The way the music swells. The sound of the dumbbells latching to the rack. Hannah’s choice. The brief smile right before Garrett says, “Don’t blush.” The way his fingers crawl up her back; the way hers thread through his hair and into his shirt. The fact that it intensifies without the lyrics. Hannah and Garrett’s practice kiss in Off Campus goes triple platinum, no matter how you look at it. It’s one of the most heart-pounding first fake kisses of all time because, really, point blank, everything is in the emotions neither of them can name at this moment.
A lot of times, a first kiss is enough to show us if a couple is falling for each other, yet that’s not the case with Hannah and Garrett. Garrett Graham falls first and fast, without question, but this isn’t the moment where it happens. No, it hits him like a tidal wave as he watches her sing karaoke, and after that, he never looks back. For Hannah Wells, I believe it’s in the louder moments at Drunk Shakespeare, and perhaps even, during their first time together, where it becomes clear that the way she trusts him is completely different than the way she trusts other people.
But their first practice kiss is still loaded with wanting, and there are enough layers to break down why it’s not just an average kiss. It’s not meaningless, and there are layers in how it rattles them. Music plays a crucial role in Off Campus, and it’s no exception here. We’re watching a man do his best to hold it together in a moment where he doesn’t realize exactly what’s unfurling inside of him, all while a song about howling plays in the distance. (Incredible. You really can’t make this stuff up.) He’s not falling yet, but he’s tipping, ever so slightly toward that dangerous edge of something more.
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To structure the moment around Garrett making a joke about Hannah’s inability to suppress her blushes, only to have her make the first move and completely unravel him, is brilliant. Louisa Levy and Nick Bragg give us a remarkable teleplay for the episode, while Silver Tree’s directing paints an enthralling portrait of all the quiet ways emotions creep into the lives of these characters. For Hannah and Garrett’s practice kiss, we get that sweet spot of exploring their physical chemistry, while the emotional moments after Dean and Beau’s party will start to cement the trust they’re building in later episodes.
There’s something really fascinating about the fact that Hannah’s the one to initiate this actual kiss by tugging on his shirt, and how everything that follows with Garrett is directly tethered to him reading her cues. He can tease her all he wants with his words, but after his initial first moves with the cheek kiss at Malone’s and the jacket situation with Justin, he lays everything on the table for her.
Garrett doesn’t move at first. He lets her dictate this moment, first with the tug, then with her fingers wrapping around the nape of his neck. Following her touch, he circles his arms around her waist, drawing his fingers higher to gauge whether that’ll make her flinch. (And here’s the thing, Garrett doesn’t know about her past at this moment, yet his deliberate carefulness is essentially an instinctual showcase of who he is at his core.) He recognizes that Hannah isn’t someone who responds to him the same way other women do, and as someone who understands the importance of control, he doesn’t push it. He tries to read her. Constantly. With every expression and every move, he’s making careful calculations that give Hannah the agency she needs to feel completely safe in this whole fake dating thing.
That’s why, when she isn’t opposed to his pull, he adds the “don’t blush” remark, giving her one more chance to push him away before he smiles and goes in on the kiss. The natural chemistry that comes to life once their lips touch and they deepen the kiss with her fingers threading in his hair and his hands climbing up her waist is so well done, it gives us the instant spark to recognize that they’re both into it. Neither of them expected their bodies to react to the other as they are, which makes the concept of it being a practice kiss more compelling.
The magnetism is instant. Unthinkable in those first few moments because both Hannah and Garrett are trying to one-up each other, yet they’re completely taken aback by the kiss. It begs the question of what would’ve happened if Logan hadn’t interrupted them, in the same way that Dean does in the book.
And then there’s the Logan of it all. The visible reaction on Garrett’s face tells us he isn’t happy about the fact that she’s kissing one of his best friends, but he can’t act on it. He can’t counter it. He can’t even think about it because Hannah isn’t his. This is a deal, not their actual relationship.
The way that Belmont Cameli shows us that it’s visibly grating on him is top-tier. Because again, I don’t think Garrett has feelings for Hannah here as much as he’s shocked by how much he enjoyed kissing her. How he would’ve kept going if they weren’t interrupted. It’s completely physical, but the surprise element is where the softness in their intimacy lights up because we can see his words bite him right in the a—.
“Nobody gets jealous of holding hands,” he tells Hannah when talking about Justin. But they do get jealous of watching two people kiss if they want to be on the receiving end of said kiss. And Garrett does. He wants to keep kissing Hannah, and he wants to understand what’s happening to him. To make matters worse, she’s kissing his best friend, which rattles him even more. (Because interestingly, show Logan and book Logan are a bit different, and I don’t think watching her kiss Dean would’ve affected him as much? Perhaps, a bit still, but Logan being the one to tell him who Hannah is… it’s all angstier.)
Garrett Graham is trying so hard to be subtle in this moment, yet his nerves are jumbled. He’s in a completely unexpected state of chaos whirling inside of him, making his and Hannah’s practice kiss that much more agonizing. Delicious. The pull is there, tugging on them both in ways they didn’t expect, and it’s exactly what makes fake dating such a thrilling trope when it’s done as gorgeously as Off Campus.
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