samisa up in van giggling in the macklin celebrini provided airb&b while nick lardis and michael’s own brother, both of which who have known michael his whole life, are forced to watch. they’re so happy go lucky to be tortured at the rink, and up the grouse grind steps, and in the weight room, and then come home to wrestle over the tv remote and spend a little too long applying sunscreen.
luke isn’t going to say anything because frankly, why would he? the fact sam dickinson manhandles his brother’s face to see if he has any lettuce in his teeth is not his business, and neither is sam calling mike babe at nine in the morning. mike turning to sam to ask what he thinks on repeat though, that’s sort of alarming. luke knows mike and his constant questions, the way that he has to ask a thousand different clarifying ones about turning on the stove, or directions to the store, or anything, even the things mike knows how to do. so at the basic level, him asking sam things is about expected but it doesn’t mean luke likes it.
sam dickinson is just walking around ordering for mike, and telling him when to drink water, and that he needs more sunscreen. all the other guys mike keeps around, even cherny who luke doesn’t know very well, have been thoroughly peer reviewed but luke hasn’t heard fuck all about sam. the whole season, michael has been saying nah, nothing new going on, and he didn’t once mention that sam had appointed himself as his handler. sam dickinson who luke up until this point remembered solely as michael’s friendly rival who happened to share the same agent.
luke is still the guy michael turns to halfway up the grouse grind to hand his shirt off and asks for him to pass his water bottle. but then five steps later, sam shoves his own shirt into mike’s shorts and pats what is essentially his dick for safe keeping. then there’s the fishing trip where sam sat off to the side and yapped the whole time, scaring off almost any animal, until mike caught one. and the second he reels it in, he tries to hand it off to sam to kill who screws his face up and says fuck no! so luke has to do it even though mike could, but he’s more of a catch and release guy and this is supposed to be dinner. luke really doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do about this guy who is now fully barnacled onto his younger brother. he would make some parasitic analogy about it all but whatever is going on feels weirder and more symbiotic in a way that luke really does not enjoy.
