MovieChat Forums > The Astronaut Wives Club (2015) Discussion > Louise (contains SPOILERS about episode ...

Louise (contains SPOILERS about episode 8)

posted 10 years ago by janitoranna
6 replies | jump to latest

Louise is such a complex character/person. I adore her most of the time, because of her poise, resilience, and devotion. But that last episode where she just changed her niece's name without a care, after the poor child had lost her mom and that would have been one of the strongest ties to her mom...that was just WRONG on so many levels. I was judging Louise hard. How does a person actually do something like that?

I love her sisters quote, though.

[–] Jodyb22 10 years ago

It was an a very odd choice for her to make. I had foster kids and the youngest was 5 when she moved in with me and I never even had a desire to change her first name, even though her life prior to being with me was tragic and I wanted her to put that life far from her memory, her name was a big piece of her identity. I would think changing her name would have been a huge decision and should have only happened if the child herself begged for it.

It's also kind of interstng that the young girl herself never pushed to chmge her name back. She's still named Alice in all the online references that I have found about her.

What's even more interesting to me is that the series only shows 2 of the Shepherd daughters- Julie and Alice. Yet they had a 3rd daughter named Laura, who I think was the oldest. Does anyone know why she's not in the series. Did she not want to be part of the book or mini-series?

[–] wab-3 10 years ago

Laura is discussed here and there in Koppel's book. She was away at boarding school during the Mercury years, and although it's not mentioned in the book I'm guessing she still was during the Gemini phase. She would have turned 18 in '65, so after that at college or otherwise off on her own, one assumes.

The renaming thing may have been a creation of the series writers, I don't know. Alice is referred to as "Alice" all through the book.

[–] johnston.scot 10 years ago

The renaming seems to be historically accurate. It's referred to in the biography of Alan Shepard, "Light This Candle." According to the book, her original name was Judith, and they changed it for just the reason mentioned in the show: to avoid confusion between Julie and Judy. The Shepards took her in at age 5 after her mother died and her father determined he couldn't take care of her. There's no mention of where the "Alice" came from. It's probably more likely that it came from Alice Dupont than from Alan.

Period articles seem to refer to her as Alice or Alice Williams, and to identify her as a niece. By the '70s and since, she's pretty consistently referred to as the Shepards' daughter, though the bio says she was never actually adopted. She apparently opted herself to switch her last name from Williams to Shepard.

[–] janitoranna 10 years ago

What's even more interesting to me is that the series only shows 2 of the Shepherd daughters- Julie and Alice. Yet they had a 3rd daughter named Laura, who I think was the oldest. Does anyone know why she's not in the series. Did she not want to be part of the book or mini-series?

I was wondering about this as well! I remember that the Shepards had three daughters, and yet only two are shown and mentioned on the show. Weird. But there are probably some artistic liberties being taken throughout this show. Just interesting that they would exclude a whole child, though.

[–] wab-3 10 years ago

What part of "she was away at boarding school" didn't you understand?

[–] janitoranna 10 years ago

What part of "on the show" didn't YOU understand. The third daughter isn't mentioned on the show, which is what I was referring to- not the book.