Y'all. So many people in the tag exercised over August saying right in front of Day's salad that he couldn't think of Day as more than a friend and only kissed him out of pity ... but nobody seems to care about the fact that he was only answering the question MORK JUST ASKED.
What tf is August supposed to say when Mork has pushed the issue right in front of Day? Lie, like that's not going to be obvious? Like Day doesn't deserve the truth?
I don't have time right now for a full-blown defense of August, but I will say that I find it very very interesting that after we've seen and heard Day's version of their story, of what they used to be in the past, of August's demands and Day's accommodations, we get this episode that tells us 1) Day is not surprised when August apparently forgets his birthday because he thinks "that's August," at the very same time that 2) August has not only remembered Day's birthday but enlisted Mork's help in planning a party for him. Almost like the August that Day remembers - the August that we've seen onscreen, through Day's perspective, coloring our perspective - is not precisely the August that we're dealing with in present day. (Almost like Day isn't a perfect narrator, for whatever reasons.)
Frankly, if I was August, I probably would still have not forgiven the guy who was my doubles partner in high-level sports competition for dropping off the face of the earth with zero notice - literally in the middle of a match - in order to apparently fuck off to the US and swan around for an indeterminate period of time - per what's coming from his family - thereby fucking up my career out of nowhere and not to mention without even the courtesy of any explanation of what's going on. You think you were let down by waiting five hours for me to show up for dinner? Try waiting a year to unexpectedly stumble across you on campus one day because you can't even be fucked to text me to let me know what's going on. Day wasn't the only one who got pushed into an "arranged marriage" on their doubles partnership - that goes both ways, and August was the spouse who was left abandoned in that framework, and he's had an entire year of that, so imo he deserves some credit for being able to turn on a dime and try to build/rebuild a relationship with Day so quickly. I submit he would have had every right to still be angry, and that forgiving Day so quickly could be seen as an outgrowth of pity, as if Day can't really be held responsible for his own choices and actions.
I also think August deserves credit for the fact that his attempt at forming a romantic/sexual relationship with Day doesn't seem to come from any kind of malice, but from wanting to make Day happy. August wants to make Day happy. Is this not a primary characteristic people look for in relationships, wanting their partners to be happy? If August had discovered that, yes, he did like kissing Day, then his gamble - just like any first kiss is a kind of gamble - might have paid off for both of them. (Not for Mork, of course, so it was never actually going to go that way, because we all know who's endgame.) August is navigating unfamiliar territory, just like Day's family has been navigating unfamiliar territory, and yeah, it's awful that Day then has to sit there and hear how August is pitying him, but that doesn't make August villainous, just misguided, because this is an Aof joint, and characters are both complex and imperfect, and that means they can fuck up with the best of intentions, just like real people do. I've seen some comparison of August to Gee, and how well she's adapted to Day's new reality, but first of all the relationships are different - Day doesn't have a crush on Gee, for a start - and second of all people are different. I feel like I'm seeing a lot of the same kind of anger and shaming language directed at August that's been directed at Day's family, compounded by the fact that he was supposedly Mork's romantic rival, and we all love Mork, so fuck that guy. Only he's not, y'all. He has now made clear that he's not going to be a romantic rival.
Anyway, I'm glad that they've taken time to make even August complex and interesting and imperfect and human, I kind of love him a little bit, along with his desperate, misguided, doomed attempt to make things perfect for Day, and I really hope we haven't seen the last of him. I would really love to see August and Day be able to sit down and say "hey, i wanted to make everything nice for you to show I care" and "hey, i'm sorry i dropped off the face of the earth, but now that I'm back I don't need a pity fuck, I'm a big boy and can get over my crush," and then maybe be friends.
