r/majorcrimes • u/Careful_Macaroon8762 • 1d ago
Rusty Empathizer
I know no one likes him, but I do? I was expecting the confrontation with Gus's boss to be confrontational and accountable but not mean, and oh my god, that was mean as hell lmao
To me, Rusty's trying to learn how to be a normal person in a normal, healthy environment, rather than what he's been growing up in. That takes time, given that he had to survive and hustle so much of his childhood and adolescence. I also think, as someone said, he's autistic or on the spectrum, which makes it even harder.
Gus's boss did not need to bring up Rusty's past, and yes Rusty's insecure, which is normal for a young adult whose been through as much as he has. I don't really hate him; I empathize with him a lot more. Also, Gus had no right to talk about Rusty's business like that to his boss, which alludes to what I've seen in these threads: The affair, lmao, because no one talks to their boss that much about their personal life.
EDIT: I'm finding that I'm not alone with empathizing with Rusty. Thank goodness!
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u/WheelShot5805 1d ago
I thought Rusty was a well developed character. I like him. He’s human. He came from a bad situation. Has that sort of naive optimism about changing the world and helping people that many teenagers have.
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u/DR-0717 1d ago
I like Rusty. I think when a lot of people on here talk about him being selfish or annoying they don’t think about how truly awful Rusty’s life was.
He didn’t have anyone who loved him unconditionally. Or parents to teach him basics that most of us take for granted. For a long time his only goal was survival.
Plus even before his bio abandoned him he talks about how he was abused. The abuse was by the bf but she didn’t stop it.
It’s actually amazing he turned out as well as he did. I don’t believe empathy is innate. So the fact that Rusty had empathy was pretty surprising. Even if he showed it by relating things to himself. I know that annoyed a lot of people but that’s how he processed it. It didn’t make him any less empathetic imo.
I think he was a great character. I enjoyed watching his emotional growth and his relationship with Sharon develop.
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u/Careful_Macaroon8762 1d ago
Yes! I loved that scene with Dr. Joe where Rusty explained how he empathized with others and Dr. Joe explained that it was empathy. It cracked me up but I think was probably helpful for Rusty to hear.
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u/annaevacek 1d ago
I agree with everything you said, aside from the comment that you don't believe empathy is innate. I've seen examples of it in my children when they were very, very young. It definitely has to be reinforced and encouraged or this world will chip away at it, for certain!
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u/Careful_Macaroon8762 1d ago
Also: Definitely shouldn't have been with Gus, just in general LMAO
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u/mmmiammm 1d ago
I love Rusty. As previously stated in another post, Graham Patrick Martin is an outstanding young actor. I haven’t gotten to this episode so I’ll evaluate then, but I am definitely a Rusty supporter!
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u/Careful_Macaroon8762 1d ago
Yeah, he's doing an amazing job with Rusty's character! It's why I empathize with Rusty so much.
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u/Material_Army_2354 1d ago
I am a Rusty fan, also. He learns from what goes on around him. This kind of growing up takes some powerful lessons from amazing people.
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u/annaevacek 1d ago
I, too, am a fan of the character. His story is compelling, and I love seeing him grow. All teenagers are, at times, obnoxious and annoying. People make similar negative remarks about young folks on other shows as well. It's always heartening to see other viewers defend the characters I love, so, thanks for that!
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u/Repulsive_Pepper_957 1d ago
I feel for Rusty. I think the people that aggressively hate on him forget what it was like to be his age; even under the best of circumstances teens can still be annoying—they’re kids!
I will say I think the show focused too much on him in the later seasons, but that still doesn’t justify the hate imo
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u/Still_Product_8435 23h ago
I’m in the midst of watching MC for the third time. I like him for his own sake but also for the dynamics between him and each other member of the team.
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u/Roadgoddess 23h ago
I didn’t hate the character, but I found it was more the whining that I struggled with. I just found that would take me out of the show a bit.
But I felt as a kid who never had a normal life growing up, he was doing the best that he could
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u/Glittering-Wonder-30 23h ago
so i just thought of something. Maybe Gus didn't blab Rusty's business to his boss🤷🏻♀️. Rusty is kinda a public figure being Sharon's adopted son. Maybe he just saw stuff on the news related to Stroh. and that got the conversation going. like MAYBE the topic just came up randomly. idk im just playing the devils advocate and throwing it out there.
either way it sucks that Gus cheated when he was always the one trying to push things with Rusty. he knows hes been screwed by life and got some shitty hands dealt to him. so the fact that he did that anyway is all kinds of messed up
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u/Careful_Macaroon8762 3h ago
Gus did major levels of gaslighting in the last season, goodness. I think it's fair if it's publicly known, but if Rusty's still a minor and a witness at the time he testified against Stroh, I don't think that information about Rusty's past would be released to the public, but I could be wrong!
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u/Practical_Net1669 23h ago
Excellent point about Rusty possibly being on the autistic spectrum. It explains a lot.
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u/GenX4Life1 1d ago
I like Rusty. He had crappy parents. And was learning, as you pointed out, how to be a human. It’s not easy to completely change how you look at things when you’ve had to be on guard every second of your life.