#I like that his wardrobe has kind of fused the nerdy Mike and the Mike that wanted to be edgier

[thy-lovelylionheart]

I’m gonna be so for real, if El dies, I can’t imagine Hop being a functional police chief. I can’t picture him being a functional person. That’s one reason I don’t think these new leak photos are proof of El dying like a lot of people are treating them as.

Because he literally talks in s4 about how he blames himself for his daughter Sarah’s death and he feels like a curse, and that he’s afraid he curses everyone that he loves and cares about. And in s2 he talks about how he’s like a black hole, sucking people in and destroying them.

El dying would be confirmation of these things in his brain. It would prove to his mind that he is indeed a curse and shouldn’t be close to anyone less they get hurt.

So I don’t think he would be able to be a police chief anymore. I don’t think he would be able to even stay in a relationship with Joyce. I think he would go on an extremely self-destructive spiral because would be proof that he is a curse in his mind. It would be him losing another daughter. Losing another child.

I can’t imagine him being okay after that. I just can’t. He did go through a lot of growth in s4, but that growth was about fighting through the fear of emotional vulnerability and the fear of getting close to people, so that he can get back to El and be her father. Because he loves her and she’s his daughter and he wants to be there for her.

And if she dies? Total regression. Complete breakdown. Nothing else would make sense.

And since her dying would confirm in his mind that he is a curse who brings harm to others, he would probably distance himself from Joyce, so the argument of, “well he would lose El, but he would gain two sons by being with Joyce“ is implausible, but also pretty dang icky and diminishes the value and love Hop holds for El, and all of his memories with her and time he spent raising her as a single father.

It’s not like he will lose another daughter and go, “oh well, I’ve been through this before, it sucks, but I’ve gotten better at coping with the loss of a child.”

So yeah. I can’t even fathom that the new leaked photos somehow point to El being dead because imo there is no way in hell Hop would still be Chief, look that put together, and be that calm if they’re discussing El’s supposed demise.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—there are other reasons to look sad and emotional!