The Social Network ends with Mark offering to take Marilyn out to eat.

He’s not trying to get anything out of her. He’ll probably never see her again. She has not given him any particular reason to like her — in fact, through no fault of her own, she’s caused him a certain degree of discomfort throughout the day. But he notices that she has only eaten a salad throughout the day, so he decides to feed her.

This incredibly important. Because Mark isn’t particularly invested in food or like, the basic things necessary for the sustenance of life. He subsists almost entirely on mountain dew, water-packed tuna and red vines. All Mark has had to eat all day is absolutely nothing at all, and he doesn’t mind.

But he looks at Marilyn and he thinks, hey, this person probably likes to eat food on a regular basis. And she has not been doing this. I think I’ll fix this. I don’t think he would have been able to do this a few years ago. It wouldn’t have been out of malice — Mark is vengeful person, not a malicious one. He just wouldn’t know how to make that leap, not without prompting or a damned good reason to take a step back and think.

Even now, you can see that it doesn’t come naturally to him. It’s something that he’s been working at. Maybe Mark is trying to be an asshole but he also trying really hard not to be a bad guy.

And you know what? It’s working. He’s doing it. He isn’t going to stop being an asshole, because The Social Network isn’t the kind of movie which requires a character to be stripped clean of all their flaws in order to be a person of worth, but he’s taking seriously huge and important steps towards being a good person as well.

(Of course, my first thought here is but Eduardo won’t be around to witness this. And actually? That’s okay. It’s sad, but it’s okay.

He’s still got Chris and Dustin. He loves them and cares for them, and they love and care for him in return. The scenes with Mark and Dustin are stunning in the degree of kindness and quiet understanding that they represent. There are also the other people Mark will meet throughout his life — the ones we don’t know yet, because this movie takes place over a relatively condensed period of time.

And Mark will meet wondrous people. Warts and all, Mark is a marvellous individual with a mind that’s worth sticking around for and a peculiar breed of tenderness. His life hasn’t ended, and he will meet people who will be bright and glorious and who will give him days and weeks and years that could be complied into a hundred different movies if one were to turn a camera on them.

And, incidentally, so will Eduardo. He is. He is magnificent. He’s sharp and compassionate and and he cares for people with an intensity that is absolutely breathtaking. There will be people who will see this. There will be people he loves, and people who love him. This isn’t the end of his life. It’s a dark chapter and a hard lesson, but it isn’t the end, and that, I mean, that’s something.)