I absolutely love whump, especially when it's intense and involves my favorite attractive men, like Sam Winchester, Neal Caffrey, Keith from Voltron, etc. Bring on the pain!
HEAR ME OUT: I don't think Bobby is a terrible person who stole Sunset Curve's music to be selfish
I’ve seen Bobby/Trevor getting a lot of hate, but I don’t think he deserves it. The whole reason he is judged negatively is because when the boys found out about him making it big with their songs, they hated him for it. They assumed he did it out of a selfish desire to be rich and famous, so he took advantage of the situation, i.e., their deaths, and made a name for himself. This is the assumption they made, and it is what we, the audience, are expected to believe.
But let’s take a step back. What do we actually know about Bobby (I will refer to him as this from now on)? After the boys died, he basically disappeared and changed his name. Fast forward 25 years, and we see him as a rich musician who lives in a mansion with his daughter. He has a therapist. He does meditation. He also has a helicopter. That’s pretty much it, right?
Let’s break it down even further.
1) The members of Sunset Curve were his best friends. Basically brothers. They were serious about making a name for themselves and making it big. That means they had to have spent lots of time together, practicing music and just being friends. It is implied that Alex, Reggie, and Luke all had questionable home lives, meaning that they probably spent most of their time at Bobby’s and they probably spent a lot of time making music.
Luke ran away from home. It’s very likely that when he did, he went to live in their studio, which was most likely Bobby’s garage (since we know none of the other boys had lived in Julie’s house). Meaning Bobby saw Luke literally every day. They basically lived together. I’m sure Alex and Reggie also spent a lot of time there too to escape their parents. They were probably together all the time, including their school lives.
On the night they were supposed to make their dreams come true, Bobby stayed behind to flirt with Rose. Imagine Bobby chilling with Rose, only to be told by a cop or a random phone call to the Orpheum that your bandmates and best friends were dead? How would someone process that?
I’m sure he grieved. Maybe went to their funerals…it’s unclear since he was said to have disappeared, but the point is that it would have affected him greatly. In one night, he lost not one, but three people he was close to. He goes from seeing them all day every day to them being dead and gone in one evening. I doubt he could even go into the garage after that. There would be too many memories.
I like to think that he and Rose became close after that. She must have comforted him when he found out. It would have been hard for her, too, because she had just spoken to them. I’m sure they stayed in touch and helped each other through it, although it was probably Rose doing most of the consoling. Bobby didn’t have anyone left.
Because of this, it makes sense (assuming Rose is Julie’s mom) why Julie and Carrie were friends at one point in time and why Julie’s family was living in Bobby’s old house.
Keep in mind that for the boys, they simply died, and what felt like five minutes later was actually 25 years. It was nothing to them, but Bobby had to live through the aftermath of their deaths. He had to struggle and come to terms with the new reality that they were gone. For him, it wasn’t just a blink of the eye, it was years of dealing with trauma.
2) Bobby’s wife/girlfriend is never mentioned. Did she die? Did they break up or get divorced? Either way, he is raising his daughter by himself, as a single dad, as far as we know. The point is, if she died, that would further Bobby’s trauma. He was already dealing with probably some regret and survivor’s guilt over his friends’ deaths, so if she died, that would only make it worse. Like he couldn’t get close to anyone without them dying, especially considering that Rose died as well. Even if they just broke up, that still means that she left. It’s like no one will stay with him and he is destined to be alone.
Maybe that is why Carrie is the way she is. Her dad has been through a lot. It’s probably hard for him to function normally and connect with others. She may have been emotionally neglected growing up, meaning that now she will take any type of attention she can get, whether it be positive or negative. This is sort of implied with her song “All Eyes on Me”. She just wants to be noticed. So, yes, she has daddy issues. Bobby’s trauma affect’s his daughter.
3) It is mentioned that he has a therapist. When the boys go to haunt him, he runs off in his helicopter to go see his therapist. The scene is made to be funny and paint Bobby in a silly, almost negative way, but stop and think about it. HE HAS A THERAPIST. It may not be too unlikely that he experiences odd things, maybe hallucinations because of the trauma he’s been through. He also does mediation, probably to keep him calm and also deal with past trauma.
Remember, he lost his best friends suddenly, right before their big break. He must have survivor’s guilt. He was meant to go with them. He would have, if it hadn’t been for Rose. Rose then helps him through the difficult mess his life became in the aftermath, and then what happens? Rose dies. He lost her too, and who knows about Carrie’s mom. He’s got to be hurting. He’s probably got some PTSD, too. Nothing in his life has been easy, like they would have you believe. Sure, he’s famous and rich, but look at what he’s been through. I doubt he’s truly happy. Carrie isn’t, and she didn’t go through what he did.
Okay, that brings us back to him stealing their songs and making it big. Why would he do that if it wasn’t out of a selfish desire to be rich and famous?
Would he really want to be in the spotlight after he’d been through all that? Probably not. I think he was struggling with a lot. Trying to come to terms with everything. So why would he do it?
I had a thought as I mulled this over. If he and Rose were close, she would have stopped him from stealing from his bandmates, right? But she must not have, because he still did it. And she had their demo. She knew their music. She would’ve recognized the music and called him out on it, but she didn’t. Instead, she listened to his music with Julie.
Then I thought, what if she actually encouraged him to do it? Like, as a therapeutic way of relieving the guilt he felt. Like, maybe through making their music famous, he was almost giving them the life they didn’t get to have. They got to live through him. It probably made him feel closer and connected to them. It probably felt like he was doing them a favor.
But why not let the world know whose music it really was, that it was actually Sunset Curve? Why change his name?
Think about it. His career would no longer be a form of escape. He even changed his name so he couldn’t be tied to his past. He was anonymous. If everyone knew who he really was and where the music actually came from, his life would be filled with interviews about the past. Everyone would bring up what happened. He’d have to relieve that pain again and again. Maybe it’s selfish, but he was really trying to save himself that trauma, while still trying to let his bandmates’ memories live on.
And remember he didn’t take “Unsaid Emily”. He knew how much that song meant to Luke. He knew it wasn’t his place to perform that song. It was too personal and he respected that by leaving it alone.
I can only imagine how he felt as he sat in the Orpheum, where he’d been when he’d gotten the news about their deaths, and saw his old friends just as they’d been before, finally getting to experience that dream from all those years ago. Finally getting to rock out on that stage.
Maybe I’m wrong, but it makes sense to me. I hope season two touches on Bobby and his story. I doubt he’s as bad as they want us to think at this point. I hope he gets to communicate with them. He needs closure. They all need to resolve things. And while they’re at it, I hope Luke gets to resolve things with his mom. Here’s hoping for season 2.
EDIT: I'm not saying he's perfect or praising him or anything, I just think there is more to his story than we are aware of. I think he probably started out with good intentions, but he may not have stayed true to that over time, considering he took "My Name is Luke" and his helicopter has his face on it, if I remember correctly. Anyway, just putting that out there.
