So answering Maverick's question about Allison's photo got me thinking on Jeremy and his role within the game.
I've always equated Stan as the male equivalent to Holly, as they are the similar pairing both starting off as introverted and lacking confidence in themselves, that, originally at least, are set up to have the glow up. And now I'm thinking that Holly and Jeremy are actually a lot more in common than Holly and Stan. So hear me out.
Holly is the female NPC that I think most would say is closest to Lena and still has a healthy relationship with her. Lena always suspects Ivy has some ulterior motive. Louise is always described as emotionally needy. So even though Lena has been friends with both girls longer, she will always admit there are certain barriers that prevent her from getting closer with them.
On Ian's side, the Ivy / Louise parallels are Perry / Wade. Perry is self explanatory. Wade, however, needs Ian to keep an eye on Cindy for him. He is incapable, until the beach house, of self assessing where he is at in life and what steps he needs to be taking to get back on the right path. Even then, he only comes to the correct conclussion if Ian has done all the work on his behalf; if Ian doesn't do the work, or actively sabotage's the relationship, Wade puts increasingly more blame on Cindy. So that leaves Jeremy. The guy always has Ian's back and doesn't really come with bagage that Ian needs to fix for him. Jeremy encourages Ian to go out with Allison and get with Jessica, tries, and fails, to protect Ian from Gillian, lets Ian know if Lena is unfaithful to protect him from the same betrayel he felt with Gillian, defends Ian from Milo's attack.
We know that Jeremy was / still is, in the Scooby Gang, but fit in much better with them during highschool as he has also been described at that time as a nerdy quiet kid. So Jeremy had some of his glow-up, off screen before we as the audience meet him, the kind that Holly will undergo during the game. But he still lacks a natural confidence, the kind that Ian and Lena can help instill in him as the game progresses. Very similar to Holly's confidence boost she gets from hanging out with Lena and Ian.
Additionally, Lena is largely the one that can push Holly to be bolder, more confident, and more sexually liberated. Ian, does something similar with Jeremy. Jeremy won't pursue Allison or Emma without Ian's encouragement, and Jeremy scoring with Ivy is heavily factored by Ian's talk with Ivy. While Jeremy starts the game with a bit of hair trigger, we do see he starts to last longer and can get ready to go again faster as the game progesses, if he's gaining experience with Allison, Louise, and Lena (Emma yet to be decided.)
Also, and this is only semi-related to the prior TED Talk; I really enjoy that Jeremy can build his own little harem in the background. Like we know that him and Allison continue to see each other throughout the game. Unless Lena says something to Louise, she sticks with Jeremy, possibly even getting used to the idea of sharing him. Lena can fall for him. It's implied that he and Emma have hooked up a couple of times based on Lena's discussion with Emma at the mall. And with the right encouragement Ivy will also sleep with him.
