Tim and Alex is such an underexplored dynamic in the fandom and it pains me to see it because these two are such strong parallels to each other and I'm shocked they aren't drawn together more often especially as a ship? I normally see people portray Jay and Tim bonding over shared trauma with the operator but that could very much apply to Tim and Alex too.
Because it's Tim and Alex who were both branded by the operator as kids. It's Tim and Alex who had a normal life as adults only to have everything taken away from them. It's Tim and Alex who not only have taken a human life, but caused the death of the person most important to them.
Now imagine it's Tim and Alex who survive together and leave at the end of MH. They are changed forever and the trauma of what they went through leaves them feeling isolated from the world and it leads to them becoming a codependent mess fueled by guilt, anger, shame, and the desperation to cling to something from the normal life they had before.
They may not have been close friends in college, or even officially “friends” during Alex working on marble hornets, but when the grief of what they've done settles in neither of them can let go of the other because the thought of being alone after everything they've done and lived through feels worse than death.
And Tim would still want to help Alex come back as much as he can from everything, so leaving him behind was never an option. It's not in his nature to abandon someone who needs help, as we see in the entry where he confronts the operator instead of leaving Jay behind to save himself. It's why Masky was willing to help save Jessica. It's why Tim tried to talk Alex down after he shot Jay at the school. I'm also sure Tim would have helped Brian if he knew it was him under Hoody's mask.
One could argue why Tim wouldn't do the same for Jessica and bring her along too but in Tim's eyes Jess wasn't as far gone at the end of the series, so he felt confident she would be fine on her own and that it was for the best choice. But Alex? Alex is broken. He clearly can't be on his own and can't cope with the person he's become and what he's done.
It's why he will still blame Tim for everything while they try to survive on the road together, lashes out angrily and even physically during some moments, wanting Tim to stop looking at him with pity and to actually fight back properly for once so he can finally have a reason to let out all of his anger and guilt, guilt that eats Alex from the inside because despite everything he says Alex Knows it's his fault. He knows Seth and Amy and Jay died because of him but he can't accept it because 1) this is Alex Kralie. And 2) Alex Kralie, above everything he and the narrative want you to believe, is still human. A human who took human lives. It's an unbearable weight to carry.
And Tim understands. It’s why he accepts the blame when Alex throws it in his face and carries the weight of the dead on his shoulders for both of them. He convinces himself it's the least he could do to help Alex but deep down, he also does it because he truly believes everything is his fault and he wants to be punished for it.
So that is a big reason Tim feels this obligation to be there for Alex. He couldn't save Jay or Brian but he at least wants to save Alex, even if Alex hates him for it forever.
