S01.E01: Pilot (E01)/The Birds (E02)

[maraleia]

Unsettling details about a kidnapping emerge in the opener of this series, in which a teen is reunited with her family after discovering that the woman she thought was her mother had actually abducted her as a child.

[Cranberry]

[Aliasscape]

It's a 2 hour premiere that'll flow as basically one long episode. Are we really going to have to have these two episodes broken into two threads? I think I'll be tempted to default to the other one just so I don't accidentally talk about episode 2 in the episode 1 thread.

[blugirlami21]

Gingercharm you took the words right out of my mouth. This show has a super interesting premise but its focusing on all the wrong things. I don't care about the kidnapper. I dont want to have to see any more flashbacks about what a great mom she was. She's a criminal. And if I hear love you more one more tume I'm gonna scream.

Anyone with eyes can see Carter clearly came from a loving family. There's nothing that the kidnapper can say that will make me think she took Carter for any reason other than a selfish one.  I don't like that they have already created a rift between Carter and the twin sister over a boy.  There are so many things they could have done with the twin sister and it's disappointing what they have done with it so far.  I like the dad and the father fine but the Mom is not doing herself any favors.  I understand the place of fear she lives in, that Carter oh so accurately pinpointed in the first episode, but she's so hostile and unbending that it's not hard to see why Carter can't bond with her.

 

That being said the biggest problem for me is Carter's a douche. I just wished she showed her real family a fraction of the regard she shows for her kidnapper. I don't know if I'm going to stick around for her to think about anyone but herself.

I will say that I love Alex Saxon in everything he does.

Edited July 9, 2014 by blugirlami21

[MsNewsradio]

I was pulled out by the sheer implausibility of it all. First of all, the social worker and the officer that spoke with Carter in the beginning - completely tone deaf as far as extending compassion to someone who has clearly been raised to believe she is someone else. Her real parents would never have been able to burst into the room like that - their first meeting would have been facilitated by someone like the social worker to introduce them slowly and in a way that wouldn't psychologically scar Carter any more than she already has been. The idea that she would immediately be placed into a new school or get a job right off the bat also seemed to stretch it in terms of plausibility - from all the real life kidnapping accounts I've read the victims were slowly integrated into their new/old lives. I realize that they have a limited number of episodes to work with in a season, but this seemed ridiculously quick. She would also definitely be in counseling, likely with someone who specializes in issues like this.

 

The idea that her real mother would have been involved in the arresting of her kidnapper - ludicrous, with her being a party of interest in the case. The idea that her "mother" would be able to evade an entire police force surrounding the yogurt shop by putting on a visor and apron? I was pounding the couch at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. 

 

There seems to be very little to ground all of this in any kind of reality. I like Alexis Denisof, and the younger brother, but the premiere was just irksome from beginning to end. I realize that Carter is supposed to be expressing some sort of denial about the entire situation, since she has effectively been ripped away from the only mother she has ever known, but the actress comes across as just a brat and completely insensitive to what her family has gone through. 

[blugirlami21]

I was going to say the same thing.  Douchiness must be genetic if the Dad still writing the book and recording his family's therapy sessions.  Wow that was a new low imo.  When Carter was watching the video of her mother being humiliated at the cafe and she was laughing about it, I was horrified.  I wouldn't treat a stranger on the street the way that Carter treats her mother.  She never tried to understand what it must have been like for her mother to have her child stolen from her for sixteen years.  All she cares about is herself. 

 

The season preview looked horrific.  Nothing but over the top drama and I love you more's for everyone. 

[Pop Tart]

I agree with you that it was ridiculous that her parents could just take her home on the spot, but okay for time purposes I'll go with it. And for the first hour I was willing to give Carter a pass because her world was ripped apart. But by end of ep 2, I'm pretty done with her. Max points out how hurt Elizabeth looks in the video, and she doesn't get it. Her new rich girl friend suggests that finding ways to torment Elizabeth might not be the best use of her time, a shrug. Kissing Grant in front of Taylor with an oops?

I think I could accept all this dick-ish behavior if she had a smidgen of the same anger for her 'mom'. It's totally realistic that she still loves her and wants her life back, but those feelings should be accompanied by some anger about the false life she was living and the fact that her 'mom' just took off and left her to deal with the fallout.

If I saw some of this, I could relate to her a little better. As it is, she's coming across as a bit of a narcissistic sociopath.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Pop Tart

[Aliasscape]

Now as I already created the other thread about Face on the Milk carton etc. type POV, all this stuff that Carter feels is exactly what I expected, no surprises to me so far. A bitter, self-centered teenager who feels the most strongly about the only family she remembers having, no shocker for me.

