Awww... (spoilers)


Poor Justin. The one they interviewed throughout and then he killed himself too. :(

However sadly I was not surprised. Even from the very first time they interviewed him with his friend (next to the tree where his best friend died). Just something about his demeanor and responses, and level of understanding of the perspective of why these people kill themselves...I had that instinctive "uh oh, I'm worried about that guy. He'll do it next." And then when they'd interview him with his family. Again, his demeanor. Everyone else had an objective view and stance when talking about the suicides, the depression...but you could see it was hurting and touching him at a deeper level. That continued to make me worried for him. Yes he was reluctantly saying that he'd never do it, but, I could see that sadness behind his eyes...that made me think he was thinking about it himself and likely would do it, following the pattern of others. Suicide is "contagious" in that way, and I could tell it had gotten under his skin as well. I'd say he'd already made up his mind to do it (or at least strongly strongly considering it), even while they were filming his interviews... just the way he was talking about it.

And then he did. :( He seemed like such a sweet guy too. Really sad. I was rooting for him.

I do have experience and training with suicidal people, so, perhaps that's how I was able to see the red flag from the very first scene. For example, the tattoo guys seemed to not know how to see the signs and recognize it, probably indicative of the rest of the town. They said Justin had a level head, he'd never do it...but to me, again, he was a major red flag from the get-go, especially considering the pattern of the town. And then when the tattoo guy said he doesn't know if he should talk to his daughter about it or not, since talking about it might make it worse...generally, no. It's better to talk about it than not. Whether you say it or not, they're thinking about it anyway, so, better to open that dialogue and perhaps get her help than just to keep it under the radar and then the suicide seems like a shock later. It made me reflect about how having training on signs/symptoms of suicide versus not does/can make a difference. That town needs a seminar or training about suicide, among other things (like better protocol about handling known suicide-risk people).

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Because arm chair quarterbacking is just what these people need. Someone who's never met them telling them how they simply missed the signs.

Be ashamed. You're awful.

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