re: everyone is sucking and fucking but the gay men, i think everyone who is upset that burt and irving did not kiss in the most recent episode are severely missing the point.
yeah, you could make an argument that it could point to a internal aversion to depicting men kissing on the writers part, but burt and irving’s story is and always has been so rich. this isn’t like the 2000/10s style of queerbaiting we’ve been subjected to for the longest time. they were first to develop an explicit relationship on screen,they describe their feelings as romantic, they want to kiss but they can’t, they can’t. turturro and walken play them with the primary motivation being their insatiable attraction towards one another. burt’s absence ripped irving apart. i’d draw one every day i couldn’t see him. a kiss really shouldn’t be the metric for adequate representation.
each and every relationship on this show is complex and rife with tension. it’s not like they’re all getting a happy ending. we don’t know how or if the mark/gemma/helly/helena quadrilateral is going to resolve. gretchen falls for dylan’s innie and dylan threatens to end it because his wife can’t love him for who he is today - how you used to be. just because they’ve kissed or had sex doesn’t make their relationships simpler, fuller, more meaningful or successful. the narrative explores everything that could go wrong when you try to separate yourself. how do you contend with yourself. who are you. who has the right to you, your body, to love you. autonomy, consent, love, fate, the self.
i doubt this is the last we’ll see of burt and irving. while there’s one episode left in the season, the show is far from over. i’m in the camp of believing the only way forward is through reintegration, that to advance the story towards any resolution within the characters they need to see it, remember it, feel it all. and when that happens, what will burt and irving do? when they finally feel it? i want to feel it.
burving is tragic and star-crossed, but they’re also the ones in the happiest position right now. it hurts to say goodbye. to not know. but i know that i loved you. i think i love you now. it’s too dangerous for us. but with the final choice i have, i can save you.
what matters is that the love was there.