𝓗 ❦

your dad is always mad and that must be why

He really did. We saw him practicing his lines in the car proof that the tough guy act was exactly that: an act. And that didn’t make him manipulative; it made him human. It made him someone desperate not to seem vulnerable. We saw how terrified he was in the sauna, forced to do things against his will. We saw where his pain came from, why he thought and acted the way he did.

We saw a Billy who was once happy. A boy who had a mother that loved him and a childhood filled with light until that light was snuffed out by an abusive father who didn’t just hit him, but stripped away his humanity. And when his mother left, she took with her any last hope of escape.

And not once did anyone try to save him the way they did with Will the season before. Not once did anyone suggest helping him out of his misery. The only reason we got to see him come back to himself in the end was because it was the only way to beat the mind flayer. He wasn’t a person to them he was a pawn. A tactic. And still, he sacrificed himself for the very people who had only ever looked at him with disgust.

And in the end, after everything, he got a sliver of redemption just before he gave himself up to the mind flayer. So don’t tell me he got what he deserved. Not when he lived a life full of pain, not when he was broken down into something he never wanted to become, and not when just the memory of his mother was enough to bring him back to who he truly was someone willing to die to save everyone else.

[Harrington,

Getting up to shady shit with a bunch of kids and then lying to my face about it was kind of asking for an ass kicking, but I admit the one I gave you may have been a (slightly) disproportionate response.

Hope the concussion wasn’t too bad.

The face is looking better already, so don’t worry, broads’ll be throwing themselves at you again in no time. (If they aren’t already—lucky for you, you pull off the battle-damaged look pretty well. The bruises make you look like less of a yuppie.)

-BH

PS - Just a thought: next time you feel like practicing your child abduction skills, maybe have ‘em call their folks first and, you know, avoid actual kidnapping.