So thereās this basic hierarchy of the men within the family Gob feels safe being open with, whose opinions he values, and whose approval he seeks throughout the series.
In the beginningā pre-showā itās clear that this started with his dad, but various flashbacks show that his dad became inaccessible fairly early on,Ā so those feelings got transferred to his younger brother Michael. Now throughout much of their adulthood Michael becomes this weird vessel of both Gobās need for approval from a father figure and a way to express his queerness in a āsafeā way (itās just a dove!)
Flash forward to S4, and Michael has suddenly become the inaccessible one to Gob. In addition to his physically distancing himself from the family, the few times he does talk to Gob he acts basically like George Sr. didā dismissive, despairing and deeply disapproving of Gobās lifestyle, and Gob is again left without anybody to say āYouāre essentially a good person and I love you unconditionally because weāre family.ā
More simply, itās theĀ much-vaunted āYESā that Gob needs to hear.
Now the relationship between Gob and George Michael got touched on pretty briefly in the first series (I can only think of two episodes offhand where it was an actual plot point), but in S4 we get no less than three major scenes of the two interacting, and all of them center on Gob aggressively trying to endear himself to George Michael (one scene happening directly after a failed attempt to do the same to Michael) and George Michael squirming under Gobās sudden oppressive clinginess towards him. Because Gob is treating him like he used to treat Michael.
So in S4, we have Gob treating his 20 year old nephew with the same reckless affection and need for approval that he used to try to get from George Sr., used to try to get from Michael, used to try to get from the Entourage, and that he finally gets in a healthy way for the first time in his life from Tony Wonder.
And thatās beautifully fucked up.













