Ughhhh Ash Whitepine. Rotating him in my minds eye.
I was rewatching WP and talking to my partner about these few instances I noted where when Ash would be silent and seemingly in his head, this quiet but incessant high pitched noise would play. It happened the most notably after the funeral and when Clown is watching him, and Ash is putting food in the ovens and then just pauses for the slightest moment. And the noise plays, and the camera hovers on Ash before he is jerked back to reality by Maddy standing there and watching him, and the noise suddenly disappears and he quickly shuffles to move on.
And then coupled with how he interacts with Clown during Clown's PTSD episode - it just gives off such "we have shit going on we cannot entrust anyone else with except each other." I feel like Ash has so much more going on just like Clown did, some sort of fucked up anguish and issues that he keeps under lock and key. The way he was asking Maddy how she stayed so positive despite the stress and pain everyone was under and then this slight hopelessness and disappointment when she said she stayed positive by suppressing and running away from the pain. Like it felt like he felt a moment of hope she could give him an answer and then it fell flat, and then it's followed by the noises.
Idk idk. I just rly think Ash is neat. It's so subtle but his role as Clown's right hand man - Clown having him lead part of the group and drive the car, Ash playing bodyguard with Clown and blocking the rest of the staff off from Mysti's body and barking orders (almost like a soldier, whoa 😳), Clown asking him to call for help, Clown keeping an eye on Ash - and then ep 8 just leads me to think the two are more alike than we think or may know as of yet.