 

I expect learning to care about what her bio-family has gone through is going to be her growth. I don't think I'm supposed to be sympathetic to the kidnapper, only understanding that Carter is sympathetic to the kidnapper. Scariest moment of her life happening right now, and the one person she would like to have to help her through it is the person she can't have.

 

At least we're also not being made to think, well look, a kidnapper raised the perfect child. She didn't. A very flawed person raised a very flawed kid. To me, that's a lot more realistic. Even if Carter and "Lori Stevens" had a good relationship someone selfish enough to take someone else's child probably didn't spend endless time teaching Carter to not be selfish.

 

The only thing I'm kinda surprised about is that I don't know if Carter ever got to go "home" and pick up things. You'd think her bio family would want the photographs/videos and stuff of her life growing up that probably exist there. I'd also like to know what Carter grew up believing about herself. 

 

I'd assume things that "Carter doesn't know" could include inflated reasons she thought the other family was bad. But I would guess if they intend to draw sympathy, we'll learn "Lori Stevens" had a miscarriage/stillbirth/kid die or something that led her to the mental point where she took a child. Predictable but that's what I figure.

 

My biggest complaints, wow, the endless list of presidents names for these kids. Lyndon/Carter, Grant, Taylor and all the boyfriend troubles.

 

I really like Grant.

 

Anyway, I'm definitely in. 

[Aliasscape]

 I think Carter has felt the need to vilify someone in the situation and she has chosen Elizabeth as the villain. The person she can see and punish. She's not realizing that everything that has happened right now is Lori's fault, not Elizabeth's fault.  I also don't think she's necessarily wrong at the moment that if Elizabeth and Lori met face to face Elizabeth would kill Lori. Understandable on Elizabeth's part, totally. But still terrifying for Carter. I'd also guess that Lori raised Carter not to respect or really trust in the police so Elizabeth being police further puts her on the side of people Carter's never trusted. I mean if you kidnapped a child and then you have to teach them what to do if they get lost "Go to the police!" is not what you'd be teaching them. So I can see why she's like "Uh go find some gummi bears and I'll find you!" And actually when you go back to the beginning and it was spend time with mom or friends, her mom does encourage a Carter first attitude of nah, go hang with your friends.

 

Did the family run through resources and end up in financial ruin looking for Carter? Or the dad was really just stupid with book advance money? Meanwhile about Elizabeth and the affair, if she was going to leave her husband and be with that guy, I suppose she wasn't planning on custody of the kids. It seemed like she kinda wanted to leave focusing (or not focusing) on them behind as well.

[Pop Tart]

I think you make fair points @Aliasscape and I get that Carter is having her life torn apart, but her one-note response to everything, while in the realm of believable, is making her just plain unlikable.

And I have to say I'm not liking Grant. His insistence on being in her face, even when she tells him to back off makes me actively dislike him.

I think the writing and character development is the problem. It's pretty trite in a lot of ways. And the final scene where the dad plays the tape from therapy? Really? Of course the cold bitch mother is having an affair, and of course the guy is Grant's dad!

[SJiles]

I understand everybody's issue with Carter but she is a teenager who world got torn apart. To her the kidnapper is her mother and her "family" are total strangers. She looks at her family as the one who took her mother from her so I do not think she is going to automatically like them. She sees them as people who turn her world upside down. Her kidnapper groom her and she believes her kidnapper loves her and gave her an  amazing life. She needs to see her mother as a kidnapper first before she can except her family.

[Dream Boy]

You guys pretty much summed it up but Carter was pretty heinous. I walked away from the premiere hating her and wishing the biological mom would give her back to the kidnapper. The final nail in the coffin was the mall prank. Playing on and then mocking her mother's fear of losing her again was low down and despicable. Just a total lack of empathy. I'm not sure how many episodes I can sit through of Carter being a belligerent ass.

[karenc3]

I thought the show was interesting, but I do think it should have been more developed in the beginning of the show. I thought the part with the social worker was rushed, and meeting her parents for the first time.    It would have been better to build on that part of the show more. 

 

 

Aliasscape. I agree that Lori might have told Carter not to trust cops, and that's why she has so much distrust for Elizabeth, but it also didn't help that she's following her around.  Elizabeth definately shouldn't be the detective on the case of finding Lori, because she's too close, and also it widens the rift between her and Carter.

Edited July 9, 2014 by karenc3

[gpgurl50]

Pop Tart, Grant is the brother.  Gabe is the kid trying to date Carter.

 

I think you make good points Aliasscape.  

