My Life With the Walter Boys Season 3 was one of the most frustrating things I’ve watched in a long time, particularly the ending, which might just mean they did what they set out to accomplish.
And while they could never make me hate them, it was infuriating to watch so many storylines pan out, knowing that everything could’ve been solved with a simple chat.
Heck, even a text message would’ve sufficed, but instead, they just kept digging larger holes and burying themselves under.
SPOILERS – This post contains spoilers from My Life With the Walter Boys Season 3, including the finale, so stop reading if you haven’t watched it.
And then I thought, surely, the series would finally give Cole Walters a break, because he went through it and back this season, but nope, they sure didn’t.
Instead, it ended with another heartwrenching cliffhanger, with yet another life hanging in the balance, a mere 10 episodes after ending last season with the Walters patriarch, George, fighting for his life after a stroke.
How much can Katherine endure? Truly.
Much of the season focused on Cole’s downward spiral, just as he’d begun seeing brighter days, proving that old habits die hard, especially when self-sabotaging is the only way you know how to cope when the world is stacked against you. It didn’t help that everyone used him as a punching bag under the guise of caring about Jackie. They all made him feel less than, and when someone tells you you’re not good enough, you eventually start to believe them.
As a result, he pushed Jackie away, thinking that was the best thing for her, after Richard and Eliot both made him feel that he was the one person who would derail her entire future. No one seemed to think that when she was with Alex, but Cole, who has a history of reckless behavior (after losing his future dreams), wasn’t given the benefit of the doubt. Instead, he was blamed for everything, without any regard for all the progress he’s made to get his life on the right track.
Instead of being honest with Jackie, he felt that he was doing her a favor by walking away and making her hate him by telling her he was bored with their relationship and that he didn’t want to be with her anymore. It was out of character, especially since their romance was so real leading up to it, but it was in line with Cole’s previous behavior of running away when things got too real.
Walking away from something you love, even if it’s for the “right reaosns” doesn’t make it less painful, so Cole coped enaging in risky behavior, taking his drag racing skills to dangerous street racing to feel alive.
The self-destructive behavior was a complete change from the Cole in the beginning of the season, who was coaching, fixing up cars, racing legally, and even got into UT.
While many chalked his behavior up to Cole simply being Cole, some expressed their concerns, noting that it was out-of-character behavior following all the progress he’d made, especially since no one knew exactly why he’d ended things with the love of his life in the first place.
Danny and Mac both tried to get through to him, but it was really the moment when Dylan kicked him out and took away the car he needed to race, expressing that he wouldn’t give him the keys if the races weren’t legitimate, that helped turn things around for Cole.
He was forced to come back home, where he had no choice but to face Jackie, seeing how much damage he’d caused her.
When he realized that the teen annex, a place that Jackie poured her heart and soul into, wasn’t going to open on time due to a burst pipe in the speakeasy, he took matters into his own hands.
Even though Uncle Richard wasn’t his biggest fan (and I’m no fan of Uncle Richard for his meddling ways), Cole still reached out to him for help getting the annex back into fighting shape.
No good deed goes unpunished, and in this case, everyone seemed to know what Cole did for Jackie except for her. Unlike her childhood friend Eliot, who gave her a hefty donation for the annex to look big, Cole’s gesture flew under the radar, proving that he wasn’t doing it for the glory.
And he finally confided the truth to Alex about his mindset going into the breakup, telling his brother that she would be better off without him because he wasn’t good enough for her or the future she deserved.
It was actually poetic that the one person he trusted with the most intimate part of his soul was the brother from whom he stole the girl in the first place. However, no one understood self-doubt more than Alex, who told his brother that he’d either be honest with her or she’d find someone else.
Cole still wasn’t convinced, not until his mom and dad assured him that they were confident that he was a better choice for Jackie than Eliot, emphasizing that they didn’t think he’d ruin her life.
By that point, Jackie was at the annex opening party with Eliot, who was just waiting for his chance to be with her. He kept reminding her of the life she once had, of Princeton and of the Greece trip waiting for her, assuring her that this small town would be in her rearview mirror in a few years.
Alex tried to put in a good word for Cole, telling Jackie that he was responsible for rallying the troops to get the annex opened in time, even paying for all the construction workers and getting all the guys from the car shop to pitch in. The gesture, however, left Jackie even more confused.
