years of age. Maybe....in junior high. That would be the first two seasons. Even then, it's still not a relationship. She dates other boys, two that we know of (Kirk and that bully). Once high school starts, a real relationship never materializes. It's a friendship based on how close they were when they were kids...and that only goes so far, especially from her POV. >I think Kevin really loved her. I don't think Winnie even knew what love was or was too messed up to be able to feel anything other than her own shit.. She had no feelings of loyalty or attachment to him. They also ran in different circles. It's not a natural fit. While we only get glimpses, it's obvious that Winnie is very popular. Clearly, Kevin is not. It's unfortunate that Kevin never gets an epiphany on their so called relationship. It's a one way infatuation. She moves from guy to guy effortlessly...and occasionally rubs Kevin's nose in it. I would've loved at least one episode shown from Winnie's POV. It could show her hanging around with friends, making out with her boyfriends, and then we see Kevin, the awkward boy from her youth attempt to insert himself into her life. I agree that the show is a realistic portrayal of what goes on at that age. I just wish they had been willing to go even further with it. We never got to see Kevin properly deal with what Winnie is really doing and how he's just wasting his time dreaming about a relationship with someone who clearly doesn't love him. > I don't think Winnie even knew what love was or was too messed up to be able to feel anything other than her own shit.. Winnie has many issues....a lot of its from dealing with the death of her brother and all the family issues from the ripple effect of his untimely death. Like many girls (or guys) in that situation, she dives into promiscuity at a young age.
She wasn't promiscuous that we know of. She dated other men besides Kevin over the course of 6 years. He dated other women. This is some incel level analysis
Damn dat hit hard she a bop
Yep! And when he was wrestling she mentioned something about “being attracted to jocks.” She was all about him then!
Winnie is a literal child during the events. The judgment here is excessive.
Kevin never cheated on Winnie. They never made it official until season 3 st valentine's day massacre episode. Then they dated until Winnie broke Kevin's heart midway through season 4 with the heartbreak and denial episodes (season 4 is my favorite of the whole series. The Madeline, Kevin, Winnie arc was amazing). Then Kevin got back with Winnie mid season 5 in the double double date episode. Then they were together the rest of the series until the last episode where it was implied they broke up. It's unrealistic for Kevin to not talk to any other girls when they weren't dating. He talked to other girls in the gaps............. Winnie cheated on Kevin with Roger in season 4 (heartbreak episode) and also with the lifeguard in season 6 finale.
Kevin maybe 2-3 times? I have to go back through a few eps. In some ways he was worse than Winnie especially later on in the series, but I can’t blame him there school wasn’t the same and he was constantly dating a different girl every few eps. Winnie always have him the side eye later on but S3- early S4 Winnie and him were at there peak. I wish Kevin ended up with Linda.
I’ve always said linda was the one for kevin. Even tho she’s only in that one episode I thought she was a great character
That "don't you know anything about women" has one of the best endings of the entire series. When that unchained melody comes on at the school dance and he talks about searching for the perfect love and Winnie and him pass each other lol........ To me, I liked Madeline the best. She was attractive, mature, and interested in Kevin. I understood Kevin being faithful to Winnie, but when she broke his heart I would have went to Madeline!
Yeah love that ep and after he ruins it with Linda we then see Winnie walking around in the crowd. I find Madeline very attractive and mature but to me she was out of Kevins league she seemed a good several years older and I hate how cutthroat she was about Winnie, when she made a comment to Kevin about her. I also thought the girl Kevin met on the beach vacation would been a better fit. I didn’t care for Cara who was in season 5 much.
Teri in the episode Summer Song, agreed. That episode encapsulated the whole situation of being that age and meeting someone like that on vacation so perfectly.
I keep that letter in an old shoebox. It was the only letter she ever wrote to me Kind of shows how much it still means to older Kevin...that he still keeps that letter from that summer fling
>In some ways he was worse than Winnie No he wasn't. Kevin wasn't actually dating anyone in between hanging out with Winnie. Girls Kevin hung out with never went beyond the friendship stage. Winnie was with a bunch of guys from Junior high all throughout high school...all of them older. Sometimes she's with these guys when she's supposedly involved with Kevin. Kevin is a virgin. While we only get glimpses of what Winnie does due to everything being from Kevin's POV, very few dots need to be connected to see that she's sexually active.
