It may or may not be a coincidence that we watched Dom turn 40 the day after the world was scheduled to end—well, at least according to the ancient Vikings.

Episode 6, "Looking in the Mirror," centers on a supposedly casual birthday party in the park, but our trio are anything but happy: Dom hasn't scored backers for his restaurant idea and is despondent that turning 4-0 means dudes will stop noticing him on Grindr. (Pro tip: shaving might erase some of that dreaded daddy vibe.) Patrick should be thrilled that Richie is officially his boyfriend, but his inability to keep his foot out of his mouth sabotages the situation situation almost immediately.

And Agustin—well, he’s terminally miserable and eager to inflict his condition on anyone in his vicinity.

Since our main men are all flexing their personality disorders pretty hard, this column is going to be dedicated to the supporting characters that tolerate their nonsense. (We should be lucky enough to have such devoted sidekicks.)

Richie

When Patrick slips and says “the b word” before they’ve discussed it, Richie is patient. When Patrick apologizes in advance for how intense his friends are, Richie is patient. Patrick acts out his internalized homophobia in an elaborate mincing fit, neglects to introduce Richie to his boss, and belittles Richie’s profession—Richie is patient.

Nothing ruffles this guy.

It’s not until Ag says something outright disrespectful and Patrick stands by idly (now who’s patient?) that Richie loses his cool. And even then, his frustrations are voiced reasonably and without malice. It’s a good thing Patrick works in level design, because he’s going to need some serious game if he plans to keep this winner around.

Lynn

Remember when Lynn (Scott Bakula) thought Dom was taking him on a date and took it in stride when he was shot down? Since then, he’s been an amazing mentor: This week, Lynn made sure Dom met some rich men who might open their checkbooks for the right restaurant proposal.Plus, he provided sage advice on growing old with dignity—and even offered to fund a one-day test-run of Dom's peri peri chicken pipe dream. The man has been generous in every sense of the word.

And how does Dom thank him? By going in for a kiss.

Because he is a supporting character and thus exponentially better as a human being than the people we’re actually supposed to care about, keeps himself steadfastly in the friend zone to make sure their business relationship doesn’t suffer. Inside, he was probably dying. Like, where was that liplock two weeks ago? And why did it arise directly after the offer of money?

Frank

You have to hand it to Frank for smiling on as his so-called partner Agustin becomes increasingly immature and petulant. Ag finally shot some photos, but he can’t take a compliment about them, nor does he have any interest in discussing them. In fact, all he wants to talk about is his new dream date, CJ.

So when CJ shows up to Dom’s 40th birthday party, Frank is a sport and makes friends with him. And then when a predictably petulant Ag, Frank cheers him up by having sex on camera. At no point does it look as though he is aware that being unhappy about these circumstances is even an option. Agustin is an emotionally unstable liar who hasn’t said one nice thing to his live-in partner since Episode One—and still Frank beams with that boyish grin.

Maybe he’s being drugged.