I really want to believe for Martin’s sake that he first fell in love with Jonathan once Sims stopped being a complete asshole towards him. But Episode 22 exists and proves to me over and over again that, no. Martin could have been in love with Jonathan back then already.
Yes, Martin doesn’t want to lose his job so he tried to please his - seemingly always unhappy - boss. That’s a one explanation. And to be entirely fair with how we hear Jonathan talk about him in earlier episodes it is only natural that Martin will do his best. He doesn’t even need to be in love with him to try to prove to Jon that, yes he can do his job better than everyone else.
Actually it means nothing and doesn’t even influence my opinion about whether he could have been already in love with Jonathan at this point or not.
What does it though is the fact that Martin talks the exact same way about himself that Jonathan does.
When he says “since I got so freaked out” it’s almost as if he doesn’t realise that there wasn’t much more to do. He checked the place, talked to only two people that could give him answers, but still he couldn’t believe he done enough. Because he was never told that his efforts were enough. And not just by Jonathan either. By his mother, probably other people in his life in the past - which also on the side note made him a perfect candidate to become avatar of the lonely and we can see that all the way in season 1 already. It also makes you wonder how many times he investigated after hours, how many times he went back to the same place just to be sure he didn’t miss something.
He doesn’t even believe he deserves to be saved. He had almost two weeks to think about and “calling for help” probably came to him as an afterthought - most likely the fact that was even an option didn’t occur to him in the moment.
And then there is this. Of course he didn’t expect that. His mother always dismissing him, Jonathan always taking his research with distrust of its diligence.
But at the end because of all of that, because of how Martin sees himself he could have already been in love with Jonathan Sims. He didn’t know any better. Never had someone just reassure him that he is doing great job without questioning it, so it was natural to him.
Yes, Jonathan Sims is an asshole, but to Martin it seems only natural to be treated that way and so why wouldn’t he fall in love already back then?
