I’ve seen a common trope that assumes Gavin respects Connor more when Connor stands up to him. This… seems off.
Connor stands up to Gavin by intervening when the HK400 is being taken back to his cell. Instead of listening, Gavin doesn’t just dismiss him–he insults him and tries to hurry Chris on and proceed with what they’re doing faster. (’I’m not going to listen to you, I’m going to do what I want to do more’.)
When Connor escalates by stepping in and pushing Chis away, Gavin escalates too and draws a gun on him. (In case no one was watching, this isn’t proportionate.)
At your most clinical, Connor is trying to fucking protect evidence for the case. A more empathetic look will point out that he’s trying to keep Chris from triggering a self-destructive attack that could wind up with the HK400 (a person) killing himself. Pushing Chris away is startling, but Chris isn’t even the one pulling the gun here. It’s Gavin, who says ‘I warned you, motherfucker’, as though saying ‘don’t tell me what to do’ is supposed to be easily understood as ‘If you keep telling me what to do I’m going to kill you for it’.
Connor defying Gavin does not lead to a better relationship. If anything, it’s enough for Gavin to make life exponentially more dangerous for him.
Waiting for Hank… (Aka the Breakroom scene):
This trend of dangerous escalation continues in other scenes. If Connor refuses to get Gavin coffee (a degrading request designed to humiliate), Gavin punches him over the solar plexus.
Connor sinks to the floor with a bright red LED (the solar plexus just happens to be where the thirium pump regulator is, who knew). While he’s down, Gavin keeps threatening him, going so far as to swat the side of his head or tap his LED.
His threats specifically address Connor’s defiance. If Connor intervened in The Interrogation, then he says if Hank (a higher ranking human) hadn’t protected him, Gavin would have shot him. If Connor didn’t intervene, Gavin tells him that when a human tells him to do something (no matter how debasing or humiliating), Connor had better obey. Both times, Gavin finishes by promising further hurt later.
Connor has other options to resist Gavin’s treatment more passively by ignoring him. This doesn’t help: Gavin insists on interacting, and if Connor ignores his coffee demand, he punches him anyway.
Gavin doesn’t reward Connor for defying him. He gets dangerous.
The last point where Connor can defy Gavin is outside the evidence room.
Giving conciliatory answers still get threats to burn Connor alive, but if Connor answers him and then jokes about their (nonexistent) friendship with a little more sarcasm, Gavin acts like Connor just dragged him through the mud and shat on his desk. He grabs his gun while cursing, then mimes shooting him while laughing and showing all his teeth.
(You can literally see to his second molar.)
Another act of (more passive) defiance would be ignoring him, and otherwise not engaging.
Joking at him and ignoring him are both enough for Gavin to follow Connor into the evidence room later and try to kill him on the spot. At this point Connor is finally able to strike back, because Gavin is presenting a direct threat to his mission.
Gavin does not respect Connor for defying him. He takes it as an excuse to torment him, and acts as though he’s completely entitled to do so.
