Now I need to expand on these delicious tags because as always I have opinions...sorry for the word-vomit.
This is 100% a pattern for Dutch, and sometimes I want to slap him for his inability to recognize it.
He makes himself necessary.
Is it for the praise? For his ego, convinced that he must be needed? Or is it his way of proving he cares?
Iām not sure, maybe all three of these.Ā
But if you pay attention, he did it with Molly first. She was the omen from the start. She depends on him completely. In the early chapters, she barely interacts with anyone else. When she does, itās either neutral or outright negative. Molly only has Dutch because Dutch made her believe he was all she needed. And for a while, maybe he was.Ā
What Dutch never considersābecause he never effing doesāis that when you make yourself necessary, people will seek you out when they need help.
And hereās the thing, I donāt think he was justifiable in treating Molly how he did, but I understand how he rationalized it in his mind. He wasnāt flirting with Mary-Beth, he was just being nice, he can be nice to other people after all, that aināt a crime, right? He wasnāt neglecting Molly, he was reclaiming space because she never gave him any. Never let him think.
And just to be clear before anyone comes for meāthese are the justifications he tells himself. Nobody likes to think theyāre the villain.
Molly becomes a problem because heās not as self-sufficient as Dutch thinks she should be. Yet, he never gave her another option. He made sure she had nothing but him to lean on.
He makes himself necessary at every single turn. I always hear people say his speeches are manipulative, and yeah maybe they are, but they work! The gang is united under his speeches, they are encouraged to keep going though the spirits are lowāwe could recognize the manipulative nature of some of his words but this is not the post for it.
But this also works against him the moment people start to believe in him in earnest. When he stops making speeches, when he stops being the figure people can rely on, the man they can trust and believe in in the darkest times People panic. And for Dutch it all becomes overwhelming under the pressure of everyoneās expectations.
He has to juggle the fact that he has no idea what he wants or should do, with the fact people keep asking him about the future. He has to make sacrifices left and right because all heās ever known till now is that you donāt take something without giving something back. Every single victory was followed by a loss, after all. Heās a bit paranoid, I guess.
Itās the reason he put in everyoneās mind this dream of Tahiti, because it was so damn far away that people would stop questioning him on what was next, it brought him time. Because he didnāt know what was next!!! He never did from the start, from after Blackwater, maybe even before that, when he refused to buy land for some unspecified reason.
But this doubt was fine when it was just him and Hosea, or when it was a group of ten people and no more. He has twenty people behind him now. Twenty people with twenty different ideas and worries and opinions, most of which are dependable on him for their survival.
Heās lost his best friend, his dreams are crushed, his escapes limited. Heās been running his whole life, wanted in five states, and heās trapped in a role he built for himself that no longer fits him. A role that served him as long as things were good, but that itās turning on him now.
Itās why in chapter 6 he falls for Micahās words harder than he ever did before.Ā
Because Micah sees him slipping and offers what nobody else does. Heās the one that offers Dutch support. And though we know it wasnāt because of Micahās goodwill, it works! Because Micah is one of the few that do not rely on Dutch at allāthe others are Charles and Sadie. But Charles and Sadie arenāt rats lmao.
