Jonathan Hirsch

Something that's sort of funny about Kent is like in the book, he's also weaving in all of these biblical stories and metaphors.

And one of them that sort of stuck out to me that seemed to be like resonant for him was the story of Absalom.

Absalom was the son of the king of

david in the bible and he had um apparently like organized a rebellion against his father um but he like failed and um ultimately died and in a way kent saw his son as this sort of rebellious figure who was like misguided in his rebellion

And so it just like reinforces as you're reading and hearing about this that Kent is kind of this armchair philosopher of his own life and, you know, quite thoughtful.

And so like looking at this story, you know, the last image of this is not the sort of cruel justice that comes with the lethal injection of Bart, but it's actually the story of a father and son finding a way to restore their own relationship and life while their son lives a life of repentance for what he had done.

I mean, what would you do?

Would you be able to forgive someone you loved, a sibling?

Right.

It kind of reminds me of some of the cases where you see family inserting themselves.

I mean, most recently, I think there were a lot of questions about Gabby Petito.

Mm-hmm.

Just sort of came to mind and how the, you know, for those who aren't familiar, I think most of y'all who are listening to this probably know about the Gabby Petito case.

A girl goes missing.

Her...

Boyfriend ends up being sort of viewed as the potential assailant.

Yeah.

And then there's sort of evidence of them communicating with one another before, you know, she, you know, during the time that she disappears.

And you have to imagine that the love for a child is so strong, love for your family is so strong that you would do anything to protect that even if it goes against the grain of your own instincts.

And in this case, I feel like Kent's love for his son is so strong that his own, that and his own moral sense sort of lifted him above