It makes more sense to me that Tommy would be fishing and talking about alligators with Joe than RC. Tommy's his cousin, they've known each other for years, he's staying with Hank and Lisa or Timmy. RC just met him, fought with him, doesn't know him well, has said that he makes no friends. How would they have bonded so fast?
I don't know what to think about the alligators comment. If someone likes to throw small living animals in the water for alligators and actually does it it indicates a scary character but it might be something that got embellished on the way. If you're sitting on the dock and see alligators getting closer it might be quite natural for the conversation to turn to speculation about what would happen if a small animal or a person landed in the water. It sounds like the sort of discussions our family has had visiting the zoo, reading animal books, watching nature documentaries. Inquiring minds want to know... Curiosity about the alligator feeding habits doesn't mean that the person gets his kicks from animals suffering.