When Gregory says Robert wasn't really Philip's friend I thought it was a situation where Philip thought they were friends and might be hurt (or might not be) that Robert hadn't told him about his wife.
I'll have more to say about the rest of your comment once I gather my thoughts better, but I just wanted to jump in and say that the actual lines from "Gregory" are:
Philip: Robert was a friend of mine. And I trusted him. Gregory: Well, he had a secret wife and a baby in Philly. So I'm not entirely sure he trusted you.
It's a nitpicky distinction, but I think an important one--because even Gregory isn't denying that he and Robert were friends, he's just kind of throwing in Philip's face that the friendship might not have been as deep as he thought it was (and if you think about the context of what else is going on in that episode for both Philip and Gregory, that had a double meaning--and just imagine what kind of additional slap that must have been on top of everything else!).
Anyway, my read is that Philip actually did care about Robert, so "failed connection" doesn't quite work for me. But it wouldn't have been--couldn't have been--the kind of friendship Philip-the-extrovert was really craving. And you're absolutely right that meeting Stan right around when he lost Robert meant that Philip would have been looking for another connection.
Just one little thing
I'll have more to say about the rest of your comment once I gather my thoughts better, but I just wanted to jump in and say that the actual lines from "Gregory" are:
Philip: Robert was a friend of mine. And I trusted him.
Gregory: Well, he had a secret wife and a baby in Philly. So I'm not entirely sure he trusted you.
It's a nitpicky distinction, but I think an important one--because even Gregory isn't denying that he and Robert were friends, he's just kind of throwing in Philip's face that the friendship might not have been as deep as he thought it was (and if you think about the context of what else is going on in that episode for both Philip and Gregory, that had a double meaning--and just imagine what kind of additional slap that must have been on top of everything else!).
Anyway, my read is that Philip actually did care about Robert, so "failed connection" doesn't quite work for me. But it wouldn't have been--couldn't have been--the kind of friendship Philip-the-extrovert was really craving. And you're absolutely right that meeting Stan right around when he lost Robert meant that Philip would have been looking for another connection.
-J