I keep seeing Beck cheating being a tally up for her being unlikeable and it's genuinely grating me. Not just because it's an insane justification to like her less than a serial killer, but because it's insane in general.
Because Dr Nicky doesn't deserve to be in jail for murder but he IS guilty just in a very different way.
Beck cheating with Dr. Nicky being seen as the same scale as someone who cheats under normal circumstances as if cheating with him is the same as cheating with an ex or a one night stand or whatever will never ever make sense to me.
Because he wasn't those things. He was her therapist! He was in a position of power the entire time, Beck went to him for help with her grief and he took advantage of her. Whether she was willing or not, whether she felt like she was in control or not she wasn't. Her ex disappeared and then her best friend, who she had a very odd, codependent, homoerotic friendship with died and the audience knows Beck throws herself into other people to avoid feelings and also draws away for the same reason (like she first clung to Joe after Peach's death then 'suddenly' pulled away) it's a pretty basic attachment style indicator and trauma response for someone who has been through what she's been through.
And if I know that, you can bet your ASS that a trained, licensed therapist knew that too and THAT is why Dr. Nicky doesn't fight for his freedom, he knows what he didn't do, but he knows what he DID. Being destroying his family and taking advantage of a girl in crisis. Even the jekyll and hyde weirdness of Joe not being able to tell at all that there was any kind of affair from their SESSIONS is proof of this. Because you would think, potentially if it was anything resembling genuine, they would meet covertly during sessions and he would refer her to another professional for ACTUAL therapy.
BUT NO - he continued as her ACTING THERAPIST before, during and AFTER their affair. He is not a victim. He is yet another person in a position of some kind of power that Beck trusted (her dad, her MFA instructor, Peach, Joe, Benji, Dr. Nicky) who took complete advantage of her under the guise of helping her.
And Dr. Nicky's son is actually a good representation of how far people will go to avoid facing the bad things their loved ones have done by avoiding seeing anything wrong with the action in the first place. He views his father as completely innocent and of course, as a kid, that's rational. But he is an adult, who wasn't interested in proving Joe guilty to gain Beck justice, but to clear his father of everything against him, even things he did - to the point where he put his FRIEND in genuine danger to prove it. Bronte might've fallen for Joe's tricks (same way the audience did) but Clayton punished her for it instead of focusing on the real problem - which is Joe and other men who take advantage of and hurt women (the same way the audience did with Beck) - the whole situation is not on him, he's not to blame for a lot, and certainly didn't deserve to die - but he did lose sight of the real goal within the fight
Dr Nicky does not deserve to be in jail for murder. But he did deserve to lose his license and to reap the consequences of his actions. He deserved to be cleared of the murder charges, not for anything else.
a journalist trying to argue that actually he knows every single guy on the grid and they have confirmed to him individually and explicitly that they are straight as if 1) that’s not an insane claim and 2) the most famous thing about your profession isn’t that you tell everyone things that they say of course subjects lie to you or don’t tell full truths! they do it all the time! shitty journalists take everything at face value instead of treating your sources as unreliable narrators that require independent verification
many thoughts head full abt frogwares!sherlock and his struggles w trauma manifestations and perception of reality but still not giving up and seeing the whole case through, even though that means confronting the very thing he most fears
