This man has me in a chokehold and has bewitched me body and soul 🙂♥️

Thanks to my friend Yasmine for the idea!

He says "you aren't my mother, my mother is a bitch" to his hivemind mom. Most of the fandom take this to mean he isn't close to her/hates her. But in that case, why would the hivemind have her try to manipulate him? We don't see any of the people Carol hated before the Joining be used to approach her.

No, I think that when Manousos says "my mother is a bitch" he means it positively; he means that she's fierce and grumpy and prickly (rather like someone we know) and rude and mean, but still his mother, and he actually likes that about her. He knows she isn't her because of the hivemind docility and subservience.

Him saying his mom is a bitch wasn't a way of saying they're estranged- it was a compliment, and telling the hive they've taken one of his favorite things about her.

I think part of the reason she struggles more with being alone than Manousos does, is because it’s been less than a month since Helen died.

Manousos clearly lived alone, he doesn’t seem close with his family and we don’t know about any friends. He’s not grieving, he’s scared and confused and so so angry that this thing has taken so much.

They’re living two separate nightmares.

Manousos, who leaves gas money on the cars he uses and writes apology notes to customers that he doesn’t know will ever come back, is trapped in a world of thieves.