It's interesting to me. There's a lot of discourse about Joe, and all of YOU is devoted to showing how much he gets away with as an attractive white man.
People rarely see the worst in him until it's too late. Fans still love him and root for him or try their damndest to make sense out of him. They want to fix him. They hold out hope that he'll be better. Even those of us who are self-aware can be guilty of this. It's very much true.
Penn Badgley nailed it when he said the show is often about how far we're willing to go to forgive an evil handsome white guy.
They acknowledged this "white Male privilege," "white male fragility," and all with most of the men.
This obviously applies to Joe. We also see it with Hendy. He specifically targeted young girls mostly of color from certain backgrounds because he KNEW his word was stronger than theirs.
And to everyone else, he was this great guy who they lionized. They loved him. And those who knew the truth covered it up.
But the audience responded to Hendy as they should.
What's interesting to me is Forty is also not exempt from this, and to a lesser degree. He's not evil, by no means, but I'm seeing the similar phenomenon of how far we go to sympathize, excuse, and forgive a hot white dude.
In Forty's case, he self-medicates, suffers from addiction, is mentally ill, and had a rough childhood. All of which are often cited to explain or dismiss some of his problematic behavior.
It's a courtesy given to him (not unlike what some extend to potentially mentally ill Joe with a traumatic childhood) that others wouldn't get.
Forty casually toys with the "little people" regularly from how he treated people at Aniviran to most people he encountered from a lower class, to a married couple on their wedding day where he essentially ruined their marriage and threw money at them for his own entertainment.
He's emotionally manipulative and cunning. He has a repeat history of being destructive in other people's lives.
He's also perfectly aware that Love dealt with a rough childhood, too. He didn't meet his father's expectations, but Love was tasked with taking care of Forty despite them being the same age, by both their parents.
And he for his part took advantage of that.
He was shielded from ever taking responsibility for anything. He's never held accountable, not really, not for his entire life and the entire season.
It's literally what Love counted on as a teen. Forty could get away anything. Which means it has always been that way, and he has always behaved that way because he could.
Forty inserted himself in all of his sister's relationships and made it virtually impossible for her to have any form of life outside of him.
He was an equal partner in their toxic and codependent relationship. He dangled his sobriety over her and others to get what he wanted.
He hid behind being the rich kid and leveraged that privilege whenever he could.
I mean, he's entertaining, no doubt. He's clearly flawed, and people aren't wrong for liking him.
But even thinking about some of the responses to Love who endured the same childhood as Forty from another way, or Candace whose journey isn't that far off from his, who embarks on it first, and who is also treated like she's crazy and dismissed...
Much of the audience skates past some of his problematic behavior, justifies it with his mental illness, childhood, and addiction and raves about him.
And sympathizes with him, arguably more than the likes of Love and Candace despite the overlap.
Despite his many issues and behavior, he's a fan-favorite and ironically beating out almost everyone this season in characters who deserve better.
The precious, soft baby boy you want to wrap up in a blanket and protect at all costs. Right?