 

I hope Carter does get some redeeming qualities soon.  She is very about her pain though she does try to make it work with the rest of her family even if she's incredibly rude.

 

With the treatment of Lori, I'm wondering if they'll come up with some crazy twist like David staged a temporary kidnapping to promote his book career and Lori realized halfway through she wanted to keep Carter permanently.  Hopefully, it's something more realistic that does not let Lori off the hook after what she pulled.

[Spencer Hastings]

I work with teenagers for 9 months of the year and I've seen some pretty heinous behavior, but my gosh, this kid takes the cake.  I know we're supposed to understand that her mom is her mom and that she's been ripped from all that she knows, but there are better ways to do it.  She can feel lost and confused without being a sociopathic brat.  She took one look at cop mom and decided that she didn't like her.  Even after hearing all that the cop mom has gone through in 13 years, she still can't muster a nugget of sympathy or turn her brat act down for a second.  I like these kidnapping stories but I also like my main characters to be sympathetic and likable.  I didn't like anything about this girl.  I was liking the dad until the book thing.  I would feel bad for Carter but I kind of want to see her suffer.

 

They've already ruined the twin thing.  I hate that a guy is the first means of conflict between teenagers on these shows.  She's just discovered her long lost stinking twin.  There were so many stories they could have squeezed out of that.  

 

I liked the little brother a lot.  More of that kid, please.  He was the only character with realistic behaviors and emotions.  

[meatball77]

Not only that but she somehow got an entire food court full of teens to side with her?  Ones who probably grew up in the community that searched for her for so long?

 

I'll watch the next few episodes but if it's all I'm Carter and I'm rebelling for the entire season?

[waving feather]

I wouldn't mind Carter being a bit rebellious and bitter about the situation but I lost all sympathy for her when she pulled that mall prank. I understand not liking Elizabeth but to humiliate her in front of everyone, playing on her insecurity of losing you and then laughing at the video of the humiliation. Wow. Sociopathic little bitch. There's no way to redeem her for me after that little display. I guess she does take after her kidnapper mother. And oh please, the "love you more"s is making me puke. Carter will only understand how Elizabeth feels when the same thing happens to her when she has a child of her own.

[calliope1975]

I wouldn't mind Carter being a bit rebellious and bitter about the situation but I lost all sympathy for her when she pulled that mall prank. I understand not liking Elizabeth but to humiliate her in front of everyone, playing on her insecurity of losing you and then laughing at the video of the humiliation. Wow. Sociopathic little bitch. 

 

I was enjoying the show for the most part until this happened. It seemed like they were going to have her friend Max stand up for the mom more but after a brief 'hey, this doesn't seem cool,' it went into Carter's all-about-me monologue. I get that Carter's life has been completely ripped from her and she's a teenager. And I can hand wave the ridiculousness of her immediately going to live with her birth family. But there have to be more characters standing up for the mom. She didn't know what had happened to her daughter - kidnapping (yes), abuse (maybe), death (possibly). And she lived with that every day for 13 years? Then to rag on her that she's emotionally closed off? Who wouldn't be? 

 

I also can't stand Gabe. He comes off as needy and desperate and is pushing stalker in the previews. 

 

However, I do really like the little brother. More of him, please. And the twin sister for the most part. I also think the girl playing Carter is pretty good even if I'm not liking the character. I'll wait to see how much more woeisme is focused on Carter before bailing.

[Aliasscape]

Not only that but she somehow got an entire food court full of teens to side with her?  Ones who probably grew up in the community that searched for her for so long?

Yeah but they would've been like 3 when Carter disappeared and any time people haven't found a kid in a year they figure she's dead, killed by some pedophile and never found. Most aren't really looking anymore. I doubt the kids themselves have ever thought much of her disappearance and showed up for a chance to annoy the police more than doing it for Carter personally (minus the 3 druggie kids.) 

[greekmom]

Carter will only understand how Elizabeth feels when the same thing happens to her when she has a child of her own.

 

I actually liked the first two episodes except for the fact that Carter is a little mean bitch. I wonder if she suffers from some sort of Lima syndrome given that she wants to go back to kidnapper mom instead of staying with bio family.  Besides family counselling, Carter would have had to have one on one counselling for sure.  Bio mom has put up some really good walls due to the fact that she had one kid taken away and the other one was born premature.  I cannot blame her for being the way she is and if Carter wasn't a silly little twit she would see that as well. The parents should give Carter a puppy. Let her love it, nurture it, etc for 6 months, then someone take it away and return it back to Carter with the puppy wanting its new owner and with a different name. See how she feels after that. After the first two episodes, I have no sympathy for any of these characters except for the twin sister and the little brother. i'll keep watching though.

