Max and David Parallels in the Newest Episode
Y’all, okay, hear me out:
Max, by pretending to be so overtly happy and very obviously lying to make Gwen feel better, is a direct parallel to David.
@ 3:24 - “If I help Gwen get her shit together, maybe my shit will get itself together, and I’ll stop feeling so bad!” This is David’s character in a nutshell. He’s confused and angry and sad quite a lot, but he thinks he can make himself better by making others feel better. He literally wants people to feel better all of the time, and he’ll be damned if he stops trying (see S1 finale, but also his speech in The Forest and other moments when we get him alone. He never cracks around more than one person, less his facade breaks.)
@ 3:58 - “Heyyyy, Gwen. I just wanted to say I’m sorry for treating you so poorly. It was disrespectful and wrong..” Even here it sounds like Michael (Max’s VA) is doing his David impression. Everything comes across superficially cheery, just like Miles when he’s voicing David. Very intentional choice, by the looks of it.
He follows this with “Feel better now?” as if he expects he’s fixed everything. Of course he hasn’t, but from what Max has seen of David (who it seems like he’s emulating at this point,) he thinks it should.
It all sort of continues on like this, but the main point I’m trying to make here is that Max sees David as the ideal good person, and that by acting like him, maybe he can make Gwen (and therefore the camp) better.
