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

He's guilty. I get it...

posted 8 years ago by outterspaces
3 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 best serves us.

If Joe really killed Danny at that night based on anger, yes, he deserves the death penalty. But based by 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.

[–] liscarkat (17136) 3 years ago

Joe claimed there was no sexual relationship between them, only talking and hugging. If he wasn't lying, then he wasn't a pedophile. I suppose he just wanted some kind of closeness, possibly in a father-son way, that he wasn't getting with his own son.

As for Joe's not working, he had been a very competent paramedic in the past. Apparently, at the time of the story, it worked out better financially for the family if they relied on Beth's income and Joe took care of the children. No dishonor in that.

[–] liscarkat (17136) 2 years ago

[deleted]

[–] sunezno (251) 3 months ago

On one hand, I get what you're saying, and I applaud the openmindedness. But I think it's one thing to say that Joe's feelings were understandable, but it's another to say that they were understandable because some young boys feel some attraction to older men. If Joe had been doing sexual things to Danny, it wouldn't make it okay or understandable simply because Danny had been okay with it (or because some other young boys might be). To be clear, I do agree with what you're saying, but I think they're two separate issues, not one.

But also, Joe doesn't say that he and Danny were in love, just that he loved Danny. And the flashbacks at the end of season 1 show that while Danny might've been okay with their meetups at first, because he enjoyed their conversations and hanging out (quality father-son time that he never got to enjoy with his own dad, and which Joe didn't get to experience with Tom), he seemed to be getting uncomfortable with the physical closeness that Joe was requesting, and knew that he would ask for more soon.

And I'll be honest, when I was around that age, I seemed to only have a thing for older guys. But that was just daddy issues on my part, and I think what I was really after was the love and attention and protection from a father figure that I didn't have growing up without a dad. I might've mistaken it for a romantic or sexual attraction back then, but I'm just glad that none of those guys even considered making any sort of moves, despite how into them I seemed or was.
Kids are still learning and experiencing their emotions; adults should know better.

Anyway, I think you're right about Joe, that he wasn't gay and wasn't a pedophile or anything. I think that he was enjoying the attention and affection (even platonic) that his relationship with Danny gave him. And as he said, it was something that he could have for himself, and secrets can have their own thrill or sense of romance and adventure about them.