MovieChat Forums > Broadchurch (2013) Discussion > He's guilty. I get it...

He's guilty. I get it...

posted 8 years ago by outterspaces
7 replies | jump to latest

He's guilty. I get it...but let's forget about the act of crime and go deeper into the relationship.

I really get Joe's obsession with Danny. It has happened to many people. Joe wasn't gay but I am and when I was 12 I was attracted to my best friend's father. I even had a thing with one of those best-friends-fathers - but not the one I liked. Sexuality is so weird and unpredictable. All of us have a weird side of our life that we need to keep hidden, and yet we keep lying to ourselves that we are Holy and Just and Understanding and Kind. We are none of that. We do whatever serves us best.

If Joe really killed Danny at that night based on anger, yes, he deserves the death penalty. But based on the flashbacks we saw, he didn't mean to kill him. He obviously loved him. I know very few of you would understand that because the majority of you think that all people who are attracted to boys (legal or not) are pedophiles. I draw these conclusions out of my own experience as a gay teen who had a thing for older men.

I don't even think that Joe was gay. He was lonely. Raising children while wife brings all the money into the household... this is really not a "dream come true" for any man. He needed a vent. Danny was his vent and he didn't want to lose it. It made him feel important again. He even gave him cash for whatever reason!

I don't know. I still feel there's more to the story. I really don't want to think that Mark had anything to do with it. That'd be too sick.

[–] tb-sch 8 years ago

He even gave him cash for whatever reason!

Grooming.
He created a situation he was not allowed to create. Therefore he carries the responsibility for the outcome of this situation, no matter whether he did not want to hurt anybody. Children have the right, not to know what they want.

[–] Mandy999 8 years ago

I haven't read anywhere where anyone thought the relationship was unrealistic, socially sanctioned or not.

[–] jalola298 8 years ago

I believe Joe's issue is/was a hero complex. That is, he saw himself as a hero and liked to be recognized as such by others.
Number 1, look at his profession. He was a paramedic, saving people's lives.

He met Ellie over the course of a few accident scenes where he'd been called to treat/rescue someone. From the way she described it, she saw him as all twinkly -- inferring she saw him as a hero when he was at the top of his game, doing his job. Then, when he realized she was looking at him that way, he asked her out -- but not until then.

During his confession to Hardy, Joe said things started with Danny when he fixed him up after Mark split Danny's lip. Then they talked because Danny needed someone. And went on to say "Ellie had her work; Tom had his things." He wasn't a hero to his own family any more.

And what did he do with Danny when they met? Just held him and hugged him -- as a father would a baby -- a baby who sees his dad as a hero. Joe liked that Danny saw him like that until Danny decided to end the get-togethers and Joe lost it.

Look, I have no problem if Joe turns out to be gay or bi.

However, I think the hero-worship syndrome opens up the possibility that Joe got caught in a previous relationship that went wrong when the other person (probably a young person) decided Joe was no longer his/her hero. It gives the possibility of a modus operandi (M.O.) for Hardy and Ellie to uncover in series 3 and for Joe to be properly caught and convicted because of an earlier incident.

[–] There_Is_No_Sayid 8 years ago

I hope you didn't have a thing with an adult when you were twelve.

Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything.

[–] jacquinapoli 8 years ago

If you were 12 during the 'relationship' with your friend's father then that is sexual abuse. The fact that at 12 you found some adults attractive has no bearing on the adult exploiting your emotionally immature brain.

Whether Joe is gay or not is not what's concerning, it's that he felt as though he was in love with an 11 year old child- that is paedophila.

If you're an adult who is attracted to prepubescent children then you're a paedophile.

joe gave Danny cash because he was grooming him. It also does not matter if Joe loved Danny, he killed him & there is no excuse - the fact that he was a child makes him even more deplorable.

[–] vicky_lc2001 (1907) 6 years ago

On Datalounge I always read how gay guys start having sex at around 12 with older men. And they don't see anything wrong with that. They even brag about the encounter at a young age.

It's strange that you guys start so early sexually and it's not taboo to have this type of relationship with much older men and not feel trauma over such an early experience. What makes you so sexual at a young age and lose your innocence so early?

I thought guys matured later than girls? And I don't get why you don't see anything wrong with that, would you want your own kid to go through something similar at such a young age? I didn't even know what sex was at 12, I learned about it at school during sex ed at 14.

[–] pepetoony (1570) 4 years ago

I'm gay (and a Datalounger) and if a 38yo man would've come onto me when I was 11 I would've been totally skeeved out. Even in college I'd get creeped out when "old men" in their 30s would try and chat me up online. No two gay guys are alike, just like no two straight people are alike. I didn't even have sex for the first time until I was 19.