kate | (Reply)

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he has a lot of coping mechanisms and scripts that he uses for work and for recreation (stereotypical guy-stuff like watching football, comics, dorky TV shows)

I definitely see that in John, and I think J-Flan sometimes played it that way. In "The Last Man" after finding out how things went to shit without him, and Rodney dedicated 25 years to get him back, John's dialogue just before going into stasis is "In the past twenty five years, did you happen to notice who won the Superbowl? Stanley Cup? World Series?" And J-Flan says those lines with such a look on his face, like he's just got no idea what to say in the face of everything Rodney's told him, so he's following some kind of regular guy script in his head and trying to make the words mean something else. Rodney says he doesn't know, and John says "Right. Had to ask." in a tone more suited to a funeral than a question about sports.

It's one of my favorite of J-Flan's many offbeat line readings.

I also think that J-Flan's choice to drink his family's beer, Budweiser, as John's beer of choice contributes to this interpretation of John, since you'd think a guy who grew up that rich wouldn't pick a cheap beer unless he was following a script, trying to fit in, trying to project an image of a regular guy.