Queercoding & Troy Otto's Death
I wasn’t going to post about this, but tbh Madison killing him after all the Troy x Nick gay subtext / outright implications really left a bad taste in my mouth.
We can all agree Troy was racist and psychotic (sins of the father IMO). And we all know FTWD has done the POC cast members dirty.
I just want to talk about Troy Otto and Trick / Troik and the queercoded messages being sent.
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– Madison killing Troy, to me, is reading like a homophobic mother doing whatever it takes to keep her kid from The Gay. “But wait!” folks cry. “Strand is her BFF and he’s gay! She can’t be homophobic!” But many parents are okay with people being gay, so long as it’s not their own children.
Madison already knew what Troy was capable of - am I REALLY supposed to believe she didn’t deduce that Troy led the walkers to camp? That she didn’t already know just what kind of person she’d been manipulating all along? Troy repeatedly demonstrated the horrible things he was capable of doing.
The ONLY thing that changed was Troy and Nick’s relationship, which she didn’t expect – and this is whether you agree Troy/Nick was intentionally queercoded or not. His death came AFTER Nick already demonstrated in the prior episode that he’d rather be with Troy than her. She took the first opportunity/reason that presented itself to kill Troy.
“He was more threat then friend,” she says. To Nick???? Nick taught TROY fear for fucks sake – AND Troy warned Nick about the horde. He was not a threat to Nick, unless we’re talking about a homophobic mother trying to keep her kid away from the gay. “You took everything from me,” she says to Troy. And it’s been repeatedly reinforced that Nick is essentially Madison’s world.
She killed Troy to keep him away from Nick.
Given the parallels drawn between Nick and Troy by characters IN the show, it makes this a literal representation of Madison killing Nick’s homosexuality – she was fine with EVERYTHING else Troy had done up to the point where he got too close to her son.
Troy’s admission to Madison regarding his relationship with Nick also reads like someone who knows they’re dealing with a homophobic parent or testing the waters. Nick’s his “only friend– like a brother.” He quickly tacks on “like a brother”, as though to reassure Madison of his intentions or in case she’s not okay with his admission of his feelings.
It’s a far cry from the proclamation of love that Troy made in the car when alone with Nick.
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– Nick’s history of addiction, his strained relationship with his mother, his damn near panic attack in Troy’s arms at the thought of having to go back with Madison can ALL read as someone who’s been unable to come to terms with their sexuality or faced repression during adolescence or in their home life. If he had a mother who clearly wouldn’t accept her children being gay, it would explain A LOT.
Being unaccepting doesn’t mean Madison was outright cruel. It can be even more painful to have someone in your life that’s subversive or manipulating (as Madison has shown herself to be) and always claiming they just want what’s best for you.
This would also explain Nick’s confusion over his feelings toward Troy, and why Alicia had to outright say, “You like him.” This scene could also be read as Nick subconsciously testing the waters with a family member. He knew how he felt already - he just needed someone else to say it out loud without rejection afterwards.
In the car, Troy claims that Nick stayed behind because he’s in love with Troy, which Nick doesn’t deny. And that they’re both the same though Nick wishes he wasn’t (another queercoded allusion to being ashamed of his sexuality or repressing it).
Troy was also the person who Nick repeatedly fought for, lied for, and put himself in serious harms way for. If Troy were female, these would all be items to check off on a list for a character’s love interest.
He even hallucinates that Troy rescues him and reaches out to take Troy’s hand – not Alicia, not his ex-girlfriend, and certainly not Madison. Compare it to Ofelia hallucinating her father in the desert – it was the person she cared about most.
And after Troy’s death, Nick wanted to die. To make a point, according to some articles I’ve read. It doesn’t make sense until you consider the queercoding that had been going on with his character and Troy’s. His mother, who he wanted to escape in the last episode, just killed Troy in front of him, the boy that it’s already been established he had feelings for and who returned them.
It’s the end of the world and he still isn’t free.
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– Troy’s person was so largely shaped by his father’s influence. There are references made to him being a “crybaby” (replace it with sissy) and his father’s abuse… his father wanting to make a man out of him, excusing Troy’s progressively more violent behavior – all indications are that Jeremiah, who’s an established racist and abuser, would accept a monster rather than accept a gay son. And so his son becomes a monster.
I don’t believe that Troy and the horde is just about him wanting to destroy the land for racist ideology or a psychotic episode. When he and Nick are in the house during the shoot out, he says “it’s beautiful” (hannigram reference much). He repeats this line while warning Nick and staring at him through the panel in the door, and when he, Nick, and Jake are standing before the horde. In the house shoot-out, it seemed more like Troy was fighting as a fuck you to the his abuser who dared to die a hero’s/martyr’s death rather than fighting a race war. After Nick confesses that he actually killed Jeremiah, the fight goes out of him. When he brings the horde down on the ranch, it’s more plausible that he’s destroying his father’s legacy rather than doing it for race reasons.
Troy again demonstrates this tactic of defaulting to his father’s racist programming when his final confrontation occurs with Madison. He doesn’t seem emotionally invested when he starts spewing racism – it’s again, like a default script. He gets emotional when he tries to explain that she should understand, she would do the same thing (and we know Madison is also a child of abuse).
My point with the above is to support my stance that Troy shows signs of changing once Nick and he develop a relationship and once Jeremiah, Troy’s enabler and abuser, is dead.
He warns Nick about the horde, knowing Nick would warn other people. He attempts to stop the horde with Nick. He takes Nick and tries to warn/save everyone at the dam. He’s speaking SPANISH to Lola after a few days spent with Nick.
He tries to make right with Madison when they are alone, but she seems repulsed by him – given everything she’d seen him do already, what made her suddenly recoil when he got too close physically? She supposedly didn’t know about his involvement with the horde… he came to the dam to SAVE her and her friends…
But, this scene was after Nick and Troy stayed behind together at the bazaar, after the MULTIPLE scenes centered around the two of them and their developing relationship.
And within the show, parallels between Madison and Jeremiah were plenty. Just like him, she could accept a monster but apparently drew the line at homosexuality.
