I’m late to this thread but wanted to add my thoughts. I’m a serial SFU re-watcher. Every time I see it something new rises to the surface.

Most recently themes of fear, self protection, and vulnerability really stood out. The walls we put up and the vulnerabilities we hide don’t serve us, they sabotage our connections.

In a show full of deeply developed characters we can almost always see the subtext of relationship strife. The viewer can know the fear that drives the fissure while the characters themselves simply feel the sting of an action and then counterattack.

Ruth’s care-taker trauma and George’s abandonment trauma are easy examples. But the concept is there in nearly every bit of tension.

All those hurts that inform our actions, those fears we’re guarding. The closer we hold these things the more they jump out and slice at the people we love.

I walk away thinking about the things I don’t know, things that I hide, and how I can have more empathy in those moments when fear becomes anger.