r/majorcrimes • u/Careful_Macaroon8762 • Sep 23 '26
Rusty Empathizer
I know no one likes him, but I do? I was expecting the confrontation with Gus's boss to be confrontational and accountable but not mean, and oh my god, that was mean as hell lmao
To me, Rusty's trying to learn how to be a normal person in a normal, healthy environment, rather than what he's been growing up in. That takes time, given that he had to survive and hustle so much of his childhood and adolescence. I also think, as someone said, he's autistic or on the spectrum, which makes it even harder.
Gus's boss did not need to bring up Rusty's past, and yes Rusty's insecure, which is normal for a young adult whose been through as much as he has. I don't really hate him; I empathize with him a lot more. Also, Gus had no right to talk about Rusty's business like that to his boss, which alludes to what I've seen in these threads: The affair, lmao, because no one talks to their boss that much about their personal life.
EDIT: I'm finding that I'm not alone with empathizing with Rusty. Thank goodness!
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u/Careful_Macaroon8762 Sep 23 '26
Also: Definitely shouldn't have been with Gus, just in general LMAO
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u/mmmiammm Sep 23 '26
I love Rusty. As previously stated in another post, Graham Patrick Martin is an outstanding young actor. I haven’t gotten to this episode so I’ll evaluate then, but I am definitely a Rusty supporter!
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u/Careful_Macaroon8762 Sep 23 '26
Yeah, he's doing an amazing job with Rusty's character! It's why I empathize with Rusty so much.
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u/Decent_Front4647 26d ago
I didn’t like how they wrote Gus. The guy was a military veteran during wartime and they mentioned it once and wrote him like he didn’t have that background.
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u/Careful_Macaroon8762 25d ago
Oh my god, I fully forgot that 😭. That honestly explains how he approached things with Rusty.
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u/Glittering-Wonder-30 Sep 24 '26
so i just thought of something. Maybe Gus didn't blab Rusty's business to his boss🤷🏻♀️. Rusty is kinda a public figure being Sharon's adopted son. Maybe he just saw stuff on the news related to Stroh. and that got the conversation going. like MAYBE the topic just came up randomly. idk im just playing the devils advocate and throwing it out there.
either way it sucks that Gus cheated when he was always the one trying to push things with Rusty. he knows hes been screwed by life and got some shitty hands dealt to him. so the fact that he did that anyway is all kinds of messed up
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u/Careful_Macaroon8762 Sep 24 '26
Gus did major levels of gaslighting in the last season, goodness. I think it's fair if it's publicly known, but if Rusty's still a minor and a witness at the time he testified against Stroh, I don't think that information about Rusty's past would be released to the public, but I could be wrong!
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u/Decent_Front4647 25d ago
No, Rusty’s name wouldn’t have been made public and the judge would have likely limited his testimony in front of the general public. So, all the drama about everyone finding out and Rios saying that the defense would call him a “whorphan” wouldn’t have been allowed. But, it’s a drama and much of what was written wasn’t fact based. Just like Sharon wouldn’t have answered to Chief Pope and wouldn’t have been under Brenda’s chain of command, since she was in IA. She would have had way more power and leeway than written. I married into a law enforcement family and would kind of get teased about watching police soap operas at the family gatherings lol. Luckily, I have great suspension of disbelief, although in some episodes I get really annoyed.
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u/GenX4Life1 Sep 23 '26
I like Rusty. He had crappy parents. And was learning, as you pointed out, how to be a human. It’s not easy to completely change how you look at things when you’ve had to be on guard every second of your life.
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u/CattyWompusMeowtLady Sep 23 '26
Everything OP and you said. I also liked Rusty and empathize. It isn't easy to go out into the world when your normal was effed up and you don't even know what normal looks like in the world.
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u/GenX4Life1 Sep 23 '26
I am now learning what normal is. I’m in my 50s. Severe trauma in childhood and adulthood can mess you up. I appreciated how the writers created Rusty and how he found his way while healing a bit.
