Yep, even if I am sort of suicidal at the time. There’s a short list of people I don’t have these reservations about, and that’s because they’ve all been there at one time or the other, too.

http://postsecret.com/2015/01/18/sunday-secrets-60/6-cutting/#main

I get what you’re saying. On the one hand I LOVE these characters, that they are *real* and imperfect. On the other hand it’s then frustrating when they do or say something so wrong that we almost can’t believe it, because we *like* them, and we want to like them all the time.

Al comes across as this competent guy but he’s hiding a lifetime of insecurity, and has had longer to make screw-ups than Brendan has and to think about them. Brendan’s this young man who’s still in that over-confident full-of-himself phase where you think you know everything and hasn’t had the time yet to really make grand mistakes, and be humbled by them. And like he said way back, he doesn’t know how to fail

Look at his face; he’s scared and upset and he cares about Al but his response is to FIX IT I MUST FIX IT. I’ve had a similar thing confided in me (I managed not to go with the automatic “well stop it then) reaction, thank goodness) so I get where he’s coming from, it’s a kneejerk reaction, but a really unhelpful one.

The contrast between young Brendan, who tries to stick his oar in and control things, and older Brendan who worries more but also listens more, is really interesting. When he made Sulla, he listened enough to let her decide to be a *her* despite his own original intentions for her. So he learned something from whatever’s going to happen.

i concur: as far as i see it, everything progresses just smoothly, here

what stake does one have in a story where all is hunky-dorie, and, one is never “challenged”?

(i’m still looking for Enomalie to come back…..)

I mean, his reaction is understandable, but it displays a lack of trust in Al, as well as a lack of understanding…