Sometimes when reading a ranson fanfic, i’m hit with the fact that benson really doesn’t know randy at all during the events of the movie. Of course he gathers from the one year of working together that Randy’s doesn’t seem to know how to live his own life, that he’s a push over, that he lets things happen. And with these assumptions he believes he is the only person able to fix randy, to fix the things HE thinks need to be fixed. But that’s just from watching him from under a hat while they work together, he hasn’t actually had a conversation with the guy. He only knows Randy’s age, name, past relationships and traumas from short conversations that he pried out with fear. Benson truly didnt know randy , not his interest, not his pet peeves, his favorite music or color, not even his actual name. Sometimes I wonder if benson ever realized this while dragging randy around town. That at some point whether its randy telling him his real name, about Lisa or ms.beard, he came to realization that he truly never knew randy and would probably never get the chance after all is said and done. Now here Benson is, with four murders and a hostage he convinced himself he knew all about, moving through town without a plan to stick to. Maybe thats why he was so shocked and hurt that randy called the police, because it was something he didnt know randy could do. Maybe when he walks out of the diner towards the cops, he would think about what he did with randy and wonder what would have happened if they got to know each other before he did what he did, if it would have changed his feelings about him and help him figure out how to fix randy some other way. Maybe when he is shot down, he thinks about a world where he could have talked randy, asked him to hang out. It would have been nice.
And Randy might be looking at him in the parking lot, thinking the same.
Or thinking about how Benson might be the only person who had actually seen and understood him. Someone who might have known him better than anyone ever did.
i fully agree with your 4am thoughts, anon!
i think benson's first hint that he knows fuck all about randy might be around the time they meet up with lisa, like you say. like benson has it in his head that randy and lisa talking it out is gonna fix everything, but... he's really made a mountain out of a molehill there? like randy and lisa probably haven't even thought about each other in years, they didn't have any passionate or tumultuous relationship, they were just a couple of teens that dated for a while and then it fizzled out. i think we even see this a little when they're leaving the mall and benson's going "well she wasn't worth the FUSS now was she, randy" ... you mean the fuss that you caused, benson? lmaooo he's so frustrated that his big plan turned out to be a nothingburger. he was so sure he had this vital piece of randy's backstory but the lisa thing is just not that significant in the grand scheme of things. and if he was wrong about that... well, what else is he wrong about, yknow? what else has he gotten wrong about randy bradley?
and then the final straw is when randy called the cops, because in benson's mind, randy is not capable of that. randy would never do that. but he did! and benson didn't see it coming, because he doesn't know him! the tragedy is that, they absolutely could have known each other. as carter smith said, maybe they might have been good for each other! but nope. they got too caught up in their fantasies of what the other was like, and both of them turned out to be deeply wrong
ooh. thank you for this anon! sorry it took me so long to answer it, i've been chewing on it for like 3 days