First, he breaks her heart, then he goes and does this incredibly selfless thing. And when she texted him to thank him, he didn’t reply.
Of course, all of this could’ve gone down differently. Alex could’ve told Jackie why Cole did it if she hadn’t immediately dismissed him, and Cole could’ve just texted her back to tell her he was coming to the party to explain after his race.
But that would be too easy, right? And it wouldn’t make for good, albeit frustrating, TV.
Instead, Cole decided to skip the qualifier race to rush to the annex to get his girl, telling his mother, “I’ve waited long enough.”
The decision to leave the race meant that Danvers didn’t qualify for the Colorado Grand Prix, resulting in lost money, which really upset him, and instead of letting Cole drive away, he started running him off the road until Cole’s car flipped.
As Cole’s life hung in the balance, Eliot kissed Jackie at the dance.
And the episode ended, leaving fans waiting until season 4, which is officially in production.
What’s even more frustrating about this is that everyone made terrible decisions leading up to the moment. And I get it, they are teens, but why wouldn’t Cole just do the race, win, get the money, secure himself a career and then go get the girl?
At this point, a few extra minutes wouldn’t have made a difference.
It felt contrived simply to create a scene where an accident happens, which felt a little cheap, and it came at the expense of the fans, especially as we know that Cole will be just fine.
And it’s kind of terrible if you think about Jackie once again living through this nightmare, coming close to losing the one person she loves, shortly after losing her entire family in a car accident.
The girl will never trust a vehicle again, and even after she gave him the green light to follow his passion, despite it giving her so much anxiety and stress.
And I can’t help but wonder if everyone will just blame Cole for getting into this situation in the first place and simply assume he was street racing? We know he hasn’t been given the benefit of the doubt this season at all, so they may think he was being reckless while chasing the need for speed. And that would just send me over the edge.
While Cole and Jackie’s relationship was a huge focus of season 3, other storylines also surfaced, particularly Alex’s post-Jackie life.
As Alex went from being a rodeo star to quitting and trying to find his life’s purpose again, he realized he had feelings for his best friend since kindergarten, Kiley, whose also been crushing on him forever.
The unfortunate part? He only realized it a little too late, after she got a boyfriend. Typical. And it’s not like Dylan is unlikeable, which made it worse, though the chemistry between Alex and Kiley only intensified anytime they were around each other until their kiss in the penultimate episode.
Despite getting caught up in the moment—a moment they’ve both wanted for quite some time—Alex couldn’t let himself go down that road because it made him no better than his brother, who stole his girlfriend.
He couldn’t be that guy, but he now found himself in a situation where he understood that guy.
Meanwhile, Kiley didn’t want to cheat on Dylan, but it was clear that she would’ve ended things with him if Alex had been just upfront with her about his feelings.
Instead, Alex tried to save face by calling their kiss a meaningless mistake, which made it all worse, and eventually, Dylan—without knowing about the kiss—asked Alex to give Kiley some space.
Alex agreed, but then showed up at her front door to profess his love for her, only to see that she’d invited Dylan into her house to meet her grandmother—a major step in their relationship.
Honestly, if people were just blunt, honest, and said what they needed to say in the right moments, we’d avoid all of these misunderstandings, but alas, here we are, with Alex feeling like he lost his great love and his best friend, all in one swoop.
- Danny got into Carnegie Mellon; however, he and Erin promised each other that they’d go to college locally after he didn’t get into Juilliard. They also got quietly engaged. Erin informs Danny that he cannot give up on his dream, while he tells her his dream is to be with her. And look, I get it, some people do marry their high school sweethearts, but that doesn’t mean giving up your future. There’s a way that this works in their favor because they are the most solid couple on the series.
- Nathan is going on a European band tour. More people need to be like his ex, Skylar, who immediately called Katherine when Nathan had a mini seizure and told him he wasn’t taking his meds anymore. That communication style seems to be lost on literally everyone else.
What did you think of the season? I doubt Cole will perish in the accident, but he won’t come out unscathed. What does it mean for his relationship with Jackie? Will she find out the truth about what motivated Cole to break up with her? And will he still be college-bound?
Will Alex and Kiley find their way back to each other?