Reality is Optional

The way everyone just humors his manhood, just like they humor him as Laura’s partner, but never truly accepted him because he was never ‘one of them’. His manhood is only affirmed when he does something in favor of the Tall Pines Ponderosa cult to manipulate him. Like when he kills Riley, he’s just ‘a husband protecting his heavily pregnant wife’. But when he starts doing what he knows in his gut is the right thing, suddenly it’s all,

‘You’re a murderer and we are too forgiving of how fucked up you are because no one else will accept you, you just can’t help yourself when you get the chance to be violent, how many times are you gonna be the victim, I’m tired of cleaning up your messes, are you gonna arrest me officer, you’re a coward, I never liked you, you’re playing house, you’re a tragic cliché, living in a nuclear family fantasy, using Laura and her baby to make you feel like a Real Man’.

Just like Julia Serano says in Whipping Girl, a transsexual woman’s gender is considered ‘artificial’ if she’s particularly gender conforming. Laura’s personal bullshit aside, Alex wanted to be a better dad and a better man than his father was for Laura and their baby, and he’s ridiculed, accused of delusion and manipulation to roleplay his idea of what a ‘man’ is. Alex’s traditional masculinity in his transsexual body is considered ‘artificial’ and ‘false’.

“but what if i did?”

“… then i’m best friends with a murderer.”

and what if i told you that was the most loving line i’d heard? what if i told you in this entire series about erasing the worst of us having a friend say they’ll still love you even if you murdered someone. what if your best friend saw your deepest darkest thought and true self you’re afraid to show in the light and embrace it fully because that’s what friends do…

The series fictionalizes the horror of surviving abuse. What does every abuse survivor fear the most?

Repeating the cycle.

What does the abuse survivor want the most? To save their inner child from the abuse.

This is why the open/false ending works so well. Does destroying the nuclear family end the cycle or repeat it? Does staying behind actually protect Alex's family? Or doom it?

Write it badly or it'll never be written

Write it badly or it'll never be written

Write it badly or it'll never be written

Write it badly or it'll never be written