this is very sincere: I would love to hear your meta thoughts about the dinner scene and expand on your tags
thank you for asking, anon! i am always very happy to share more of my Deep Thoughts a;dlfkjasdf
so i don't necessarily mind scenes (in fic/meta, or in canon like the police station scene or carlos' bedside rant) where tk feels bad or carlos still hangs on to the sting of rejection - that's a character perspective thing and generally it works for me. but i've read so many takes where the idea is that tk should, like, apologize for being a self-centered asshole and rejecting this sweet pure gesture from carlos who just wanted to be nice - and it's just like no! carlos is the asshole in that scene! tk is literally as gracious about it as he could reasonably be!
first of all, it's incredibly revealing that carlos didn't just ask him on a date, and his after-midnight invitation obviously didn't say 'hey are you free? i've just finished making you a fancy romantic dinner and the champagne is chilling. dressing up optional but recommended!' (my carlos? trying to make relationship decisions unilaterally and then getting snide and mean when tk doesn't fall in line? it's more likely than you think!)
but let's just say that it's not weirdly controlling to ambush someone with a big romantic gesture like that instead of asking if it's what they want. let's say that's just him being his sweet, romantic, generous self. i'm sure that will work out great for him, forever.
it remains true that in the actual dinner scene he is a DISASTER. when tk comes in hot, the bare minimum would have been for carlos to acknowledge that they clearly had different ideas of how the night would go and give him the option to decline gracefully. and when tk, though polite and willing to take responsibility for his role in this apparent miscommunication by explaining his expectations more clearly (i thought we were clear, i'm not looking for this, i just got out of a relationship and i'm not looking to jump into another one, etc), continues to assert his boundaries instead of swooning, carlos responds with increasing incredulity and mockery
by the end, when tk sees there's no constructive way forward and decides to leave, carlos literally says why are you being so crazy? that's such a red flag! i think that's literally the most asshole-ish thing either of them says to each other in the entire 2.5 seasons of the show! and then tk apologizes for the misunderstanding! you would honestly think tk had called carlos names and thrown a drink in his face by the way some people talk about the dinner scene, instead of simply having boundaries that carlos didn't want him to have and then leaving with an apology
all that being said, i get why people sympathize with carlos in the scene, i really do. i sympathize with him! i get why it's something he still brings up a whole relationship + break up + coma later! that's why i said that this scene shows the best and worst of both of them - we definitely see carlos' generosity, his sweetness, his sensitivity, his desire to care for others and tk in particular. but we also see his need for control, his unilateral approach to relationships, his reliance on mocking dismissal when trying to manage tk's reactions. and it makes sense that he still broods about it, because of how deeply he feels things and how desperately he wants to fix them when they go wrong
and those are all things that come back, consistently, because carlos is a really well-written, interesting, layered character who starts off good and then gets to GROW and become an even better kinder braver more honest and less manipulative version of himself! and that's why i love him and love watching his journey <3