Second time seeing the Backrooms let me know how much ppl ignore what Clark expressly stated about his own character when Kane Parsons has said in an interview about how he explicitly did not WANT his lore to be complicated or hard to understand. You take the film at face value and you dig underneath for fun, but ultimately, the characters say what they mean upfront. The director wanted this Backrooms film to be a good starting point for any future additions to the lore so that it could remain accessible to new fans. You even get spoon fed the way the Backrooms work.
Clark WANTS to change in the beggining. He’s not there because of an offscreen unmentioned court order, he’s there because he knows he hurts others and wants to change. He’s scared he’s destined to be alone, and he doesn’t truly want that.
He still cares for his wife, he loves Barbara, he’s ultimately still paying for the house and not evicting her or starting a divorce process to take it. He pays for it before he pays for his own store bills when he lives there! I don’t think he’s a good guy, but he’s trying at this point. He’s in therapy because he knows he needs it. Hell, Captain Clark’s expression is literally warped into shock at his own actions cause that’s how Clark reacts to his own outbursts and rage. Immediate shock, fear, and guilt. He does bad things, but it’s not out of intentional malice.
It’s why he’s an interesting abuser!! He’s the type of guy that it be hard to convince others is actually bad because it takes him a lot to get to that point over others. It takes him reliving the moment of being kicked out when he’s roleplaying with Mary to have him lash out again, and it shows how it stems from him redirecting his own embarrassment and stress from burnout into anger. His own therapist points out how it’s a normal response for someone to have, he needs to work on it and change his own responses, but it’s a pretty typical redirection.
Shame feels bad, no one wants to be embarrassed and stressed. Change is hard! His development is so interesting because he gets the opportunity to remain where he is and remain the same person and he takes it. Which makes Mary remember him as someone who doesn’t want to stop hurting people, adding with how he already hurt her and dragged her off (and likely him hurting Async members during his time in the backrooms), makes Captain Clark hurt him.
Clark feels entitled to the backrooms! It showed up in his dead end store at the end of his rope, he feels like this is made for him. His sense of direction from the first time he enters the backrooms shows how he genuinely suits the place. Alongside Captain Clark, he feels welcomed by it. He can explore, he can feel belonging, he actively helps create the architecture (which he shows interest in abstract architecture as well), and he can’t be hurt there (until he solidified himself as someone who is fine with hurting anyone which reflected into his entity).
