@delightfullyatomicfest YOUR TAGS! Let's discuss!
I don't have anything to really debate about that, because I am all on board. But allow me to expand!
I love this moment. What I love about this moment the most is that when we get to Benton and Carter's little shoving match in When the Bough Breaks, it culminates with Benton telling Carter off for not coming to him, but going to Anspaugh, and how he wishes he'd had a chance to try and talk Carter out of switching to medicine.
AND I LOVE THIS SO MUCH BECAUSE THIS IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF THE CHARACTERS BEING WRONG AND LEANING IN, BECAUSE CARTER DID GO TO BENTON!!!!
Carter went to Benton THREE TIMES.
a) When he missed the transplant debrief and Benton explicitly noted that Carter's desire to stay bedside maaaaay be a problem, or at least worthy of discussion.
b) When Carter goes to Benton DIRECTLY in the locker room and tries to talk to him about how he doesn't feel satisfied with surgery but can't quite articulate what he imagines the alternative to be. Benton blows him off, confused and frustrated with his rambling.
c) When Carter comes to Benton at Carla's wanting to talk, and Benton shuts the door in his face.
But what I love about their argument is that Carter LOSES even though HE IS RIGHT. And he loses because he concedes to Benton. Because he still wants Benton's approval. Because Benton can articulate why HE was hurt, but he can't accept responsibility for the part he played in it, so Carter accepts the blame for him.
I love it so much. It's so in character.
BUT THEN NOTHING DEVELOPS FROM THERE.
See, because here's the thing - Benton DOES have a revelation in this scene. It's not that Carter did try to talk to him, and he shut him out. It's that he cares about Carter. He cares about what he does. He cares about what he chooses. And that's terrifying for Benton, who, as he says, "doesn't take time for anyone."
But Carter spares him the greater part of that revelation which is, in order to care about someone, in order to keep them, you have to let them in.
All Carter learns is that in order to keep Benton's good opinion, he can never ask him for anything, because Benton doesn't want to hear it. And that's incredible for the characters, because it explains why Carter doesn't go to Benton when he's scared, why he doesn't tell him about the drug use, why Benton's presence in the intervention terrifies him as much as it feels like a betrayal because how dare Benton show up for this when he's never wanted to know, to hear him, to listen before?
And this continues when Benton finds out that Kerry's restricting Carter's narcotic prescription use again. Benton takes it upon himself to advocate for Carter in spite of the fact that Carter begs him not to. He doesn't listen to Carter. He cares about him. He wants him to succeed, and be healthy, and be safe, and be treated fairly. He will absolutely go to bat for him, he'll fight for him, he'll kill for him. He'll put himself on the line for Carter...
But he won't listen to him.
And the problem is Carter really needs to be heard. He can't ask for help when the only person he trusts and feels safe with is the one person who refuses to hear him. You know?
But the thing is, Benton does change. Reese softens him. Carter softens him. He does love, and he loves deeply. But he cannot accept that he can't control the world enough to shield them.
It takes him a long time to accept that Reese is deaf because it's something he can't fix, and something he perceives as a flaw.
It's easy for him to operate on Carter because he CAN fix his body. But he cannot believe he's an addict, he struggles with how to connect with him after because he can't fix Carter's trauma.
BUT WE SEE HIM CHANGE FOR REESE SO THERE'S NO REASON HE CAN'T CHANGE FOR CARTER.
And the problem is, the way their relationship ends implies a resolution that, again, we NEVER see. At Benton's departure, there's an underlying promise that they will stay in touch, that Carter will come to Benton the second he calls.
And at the end of the show, Benton finally does the things that Carter has always needed from him. He sits, he listens. He can't physically do the transplant, but he understands Carter's fear, and his loneliness, and his isolation, and he talks him through it.
AND THAT WOULD BE FINE EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT THIS CHANGE HAPPENS OFF SCREEN WHEN ALL THE IMPETUS FOR IT HAPPENED LIKE SEVEN YEARS AGO.
There's a temporal disconnect between the inciting incident and the resolution that makes it feel not unearned, but disconnected and honestly unsatisfying. A little bit "huh? since when?" and a little bit "too little too late."
Benton Not at the Airport
Uuuuugh, one of my favourite moments. You can SEE the heartbreak on Carter's face. It's not even a betrayal. He's not mad that Benton's not there. He's just proved right. He's been abandoned again.
And the show never addresses this. Like, either they're estranged and the relationship dies OR they grow and the relationship evolves. But the show tries to do both, and it drives me crazy. What am I supposed to believe?
I mean, I'll watch an episode and go, "You know, maybe this is overblown, maybe they're just colleagues, and I'm imposing all this on a totally meh relationship that fades away organically. They don't owe each other anything. I just wish it was more."
And then I'll watch an episode they're in together, and the show is going:
and I'm sorry, but if this is the one half of the story:
If this is Carter asking to be heard, and Benton admitting to caring, but not wanting to hear. If this is the first half of the argument, the first half of the lesson, then this:
THIS OBVIOUS MIRROR IS THE CONCLUSION. This is Peter making his choice, not just to care, but to HEAR. He LISTENS to Carter here. He SEES him here. And this time, when Carter pushes him, he doesn't push him back. He doesn't put him down.
THAT is Peter's decision.
So if you're gonna walk it back, we have to see it. And if you're not gonna walk it back, then something else has to happen next. This is a moment of growth. BUT WE NEVER SEE IT GROW INTO ANYTHING!
I'm like, "WTF if anything I'm downplaying this...thing. Whatever the fuck they've got going on."
They set up these incredible character moments that ARE insightful and ARE well-written and ARE fascinating, and for some reason, they can explore the cause and conflict, but they cannot do the resolution. What the heck, man?
And so back to your point about there always being (often literally) a barrier between them, yeah! And we never see that barrier lifted which feels frustrating because either shut the fucking door, Peter, or let him in. But stop standing in the threshold, half-in and half-out like it's fucking Schrödinger's Relationship.
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