the mother

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I agree. I really liked the mother. I felt so bad for what she had to live with for so many years--a passionless empty marriage and ungrateful children in abject denial. I think she stayed in it because in those days, with that generation, people just didn't get divorced. It's that generation. My mother is from the same generation and she was married to an abuser for 12 years (my father) and when she divorced him in 1972, the whole neighborhood (who knew he was beating her all that time) gasped in disbelief. She was the first person in the whole neighborhood to get a divorce. She only stayed with him for that long because she thought she had to. When you got married in those days, it was for "better or for worse" literally. The one son (David?) who constantly bashes his mother needs to grow up and face reality already. And if she was yelling, maybe she had good reason to be yelling. She was the only sane person in the family.

"We're not going to Guam are we?--Frank Lapidus (Lost S5 "316")

onthecrack^

<I was irritated by the lead female investigator who sneered that when she told Elaine that her husband was accused of sodomy, Elaine "pretended" to not know what that meant. How many middle class suburban women in the late 80s knew what sodomy meant? Not many, I expect. Elaine was stuck in a passionless marriage to a pedophile, mistreated by her seriously in denial sons and then to make matters worse, abused by the police.>


That's how it struck me.

Also, regarding that female investigator -- it may have just been how it was edited, but did you sense any cultural bigotry on her part?



"I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than..a rude remark or a vulgar action" Blanche DuBois

agreed. i found the mom surprisingly NOT bitter, considering everything she went through. she spoke very matter-of-factly about arnold's pedophilia, with no trace of bitterness or shame.

in her modern-day interviews, she never once said anything bad about her sons - not even that venomous man-child david, who had nothing but hateful things to say about his mom.

I disagree. When it comes to innocent children being molested (and potentially her own son/s in this instance) why should she 'back her family'? --

This is a one way ticket to a lifetime of misery, sitting in your own feelings of guilt that you condoned something so horrendous. Of course its a rock and a hard place -- but some crimes are unforgiveable (ie raping a child) .. turning against your husband because he is a liar and cheated on you with children is not an unforgiveable crime IMO.

Joe, think on it a bit more. You find out that your own father has raped your 4-year-old son. Are you backing your family on that one?

That's the most moronic and spineless thing I've ever read. If I found out my brother or father was a child rapist, the first thing I'd do was phone the police. I'm not throwing my sense of morals and standards down the drain so someone can continue getting his rocks off to raping little boys simply because their blood related. I think Elaine's only mistake was not turning her back on her family right from the get go. She spent years standing beside her pedophile husband, and all that got her was inner torment and sons that hated her guts and reminded her of that often.

Her husband and son were convicted of molesting children. The son confessed on Geraldo about what he and her husband did. That might affect someone in a negative way and cause them to be a bit out of it. Don't you think finding out the monstrous things her husband and son were accused of and confessed about would numb a person a bit?

Spoilers!Spoilers!Spoilers!