tom.

canon tells us and shows us that he still has a *lot* of deconstruction to do about the american military, and is still pretty substantially actively involved with them in a way that doesn't seem to trigger any moral conflict in him as far as we've seen (yes it still counts if he's only there as a doctor, yes that still counts as being complicit in military actions).

when ice agents detain jesse, he still asks what jesse did before anything else, implying that he hasn't been able to disconnect himself from his instilled belief that "agents of the law" (despite ice not fitting this category well, if at all) are acting correctly and in the pursuit of justice, as opposed to being weapons of the state imposing fascism. I'm not saying he supports ice, we know he doesn't, im saying his brain still jumps to assuming law enforcement in any form is automatically in the right before he thinks more deeply.

in season one his letter to the dead veteran (note- I'm not critical of the fact he wrote one, shared experience in that way creates very powerful connections, and it's easily understandable as to why abbot would want to write personally to his family) and the way in which he spoke about him to robby- regarding his surviving several tours just to die back home- didn't show him to be particularly critical of the work the military was actually doing on these tours and the horror they were causing for civilian people, rather just the trauma it causes for the soldiers themselves. his focus in general hasn't directed itself to the majority of victims of war.

we see al-hashimi to be initially unsure of his presence in s2 and then critical of his involvement with swat, and though they find common ground in their similar traumatic experiences quickly, abbot still brushes off her concerned question as to what he's doing with that organisation. overall he doesnt have much of an answer to his involvement, aside from "my therapist said I needed a hobby", or "I suck at golf". yes, I don't doubt that his own unresolved trauma drives him back to a familiar environment, and im not saying he's a bad person, im just saying that he has a lot of deconstruction to do.

Anyway, the dress is one of the few things he kept, despite everything. He just couldnt bring himself to throw it away or sell it. Trinity finds it folded neatly in his drawers when she’s raiding for something to wear, and it is gorgeous. Dennis tells her the significance, how he can’t throw it away, but when she asks, he lets her borrow it.

He manages to forget it after a while, but by the time of his graduation, Trinity is insisting she pick out what to wear, that he focuses on everything else but she will sort it out. The day of graduation, Trinity hands him a suit before dashing off to get changed herself. They re-meet in the living room, and Trinity is wearing his old graduation dress, tailored to be much shorter than the modest length his parents approved of, the excess fabric in her hand. He fumbles a little bit, unsure what go say, but she approaches, unfurling the fabric and pulling him over to tie it around his neck.