Yeah, it's one of the ways I see Joe/Billy. The movie shows Billy having broken free of Joe's boundary-blurring and establishing himself as a separate individual with a separate path and destiny... but getting pulled back in again by Joe's machinations. And while Joe knows his manipulation is wrong, at the same time, I think in his mind the ends totally justify the means -- he is just trying to get Billy back, any way he can.

I sometimes see a lonely, vulnerable desperation under Joe's cocky, controlling behavior; like he knows Billy is his missing half. And to quote brooklinegirl, it kills me dead. I've been in both Billy's & Joe's shoes in relationships. It's so hard to break free when the other person needs you so badly (but you know you cannot, and should not be expected to, fill all the holes in them that pre-dated your involvement with them). But it's also so hard to try to stop controlling a lover you know is eventually going to leave you, when you also have old, unmet needs and it feels like they are the only who ever came close to meeting them.