Step Up's Eddy and Sean, Were They a Missed Opportunity for Romance

I know a lot of Step Up movie fans have complained over the years that there were no gay, queer, lesbian, trans, etc. characters or romance in the franchise. Which is true. But I couldn't help wondering if Eddy and Sean Asa from Step Up 4: Revolution and Step Up 5: All In would have been the perfect choice. I always wondered if Eddy was bisexual and in love with his best friend Sean? Although, it was shown that Eddy was attracted to women (he certainly liked The Mob's DJ, Penelope) but it's hard to overlook that he may have been in love with Sean. Because in Step Up 4, Eddy's jealous reaction to Sean liking Emily Anderson and wanting her to join The Mob was way too intense.

(Sean Asa and Eddy   Step Up 4: Revolution)

It makes you wonder does he act like this every time Sean likes or dates someone? Or was this a different situation because he could tell there was something stronger growing between Sean and Emily? Perhaps he didn't know how to process what he was feeling aside from jealousy. There was no doubt that Eddy was jealous and his reaction truly made absolutely no sense because this is supposed to be his best friend shouldn't he be happy for him. It felt like I was watching a one-sided love triangle unfold. Eddy's jealousy really stood out and I wonder if the movie were released now, perhaps the writing would have been allowed to show Eddy realizing his reaction was extreme and that his feelings were more than platonic towards his best friend.

Eddy's jealousy turned to anger when he found out Emily's father was not only the wealthy real estate developer who was going to gentrify their neighborhood but also the same guy who had fired Eddy from his job at the hotel earlier in the movie. He was so mad, he wasn't thinking straight (no pun intended) that he seemed to have forgotten that Emily was working with them to try to stop her father. Just because she didn't tell them (which she wanted to but Sean thought it wasn't a good idea), she wasn't trying to mislead them because their cause was her cause.

(Emily Anderson, Sean, Jason and Eddy    Step Up 4: Revolution)

Eddy was so angry and finding out that Sean knew who Emily's father was and didn't tell him or the rest of the dance crew must have felt like the ultimate betrayal. Eddy's reaction was to have The Mob crash Emily's father's party where Sean was also working as a waiter. All of this resulted in a long list of problems:

1) The Mob getting in trouble including Sean and Eddy getting arrested.
2) The Mob being disqualified from the contest they were in.
3) The Mob's newfound good reputation they got from going up against Mr. Anderson's real estate development was ruined.
4) Emily mad at Sean and not wanting to see him again. She thought he had something to do with The Mob not only crashing the party but revealing that she was taking part in the protests against her father.
5) Sean mad at Eddy for ruining everything with The Mob's disqualification to Emily not wanting anything to do with him.

All of this was because Eddy was jealous of Emily and Sean's feelings for her. This is not a normal reaction to your best friend dating someone. Throughout the movie I feel like it was implied that Eddy was in love with Sean, well at least that's how I interpreted it. Because as Eddy stated in the movie, it's always been "them against the world". I guess Sean falling in love with Emily really threw Eddy's world out of sync. It's hard not to notice his constant hurt feelings and jealousy that were on full display. I would love to have seen the script for Revolution because either Misha Gabriel played Eddy as if he was in love with Sean or it was purposely written into the script. And what really sold it for me that Eddy was in love with Sean was what his friend Ricky, the older guy that owns the bar/club the dance crew frequented, said to Eddy. You're young. You haven't met that special someone yet. So you don't know. But one day you will. And when you do, I hope you won't lose that special someone the way your friend did.

(Step Up 4: Revolution)

It was after these words that Eddy apologized to Sean, I guess he didn't want to lose his special someone. After the apology was accepted, Sean had an idea to help them possibly save their neighborhood. Once The Mob's big final dance was over, Eddy encouraged Sean to go to Emily and even had Penelope play music for Sean and Emily to dance to. All of this was Eddy taking Ricky's words to heart because to me I believe Eddy had found his special someone (Sean) and even if his love was not reciprocated. He was willing to do anything for Sean which included breaking his own heart helping his best friend make up with Emily. While Sean and Emily were dancing the movie's final dance, you could see Eddy in the crowd watching with a small and subdued smile on his face. Of course he was happy for Sean because he was the one who encouraged him to go to Emily but that doesn't mean he wasn't heartbroken as well. What I like is that he gave Emily a hug after the dance (he had given her a hug earlier in the movie but this one seemed genuine) which was very big of him especially since he had been a jerk throughout most of the movie.

