My Life With The Walter Boys Season 3's Cliffhanger Ending Ruins One Of The Show's Best Storylines

Warning! This article contains major spoilers for My Life with the Walter Boys season 3.

My Life with the Walter Boys' dramatic season 3 cliffhanger ruins one of its best story choices. Overall, season 3 is a major step forward for the teen romance drama. Some My Life with the Walter Boys characters, like Lee and Isaac, finally receive the attention they deserve as their long-lost mother, Hannah, returns to Silver Falls. Katherine and George deal with the fallout of George's sudden stroke, while the show's best secondary couple, Danny and Erin, make a monumental, if somewhat premature, decision.

Still, despite being an ensemble drama, My Life with the Walter Boys is, for the most part, Jackie, Cole, and Alex's story, as their lives have been intertwined ever since Jackie arrived on the ranch after her family's horrific car accident. The love triangle between the three teenagers has been a driving narrative force in the show for the past two seasons, though season 3 finally puts that dynamic to rest. Jackie chooses Cole, Alex vows to move on — and finally realizes that he might have feelings for his best friend, Kylie — leaving the show free to focus on building a relationship rather than the buildup of one.

Of course, with a full 10 episodes to fill (and a fourth season already confirmed), My Life with the Walter Boys season 3 was bound to introduce some tough obstacles in Jackie and Cole's blissful new romance. These include the return of Jackie's well-meaning but high-maintenance uncle, Richard, Cole's newfound love for drag racing, and the arrival of another third wheel in Jackie and Cole's relationship: Eliot, Jackie's old childhood friend.

My Life With The Walter Boys Sets Up A New Love Triangle In Season 3

In every way, Eliot functions as a reminder of Jackie's world in New York. He comes from an affluent family, goes to an Ivy League school, works as Richard's intern, and he's known Jackie and the rest of her late family since they were kids. Eliot's arrival presents an interesting conundrum for Jackie. How does she feel about her new life in Silver Falls versus her old life in New York? How has living on the ranch changed her plans for the future?

Eliot isn't just a friend, though. He's also set up as a possible new love interest for Jackie, especially now that Alex is out of the picture (for the time being, at least). Eliot and Richard park on the ranch just as Jackie and Cole's physical relationship starts to heat up, a clear narrative signal that Eliot's arrival might interfere with the development of the young couple's dynamic.

Surprisingly and refreshingly, though, for most of the season, Jackie and Eliot remain friends. There are never any obvious signs that Jackie is truly interested in Eliot that way; she's all in on Cole, feeling freer than she ever has before as the two support each other in their individual pursuits. The tension is largely between Eliot and Cole rather than Eliot and Jackie. Eliot, like Richard, believes Cole isn't right for Jackie — this leads to their classic third-act breakup — while Cole is jealous of how much Eliot knows about Jackie's life before she moved to Silver Falls.

Jackie Rejecting Eliot Is An Important Part Of Her Season 3 Character Arc

Despite Jackie's happiness with Cole — at least, in the first half of the season — Eliot does show an unrequited interest in her. He's always quick to remind her of the fun they had together when they were kids. He stares at her with lingering affection. After Cole breaks up with Jackie because Richard and Eliot both ganged up on him, Eliot is quick to make a move, brushing paint off her cheek during the community center build and asking her if she wants him to be her date to the opening party.

Crucially, though, Jackie says no. She tells him gently but in no uncertain terms that she isn't ready for anything or anyone else. She's rightfully angry with Cole, but she also knows that there's something else going on, something that caused him to lash out and be needlessly cruel towards her.

Jackie's rejection of Eliot is an important part of her character arc in season 3. For the first time in years, Jackie is doing what's best for her. She isn't as worried about pleasing everyone around her, especially her uncle. She wants to do things and be around people that bring her joy. Saying no to Eliot is part of that journey.

And yet, despite what Jackie told him and her clear lingering feelings for Cole, Eliot takes the opportunity in the season 3 finale to kiss her at the community center's opening party. It's a sudden kiss, obviously instigated by him, and the season ends before we can really see how Jackie responds. Still, that moment will forever change the relationship between Jackie, Eliot, and Cole.

It's been so refreshing to see a teen romance show move past its first love triangle without immediately jumping into another, despite its obvious setup. That kiss, while not wholly unsurprising, forces Jackie into a new and unnecessarily complicated dynamic. Yes, there's another season left, with more potentially still to come, and Jackie and Cole will have ample time to make up if they're meant to be the story's endgame. This feels like it'll impact their individual character development, however, and not in a good way.

My Life with the Walter Boys' last dramatic love triangle dragged the story down in season 2. Season 3 avoids this trap, but after this major cliffhanger? I'm worried it won't be the same for season 4.

Jackie's & Cole's Relationship Will Never Be The Same After That Cliffhanger

There are three possible outcomes here: Jackie will realize she has feelings for Eliot, she'll take the kiss as a one-off opportunity to make Cole jealous, or she'll push Eliot off of her as soon as My Life with the Walter Boys season 4 begins, but even then, the damage will have already been done. Jackie will never be able to forget where she was or what she was doing once she hears Cole's been involved in a malicious car crash during the party. The guilt will be hard to overcome, especially after everything she's gone through with her family.

Cole, on the other hand — we're going to assume he survives the crash; Jackie's been through enough trauma to last a lifetime — will have to figure out how he feels about Eliot and Jackie's (brief) moment of romance. Will he fight for her as he planned to do before he was run off the road, or will he start to believe even more that Jackie's future lies with Eliot?

The couple will have a lot to work through when they return in the upcoming season of My Life with the Walter Boys. Hopefully, they'll be able to patch things up. It certainly won't be easy, though, especially if Eliot and Richard plan to stick around now that Jackie's and the Walter family's lives have been turned upside down (literally, in this case) yet again.

All episodes of My Life with the Walter Boys season 3 are streaming now, only on Netflix.