[SPOILERS S3E16] What Jonas means to Phineas

I’m not a huge fan of Jonas reciprocating Phineas’ romantic feelings.

It feels like they EXPLICITLY established in Season 1 how incredibly young Phineas is, and by proxy, how young he must have BEEN when Jonas rescued him from the Delta. I think it’s been obvious the whole time that Phineas has had some romantic feelings for Spahr mixed in with the admiration/role model/father figure vibes, but it feels incredibly gross and inappropriate to me that Spahr would reciprocate those feelings for this kid that he rescued and nurtured into the perfect little Trustee since he was AT LEAST a teenager. I think it would’ve been much better if it was a one-sided thing on Phineas’ part—it makes total sense that he’d have feelings for this man he idolizes in every way possible, but the specific fact that he idolized him for so long(since he was a kid) is what makes the mutual romance so icky to me.

Like it could’ve just been the father/son thing, or a combination of that and Phineas having feelings for him. This outcome doesn’t really sit right with me. I guess they never gave any specific dates on how old Phineas was when he got rescued? But I got the impression from context that he grew up in the Trust for a long time, and even if he was like just barely an adult when he was rescued from the Delta I still think Jonas having feelings for him too is just off.

Other than that, another one of the best episodes in the series. And even the Jonas/Phineas conversation was really good character-wise for both of them, but I was reading the obviously romantic framing as Phineas preparing to deal with HIS crush on Spahr, not like the climax of a romance arc between a superior and his subordinate. Did anyone else feel like this, or was it just me?