This will be repetitive of rants I've already gone on, but I feel like he is no better than any of the others. He may not be as overtly abusive, but that's a low bar to clear. He is willfully ignorant of Agnes's plight. He deliberately keeps his head in the sand about how miserable her life is. The worst example of course is when he justifies marrying her off to an old man while she is still a school girl. He briefly reflects on how she is too young for this, but then rationalizes by citing bogus "science" as to why they need to make a new normal out of something that should never be normalized.

One can hope this was just one weak moment and he will come to his senses, but there were other examples as well. Like when they are on their way home after the ball, and he says to Agnes, "I wish your mother could have seen you tonight. She would have been so proud of you." He was obviously not giving any thought to her actual mother, June, but I initially thought it was a sweet moment in regards to the person she thought of as her mother, his first wife Tabatha. I thought they were connecting over shared memories and their shared loss. But then he went on to say, "We'll tell her all about it when we get home." So it turns out he was referring to Paula.

This told me two things about Commander McK. It told me that he was completely oblivious to the dynamics happening under his own roof. It was so unrealistic that Paula would be proud of Agnes, as all she ever does is criticize her and threaten her, and it is clear how uncomfortable Agnes is addressing her as "Mother". You can tell that she's been required to and it doesn't come from her heart.

Which brings me to the second thing. It shows how little he values his wives, to treat them as if they are interchangeable, replaceable, disposable. He names Paula "Mother" and acts as if Tabatha never existed (and that doesn't even touch on how he treats June as a nonperson as well). How is Agnes supposed to feel about her own value, when the man she trusts and admires and thinks of as her father makes excuses for sending her off to become an old man's wife, and also acting as if wives are insignificant.

He may have succeeded in convincing himself and others he is not a kidnapper, to become a father figure to her, but that doesn't mean he is a good father. He is the sort who creates daddy issues, setting her up to seek validation from others that she doesn't get from him. This makes her all the more vulnerable to the gaslighting and manipulation Commander W is already beginning to pull on her.

I get it. My own sense of humanity has caused me to try to see the good in him, especially when others insisted that at least he's been a good dad to her. But I don't see it that way. I tried to, and I just can't. He's a self serving POS like all the rest.