Throughout this episode, we finally see his backstory in vignettes.
It isn’t just the accidental date that makes Benji suddenly feel like a real, multifaceted person. Victor asks if there’s any way they could make their relationship or even a friendship work, and Benji’s at a loss. Benji talks about his time at rehab and reveals he has anxiety - for a long time, alcohol helped him cope with that. But after they leave the bar, things start to head in a heavier direction. They ultimately have a great time because they’re Victor and Benji, so of course they do. He’s Benji! It’s a bad idea for Benji and Victor to go on a date given the circumstances, but maybe Lucas and Diego can have just one carefree night. He’s cute and smart, he’s good at banter, he’s interested in meeting up at a local gay bar for drag bingo, and yeah, you guessed it: Lucas isn’t Lucas. After that, it doesn’t take Victor too long to find a guy named Lucas. (“Serial-killer vibes,” Rahim says.) Andrew comes to the rescue with both a fake name (Diego) and a photo (it’s a shirtless pic, obviously). Over at the coffee shop - I guess it’s Benji’s day off? - Rahim and Andrew help him fix his profile, which currently has no name, bio, or photo. What he really wants, probably, is to be with Victor, but the next best thing is downloading Gay Dating and Chat App and finding someone new. He wants something that makes him feel good. The negative is that Benji’s father called Benji’s most traumatic, life-changing incident “that embarrassing day.” The conversation triggers something in Benji, and he wants a distraction. The positive is that his record was officially expunged, meaning colleges won’t have to know about “that embarrassing day” he got drunk and crashed a car. The episode opens with some bittersweet news from Benji’s father. That said, we’ve started to see small cracks in Benji’s perspective and personality through his tutoring sessions with Rahim, and this episode expertly (finally, crucially) dives into how he’s handling the breakup. I always felt as though it took way too long for Benji to become a fully fledged person - for a while, his entire character profile seemed to just be “dreamy, swoopy-haired barista and musician who’s much more experienced than Victor.” I didn’t really react when we finally met his parents or learned about his sobriety in season two because I didn’t have many thoughts about his life or identity beyond him being Victor’s crush, catalyst, and occasional pressure source. Maybe it’s because we’re finally seeing Benji as a person instead of just Victor’s unattainable crush or on-off boyfriend. Maybe it’s because it clocks in at only 24 minutes or because there’s such a specific focus on Victor and Pilar’s lives that we don’t even get a glimpse of Mia or Lake. It’s starting to feel as if almost every chapter of season three is about the same thing: Victor’s increasingly desperate attempts to move on from Benji.