[joanne3482]

I like the twin sister and brother a lot. I like that we're seeing the aftermath in how they were raised due to Carter's absence. To me that's the most interesting part of the story. Carter's life is turned upside down now, but theirs was 13 years ago (or in the boy's case basically when he was born). Carter's been blissfully unaware of the situation, but they've had to deal with it their whole lives. She's always been a ghost hanging out over their shoulders. I'm excited to see how their part of the story pans out. 

[RachelKM]

I actually enjoyed the show.  Yes Carter is an unlikable little shit right now.  But I'm kind of ok with her being horrible for the time being.  She's a teenager (not a group known for empathy in the first place) who's had her life upended and is angry.  

 

I don't think we are supposed to like her much at this point.  Yes Max's "she looks so sad" was a little perfunctory and quickly withdrawn, but that was because Carter's rant in response was so vehement and pretty ugly.  I think were meant to see that Max didn't want to upset Carter, but still thought it was a little mean.  And the show is giving Elizabeth a perspective to counter Carter's that I think is pretty sympathetic.

 

For now, Carter is mad and is focusing her anger on her biological mother.  This makes total sense because Carter lost a mother and this woman is here in her stead.  The dad, Taylor, and Grant had no counterparts in her prior life for Carter to feel she's betraying by accepting a little.  But to view as a mother or love, have sympathy for, or even try to understand Elizabeth would be a betrayal of her "mom."  But she is angry at Lori Stevens, or whatever her real name is, since some part of Carter has to realize that Lori was lying to her every single day of her life.  And Carter made a big deal about her mother always being honest with her.

 

For Carter to acknowledge that some of her anger is at Lori, much less to see Elizabeth as not the enemy, would be to further lose Lori as her mother.  So for now, she's taking everything out on Elizabeth which has the added bonus of maintaining an emotional distance.  So for a while, I will accept it.  But I will need to to see some sort of crack in the facade before too long, or I will not be able to like Carter.

 

I adore Grant and so far like Taylor.

 

I think Gabe is a self-centered dick who is getting less and less likable.  Carter and he had some chemistry at first, but his unwillingness to acknowledge what his crush is doing to his alleged long time friend as well as not accept Carter's rejection (regardless of her reasons) is very unattractive and verging on annoying.

 

I do like Max, but then I love Alex Saxon on The Fosters too.  I'm pleased at the direction the coming this season promos indicated for him.

 

I'm super annoyed that the dad is being so devious.  It could be sympathetic that he may feel he needs to write the book for the family as a whole, but damn he came across as a sociopathic ass in that last scene. I agree that taping the sessions is beyond the pale.  Also didn't love Denisof's facial expression in that scene.  He was doing his villain thing.

Edited July 9, 2014 by RachelKM

[rubyred]

I guess I'm turning in to a hard, cold bitch because even though I usually have zero tolerance for bratty teen angst, I actually liked Carter and found myself rooting for her. I like that she's an unlikeable antiheroine, that's more interesting to me, it will give the (inevitable, I think) thaw with Elizabeth more resonance. Elizabeth could not be handling anything any worse, and even though intellectually she's perfectly correct in her reactions I just don't like her, and I'm embarrassed to say I laughed out loud at the mall scene, partially because I didn't see it coming, so good for you, show.

 

They have glossed over a ton of stuff, and montage flashbacks of shopping trips with KidnapperMom aren't enough there. I hope they show that she was actually a good mom, not just CoolMom or FunMom or BFFMom. Was she aware of Carter's recreational drug use? Or her penny-ante juvinile delinquent antics? It's a pretty complicated situation emotionally and psychologically, however distasteful it comes across when Carter defends Lori.

 

Grant is great, Taylor has potential. It's always an adjustment for me when Alexis Denisof does his American accent, I'm always like, Wesley what you playin' at? Never been much of a fan of Cynthia Watros' moist eyes, so that is what it is. I do prefer Kathryn more as Carter than as the Bean Queen on Reign, that's for sure.

[fliptopbox]

Random observation. I caught the twin sister saying Carter was living in York, PA. That's where I live. York definitely does not have a park with a merry go round....it would have long ago been destroyed because people here suck ass. But hey.. way to do some research about the place the main character supposedly hails from. Way to go MTV.

[Mabinogia]

Yeah, Kidnap Mom seems like a pretty shitty mom to me, based on the daughter she raised. Carter is a horrible person. I know she's a teenager and they are not known for their empathy but she doesn't seem to give a shit about anything or anyone except her super cool mom who let her drink and do drugs and probably would have thrown her a "first night in jail" party after busting her out.

