Reese Character Analysis

Reese is Jude’s boyfriend. A trans man, Reese used to live in Arkansas, where everyone knew him as Therese. When he moved to Los Angeles, though, he cut his hair, started going by Reese, and officially transitioned from female to male. In Los Angeles, he found someone to sell him steroids to help him more fully inhabit his male identity. When he tells Jude about his past life as a woman, his transition doesn’t strike her as particularly surprising—she has always felt that it’s “possible to be two different people in one lifetime.” Even though Reese feels very comfortable with Jude, he doesn’t like it when she tries to get him to undress in bed, always preferring to leave his clothes on when they become physically intimate. Similarly, he gets angry when Jude suggests one day that he doesn’t have to wrap his chest when they’re at home together. She says he doesn’t need to make his chest flat for her, to which he angrily says that he doesn’t do it for her—he does it for himself. It’s their first real argument, but they eventually make up, at which point he tells her that he’s saving up for top surgery (a gender-affirming surgery that, in Reese’s case, would make his chest flat). Although Reese doesn’t want to burden her, Jude helps him save money for the surgery, making it clear that their relationship is very supportive. In turn, Reese supports Jude emotionally when she becomes acquaintances with Kennedy and attempts to meet Kennedy’s mother, Stella. He doesn’t try to stop Jude from reaching out to her estranged aunt, but he does express his worry that nothing good will come of the pursuit. After Jude finishes college, she and Reese move to Minneapolis, where Jude attends medical school and Reese finally has top surgery. They grow closer and closer over the years, and Reese can hardly remember when he used to feel uncomfortable taking his shirt off in front of Jude.