#i also started noting down all the time stamps of hawk & tim's scenes together so i can watch them in chronological order later

[midnightrings]

Finished the new episode and … wow, I don’t even know what to say. This show just keeps getting better and better.

(spoilers for ep7!)

I especially love what an unexpected turn it took. Like, we start the show in the 80s, yet most of my theories about those characters and their story was partly or completely wrong.

Going into the story, it felt as if Hawk had his life more or less figured out. He had chosen to live a straight life, chosen his family over Tim and chosen to hide his sexuality – with regret seemingly being his only struggle. Yet we find out that he, too, ended up spiraling throughout the course of his life – losing his son, abandoning his family, battling addiction. Meanwhile, Tim appeared to be the one who had to go through the most trouble, especially due to Hawk. Yet now we see him as a man that has his life figured out and knows who he is. I even feel like Tim’s character development has more or less come to an end. Of course we still see him deal with his past in the 80s, and I’m sure the last episode will still do a lot with his character. But 70s!Tim is a lot closer to 80s!Tim than 70s!Hawk is to 80s!Hawk.

On top of this, I thought in the beginning that their story would consist of Hawk pushing Tim away while Tim continues to cling onto him. And it’s not completely wrong. Hawk does struggle with love and vulnerability, and Tim keeps going back to him despite knowing better. But from what we have seen so far, it was usually Tim who has decided to leave Hawk. At the same time, Hawk is clearly relying on Tim, unable to let him go.

It's almost funny how it always seemed like Hawk would choose his family over Tim, when in reality, Hawk has chosen his family for Tim.

I’m really interested to see how they wrap it all up. This is such an excellent show, I’m so glad I decided to watch it.