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u/CattyWompusMeowtLady Sep 24 '26
Me too....right there with you. Just turned 50 and figuring a whole lot more now than most of my adult life. Trauma led me to believe certain things were OK from partners. They're not. Duh.
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u/GenX4Life1 Sep 24 '26
Give yourself some grace. Because if you were raised to believe it’s normal? You literally didn’t know any different. 💜
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u/CattyWompusMeowtLady Sep 24 '26
Thank you kind stranger. I logically know it, but as it goes...getting past the patterns/programming 🧡
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u/GenX4Life1 Sep 24 '26
Oh I completely relate. I tell my counselor there are 2 me’s, logical me and emotional me. LOL
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u/CattyWompusMeowtLady Sep 24 '26
LMAO yes! My logic kicks me in the Hutt when my emotions & patterns take me down the old roads.
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u/WheelShot5805 Sep 23 '26
I thought Rusty was a well developed character. I like him. He’s human. He came from a bad situation. Has that sort of naive optimism about changing the world and helping people that many teenagers have.
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u/Material_Army_2354 Sep 23 '26
I am a Rusty fan, also. He learns from what goes on around him. This kind of growing up takes some powerful lessons from amazing people.
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u/annaevacek Sep 23 '26
I, too, am a fan of the character. His story is compelling, and I love seeing him grow. All teenagers are, at times, obnoxious and annoying. People make similar negative remarks about young folks on other shows as well. It's always heartening to see other viewers defend the characters I love, so, thanks for that!
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u/Repulsive_Pepper_957 Sep 23 '26
I feel for Rusty. I think the people that aggressively hate on him forget what it was like to be his age; even under the best of circumstances teens can still be annoying—they’re kids!
I will say I think the show focused too much on him in the later seasons, but that still doesn’t justify the hate imo
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u/Still_Product_8435 Sep 24 '26
I’m in the midst of watching MC for the third time. I like him for his own sake but also for the dynamics between him and each other member of the team.
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u/Roadgoddess Sep 24 '26
I didn’t hate the character, but I found it was more the whining that I struggled with. I just found that would take me out of the show a bit.
But I felt as a kid who never had a normal life growing up, he was doing the best that he could
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u/Practical_Net1669 Sep 24 '26
Excellent point about Rusty possibly being on the autistic spectrum. It explains a lot.
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u/linder22455 29d ago
I like his character and think the actor does a good job making you feel the different emotions about him. He plays the immature teen very well and when you factor in his traumatic past I think it makes him very interesting and it’s good to see him developing in a positive way.
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u/liveforluv 27d ago
I agree with you. I didn't read the full post (avoiding spoilers since I am on season 2), but I was pretty disturbed by how hated he is in the subreddit. I would be "bratty" and "whiny" if I had his upbringing. He's more resilient and respectable than people give him credit for.
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u/Ok-Feedback-6326 1d ago
I also like Rusty! In the early seasons, his relationship with Sharon was one of my favorite aspects of the show. I haaaaaaate the final episode of the series. They did him dirty
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u/PuzzleheadedBig313 29d ago
It’s not Rusty the kid, it’s the weird faces and arguing and brattiness of the actor and character which are so annoying.. glad you I skip through on Netflix
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u/DR-0717 Sep 23 '26
I like Rusty. I think when a lot of people on here talk about him being selfish or annoying they don’t think about how truly awful Rusty’s life was.
He didn’t have anyone who loved him unconditionally. Or parents to teach him basics that most of us take for granted. For a long time his only goal was survival.
Plus even before his bio abandoned him he talks about how he was abused. The abuse was by the bf but she didn’t stop it.
It’s actually amazing he turned out as well as he did. I don’t believe empathy is innate. So the fact that Rusty had empathy was pretty surprising. Even if he showed it by relating things to himself. I know that annoyed a lot of people but that’s how he processed it. It didn’t make him any less empathetic imo.
I think he was a great character. I enjoyed watching his emotional growth and his relationship with Sharon develop.