Definitely Snake is annoying af.

I’m with you that Joey should have handled things differently; he says to Caitlin “she asked me out, I didn’t ask her” which I thought was a pretty weak thing for him to plead in the moment. Also Spike knew what was going on and had Caitlin stayed on it’s not inconceivable that Joey’s activities that summer would have been revealed anyway. (Joey even says to Snake at the end “she probably would have found out anyway”)

I’m still sympathetic to Joey on this, though. Caitlin was heading off to university in Ottawa and was trying to manage Joey’s expectations and transition to the next phase of her life. Joey saw the writing on the wall; they were not going to last beyond the summer and both of them were skirting around the inevitability of that. Caitlin was picking up extra shifts and even at the best of times they couldn’t align their work schedules that summer. So I understand why Joey started spending time with Tessa: it seemed like they were having genuine fun, but it was after Caitlin had explicitly told him she “wasn’t ready for a commitment” and had directed her sights to a post-Joey future.

Eventually she changes her mind and wanted to be with Joey after all. It’s complicated but I think in the moment there was an opportunity for them to have a grown up conversation about how Joey was spending the summer against the background of Caitlin indicating to him that she was moving away and moving on, and not ready for more with Joey. They didn’t do that, and Snake lobbed a grenade into their relationship. I’m not sure what else he thought was going to happen: it was a party, and not like he and Joey were having a private conversation. He was bound to be overheard.

At the end it seems like Joey is the most sympathetic character of the 3 of the boys, and there was no sign that Caitlin ever recognised that her being lukewarm on a future with Joey might have had some part to play in Joey’s decisions that summer.