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In this scene I`m interested not in what he did, but rather why he did it. What was the trigger for Billy? He clearly got anxious after Wayne’s joke about Nate being Max’s boyfriend, but he only got really angry after Max saying Billy needs girls for sex only. Why did it hurt him that much? I mean, that’s exactly how he acts. As a hard-headed and lewd asshole, who uses girls as paper cups, throwing them away after use.
Nothing hurts like the truth? Maybe. But there is another option. What if he creates the image deliberately? It might be not a coincidence that right after those words he started talking about Max having to take care of her reputation. Why? Why’d he do that?
Even if you assume that his concern about reputation is the result of his father’s influence, it means that he is ok with everyone around – his father especially – considering him a punk and a philanderer, who changes girls just like socks. And if amongst his fellows this may be cool, I doubt that his super-conservative father would be in any way glad about it. Nevertheless, Billy keeps playing this card, though we’ve got a reason to believe that even this is true in part – it’s not completely true. Mind that if Billy was completely like what others think of him, it’s highly unlikely that he’d got interest in James Thurber’s (author of ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’) autobiography.
So what’s Billy hiding?
Meanwhile, mercury is rising. Billy’s enjoying Max’s anger. He provokes her, asking each time, what she’s gonna do. Hit him? Of course not. He’s sure she won’t. He likes feeling strong, knowing that Max wouldn’t dare to hit him. I think he’s playing some other scene this way, something that happened between himself and his father, but at that time Neil looked at him with a smile and asked what he’s gonna do. Hit him?
I bet that’s the way it was.
What happened next? Nate intervened. Max notes that she was glad, although she understood he won’t be able to do anything. I think, that’s what hurt Billy too. Nate stood at Max’s side despite being at disadvantage both in height and strength. No one ever stood at Billy’s side. It hurts, you know. It hurts to understand that you are absolutely alone and no one in the whole world won’t lift a finger for your cause. It’s foul, not fair, but it’s the way it is and you can’t do anything about it.
I think, Nate’s move raised Billy’s jealousy and childish pique for not having a vindicator as Max had. Nobody is there to care about him. I think, that’s why he broke Nate’s arm – to make Nate and Max feel the same. Helpless. Scared. Rage. Pain. Lots of pain. So much pain you can drown in it. Billy’s breathing it.
Yet there’s another aspect. It’s possible that some day in the past Billy has stood up for his mother just the same way and paid a high price for it to his father – and now he’s transferring this traumatic experience to Max and Nate in such a monstrous way. Sort of teaching them a lesson of survival. Get strong first and only pick a fight after that.
Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised. That fits him well. After all, from the very beginning it seemed to Max that Billy’s trying to teach her something, make her just as tough and brutal as he is.
What do you think?
