Was there any dialogue in his scenes that actually illustrated any aspect of his character or existence and motivation beyond ‘Belinda’s shit possibly-incel boyfriend’? Half of which leaned more on autistic than incel — not least in part because a hefty part of the definition of an incel doesn’t involve them having girlfriends.
Compare to say Mickey in Rose, where he’s *also* a shit boyfriend, but it’s couches in scenes that put him with mates in the pub, or not wanting Rose near his emails etc etc. Compare to *any* modern era companion whose boyfriend is part of their intro (ex in most cases by the time they are done, some sooner than others, with the exception of Rory) and it comes up half-written. Even if we consider him *just* in terms of being the monster in the episode, he still feels half baked — partially because we are supposed to pity him at least a bit, but we are also supposed to join in the giggles when someone says sperm in Saturday evening Family Entertainment before he’s sucked up into an oddly-occasionally-intelligent Roomba.
For something else in the episode that’s half baked, let’s throw in the Pex tribute act. We always knew Pex Lives.
There was the bones of a good story here, and probably a good two-parter (even allowing some stuff *might* be explained later in the season) but it’s a rushed high gloss thing instead, with a ton of telling without showing.
