Hee! Yes. Also, "manipulative jerk" is a truth about Joe, but not necessarily a condemnation. Or something. He's more than that -- charisma and heart and caring waaaaay too much and need. And a bunch of other stuff.

Billy is a different kind of passion, and also somehow reasonable, and I think it's the reasonableness that breaks everything that Joe has set up. Billy doesn't want a life as defined by Joe; he wants the other kind that real people have.