#dfmb

"He's keeping you in the closet, where he can just open the door and get you out whenever he wants to."

And Link looks like : hold on a second is this about- oh it is haha. He also attempts to sympathize more with the boyfriend, as his dad basically calls him good for nothing.

He's joked that he's a better cohost than Rhett, has suggested that Link dumps him for the pregnancy prank, I have an inkling that he knows something about their situation and thinks Link deserves better.

You're right that Link was a bit awkward throughout but here's the funny thing; I believe something towards the end of this interaction was actually more eyebrow-raising than the beginning. In the beginning, yes, Link looks somewhat uncomfortable and a bit like he empathizes with the girl and cares about her feelings, but one can argue that he was also worried that his father's bluntness could turn the girl away from keep watching them. It's quite surreal that Link was schooling Charles about tact in this episode. At least now we know it runs in the family (like longevity genes btw, that's really good, it was crazy nice hearing Charles talk to his mom!). Link seemed to really want to stress that his discomfort stemmed from his concern about the girl's feelings. Then he immediately started comparing the situation with his own rare inclusion of Christy in his social media and excusing it. But all of that, I can let it pass. It could really just be concern for the girl's feelings.

Later, however, they talk about this poor guy who does not know how to communicate to his wife that her lasagna dish is horrible and she's gonna be shredded to pieces in the cooking contest. There, Charles says he would try to tell his wife, but tactfully so. At that moment, a lowkey wild Link perks up and questions Charles' conviction. He tells Charles he does not have tact, that he's not nice when receiving gifts, that he does not know how to be polite, that he does not have it in him, that he does not know "how to give the bad news" *eyebrow raise* and he goes on and on. He tops it off by telling Charles; "I am not saying you are an a**hole and a jerk, but-" which, because I like to call it what it is, is something you phrase this way only when you're badly itching to say that he IS an asshole and a jerk.

So, at that moment I was like, whoa dude where did this all come from? One could say that maybe Link was offended in the past by Charles' extreme bluntness, maybe disliking a gift or whatever, but it felt like Link was really feeling it at the moment. Especially Link saying Charles does not know how to give the bad news fits way too neatly with what they were discussing just moments earlier, when Charles was telling the girl her boyfriend keeps her in the closet in order to keep his options open. Conclusively, I found the continuation of the interaction hinting at Link's frustration about his own situation even more than the weird faces he was pulling in the beginning.

As for Charles knowing more than we would imagine, I have thought that too. Link also said in the beginning of this very episode something like "So... you're not that good at keeping secrets then". He said it with a playful demeanour but also as if he was taking something important into consideration. On the other hand, if I were Rhett or Link, I would not trust Charles with such a secret. But I do agree that Charles seems to know some stuff. Perhaps he understands more than he openly lets on, now that he is closer with Link and interacts with him frequently. I mean, it's not hard to see how devoted to Rhett heart-and-soul Link is. Besides, Charles, who might look like an oblivious old straight and all, has been quite in the playfield (to a fault actually - he was a neglectful father in the past and not a committed husband until late maturity, let's call things what they are). Even if he's straight and old, having a lot of experience in the playfield will give him some added intuition about charged interactions between others, let alone between his son and that guy he's 24/7 with since first grade... So yeah, I think he knows stuff but I am not sure how open he is to Link about what he knows or how much Link might have confided in him. What's certain is that Rhett would absolutely not want Charles to know the tiniest bit.

Some additional notes:

I don't want to make this seem more dramatic than it was. I mean, Link did say all that stuff but he was smiling and all, it's not like he was shouting or being angry. You could tell however that some cord inside him was touched lol

I want to acknowledge that Charles has grown a lot since his earlier days. He said he has become better in some things (like giving feedback) and I think he speaks the truth.

In the same wavelength, wow, Charles has grown a LOT as a podcast host. I don't watch DFMB a lot, so his evolution is striking to me. He is the epitome of "you are not born great at something, you get better at your work with time and experience". He literally gave me work confidence lmao

What the heck was that about the scam email pretending to be Rhett?!?!?! This shows that they have scammers that are not generic but are targeting them in specific and designate the right scams for them!!! Faking to be Rhett in order to talk to Charles "about something"? Wow. They also seemed to imply they get such messages trying to fish for something... and I am not 100% sure it's about money. Scammers would know they have like dozens of tech savvy employees dealing with the financial stuff... right?! (Of course a scammer just hits wherever they can and they could still take their chances asking for money but it definitely is very weird...)

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Link: ONLY 10 inches??? If it were me I'd ask for more of a dramatic improvement, amirite???