They say "probably hepatitis, we'll know tomorrow", then never really resolve it. It looked to me like there was a possibility that the Russians at the tournament poisoned her in order to distract Beth. It's almost like the writers wanted to suggest this, but then didn't follow through with that story twist.
shareI didn't get the impression Beth's mother was poisoned at all. If I'm remembering right, Beth confirms it as hepatitis when talking about it with her adoptive father.
shareSPOILERS
Beth's mother looked at her face closely in the mirror a few hours before she died and seemed very worried by what she saw. That would fit in with hepatitis making her skin look yellow because of liver damage. Plus she had been a habitual drinker for many years most likely so her liver was probably already in bad shape. The hepatitis was the final straw and she carked it.
I just looked it up and there is something called "alcoholic hepatitis" so maybe that's what did her in.
Severe alcoholic hepatitis can develop suddenly and quickly lead to liver failure and death.
I am not all the way through yet but it seemed like a natural death from some kind of alcohol-related hepatitis or something. I felt like they telegraphed all the way through that the adoptive mother was going to die from alcoholism which would essentially reiterate the self-destructiveness of Beth's biological mother.
share