Fellow Travelers
WARNING : SPOILERS forward for the Fellow Travelers finale .
Summary
The powerful ending of Showtime’sFellow Travelerscomes full roach with Hawk ’s " promise you wo n’t write " line to Tim . The famous series , which is nominate for Best Limited Series Made for Television at the 2024 Golden Globes , stop with the expected exit of Jonathan Bailey ’s Tim Laughlin , who is mourn by the regret - depend on sexual love of his life Hawk Fuller ( Matt Bomer).There are many heedful and emotionally poignant lines throughout theFellow Travelersfinaleand one in particular credit Tim ’s final substance to Hawk during their initial Washington D.C. love affair .
After jump ahead to 1968 and 1979 inFellow Travelersepisodes 6 and 7 , respectively , theFellow Travelersfinale revisits Hawk and Tim in the 1950safter Tim repay to D.C. after serving in the U.S. Army . Parts of theFellow Travelersfinale lead at a course for a plausible future between Tim and Hawk if it were not for Hawk ’s inexorable and fearful decision to keep Tim a permanent secret . The error of Hawk ’s betrayal is feel with full force by the end of theFellow Travelersfinale , as the seemingly " watertight " Hawk lose everything on both sides of his double life .
The serial publication finale of Fellow Travelers arrives at an expected heartrending destruction for Hawk and Tim ’s hidden Latinian language as many secret truths do to lighter .
Hawk’s Final Words Circle Back To Tim’s Message Before Joining The Army
Tim told Hawk not to write him in the Army all those years ago
The significance of Hawk ’s final words to Tim inFellow Travelersis given additional emphasis considering that the news were initially exchanged from Tim to Hawk in a dissimilar context of use . At the end ofFellow Travelersepisode 5,Tim tells Hawk that he has joined the Army as a desperate measure to get over Hawk once and for all . Hawk had always experience that he and Tim did n’t have a future together because it would destroy his public and professional percept , which is why Hawk prefer to wed Lucy Smith for the optics . Tim tells Hawk " not to write " as an indicant that he needs to leave about Hawk for a while so he can by rights heal and move on .
" Promise you wo n’t write " is given a whole new circumstance in theFellow Travelersfinale , as Hawk says these row to a terminally ill Tim after finding out he was used to gain admittance to the AIDS - indifferent Governor of California . Tim separate Hawk to leave the gala and go home , knowing that there will likely be outcome to the spontaneous dissent against the Governor ’s posture on California Prop 64 that he , Marcus , and Frankie are about to execute . Hawk saying " promise you wo n’t write " to Tim bespeak that he will at last begin the outgrowth of countenance him go , much like Tim did when he originally said those discussion .
With the last instalment of Fellow Travelers airing on December 15 , 2023 , fans of the serial have several prominent and similar options to explore .
“Promise You Won’t Write” Hints That Hawk Had A Hunch About The Protest
Hawk seems to know what Tim, Marcus, & Frankie are about to do
There is also the possibility that Hawk was adding a dark layer of humour to his concluding subject matter to Tim , hinting that he love Tim would probably be arrested for the protestation . In this light , part of"Promise you wo n’t write"indicates that Hawk figured out that the unrelentingly passionate and outspoken Tim would be put behind bars again for his action , telling him not to write from his jail cell . This secondary slant of Hawk ’s final words to Tim really allude to a fundamental difference between the two characters , whereTim is willing to front the consequences of standing up for his true self while Hawk continues to cower and manipulate to conceal his personal identity .
Hawk kick in Tim a apparently transparent caution before their relationship intensifies in Fellow Travelers which may be a part of his seductive plot .
Why Hawk Broke His Promise After Receiving Tim’s Telegram
Hawk needed Tim in more ways than he could admit to himself
Hawk fittingly break his original promise to Tim that he would n’t write to him even though Tim transmit Hawk a wire in 1957 urge for Hungarian refugees . Hawk make this as an opportunity to lure Tim back in so they could pick up where they had left off romantically . After getting a full icon of Hawk throughoutFellow Travelers , it ’s really no shock that he would skew Tim ’s telegram as an open door to rekindle their old flame . Tim wrote to Hawk to invite him back into the U.S. State Department , luring him in the same exact way he did during the McCarthy era with the prospect of a job chance .
Tim is certainly complicit in Hawk ’s methodological approach of rekindling their flame through the letter , as his wire was belike sent with the curiosity of reuniting in some capacity . TheFellow Travelersfinale proves that Hawk and Tim both need their unbreakable kinship as divided and heartbreaking as it turned out to be . “Promise you wo n’t write"serves as a note of finality to Hawk and Tim ’s decades - long connection and the farsighted period of tragical separation and distance within it . It ’s a way for both characters to say " goodbye , for now , " inFellow Travelers , knowing that despite the months and twelvemonth of silence , they are bound to run into again . They wo n’t write , because they do n’t need to , or they will , because they must .