You can listen to Dylan actually comment like he’s stepping back and taking it all in how much of a nasty soapbox rant Eric is on. Then he chimes in rejoining with something even more nasty to top his friend.  They were playing off each other and amusing the hell out of themselves along the way.  

Earlier in ‘98

Mm..I don’t think he’s actively waiting in a sense of anticipation?   Just it’s more like that he knows the time will come when it’s meant to happen, he will reunite with his mom again…and his dad and eventually his brother too.  Of course, he does keep tabs on his family and friends.  You can bet he is fully aware of all his mom is doing and this intense underscore of dedication to him. He receives all of her intent to be a positive force, to make right out of his wrong by helping others struggling as he did, to bring awareness to the world, out of a sense of parental obligation, but also out of her steadfast, unwavering love for her son and the profound feeling of having failed him.  There will be little if any reservation on his part when he and his she reunite because he knows she won’t rebuke him.  Yet, in that very moment, he will feel profoundly sorry as she for the pain and suffering caused.  It will be an overwhelming moment of instant soul recognition, profound love, deeper understanding and healing.  Based on my own beliefs.. but of course. 😉  

When Eric was continually uprooted and dragged around the country one too many times and he started maturing and beginning to feel discounted and resentful of not wanting to move but also not having any say over the matter. Eric’s anger heavily stems from the sense of lack of being able to exercise any control over his life.  He’s very angry with his parents, particularly his father, though he continually defended them.

By the time the Harris’ moved to Littleton, Eric was adolescent with burgeoning hormones, growing intelligence and rebellious, defiant emotions. His dislike of the community they moved to and his sense of rejection as, yet again, that ‘new kid’ once again, low on the totem pole, was the pivotal setup which caused emotional tensions to mount with no release in sight. 

No, I don’t feel as though Dylan would have enough motivation and follow-through to undertake the massacre all on his own.  Besides, his commitment to the spectacle of going NBK on “judgment day” and taking out a bunch of people and the school was something he wanted to do with someone. The grand prize would be to die with that person. Doing it all on his own, would not afford him any mutual ‘death day’ celebration – because that’s something you do with a partner in crime. Plus, it’d be a lot more risky to do it on his own and he might’ve gotten jumped by classmates, or worse yet, apprehended by the police without backup.  He may as well just grab the gun in his bedroom and off himself..if he could work up the nerve to by himself.

I think Dylan’s future life would be a bit of a wild card. It is difficult to say whether he’d find the right combination of things in his life to help him pull through so that he could begin to have the will to live all on his own..to find a reason to live for himself and not just because he feels he needs someone in his life in order to feel that life is worth living.  Certainly if he was getting therapy, it would have to be a really good therapist that could really connect with him in a way that would break through to him, to get him to open up and trust and to admit  to someone else he was struggling and needed someone’s help.  Finding a GOOD therapist can be tough and it’s often a process of elimination.  Once in therapy, it would be a huge hurdle to get Dylan to participate and not want to just sit there and blow it off until the hour was up. His tendency towards secretiveness as well as his pride and self reliance was a big part of the problem. If he was put on medication, it would have to be the right kind and right dosage so as not to mess up his chemistry and make his condition worse or just cause other side effects to manifest. Ultimately, prescription medication appeared to be ineffectual for Eric and tended toward just masked his emotions which is just as bad if not worse.

Tweaking medication has it’s own set of issues and it’s a long process to get meds to work right with the individuals body chemistry.  I am not one who believes that prescription medication is the solution to mental illness or a quick fix remedy for depression.  I believe a combination of therapy, of eating better and certainly getting more sleep and keeping active would be more beneficial than muting his emotions on medication. Attending college would prove challenging for some of this criteria.

A good therapist could help him identify and become aware of certain negative mental talk he was doing that he was previously not aware of before which rendered him powerless and sad and so the therapist might provide him some tools to use while in an emotional crisis mode to help get him through the moment.  Based on the those various circumstances, it’s hard to say definitively whether Dylan would’ve survived or not. Dylan could have gone either way though I think he would’ve had a chance with therapeutic help rather than going it on his own in college.