Would You Like a Jellybaby?

like, mac spends ALL of frank marries a corpse clearly extremely anxious and worried about coming out to his mom, and i think his little “really? that’s it?” after mrs mac has a chill, positive reaction (by her standards) to his coming out belies just HOW MUCH he’s relieved to hear that she approves of it, and by extension how much she approves of him.

then, in their first joint interactions with donald during Dennis and Dee Don’t Get Rich, we see mac both vying for his mom’s approval by trying to get her on his side AND trying to downplay/dismiss donald, with his “this dude’s kind of a dick, right?” aside. and in my mind, it’s no coincidence that this exchange ALSO comes after mac’s first conversation with luther since his coming out, in which luther immediately shuts down and dismisses mac’s coming out. mac’s lingering internalized homophobia ALREADY gets tripped up by donald’s mere existence, and i think having luther’s rejection so fresh in mac’s mind gives him the urge to be even more dismissive and cold to donald, as mac tries to distance himself from the traits and the people that remind mac of his own insecurity and his own inferiority in the eyes of his father.

BUT THEN…. the shared dinner scene. seemingly unprompted, we see luther apologize for preventing donald from joining the mummers in their youth— for preventing donald from pursuing something that so heavily involves dance and elaborate costuming and other stereotypically “gay” stuff. and more than that, luther goes on to say that he’s opened his mind in prison and learned that there’s nothing wrong with “people like that,” of course meaning gay people. and while luther’s apology is, ostensibly, directed only at donald, who is the camera focused on during a good chunk of this apology sequence? mac.

hearing his father express remorse for his homophobia, and voicing that he’s learned and changed and now approves of donald and his more effeminate tendencies/habits… i think it allowed mac to find some closure and security in himself, and what’s more, it allowed mac to look at donald with more compassion and sympathy. if we’re both gay, and my father can apologize for his treatment of you, his gay brother, then that must mean my father is also apologizing to me by proxy, right? so i don’t have to hate myself for these traits anymore, and i don’t have to hate YOU for these traits anymore.

and then, after everything, when mac FINALLY has another chance to earn his father’s approval and to get his mom and dad back together like he’s wanted for years… he doesn’t. mac tries to do the right thing and protect his uncle, who’s been ostracized by the family for being the effeminate gay sheep. it’s a rare show of gay solidarity for mac, and whats more, i think it’s a rare show of self-compassion for him too. uncle donald doesn’t deserve that, because MAC doesn’t deserve that!