are we supposed to root for her?

You may not think that after tonight's episode.

I guess some folks didn't understand what this series was about...an alcoholic,shop lifting,druggie who runs scams..finds love with a hired killer..what's not to like? What intrigued my was Michelle Dockery, my favorite
Lady Mary from Downton Abby, taking such an unusual role..and I love it..two lost souls find each other, and just might make it work..and I am rooting for both of them.

"she's simply annoying. She wasn't like that when the show began. I blame that atrocious kid of hers. Get rid of him. Please."

Just perhaps there is a very subtle and subversive angle being played out here. I doubt this will be where they go in the final episode, but your point, Friday, makes me consider the following:

In the beginning Letty's challenge included several elements but was in her mind mostly centered on getting Jacob back. As all would agree, very understandable - a mother wants her boy back. And doing so both in her mind and in the mind of the viewer would amount a moral victory, a personal redemption.

But what if the actuality of the situation, the way it is, ideals and standard moral tropes aside, makes that too complicated or otherwise, well, not the way it looked when the journey began?

As the series progressed the writers continued to pile up complications in their relationship. Some came from Letty, her past and her sins. But not all were of that sort. The racial angle plays out in terms of Jacob's general environment, and the cultural views of race that roil our society. Beyond that I sense that Jacob whether fairly or not has taken on a rather ambivalent view of Letty, which makes the relationship more of an uphill one for her than it otherwise would be.

Even what on the surface appears more positive comes with baggage, and here I am referring to the way Jacob and Javier get along well. But even that seems to only make Jacob wonder about his "real" dad, and how it would be with him. We don't need to see Javier as lacking in such regard in order to understand why Jacob would still feel that way, and how can Letty overcome that?

But it is not merely problems of this sort that are an issue. Is Letty really cut out to be a good mother? I think there's good reason to question whether she is cut out to be a good FULL TIME mother, among other things. At a minimum even if Sean had not appeared there would have likely been some sharing with her mother of motherly duties, and I would expect it would have been a rather lengthy transitional period with many awkward moments. And the state certainly looks like it will be leaning at least in the direction of shared custody, which to me really does not sound like quite the worst thing in the world here.

So, maybe the writers are suggesting that Letty's goal as described originally is not only not good for Jacob, but not good for her. Rather than see, in the ninth episode, the logic of Sean's position, she becomes irrational, increasingly so, and as you say so much so as to be annoying. To the viewers but also all the characters.

And of course rather than perhaps settling the legal proceeding by agreeing to joint custody, she ends up tossing Javier over the side (or risks doing so) in order to "win it all", even if that win would be of questionable merit and virtue to her.

the flip side of the equation between Javier and Jacob is that if she chooses to take the FBI's offer, as she at least has begun to, where does that lead? She will have Jacob to herself, with at least some resentment on his part she will have to deal with, and will someday sit there with the news on about how Javier is about to be executed?

That doesn't sound like the goal the series set up in the first episode.

In short maybe the series is questioning the goal of motherhood being the be all and end all for Letty. At least in terms of exclusively so.

I actually like Jacob. And I think the young actor who plays him is very good.

And in saying that I don't think Letty should be in his life beyond limited contact.

She should have cut him loose for HIS OWN GOOD when she and Javier took him to the Walmart type store, lost him (because he couldn't stand her impatient bitching @ the time they were spending finding the right ball), and found out he was detained by security for shoplifting, which he did because he thought it would make her proud of him. 

And this way AFTER she said in the car that it was 'fun (stealing) if you don't get caught' Yeah. No. Hang it up Letty. No Mother's Day cards for you. EVER 


Javier was also the better 'parent' in that episode because he seemed to understand Jacob, and have the patience that Letty TOTALLY LACKED.

If she did gain custody of her son, how long would she stick it out with him, until her three addictions took precedence over him, AGAIN? We KNOW she hasn't forfeited any of them. Well not the stealing or booze anyway.

They need to lose the Letty Wants To Be A Mama storyline. I can't root for THAT.



Don't f@ck with me fellas! This aint my first time at the rodeo.