That should have been the end of the story with Emily and Sean living happily ever after. And Eddy accepting and embracing his sexuality and feelings for Sean while being happy for his best friend and his relationship with Emily. However, Sean and Emily broke up somewhere between the fourth and fifth movie. And that brought a dynamic change to Eddy and Sean's friendship, because to me the one-sided romance from the fourth movie didn't seem so one-sided this time. It may have been understated but there were a lot of feelings and emotions being expressed by these two.  

(Step Up 5: All In)

In the fifth movie All In, Eddy and Sean and their dance crew The Mob were in Los Angeles trying to pursue a professional dance career. However, after continuous rejection and being humiliated at a night club by The Grim Knights dance crew, Eddy and The Mob decided to go back to Miami while Sean decided to stay. I mention all of this because The Vortex dance competition would have Sean's new dance crew LMNTRIX going up against his old dance crew The Mob. And whenever the two dance crews would compete or interact, there was a lot animosity and hurt feelings between Eddy and Sean. Eddy may have caused a lot of the friendship problems along with being angry and standoffish in the fourth movie but Sean was the cause of them in the fifth movie as well as also being angry and standoffish.

They were both surprised and mad to see each other at the competition. I know that Eddy said that The Mob was through with L.A. but not with Sean and anyone who wasn't being stubborn would have realized that before starting up a new dance crew. Sean should have contacted The Mob to see if they were interested in entering the competition but it would be easy to lay all the blame on him. However, obviously neither Eddy, Jason or anyone else in The Mob contacted Sean to see if he wanted to join them in entering the competition as well. So in this instance, the blame is on both sides about the competition but everything else I'd blame on Sean for being a jerk to everyone.

I always found it interesting that there were so many scenes of showing how hurt Eddy was and how angry Sean was towards each other. These two are childhood best friends, they should have easily fixed this, yet here they were again in the same situation as before. They were back to being mad at each other, leaving them to have to overcome their differences and angst yet again. I feel like the story should have ended with them declaring their love after processing everything because these two were perfect for each other.

After recently rewatching all the Step Up movies, the fifth movie All In was the only one where the main love story didn't feel like the right one. The romance should have been between Sean and Eddy instead of Sean and Andie West. It's not like the fifth movie didn't already have a wonderfully written straight relationship with Robert "Moose" Alexander III and Camille Gage along with Violet and Chad (which is a topic for another post) and even the Santiago twins and Vladd the Robot each found romance with women from different dance crews. So there were plenty of straight romances which is why Eddy and Sean's friends to enemies (to lovers) saga would have had a more emotional impact than Sean and Andie's budding romance. It would have perfectly tied into what Ricky said about not losing that special someone and I think for Eddy and Sean they were each other's special someone. Plus I wish Andie's ex-boyfriend Chase Collins from Step Up 2: The Streets appeared at the end of the competition to congratulate her crew winning, that would have been a wonderful surprise for fans of the franchise. And maybe the movie could have shown Andie and Chase on their way to possibly getting back together.

As for Eddy and Sean, I thought in both the fourth and fifth movies, they fit so many romance tropes: love triangle, unrequited love, betrayal, adversaries/rivals, second chances, friends to enemies back to friends (twice) and if the writing would have allowed it lovers. And it didn't help that Sean gave an almost teary-eyed apology to Eddy nearing the end of the movie. As much as I like Sean and Andie together in the fifth movie (they did have good chemistry), their romance pales in comparison to the potential romance of Sean and Eddy. These two were a love story waiting to happen.

(Step Up 5: All In)