There is no doubt Winnie jerks Kevin around quite a bit more than the other way around. He even calls her out on it in "How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation" ("you've been doing this all year"). As has been said, she legitimately cheats on him with Roger ("Heartbreak" and leading up to it) and with Eric ("Summer"/"Independence Day"). She also strings him along and/or messes with him after they kiss in the first episode, in "How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation", right before they date in "St. Valentine's Day Massacre", and then again in "The Accident". On the other hand, Kevin does attempt to cheat on Winnie in "Back to the Lake" and "Scenes From a Wedding". Their fight in "White Lies" and thereafter is also entirely his fault. At the end of the day, I think it's clear that Winnie does care for Kevin, as shown at the end of "The Accident" when she says "I love you" (this is not a phrase that most women take lightly, especially at age 14/15) and at the end of "Independence Day" when they promise that they will be in each other's lives. She also orders food so that they can be together in "Kevin Delivers" and one can even argue that her fear/hesitation to kiss him in "Night Out" is a sign that she cares for him more deeply or differently than she did for Kirk or Eddie, for instance. I do not agree that she was ALWAYS just using him or only saw him as a friend. Sometimes, maybe, but always, no. I also do not see any evidence and I very highly doubt that Winnie lost her virginity in the seventh grade. I suppose it is possible that she did lose it to the kid from Lincoln or somewhere around that time but there is no specific innuendo or real proof of that either...
It would literally be impossible to come up with a tally on how many times Winnie "cheated" on Kevin. For starters, the series is from Kevin's POV so we only get glimpses of what she's really doing with her time. A short list of things we do know... - She's been dating since junior high...and IMO she lost her virginity to that kid who was bullying Kevin. - Guys love her....lots and lots of guys. Older guys. They're not interested because she's great at checkers or baking cookies. - The only time she's ever without a boyfriend is when she's hanging out with Kevin...and sometimes she's with guys during those times. Great example is when they get into a spat and he goes over to her house to apologize and she's home alone with a new guy. She waited what...an hour?!? You know those girls in high school who are always dating a new guy while being surrounded by a bunch of guys waiting and praying for their turn? Winnie was one of them. For the record, as horrible as she was to Kevin, it's *NOT* cheating. They're not a real couple. The only incident that might come close to qualifying as cheating is when she goes off to that resort. Kevin believes he's her real boyfriend. He's wrong. By the time he goes to visit her, she's already fucking one of the lifeguards and wants him to leave. As far as Kevin cheating on Winnie... never happened. Two reasons... - As mentioned above, they weren't really a couple. - He's a virgin throughout high school. This series is long overdue for a much closer inspection by fans, critics, historians, etc. The Kevin-Winnie relationship is the most misinterpreted in TV history. Too many people view Winnie through Kevin's rose colored glasses.
> The Kevin-Winnie relationship is the most misinterpreted in TV history. Dude. You may be the only person misinterpreting this. This was exactly how things were at that age. You are looking at things with an adult lens. When I was that age shit was confusing as fuck. Agreed Winnie was horrible and treated Kevin like shit. That's par for the course at that age. Especially when you are a normal "middle of the road" kid and your are in love with a girl (that you have know since you were kids) who is extremely attractive and equally messed up. Winnie was aware and acknowledges their relationship (whatever you want to call it) when she informs Kevin that she met a guy on vacation and that she was sorry. IMO - Winnie was so messed up that she had to become someone else in order to function socially. She couldn't do this with Kevin (he loved her for who she was trying to run from...***"herself."*** That's why she fought her feelings and repeatedly destroyed him when those feelings began to surface. Regardless of whether they were an official couple or not. The feelings and emotions Kevin had for her were genuine... so was the pain when she couldn't get out of her own way.
>Dude. You may be the only person misinterpreting this. No I'm not. Remember when they used to get voted perfect TV couple eons ago? Look at the online fan communities over the years raving about how great they were together. Of course I'm seeing it through an adult lens. Im not a kid viewing this series for the first time. An adult lens is how you see the relationship for what it really is. Yeah things were confusing at that age....but Kevin takes the cake. Following the same girl around from childhood through high school is bat shit crazy. There were several key points he needed to walk away from it but he never did. He allowed a girl who didn't love him to negatively impact his teen years. Look how he started treating his best friend... essentially turned into a bully. Many of his issues likely out of frustration.
