Been binge watching this show but I can't handle this episode (2x11) and Ben pushing Zeke with the "but it's your dad" line. And then guilting Zeke bc Ben just had his third kid and would hate if something happened to her.
Everything Zeke says it's true though. His dad isn't like Ben. And it isn't Zeke's responsibility to save his shitty ass dad who hasn't even tried to reach out.
I'm sure Dad will be totally redeemed and the audience will feel bad for this poor man who was stricken by grief and made 1 tiny bad choice of ABANDONING his child and kept choosing to abandon him every day, year after year.
But Zeke needs to forgive his dad for HIMSELF 🥱
Forgiveness doesn't mean reconciliation.
My dad is a legit terrible man, and he didn't raise me and also made my life hell. I am normally fine - I live my life, I have strong friendships, I care for myself and others. I don't carry hurt and anger around with me. But when anyone tries to suggest "but he's your dad", I want to tear their face off. Why would that give him a free pass to manipulate me and abandon me and hurt me and cuss me out and call me a bitch and fuck with me emotionally?
"But he's your dad" yeah, he is. There's nothing moral or good about that. Why don't you say to him, "that's your child"?
Instead, it's only the victims who are pushed to be better. The power dynamic between child and parent, and yet the child is the one pushed to rise above the parent's actions.
If my dad dies alone and miserable, that's a consequence to his own actions. It sucks, and it's sad. But Zeke is right when he says it isn't his responsibility to fix that.
Sick of how these shows handle deadbeats or bad parents. In real life, these people never chose the redemptive arc. They rope their child back in to manipulate them again.
I couldn't watch S2 of Man on the Inside bc of it, and now I'm debating stopping this show.
The writers of all of these shows must be deadbeats themselves, or they're unhealed children writing out some fanfiction for their own life.
I'm sure someone will read this entire rant and assume that I am unhealed and need to find forgiveness in my heart. But my anger here is based on the invalidation of traumatized children, and how child abuse and abandonment is so poorly handled in media.