Add me to the side of those arguing for mitigating factors on Amma's part. A child's worldview is shaped primarily by experiences/interactions in her family, with caretakers. Amma's understanding of love, relating to others, etc, has been warped from the start-- Adora really cannot love her (in the sense that most of us think of love)-- she relates to her (Amma) narcissistically as a staging subject for Adora's performance of "motherhood." And Adora's version of mothering involves a super twisted torture/caretaking scenario. Alan-- I don't even know what to say, but I imagine that it was as clear to Amma as it was to the viewers that Alan was aware of and basically signed off on what Adora was doing to Amma. Which to Amma would mean perhaps that this kind of treatment is what she deserves, or is what love is. It's true that girls are more likely to act in (ie Camille's self-harm) rather than acting out (violence toward others) but Amma as the killer is plausible, plot-wise, for me anyway, especially taking into account the needs of fiction and drama and all that.