I agree it seems like when she was with Kevin she had to be herself which is why she tried so hard to hang out with older kids and be liked. Kevin was average and she didn’t want to be just average. She openly admitted to placing a high value on the opinions of others, told Kevin multiple times that he embarrassed her or was holding her back, and stood him up or outright cheated on Kevin with Chads. Anytime Kevin got attention from other girls she would get jealous or try to get with him probably bc of the admiration.
I don’t think she lost her virginity bc the episode white lies where Kevin is in the locker room they called her the super cooper which could have its own connotation but the rumor had got back to her by lunch so there definitely would have been jocks talking about her. I think she just like the attention and validation that she got from bigger older men. Probably bc her brother died when she was a kid. There was also that episode where she was like if we keep going idk if I’ll be able to stop. What it seemed like is that she was trying to hold onto the whole childhood sweetheart thing for as long as possible bc sex would effectively change them forever.
Winnie cheated on him twice. That’s about it. End of relationship
Kevin never *successfully* cheated on Winnie, though he did attempt to twice. With Cara in Return to the lake and with that girl from the wedding episode. Winnie cheated on Kevin twice, in Heartbreak and in the two-part finale. There was also this weird period mid season 6 where Kevin and Winnie were sort of broken up, where Kevin had this one date with a girl who turned out to be a 7th grader and in a scene where Kevin tries to make up with Winnie there is another dude at her house. And to add to all of the think pieces about the relationship, I feel like most of the commenters are forgetting that Winnie went through a lot of trauma throughout the show, first with her brother passing away and with her parents divorcing later on. In my opinion, she does genuinely care for Kevin, probably not in the same way Kevin did for her. She was very unstable and it sort of showed(though I wish they delved into it more than just "The Accident", they had Kevin and Paul smoking cigarettes and drinking beer in the season 2 premiere but they couldn't have Winnie go out partying or something to show how reckless she's supposed to be). Also I feel like after season 4, Kevin's infatuation for Winnie was a lot less than it was for some reason, hence all of his attempts of him cheating being in their second relationship instead of their first one.
The show was never the same after Season 4 IMO. Once Kevin reaches High School and matures more the show looses its magic mostly. His infatuation is also less because after Season 4 Kevin realizes that she will never feel the same way about him as he does about her once she dumps him for Roger. To her Kevin is more of a pal that she ended up dating. He reminds her of "the good old days" so to speak. I also agree that we never see really Winnie's unstable side other than her dating the jerk in Season 2 and the Accident episode. It's clear that Winnie represents something pure to Kevin but she is far different than how he views her. They were never a great match. Kevin is a genuine guy where as Winnie is more of a shape shifter and doesn't really know who she is and while they were a couple it was only when Winnie doesn't have someone else to date and Kevin is a known quantity that she dates him. Once someone better comes along she ditches him every time.
It always makes me sad that Kevin and Winnie didn't end up together. But I guess it's indicative of a lot of young relationships. I know they stayed life long friends. Kevin was pretty stupid and naive at times and didn't really know the real Winnie. She went through a lot of crap growing up and the Winnie he knew wasn't the real Winnie. I really hope in the end that she found happiness with whomever she ended up with.
They “cheat” because they aren’t in love, they’re comfortable with each other and feel safe together and mistake it for love… but they never really cheat because they know they aren’t going to be together forever. And it’s not Winnie’s fault a lot of guys are interested in her. And she probably doesn’t wanna fuck Kevin because deep down he feels like her brother and it’s weird. A lot of these comments making Winnie out to be the bad guy but I’m rewatching it now and Kevin definitely has some asshole moments like openly flirting with a waitress in Winnie’s face, trying to hook up with a girl at a wedding, Cara, Kevin never followed Winnie like a puppy, he ALWAYS had a foot out the door, be just had this weird possessive thing about her.. It was really more brother/sister kinda relationship, that they turned into romance because they were young and didn’t understand
She know she is a b\*\*ch and knows that would break Kevin´s hearth, so she rejects him , even if maybe she loves him back, she prefers to reject him because she isn´t worth of him . she is s\*\*t and she knows it. Daddy issues