u/Delicious-Future8630

..do you think he would have acted differently if Alby was not in the courtroom that day?

Because, and this is just my personal take, feel very strongly that his main drive in that moment was to prevent himself of being exposed as a homosexuall, so basically self-preservation/selfish.

I mean, this fear never left him all his life and ruined great aspects of it. (Although now he blames Ruben for the 'fear' in his life. I think it is just a replacement for his actual fear of..)

So maybe, what is really eating him up and makes him filled to the brink with guilt (whether he acknowledges it or not), is this double shame, of not being there for his familiy (absolute emotional pressure, not a responsable parent in sight) and especially not for the one person he 'adores/is dependent on. Codependent, trauma-bonded, whatever you will.

I think this "right or wrong" thing is a too easy take, the situation is far more fumbled and complex, as to just reduce it down to morals. Nothing black and white there.

What is your take?

Edit: corrected the name from Alan into Alby

I think the dinner-scene was so well thought out and written. On the surface level the dialogue focuses on the fact that your child's behaviour is not the parents' fault, "you have to seperate the child from its parents", while simultaneously showcasing the exact opposite.

Mauren having a go at the only sane person on this show (Joanna, who is not yet a fully grown adult but somehow has more sense and guts than the adults at that table), all because she utterly failed to give Ruben any kind of meaningful support. What kind of behaviour is that?! What a sorry excuse of a mother.

Lori sits there smirking, undermining her son, winding the whole thing up on purpose. Lori also very well knows that her son is not straight, and what does she do with this knowledge? She uses it as a weapon, instead of supporting him. Also: Great that she did not want to spoil his Oxford interview with the cancer news, no, she only wants Niall to jeopardize his whole future in general by emotionally blackmailing him into lying on the stand. Great mum!

Apple and tree, undeniable connection.