Keith's cynicism vs. his optimism is really interesting. It's like he wants to be the cynic, and that's what his experience has mostly shown him, but he still can't shake the underlying assumption of good intentions. It seems like when he has time to think he's more likely to be cynical, but when he's all in a flurry about something he reverts back to thinking that People Are Well-Behaved, and then after a certain point he doesn't really care at all (because too passionately indignant.)

The exception that I can think of to the above, of course, would be when he was first captured by Ewen, but in that case he had... rather strong preconceptions, lol!

I tend to be very sensitive to secondhand embarrassment, and so oh god that whole conversation with Paton. Kudos to Broster for making me really care about her characters, though! And I do wish all the best for Paton (and hopefully an imminent transfer away from Guthrie. Neither of them deserve the other.)