Curate, connect, and discover
Anytime I watch one of these incel coded movies that only portray male mental health with anger issues, I get reminded of Dennis Reynolds and the fascinating decision to give him BPD, the disorder of feeling too much. It's such a fkn fantastic idea that completely strays away from the usual apathy as a solution to anger. And with this new knowledge, the narrative around his character is shifted. Dennis is still an angry misogynistic character but it's explicitly a coping mechanism and an exaggerated facade to try and fit in within this culture.
What is glamorized in bro culture, here it's carefully developed against it. Bro culture strives to have control, to have no-strings attached sex, to be angry and strong and the leader of the house. When it comes to Dennis, he would need the total opposite to truly strive. No control, a meaningful relationship where he feels seen, to feel the totality of his emotions, to not have responsibilities.
Thinking about Frank vs Russia again. And about the confirmation that the SINNED system was created at the same time as the DENNIS one. We know Dennis perfected his system for women but we haven't seen him ever date a man or keep a man. We have no confirmation of what he's done, and based on Dennis' eagerness in knowing if Dee and Mac got 2nd dates, I like to think he's never even tested it before. It was all based on observations. He kept it secret all these years and finally saw potential now to test it out through them. When's the second date? He's eager to know. Does it work.
And it does. Ofc it does. It was foolproof. He knew that.
Dennis isn't against a romance with Mac. The system exists since s6, Dennis clearly WANTS to keep a man. He just doesn't understand how that's already happened. Mac likes him? Wdym, he hasn't done the steps yet. Dennis just confirmed that the system works.
We know Dennis' outburst basically meant "You can't be in love with Johnny because he doesn't love you Mac, I don't love you. Move on."
But it also meant "You can't be in love with Johnny because Johnny is me! And you're not in love with me!"
Dennis is rejecting love on all grounds, in both directions. This isn't part of the plan, part of the scheme. This isn't his goal, not now. He's not ready and Mac isn't either.
The goal was simply to get Mac's attention back. To bring them back on equal footing. To be friends again. Dennis is fixing the friendship first, and Mac is being impatient and an idiot and jumping at romance and ruining the careful pacing Dennis is creating.
i still think its funny how people misinterpret the gang chokes as dennis wanting mac to Take Charge, take care of, and control him rather than just wanting mac to be more self-assured and reliable (ie. able to save someone from dying of his own free will) when one of dennis' common complaints in early seasons was that mac was too bossy. if you ever find yourself talking about power struggles, remind yourself that dennis doesn't want real power, he just wants the illusion of power. he only needs this because he doesn't want to be out of control. he's happier when he and mac are on equal footing.
I'm sure there has to be meta surrounding Dennis and keeping the cameras constantly rolling but I haven't seen any (feel free to direct me to them), do we all think he's doing this in some part out of self protection?
Not to undermine how creepy and invasive it is for the women to be filmed, but I really do believe he feels safer with video footage.
We know Dennis has control over every particle in his life and he's tired, he's fkn exhausted, he wants to let that control go sometimes, he wants to be bound, but it's scary to be that vulnerable, he can't fully allow that for himself, so he keeps some sort of power advantage with the cameras. Just in case. So maybe, maybe, those cameras Dennis has in his room are proof for him that he's safe, he'll be safe.
And then he shows the footage to his friends to make sure it all went well, that everyone's happy, to receive praise that he did a good job.