#I'm probably reaching with this but i still like it agdjksh

[darlingandmreames]

Rewatching The Ritual (again) and it's time to truly reach with some probably unnecessary analysis agdkfjdh

It's ALWAYS struck me how Luke isn't using the waist or chest straps on his pack when they're hiking at the beginning. Maybe it's just because I've done long hikes with packs like that but I can't NOT notice that he isn't using them, especially since all the others ARE using them. Carrying a fully loaded pack without using the straps is super difficult because all the weight is sitting on your shoulders rather than being more evenly distributed. It's an inefficient and uncomfortable way to be carrying a heavy weight.

It wasn't until this rewatch that I realized that might be the point.

Rob's death is a weight for them all. His sudden, brutal death is something they all have to carry as they try to process it and move on. But that weight isn't being carried the same way by all of them. For as painful as it is, Hutch, Phil, and Dom don't have to carry it alone. They can rely on each other. They can lean on each other and support each other and spread the weight around to make it a little less unbearable.

Not Luke though. The weight is probably the heaviest for him out of all of them- he didn't just lose Rob, he watched him die. Watched him bleed out. He doesn't have help carrying the weight though. The people he would otherwise turn to for support blame him for the fact they have to carry this weight in the first place. And so he's left carrying this weight entirely on his own, without any help. Just an unbearable, dead weight sitting on his back with nothing to spread it around or make it easier to carry. No supports- no straps- just the weight.