#itv1

i analyse max carter’s behaviour a lot of the time, and one thing i’ve noticed is his “lying tendencies”. i have 2 examples of this, both from 2009; righteous kill parts 1&2 (25x13, 25x14) and backlash (25x55).

in righteous kill, max tells sam nixon that he does not regret the shooting of thomas jankowski. he tells her this in both part 1 and 2; however between these events, during part 2 max is talking to jankowski’s wife (julie) and he tells her that he’s always felt sorry, and has clear remorse. yet he seems to have a genuine guilt towards that.

in backlash, when talking to 12 yea old noah morris, who’s mum is in hospital and they don’t know why, he tells noah his own parents divorced when he was 9 and he was raised thereafter by a single mother. shortly afterwards, jo masters says she didn’t know his parents were divorced (which i don’t really see as something he would want to bring up so that’s a slightly interesting comment in itself) and he ever so casually brushes her off and says “they’re not; ruby anniversary in june” (however there’s no specification as to whether that mean the june juts gone (2009) or the next june (2010)). but that seems ever so much more easier for him than when he was telling noah his parents were divorced.

i can’t honestly work out whether there’s a connection here. there’s the element that i’m mostly positive about; max is terrified to confront his own feelings, and because he’s never gonna see julie and not again he feels more confident in being truthful. however he sees sun hill cid daily, and he doesn’t want to look in any way vulnerable to them. so lying to them but telling the public the truth is his only option.

but it’s that case of could i be wrong? could that be max’s intentions, and there’s more manipulation under there that we can see. we know max is a dick, but is this a part of it or are these his genuine feelings. part of me believes there’s that chance that he’s telling the truth about being raised by a single mother since he was 9, but there’s that confirmed element that they don’t seem to get along well (cowboy country, 24x38 “i hope you phone your mother more than young max here”, max has the face of thunder when father panel says this to terry perkins) and there’s that chance he represses his feelings due to being told he wasn’t allowed to feel emotion or that either parent pushed the toxic masculinity onto him, not wanting him to be in any way weak.

there is also the drugs storyline (26x15-22 on and off). there’s a scene in the locker room and a scene outside the building, and both stand out to me. when terry drags him outside and confronts him, max says “what do you think i am? an addict?” and in the locker room a few episodes prior, he seems to all but have a crisis before terry comes in which stops him from taking the coke he has on him. max refuses to admit he is a cocaine addict. which is an issue in itself. addiction is a terrible thing, however what terry seems to forget is that it’s a disease. he seems more interested in locking max up and taking away his career, rather than focusing on max’s wellbeing and getting him help. yes he did offer him to go to the detective inspector, however terry’s first response was to threaten an arrest for possession. confronting an addict like that will make them more adamant that they aren’t an addict and push them further from help. terry likely made max that but worse then. i have no clue whether he was still taking in 26x26 after he returned from the leave he conned neil manson out of, but max is confident, arrogant, and want to prove his points. i personally believe he did as it gives him one up on terry. and it terry pushes it, max could give clean blood results and there then looks jealous of max as an officer, or juts all around paranoid. and that conniving side of max would love to witness that.