I think that the Max-Joshua relationship is abusive. She's very controlling. She isolates him from everybody but herself and a few people (Alec, Logan, Cindy) *she* approves of--and she's frequently present during this kind of contact. She's made him very dependent on her for not only companionship, but food--and then she blows off her visits to him if it's inconvenient (i.e., when distracted by Logan's niece in "Gill Girl"), which sends a very discouraging message about his importance to her and his value as a person. The real red flag is that all the while she insists that *it's for his own good, dammit!*

All this is *exactly* the sort of thing that shows up in lists of abuser characteristics. Somehow I don't think the writers would dare portray a man treating a woman this way--unless he was *obviously* a creep, and he ended up dead or in jail by the end of the episode. It seems wrong that an instance with the woman as the agressor should be ignored, justified by the correctness of her predictions, or (given that Max is the heroine) even glorified.

The situation itself is disgusting enough. But the way that it's portrayed as the right way to treat Joshua--or anybody--is downright sick.