i need to talk about brian jr rn for a second and that whole arc be it actually fucks with my head sometimes like watching post gang beats boggs and realising after that point technically speaking dennis is a father?? but also i just wanna know in actuality what exactly lead to dennis leaving mandy and brian again like how did that conversation go? how did he explain it to mandy? we know from canon that dennis doesn't exactly thrive in suburbia and it's safe to say he doesn't have the patience to raise a toddler but he was so adamant on trying and then literally one ep later he's back?

i also think like. the order of events fucks with me a little because you've got hero or hate crime, then you've got tends bar and THAT should've been a narrative turning point! like the seed was planted the romantic music the symbolism of the crate going from 'there's never anything' to 'the one thing i wanted most' BUT THEN mere episodes later u get dennis' double life and all that romantic progress is nullified, especially when dennis then comes back to see macs replaced him with a sex doll (which. i could write a whole other post about how this fucks dennis up but i’ll save that for another day), so it makes sense that the next big event is times up where dennis says 'i don't want you touching me' confirming mac's suspicions from tgtb but also it shows that the sex doll basically confirmed in dennis’ mind that mac only wants him for sex (ergo. tgtb's progress is nullified)

BUT THEN. BUT THEN we have mac finds his pride which. do i even need to explain why this is a turning point, like mac finally learns to stop defining his sexuality through other peoples perceptions of him. the episodes core is about him finding where he personally fits in as a gay man. AND THEN!!! TEXTS!!!! banger episode banger subtext, then i won't even go into waiting for big mo because i could actually write a fucking dissertation on that episode in terms of symbolism and metaphor. anyways finally we have s15 which. to me. there's no way the whole brokeback mountain thing isn't intentional COME ON they have them dressed as cowboys singing love songs then have DENNIS HURT HIS BACK ON A MOUNTAIN???? anyways. this has been a train of thought. thanks for reading. i have autism.