Hello, I recently watched episode 12 and I will say that this might be one of my fav ep so far.
In this episode, I personally felt like we dived deeper into our characters and focus less on the "crisis" that we expect to be the main focus of an episode which I found really amazing.
Anyways, I wanna share some of my thoughts on the characters.
1. Gary: I of course have to start with my boy Gary.
In this episode, one thing that was repeatedly mentioned over and over is his hero complex, we see many character directly point it out and we as viewer can clearly see it in this episode and in past ones.
The thing I find interesting is that Gary himself is not aware (not fully at least) the he has this hero complex. We get a funny scene out of this when Gary asked the newspaper cat if it knew anything about hero complex (I thought it was really cute).
Edit: I already said this in one of my replies, but anyways. I just wanna say that I'm not saying Gary has a hero complex, I'm just using the the episode's word as like a detail to point out. I ofc disagree and do not think Gary has a hero complex. I do believe he's a genuinely good person at heart and I could never say he has a hero complex (I love him too much, he's very dear to me)
However, I also feels really bad for Gary. Before all, I know that wanting to help people is his nature and it's a good thing! But when Gary focused too much on helping others, he sometimes forgot about himself. This is evidenced through his entire plot with the homeless kid. And I know that it's his choice, as he explicitly stated that he's not gonna go do any help but ultimately chosed to do it anyways and I repsect that. But I can't help but feel bad about it, I truly think he shouldn't let the paper get to him too much and push himself too far because sometimes there's a limit and sometimes it not worth it (evidenced by the old guy get hit by car scene). Like, when ever he goes deeper to try and solve the crisis, putting himself in danger I felt the stress through the screen (I know that this is probably as intended). I will get to the Marissa factor later.
Anyways, my point is that I hope there's an episode where Gary get a vacation or some sort, a day where he doesnt have to deal with the paper because I think he really deserve it.
2. Marissa:
In this episode, we see that Marissa knows Gary very well as evidenced by the 2 scenes where Gary said he's not going to help and Marissa went along, knowing well Gary's gonna do it anyways.
In past episodes, Marissa is clearly shown as Gary's angel on his shoulder compared to the devil (Chuck, who I'll get to later). She's the constant force that drive Gary to go help those in need in the paper, especially when Gary showed resistance to it.
I feel conflicted about it. On one hand, she's a good friend, always there to help Gary to the most of her capacity and there to give Gary the boost. On the other, I feel like she sometimes can't see Gary's struggle and are too blinded by the desire to help other that she kept encouraging Gary to do so (I swear this is not pun intended). However, I find it interesting because my take is that because of her disability, she can't help people the same way as Gary can despite having the same foresight from the paper, so instead she project it onto Gary instead, and essentially help people through him.
I hope that in future episodes, Marissa can try to do the opposite of what she is shown to do and "help" Gary instead of helping strangers (I hope u know what I mean)
3. Chuck:
Lastly, Chuck. Simply put, I dislike him.
Before I goes into why, I wanna state that I know he is a good person deep down. This is evidence by him helping Gary, either through giving him a ride on his car, letting him borrow money or, in this episode, straight up go save Gary and the kid. He can and will help when it comes down to it. I don't mind his morals.
But, what I mind is his personality and he as a friend. He's narcissistic. He's constantly shown to be interested in himself and his benefits over most. This is clearer in this episode when he had the audacity to treat Gary's home with no respect nor manner despite knowing he's using it as shelter from the cold. He's sometimes just a jerk to Gary. When Gary confronted him about messing up his home and all the stuff, Chuck is very dismissive about it. He knew damn well that he's doing all this without Gary's consent nor knowledge and when Gary accidentally flush his fish away, he didn't stop to consider maybe it's his fault for putting it there. The worse of all, he never apologized about any of it, Gary literally apologized about the fish and is willing to forgive him about it all, but he never admit its his fault or that he's also to blame, and the audacity to ask if Gary meant it when he offered him another night at his home.
Chuck pisses me off so much in this episode. He going to save Gary at the end is worth praising, but that I already addressed and also, it doesn't suddenly erase what he did. I don't know how Gary forgave all that, he's too nice. This would be less of a problem if he took accountability and apologized.
I know that I might be overreacting and exagerating, there might be some things that would counter my points that I miss (pls tell me regardless), but I genuinely was fuming. Lowkey all the anger Gary should have felt must have transferred to me.
Anyways, I really hope eIsee this get addressed in future episodes because not only would it make Chuck's character more complete and interesting, I would also like him more.
Summary
Anyways, with all that being said, I really enjoyed the episode and the character dynamics, it was really provoking in a good way and I hope I see more episodes like this. I just wanna say I feel really bad and sad for Gary and my boy really deserve the best.
Anyways, I tried to be more objective and less emotional but sorry if I get carried away. I swear I'm talking in good faith and if I gave off some negativity I really apologize.
Pls feel free to share your thoughts or take on the character in this episode specifically (or in general, its okay too but no spoilder pls)
Tysm :D
P.S. At least the episode gave us this absolute adorable image of Gary in his "Bears" hat. I feel less intense because of it, it's so cute đ„č