So, knowing what we know now does anyone think the interaction between Stephen/Jade and Chad was a little odd after the fight with the MC?
They were awfully mercenary with their daughters long term boyfriend. Unless Jill is just powerful enough to force their hand… or I suppose they might not know he was dating her all that time. Sage implies her mother knew. She mutters under her breath “was mom right” when talking about Chad being gay with the MC which indicates she discusses her relationship with her. Not guaranteed but it would be odd they didn’t know.
Thing is, DPC could have ironed out some ambiguity if Stephen/Jade had covered for Chad. If they were shown to have turned a blind eye to things he and his frat did. It’s an easy way to explain why Chad stuck with Sage. We’ve debated why he kept up the relationship with Sage when he was cold with her as far back as the flashback of the DIKs forming.
If Chad had an actual reason to feign a relationship with Sage (namely using her for her family connections and as a beard) and in turn a reason to hide his infidelity from her (namely to hide his sexuality and not piss her and her family off) his behaviour would make a lick of sense. As it stands he comes across like he doesn’t give a shit about her, gets nothing from being with her and lies for funsies.
Yeah, it's definitely odd in retrospect. As you say, Sage's comment about her mom and Stephen's line about "I know you. You're not the type of guy to beat up a guy, unprovoked" suggests they knew about Sage and Chad. In that case, Sage's parents really should have recused themselves when Jill made allegations against their daughter's boyfriend - especially if they take it easy on Chad, as Stephen claims.
As for Chad, I don't get the sense he doesn't give a shit about Sage, I just think he's very, very deep in the closet. We don't know why their relationship started, but Sage
implies he agreed to it rather suddenly:
If so, Chad probably found himself in a situation where he desperately needed some heterosexual street cred and took the opportunity Sage unintentionally handed him. Her parents had nothing to do with it and I doubt he liked treating her that way; presumably he broke up with her because enough time had passed that he didn't need to keep stringing her along.
Of course, he
should have told her the truth, but like Maya (for different reasons) he just can't bring himself to reveal such a profound secret even when it's obvious the truth will come out eventually.