The grieving process in My Stand-In:
I found interesting in this episode how the characters are dealing with the loss of Joe in their life. They all act and react differently. Grieving can be painful and come with powerful emotions and we could see it through different characters.
On one hand, we have Wut. He is still feeling the loss of Joe. His grief comes with guilt. He feels responsible in some way for the way Joe disappeared from his life. He believes everything would have been different if he stopped Joe. It's quite frequent while grieving to feel guilty. I think he is stuck in the “Tyranny of the shoulds” and he is putting to much significance in what he didn't do and what he should have done. It's a kind of torture. It must be even worse because in the span of two years between the loss of Joe and the appearance of New Joe, he also lost one of his children. So, he had to experience twice the hardship in grieving. However, when it comes to Joe, Wut is also feeling angry. Anger is a natural response to grieve, especially towards something we can't control. His anger works hand in hand with his guilt. Ming is the culprit of Joe's disappearance for him and Wut also felt he didn't do enough to protect Joe from Ming.
On the other hand, we have Ming. He reacts totally differently from anyone because in his mind, he refuses to admit Joe is dead. This loss doesn’t feel real and he will not accept it. I don’t know if it’s truly denial or knowing how possessive and obsessive Ming can be, he simply decided Joe couldn’t leave him for real. So that’s why he must be alive somewhere. Joe can’t be dead because he must be with Ming. This is probably why Ming reacts with anger when anyone may suggest Joe is dead. When he had the diner with New Joe he wasn’t really expressing anything until New Joe talked about Joe’s possible death. At this moment, anger could be seen on his face. He chased away New Joe and told him to tell Wut to stop saying this. He also warned him to be careful when talking about Joe. He became really protective of this idea. Anyone mentioning Joe’s death is stripping Ming from the illusion he may come back and Ming is not ready to let it go. It also brings him back to the difficulties of facing the loss of Joe in his life, as it was shown when he met the shaman.
I'm still waiting to see more about Sol's grieving process. We know he went away in Korea after Joe's disappearance, but now that heis back in Thailand we may see more about his coping mechanics.