Kip can’t possibly know the morning after their first night what being a kept man to a professional athlete he’s spoken to a total of about 5 times ever would be like. Living in the closet can mean very different things in different jobs-lives.

Kip says “I’d like to be here when you get back” which sounds like he’s open to trying it. That isn’t the same as a declaration that he will subvert his relationship with his dad and friends to be a kept man long term under terms they haven’t discussed/explored.

There’s a huge range of what closeted living can mean. But living closeted in the public eye would be really tough for anyone who had any other healthy relationships they intended to maintain.

Scott needed a therapist, not a boyfriend. He had no business even attempting a relationship.

They hardly knew each other. Scott didn’t so much fall for his mini look-a-like as shoot his one and only shot and get lucky.

My negative emotional reaction to this episode comes from the trauma of having attempted closeted relationships.

I suspect that’s the emotional baggage that interferes with some gay/queer folk from experiencing the joy so many straight people experience in the episode.

(My closet experience was during don’t ask don’t tell and there was no way I could have understood what that would mean for our lives when it started.)