I just bought the third season, and I've come to see how selfish he is. Sure, all that stuff happened to him regarding Madison, but Amy was ready to be there for him nonetheless. Still, all Ephram can think about is himself.
Freedom means not only the opportunity to know but the will to know.
SPOILER! if you haven't watched season 3!
I don't know but to know that he had a son and that he was put up for adoption without his conset was a heavy blow.
Maybe. But if you think about all of the things Amy did in the first two seasons, she could also be considered selfish. Amy treated Ephram like crap and was "selfish" several times, but she was going through some tough stuff. Ephram is allowed to have his moment. That is a horrible thing to find out.
shareWas Amy the college girl he was involved with?
shareRegarding how he treated Andy, I don't really blame him. I'm not a guy but I'd be just as angry if I found out my ex-girlfriend and father lied to me about my own kid. Given the strained relationship Andy and Ephram had for most of his life, for Andy to do what he did just when their relationship was starting to heal and Ephram was starting to trust him was a huge betrayal in my eyes. I'm not sure I would have forgiven him as fast as Ephram did.
shareThis is true, but it didn't just start after Andy lied to Ephram. It was only a very rare moment here or there that Ephram treated Andy with anything remotely close to civil. He always was disrespectful to his father. But then again, Andy allowed it to happen, too. He let Ephram walk all over him, and he allows the same behavior from Delia as well. Those kids need a good smacking. LOL. I know... it's TV and it's entertainment, but I do believe it depicts the bigger picture of society in this generation. Respect for elders today is a thing of the past. :/
shareI agree,he did always jump on top of Andy even when he really was trying to help. Andy wasn't the perfect father and he was absent for a lot of the time they were growing up, but he was trying to change that once they moved to Everwood. I was just speaking about the pregnancy issue which I was totally on Ephram's side.
shareI think Ephram resented Andy for being so absent in their lives, and not really being apart of it. He also was still reeling from his mother's death, and his father just moved him to this town he had never even heard of. To make matters even worse he thought for a while (Up until "The Unveiling") that his father cheated on his mother. So I can kind of understand why Ephram was so harsh on Andy.
shareHe let Ephram walk all over him because Ephram was a grieving kid who lost the only parent who was actually there for him and his sister.
Andy is wonderful but viewers tend to forget that we didn't witness the first 16 years. The years when Andy wasn't so wonderful, but was absent and negligent. The years where he didn't come to birthdays or graduations.
You have to earn your respect.
Ephram matures as the series progresses, but the Madison thing was HUGE setback and reducing it to "Ephram steps all over his father" is very one-sided. Andy disrespected Ephram by not telling him about his child.
A rose is just a rose.
I'll admit I felt the same way when I watched s3...but I could understand why Ephram was acting so selfish at the time. He did find out about being a father in such a harsh, abrupt way. Still, I found the way he treated Amy despicable, and at one point I was yelling at him to forgive Andy already.
Nonetheless, I completely understand why he was in such a state. I'm glad he came around in season 4, because that speech he gave to Amy about not believing in soulmates was so disheartening.
"Contempt loves the silence, it thrives in the dark" -Merchant
I have to agree with you and it's a sad commentary on the writing. Ephram started out the series being selfish, self-absorbed, and with a huge chip on his shoulder. As the show progressed, however, we saw Ephram develop and start to become a mature young man. Then, we get towards the end of season 3 and blam. Ephram proved everyone who tried to keep the pregnancy from him right. He did precisely what everyone knew he would do. He threw a temper tantrum and proceeded to throw away everything he had worked his entire life for and everything that others had worked for via support. I can appreciate what big news that was and I can see him being really pissed at both Madison and Andy, but dropping Julliard, breaking up with Amy, and running off to Europe? These are the things a scared, selfish teenager does. They are not the actions of a mature young man ready to enter the world after high school.
shareEphram is a depressing, insufferable and dull character.
shareRight or wrong, I think the writers didn't want Ephram to go to Julliard. This was their way of keeping him from going, and to continue his disgust with his father's attempt to control things (keeping the news of his son from Ephram). I agree that Ephram was a tough character to like, but having him be selfish and moody was the writers way of showing his problems with his father. They had him mature in season 4 - but I guess some would have liked to have seen it sooner. But I don't see how a happy and forgiving Ephram would have made for a better show.
shareI agree.
His psyche was, for me, reasonable --- because I've been that kid before with my own Daddy issues, and issues like those can indeed warp your actions or ways of digesting pain, sometimes even for the rest of your life. Several teenagers don't grow out of it; most adults are shaped by the relationship (or lack of) that they had with their parents. The "abandonment side-effects" are scars that rarely heal for most boys who have felt the wounds so young, because all of that becomes a way of life, growing up, and a way of being. It's not merely just habit, it is a part of you and how you emotionally network, and it's incredibly hard to break.
Ephram is like most people who grow up out of those Dad-Son situations: a product of his own father's (past) selfishness. While his father can do his best to reconicle, the damage has been weaved into Ephram's personality as a person starting from childhood. And rarely does that change. People can usually only hope to make the best out of it, if they don't destroy themselves first.
Didn't stop it from being really irritating to watch a lot of the time though, lol.
But understandable and realistic. There's never going to be a perfect speech or moment in time to make that kind of stuff all better. It takes years, and sometimes there are relapses in character, like with any recovery. It's like walking on eggshells.
Ephram is an unlikeable character.
shareThat was sort of the point, IMO. Notice how the characters around him reacted to his sarcastic moodiness? With very exhausted, "Oh my God, this crap again?!" drawls. So it really seemed like the point, since few characters around him actually ever catered to his attitudes.
Given that much, it's clear to me that he was meant to be a person; when a writer decides that, the point isn't for them to be likable. Just raw. And then we judge them more clearly, and with our own independent thoughts. I like that; it makes me feel like I'm not really being manipulated into glorifying a character like it's an objectified icon of a person (as opposed to a fleshed human being).
I never found him to be unlikable, but then again I much prefer a character to be interesting than likable.
sharebut dropping Julliard, breaking up with Amy, and running off to Europe?