At some point, in my copious free time (haha), I want to go back and really pay attention to who's the POV/framing character of each episode of Only Friends and what consequent impression we get of all the other characters from the ep.
At least partially because Ray's seemed like the designated punching bag in the wake of Ep 8, and I can't help wondering if that's influenced by his presentation from Boston's POV, which is not only pretty unforgiving in general, but is also the POV of a guy who's seemed to have had it out for Ray the entire show. I've seen people talk about how they find subtextual signs of friendship between these two, but if so, it's a friendship that's gone badly wrong. Boston's been consistently, deliberately mean to Ray - not just thoughtless or selfish, as he can be with other characters - since Ep 1, when he calls Ray a "burden" when he's drunk, echoing the language Ray uses for himself when he's at his suicidal lowest. Then add in the fact that Ray's the one who spilled to Mew about Boston and Top, setting off this whole chain-reaction that's estranged Boston from his friends group, as well as pressing on his issues about exposure. Yeah, Ray behaved badly, and he should never, ever snort up again because he's an asshole on coke, but there's also no way Ray's going to look like anything other than his absolute worst - practically malicious rather than a fucking mess - if we're looking at him through the lens of Boston.
Similarly, Boston's seemed, if not actually friendly, at least on decent terms with Sand - enough to feel like he can say what is or isn't Sand's usual stash. I ... don't know at this point if he knows that Sand was the actual leak re: Nick's sex recording, rather than Ray getting it directly from Nick? If he doesn't know, there's even more reason for Sand to come across as a stand-up guy stuck dealing with an absolute asshole - despite Sand also having some responsibility for what's going on between him and Ray. (Because a) I still want to know what Ray's dad wanted Sand to help him out with - and does Sand have some kind of ulterior motive for his interactions with Ray, at this point? And b) I question whether there wasn't a point that if Sand had stopped pushing Ray away by saying they weren't anything more than friends, Ray wouldn't have fallen into this thing with Mew so easily. Yo and Plug aren't just randomly breaking up in the middle of Ray and Sand having a fight. They're breaking up because Yo is Sand. Sand's commitment issues after Boeing or whoever, and the way that's affecting the SandRay relationship, in which Ray has made a ton of soft overtures, pursuing and pursuing, are Yo's commitment issues in a now-failing relationship that initially started because of Plug's courtship. It's maybe the most blunt-force writing we've seen in the show - Yo and Plug's relationship got fridged to make a statement about Sand and Ray's relationship.)
ANYWAY, just because Boston's not in a scene doesn't mean we're not seeing other characters through his lens, in his POV episode.
I also found Force's portrayal of Top in this ep interesting, including the way he interacts with Boston, given the visible discomfort and unease he's portrayed around Boston in other eps, particularly in sexual situations. Instead we get that weirdly companionable moment Boston and Top have, when Top doesn't take any shit from Boston, and in response, Boston doesn't take any offense to his threats. Cheum isn't the only one who looks to Top to solve the problem with the police - so does Boston. Top is actually pretty solid and steady and take-charge in this ep, but he also constantly looks kind of hangdog and whipped, and that may give some insight into how Boston tends to see him, as well as how he sees Top's current fixation on Mew.
Cheum is over-invested in Top winning back Mew, an amplification of her encouragement of their relationship since the beginning, and overall tiresome in her self-appointed role as cop-without-a-badge, but without any real force - nothing she says here manages to reach the level of dismissing Boston as a heartless slut in front of everyone and his date - which may indicate that Boston doesn't actually give a shit about Cheum.
Mew, on the other hand - the one who threatened to out Boston to his father and possibly the world via revenge porn, and all that after locking down Top in a chastity belt - spends his time either moping around and feeling sorry for himself or being a self-centered, smugly superior, thoughtless and sometimes malicious little fuck, encouraging his addict "best friend" to drink and do drugs with him, doing everything he can to make Top's life miserable including openly using Ray to try making Top jealous, and trying to poke his fingers into Boston's wounds - which of course Boston brushes off, because he'd see himself as above whatever Mew could throw at him. And then after all that, he can't even hold his liquor. Amateur.
Don't get me started on how soft and pretty Nick looks in this ep. I don't know if that's Boston's lens, or if that's just Mark Pakin.
