One of my biggest reasons for why low-empathy autistic Martin is my favorite is how much it demolishes the whole “empathy = morality” and “low empathy = bad, feels other people don’t matter” thing. I have a lot of feelings so am gonna just dump ‘em all here in a disjointed manifesto.
Just look at it: He has a reputation for caring and for doting on people, but relies on tangible, accessible ways to show it. Bring them tea. Tell them to sleep. Listen to their problems. It’s very learned, or self-taught rather, and makes so much sense in the context of how he grew up caring for his mother. He flounders when those scripts are rejected:
Basira: You can’t just stand next to someone with a cup of tea and hope everything’s gonna be all right.
Martin: That’s not fair. You don’t even know me.
Martin: Oh–h-hi! Hey, hey Melanie, uh– Can I get youuuu… a… cup… of… tea?
Even when the apocalypse happened, he was using those scripts. Jon is in pain, Jon is despairing, time to make him a cup of tea! Martin’s never been in a “tea will solve everything” denial, but it’s a reliable, tangible way he uses to offer comfort and make someone feel supported. He doesn’t have a script for how to respond to “was just mentally tortured by our boss” or “blaming self for ending the world.”
We see him develop a new way to choose to care and be kind as their journey begins: treating the victims they meet as people, even if the victims can’t hear.
Also building off of the “the masking is lower priority in the apocalypse” ideas!! There’s a matter of who he’s around. For most of season 5, it’s just Jon! Jon who has so much faith in him, Jon who he knows loves and accepts him. There’s less of a need to perform and fit in, and the same goes the other way around. This is supported even more by how quickly Martin shifted back when Basira showed up: this is familiar territory again, defusing arguments and being group glue, and it quickly feels like we’re back to “the old Martin.”
I also love this for how it plays out in him and Jon being in a relationship. It’s very likely this is new territory for Martin! He demonstrates his caring by pushing Jon to share his feelings, but rarely shares his own. When he actually hears what those feelings are, they’re often hard for him to process, or he responds in ways that feel overly pragmatic or insensitive. It doesn’t come naturally to him.
There’s a jab Peter keeps returning to during season 4 as he tries to groom Martin for the Lonely: Be honest with yourself, Martin. You don’t really care, Martin. You never really cared, it’s all just habit. It’s so on-the-nose targeted towards someone where caring for others is a choice, not based on empathetic feelings. It’s so in line with how people talk about the idea of “low empathy.” But Martin threw it right back in his face, and it couldn’t be more satisfying.
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