i do not know to what degree spotify comments are representative of the camp here and there fandom but i’ve seen a few people saying things along the lines of “elijah’s manipulating sydney into betraying jedidiah!!” about episodes 22 and 23 and i want to talk about it because it’s bothering me.
is elijah manipulative as hell? oh yeah! abso-fucking -lutely! but sydney is smart. he knows what elijah is doing. he literally says it himself listening back to the tape of their first meeting- no matter how much he means it when he tells sydney he loves him, the effect elijah has on sydney means there’s a danger here.
but. but. when elijah says that jedidiah has hurt sydney deeply and that sydney deserves better than him, is he wrong? as much as jedidiah tells sydney he loves him, he never shows it when it matters. he has been distant, he has been secretive, he has been straight up cruel to sydney, and none of his apologies have actually lasted longer than the moment he said them. it’s guilt with no direction and love with no action. he’s doing exactly what he did as a kid watching over a fruit fly.
anyway the gist of it is that this take bothers me because it undermines sydney’s autonomy in this situation. yes, he is being manipulated, but given the choice between jedidiah and lucille trying to control him through coldness and refusal of honesty and someone who seems to genuinely love him and want to be around him, can you really blame him? it’s not a good choice - it’s a self-destructive choice - but it is a choice, the first meaningful one sydney has felt like he’s been able to make in a long time. sydney is trying to find anything in his life that he can control, and he’s found it in the choice between two terrible people.
thank you for coming to my ted talk
