eps 169 and 172 (that we know of) and it’s established in episode 173 that this is not necessary at all to get john out of his statement haze and that you can in fact rouse him just as quickly without causing harm at all. (presumably by gently shaking him or something but it’s unclear exactly what martin does) martin is notably unapologetic about hitting his boyfriend each time. and it took him abt 5 seconds to get to a point where he was entirely comfortable with the idea of hitting his boyfriend even in a situation where there are plenty of alternatives and plenty of time to test these alternatives (referring to 172 here specifically because id give him more grace if it happened just once while he was panicking about jude. even if he didn’t seem that panicked.)
i literally don’t understand how no-one except me seems to ever notice this 😭 like not even judgementally im just so baffled by it like can someone pls explain if they have any theories on why they missed it because like it was lowkey soooo jarring for me 😨
