pls jade, wax poetic about autistic malcolm
This took 3 business days, I know.
I may have said this before but I remember being so excited about this show on the night it premiered. Not even five minutes in, I had this gut instinct that he’s different and I genuinely felt it wasn’t the show trying to make a quirky protagonist but someone who literally operates on a different wavelength.
From the cicadas, to the structured morning routine (very important), to only wearing suits (99% of the time, tolerates certain fabrics), how trusted touching comes from Gil (99% of the time), his hyper-fixations and extensive knowledge about snakes, ancient weapons, etc, his hand stims (also...the stress ball!), and his eating habits! When he said “most foods make me sick,” that was the exact moment where I went, “Oh, he’s autistic.”
Also, the moment in “Fear Response” when he mimicked Dani and JT’s stance (y’all know the one) was !!! chef’s kiss, top tier mimicking how he’s “supposed” to feel.
And then! The show didn’t expand on that!
There’s a rant about TV writers autistic-coding characters that I’m not going to get into but I do think there’s a good case if the writers ever thought about it. I love this headcanon, wish this could be a real thing bc it’ll add many more layers to this already-complex character!
TLDR; malcolm can be autistic and not for “uwu he’s baby” reasons