Meet The Royal Mess

Claire said “I love you” while also being capable of minimizing his struggles and even mocking him. And we know how both Donna and Mikry weaponized those words, too, to make Carmen give in to the abuse. And as much as I love Richie, he was enabling both Donna and Mikey as he grew up, he actively engaged on it and imitated it, resulting in the blaming and passive agression that is part of their present dynamic.

I’m rewatching The Office right now, and this meta takes me back to a quote by Jim Halpert when he was criticizing Dwight Schrute for always having Michael Scott’s back: “What is he getting out of this?” which was immediately followed by his disappointed look at the cameras, because his criticism also applied to him. Because he loved Pam Beesly and would do anything for her despite being engaged to someone else.

First off, it parallels Sydney's nightmare (I'm gonna save my thoughts on what this means for her character for another post), but I want to talk about what it means for the show's themes.

Water is associated (symbolically/spiritually) with the release of emotions. I think I first heard this from one of my mediation teachers; she said that when something in your house is broken and releases a lot of water, it means you are dealing with emotions that you don't want/cant bring to the surface. This is part of a belief system based on the idea that reality responds to our inner worlds, and other creators like @thoughtfulchaos773 have mentioned this in their posts, too.

So if I were to draw a conclusion about what would happen in this season, it would be that this is the season to release the feelings that have been contained so far. It is the season of emotional catharsis. And that's very significant, considering there have been a lot of tears in the past seasons, but I think that's what the show wants to tell us: not a single one of those was addressing the real issues; the real issues are still unaddressed.

Because the real issue is abuse. Carmy hasn't cried for real yet, cause he hasn't made a decision to defend his inner child. He hasn't actually processed all the sadness and anger he has inside, nor have Nat and Michael; otherwise, they wouldn't still be cuddling and justifying Donna.

He dated Claire, but only because his family pushed it. It even came to a point where they gave Claire the “Bear” by branding her “Claire bear”. This was never Carmy’s doing. It was all his family. But where do we exactly see Carmy practice his agency? With Syd.

In a world full of choices made for him, Carmy chose Syd. He chose her to stage. He chose her to be retained in a room full of employees chosen for him. He chose her to be his CDC. But most importantly, he chose to give her The Bear. Not his family. Him.

You brought music back into the house. I had forgotten.