#olicolm

Like, Malcolm is incredibly intelligent and a genius when it comes to people, so he absolutely knows Ollie. He knows that he is ambitious, he knows that he is self serving, he knows that he can't keep a secret to save his life, and yet when he has to go to someone for help to get the press away from him when he's planning his arrest, the ONE politician he goes to is Ollie. (Sam doesn't count because she's a civilian and also an angel except for all of the illegal, morally questionable stuff)

I mean sure, you could say that he was expecting Ollie to leak this, just like with Fleming and the inquiry at the end of s3, but I just really don't think so!!! (And I'm always right, trust me)

He really does seem shocked and panicked when the press finds out, and absolutely heartbroken (and simultaneously desperate and resigned but that's a whole different matter) when they ambush him, and it's because he trusted Ollie. He could have phoned anyone and it is Ollie he chooses. I mean honestly, who in their right mind would trust that man???

But he does trust him, and of course it backfires. Of course he trusts him, because Ollie can be trusted to do what Malcolm wants, he ALWAYS HAS.

Even in the last episode, honestly the whole last season, where Ollie has stabbed him so many times that Malcolm's back has more holes than it does flesh, he's doing what Malcolm taught him.

He's doing what the party (and the party is Dan now, Malcolm has ensured that) has told him to, and he's plotting, and he's taking over the job Malcolm practically begged him to, in the exact way he has been moulded to, he's been shaped into this with patient and affectionate violence even if it's not in the way he planned it.

Ollie has become the job, and the parasite that consumed Malcolm from the inside has passed to him just like it was supposed to, because the job will survive beyond all other things. He is the job, he has become Malcolm, and what could be more intimate than that?

I'd be right.

Seriously, how do you get back with your ex-girlfriend, who you were only with because your not-quite-boss told you to be, because said man pushed you up against a bathroom sink and threatened you into it whilst you stared at his lips in a straight way???

Not possible.

and people called Nicola Murray smug??? he's basically "slimy, conniving earthworm" but a man stumbling his way up the ladder of British politics by 'accidentally' falling onto people with a knife I his hand. In this essay I will...

really though, I actually hate him, but also he's SO interesting. I want to put him in a jar and shine a very bright light into it to see whether he thrives or curls up into a ball and cries.

and it's probably some weird third option because it's him, and he exists in order to prolong his own existence. that's either very human or very not

BUT I MEAN FLICKING BETWEEN MALCOLM AND OLLIE'S EXPIRING, MANIPULATIVE, HOMOEROTIC/PARASITIC, FUCKED UP RELATIONSHIP AND DAN AND OLLIE'S DEVELOPING, MANIPULATIVE, SELF-HATRED INDUCING, FUCKED UP RELATIONSHIP IN THE LAST EP IS INSANE!!!

like the two of them go from playing squash together weekly (and they so dated, you can't prove me wrong, so I'm obviously right) to what I can only assume is a couple years with no meaningful contact, to Ollie manipulating Dan into the position of party leader, and then immediately to Ollie caving to Dan's every whim.

like, yeah, ofc Ollie wanted Malcolm's job, and for that he needed Malcolm gone, but I seriously doubt he wanted him gone during the change of leadership, before he'd even got a foothold as a party spin doctor. there's a whole room of people in charge of the party's press and image and you're going to tell me he was prepared to bet on them just stepping out of the way??? he's an idiot, but he isn't stupid. he might think he's manipulating Dan but all it takes is a two minute conversation and he's putting his own career on the line to stab Malcolm in the back when the man is ALREADY FINISHED.

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ABOUT THE SCENE WITH THE TWO OF THEM AT LEWISHAM POLICE STATION. like Dan realises everything there is going smoothly and this isn't going to work and immediately turns on Ollie, who then just apologises, desperately tries to prove himself useful by offering advice on HOW TO STAND (seriously Ollie???), and then diffuses the situation by betraying MALCOLM BLOODY TUCKER. like come on.

Ollie's job is not safe. Dan would stab him in the back in a heartbeat, and they both know it because Ollie just watched Dan throw Malcolm - THE MAN WHO GOT HIM INTO POWER AND HANDLED ANY OPPOSITION FOR HIM- over. and for what??? to make sure nothing taints his image? or because that's a level of power he doesn't want to compete with?

Ollie is not safe because even Malcolm was not safe, and whilst Ollie might have become Malcolm, he's not nearly as good at it (yet). even Dan and Ollie's post s4 semi-casual, deeply secret relationship (they resume their S1 shit, but with way more mutual self hatred, deep distrust, ambition, and genuine disgust for each other, trust me) won't save him because Dan has out Ollied Ollie.

he is, in fact, even more of a slimy, self-serving piece of shit, and they've climbed the political ladder together, so now one of them has to push the other off with a knife in their back.

Obviously.

@rattuswrennus courtesy of your overindulgence of my yapping as usual x

I fear they have wormed their way deep into my mind and burrowed into the matter of my brain just like they insinuated themselves into each other's brains/lives/psyches/deeply messed up senses of self

"I'm trying hard so baby, please/Don't sink in me with your dog teeth"

(but please do if you want to)

(but please do if it will help me have be you)

"God I'm already on my knees"

"I kneel before what temper broke the branches on the beach"

"You don't need me like you think you do"

"And I can't pull you through"

"No matter how hard they cry, a dog is a dog is a dog is a dog is a dog and they still get hungry"

(and I will cry)

(and I will consume become you)

(and I will cry as I become what you warned will destroy me. I will cry as I take your place, the place that might have been ours if I were not a parasite, if you had not infected me)