IT FINALLY CLICKED
SPOKES MOTIVATION FOR ALL THIS SHIT FINALLY CLICKED
Ash was right. And it scared Spoke so much. He could see the path to follow. To become just like Ash. And he was so afraid of following it he didn't even realise he was.
Everything he does after the end of the mafia is as proof he's NOT Ash. He's not Ash!
But alas it is a self fulfilling prophecy. Every action he takes to avoid becoming that man just pushes him closer and closer to that path. In his desperation to escape it he only seals his fate.
He keeps digging that hole. Keeps spinning that web. Keeps building that house of cards. Trying to prove to himself he's not Ash. He won't become Ash.
He's doing -- saying -- anything he can to prove he's not that man.
And now it's all one tiny move away from shattering.
The way he laughed at the end? Chills. Actual chills. And flashbacks.
After everything he's done... he sounds exactly like Ash.
And I think even at the start (of season 2), what pushes him down this road is because Ash is right. Ash is right that Spoke will become just like him. And that thought is terrifying to Spoke. Terrifying because he knows it's true. He knows how close he is to becoming something terrible like Ash. Jamato knew how close he was to becoming something like Ash. And that's why he left. And Spoke knows that!
In his desperation to not become that man, in his terror of becoming Ahs, he became so much worse.