‘You can talk to me, do anything to me as a friend, a fling, a boyfriend. But don’t ever humiliate me like that here ever again’. There was just something about this comment, in a way it sounds like the only self worth Dylan feels is in his job.
I dunno maybe im not making much sense but that conversation in the staff room was definitely a lot deeper than what appeared on the surface.
I didn’t think much of that comment at the time until I rewatched the episode earlier.
That line stood out to me as well.
I’ve always seen Dylan as being someone who puts a lot of emphasis and value on being smart. (Notice how when he’s trying to insult people, he usually jumps to insulting their intelligence - calling them “idiots”, “morons”, other such words. I’ve always taken that as reflecting his worldview in some way.)
And you can very much see where it comes from. Because obviously, growing up, he was abused by Brian for being disabled (Brian may not have had the exact word ‘autism’ to describe that, but he obviously knows something’s “not right” with Dylan’s brain, and I imagine terms like ‘developmental delay’ would have been thrown around at GP appointments or meetings with Dylan’s teachers etc.), and I think it’s safe to say he probably got bullied at school too.
But Dylan is obviously very academically intelligent, so he would have been able to take comfort and self-esteem from one thing - getting good grades, where his classmates may not have.
So that’s where I think it stems from. Anyway, the point is, I definitely agree that Dylan thinks the only thing he’s good for is his skill as a doctor. He evidently really doesn’t like himself as a person, but he can always fall back on “well, I’m a good doctor” to feel a bit better about himself, so it’s really important to him that he doesn’t look bad in his career.
The whole “you can do anything to me as a friend, fling or boyfriend” thing stands out as well, and makes me think Dylan doesn’t have very high standards for his relationships, and certainly not for this specific one... he’s basically saying he doesn’t care how Faith treats him, so long as she doesn’t treat him badly at work. That’s not a healthy - and frankly, not safe - way for him to be thinking at all.
(And it makes me think Dylan is a lot more vulnerable to having history repeat itself, to potentially ending up in an abusive relationship like his mum did, than I thought he was. 😞)
