they don’t let problems linger, they tackle them head on and sort it out.
yeah like it doesn't escape my notice at all that Mark and Helly had one of the classic Sci Fi Couple Drama Tropes thrown at them in s2- the doppelgänger/possessed-by-a-stranger bed trick. In every other instance of this trope happening I can think of in media I've seen, it leads to this huge fight, like screaming crying yelling, oftentimes breaking up. "HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL IT WASN'T ME???" It's always a major crisis that damages the relationship. Mark and Helly, by contrast, in the space of like a single episode, have the healthiest, most mature response I've ever seen in a couple who experience it.
Helly is deeply hurt when she finds out Helena posed as her for days and Mark couldn't tell, but she is never actually mad at Mark about it. Instead it's all personal angst. She hates Helena and is adamant that they're not the same, but knowing Mark (and Dylan) couldn't tell it wasn't her forces her to really reckon for the first time with the idea that she and Helena are the same. It's all internal conflict. She also places all the blame on Helena for stealing her identity and feels violated by having her identity stolen, and she feels indignant on behalf of her friends for being tricked but is never once angry at them for being tricked.
And Mark spends all of 2x05 being avoidant and cold while refusing to grieve for Irving and processing feeling violated by Helena and having his understanding of and trust in Helly shaken as a result, but Helly won't let him avoid her and confronts him for treating her badly when she hasn't done anything to deserve it. And he listens to her. He knows he's being unfair. And I honestly think Milchick threatening him in the elevator and trying to divide and conquer him and Helly with the fact that he knows Mark slept with Helena is what snaps Mark out of it and also makes him understand that Helly was violated too. Because he immediately comes clean to her about it the next day and apologizes. He refuses to let this be a secret that festers or can be used to separate them.
I love everything about how they deal with this in 2x06. Mark tells Helly first chance they get for privacy, she's blindsided and devastated and needs to process this information alone, and the conclusion that she comes to is that Mark wanted her, and that's all that matters in the end. She's just pissed off she didn't get to experience what Helena stole from her when she was posing as her. And they decide to reclaim the experience of a first time for themselves.
It's just. Ugh. The communication. The devotion. These guys went through a doppelgänger bed trick and the fallout made them closer and even more solid and in love with each other. Like, that's an insanely romantic narrative choice.
And I think it all really comes down to the nature of the severed floor. When literally all you have of your own are the relationships you form with the people around you- when you're a prisoner and have absolutely no control over anything in your life, no control even over your own existence, those relationships become absolutely everything. They are 24/7 your life. You don't get a break from these people. So if you get mad at someone, you find a way to get over it and stick together. because your relationships are your life, and it's all too precarious and out of your control to be taking anyone for granted.
It's not an understanding of existence the outies and the unsevered people appreciate because there's just no way they can fathom it.
