Michael is about to become unbelievable.

The interesting fact about real life is that back in 1991, Aaron was about to set off to university to pursue a career in the television industry. Since following his biological father's career felt like a slap in the face, Lynn chose to ignore that sad reality and awarded Michael the career she appears to have wanted him to pursue and turned him into a writer. The reason that I mention this is that we're about to see the first example of everyone being excessively impressed by very little. The mind that would come up with the phrase "And the living buried the dead" and pass that off as brilliance is about to become so impressive a letter writer that he cows Martha into silence.

This is also why he starts to turn from "sullen, ungrateful asshole who'd sooner drink gasoline than help around the house or get along with his family" into the Elly clone he eventually mutated into. It wouldn't do to depict someone who's pretty much a portrait of the artist as a young idiot with time management troubles as being a pill.