One thing I will say about Spider's character in Netflix's 'Heartbreak High' is that his characterisation felt very, very real.
We are shown that Spider has had a crush on Amerie for a while; the way he looks at her at the festival and the denial attempt he makes when Harper calls him out for it is a very high school boy response. These are both evidence of that. From this, we see that he has feelings for the girl that's been in love with his best friend for years. To her, Spider is her crush's friend and nothing more.
This could make any young boy feel quite inferior, and we see Spider compensate for that insecurity through (very problematic, very misogynistic) humour. It is suggested that Spider is a virgin that compensates for that by lying about having loads of sex (Jay from the Inbetweeners, who?), for example.
When Spencer gets the opportunity to sleep with Amerie, we see he gets performance anxiety. This isn't uncommon. He gets nervous and struggles to get an erection, despite wanting to engage in sex.
Again, we go back to the fact that Spider already has insecurities when it comes to his crush on Amerie. From his perspective, he's messed up the opportunity to win over the girl he's been in love with for years. And, to make it worse, she's laughing at him. Amerie then adds further fuel to that insecurity when she says she doesn't want anyone to know about their connection - inferring she's embarrassed by him.
Because of this, Spider puts up a barrier. He pushes Amerie away in defence and he treats her horrifically to try to protect himself. He over-compensates for his insecurities by bullying Amerie. This is, again, not an uncommon response that men have to rejection/unrequited feelings.
We know he didn't treat Amerie badly before the bedroom incident, we see that he's collected and calming when he meets with her and she's panicking. We see him feel genuine concern about Harper being missing, and comforts her, telling her she can stay with him. We see him pining for her throughout the whole series, even getting jealous of the relationship she has established with Malakai.
(Malakai is another example of Spider's insecurities; in comes a brand new student that is just as good as him at basketball and is flirting with the girl he likes that rejected him).
Because of the rejection, we see that Spider becomes cold, unfeeling and avoident towards Amerie. It's something we see all too much as women. You never know how men are going to respond when you reject them. Spider was such a good representation of one response men may have.
Spider White is one of the most authentic portrayals of a teenage boy pretending not to be hurt by a girl rejecting them. If he does end up with Amerie (this is Netflix, the app that paired Eric with his literal school bully before giving Adam a redemption arc, so I wouldn't put it passed them), I really hope that he has a lot of redemption. And I mean a lot. Because, while she wasn't the best to him in some regards, she did not deserve the sh*t that he put her through.
Mr. "I'm a feminist" needs a reality check before he deserves our Amerie. And so many people on this app need to realise that his behaviour was not okay. I don't care how hurt you are, you don't get to slut-shame and bully the person that rejected you.
Anyway, there's potential for his character and he would be a really good example of this behaviour being held to account. I don't care about Dusty and his redemption arc, I want a Spider redemption because he would be such a perfect example of what healthy redemption looks like (if done right).