 

I wanted to like this, I think the premise is fascinating, and the acting is actually really good for an MTV show, but oh my god I can't stand the main character.

 

I think the biggest mistake is that they didn't let us get to know her before everything happened, so we are seeing her at her worst without knowing what she's like otherwise, other than getting her ass thrown in jail which doesn't exactly endear her to me.

 

And I don't get, are we supposed to be rooting for her? Because I'm not. I am far more interested in knowing what life was like for her bio-family than I am in anything about her. I can't imagine how hard life was for her twin and little brother. Their mother clearly never got over having her three year old taken, nor should she, that's horrible, and was both afraid to get too close to her children lest she loose one again and overly protective of them, again because she knows that at any moment one of them could be gone.

 

I would like this show more if it were more about the bio family and less about Carter idolizing her kidnapper and trying to torment her bio-mom.

 

That stunt in the mall and Carter's reaction to it...that was disgusting. I hope that, sooner rather than later, she realizes that this happened to her bio-family too.

 

I will stick with the show because I find the actors engaging and I want to see where it goes, but I hope they tone down Carter's assholishness soon.

[Shermie]

I'm torn about Carter. Think about any 16 year old being suddenly torn from the only parent and home they know, everything they think is true is a lie. So her response is realistic, and yes, the show rushed the reunion far too quickly.

While it's easy to excuse it for expedience, it's also a crucial aspect of the concept - no way would police put this girl back with her bio family the day after she is found. I would have preferred if the pilot had spent more time on the family reuniting.

That said, I like the sibs and while Carter may be a shit, the actress is really good. I also think the bio mom is responding in the worst possible way - she really can't lose her again in the same way, since Cartwr is old enough to choose.

I thought it was interesting what Taylor said - that she had to live her life of over-protection and never doing anything on her own because of her parents' fears, because of Carter.

Also liked Carter's thought that she felt free when she was actually kidnapped, but now feels trapped when she's been freed. (Paraphrased, she worded it better)

Edited July 9, 2014 by Shermie

[Ljohnson1987]

This show isn't half bad. I liked it. 

[Kat]

I will say that I love Alex Saxon in everything he does.

 

God yes! In fact, can we just have a show about Max, Taylor, and Grant? They're the only people I care about on this show so far.

 

I had no plans on watching this show originally but got pulled in just as it was starting and I ended up glued to my couch for 2 hours. 

I agree with you for the most part RachelKM. I don't think we're supposed to like Carter at all at this point, but I'm not sure how many more episodes I'll be able to stand if they don't begin a redemptive arc with Carter soon. Especially regarding her relationship with Elizabeth.

I'm very curious to see what reason they have "Lori" give for why she committed the kidnapping in the first place. At any rate, I'm on board for the time being.

 

Also, have I mentioned my love for Alex Saxon? Having him on my television twice a week is making me very happy.

[Pop Tart]

 

I think Gabe is a self-centered dick who is getting less and less liable.  Carter and he had some chemistry at first, but his unwillingness to acknowledge what his crush is doing to his alleged long time friend as well as not accept Carter's rejection (regardless of her reasons) is very unattractive and verging on annoying.

 

I agree and was going to post almost the same thing. After I thought about it I realized that he was even worse then I'd initially thought. He grew up with Taylor, so not only is it shitty of him to be so casual with the idea that she might like him and it might hurt her if Carter dated him, but he also had to have been there in a front row seat for the anguish the family went through for the last thirteen years. He has to have grown up knowing Elizabeth pretty well. She's his dad's police partner and presumably the families have spent a lot of time together. Yet it was his idea to set up Elizabeth with the fake texts and the mall prank. And he had not one moment where he paused and thought hey, maybe this is cruel. It was Max and the girl whose parents are rich who felt bad about the way it affected Elizabeth. Not Gabe.

 

And thanks gpgurl50 for correcting my Gabe/Grant mixup. I'd called him Gabe earlier then saw Grant mentioned and thought I'd got my G-names mixed up.

 

 

[Mabinogia]

Also liked Carter's thought that she felt free when she was actually kidnapped, but now feels trapped when she's been freed. (Paraphrased, she worded it better)

I wish they would explore that idea more, or better. I was intrigued when Carter said that to her, they (bio-parents) were the kidnappers. It's true. From her POV they just took her away from her life. But the show is burying this under Carter's bratty petulant rebellion. She just seems like a little shit who is used to doing whatever she wants and doesn't like the idea that she finally has a parent who cares what she does and expects her to do better.

I am going to try to be optimistic that this will change. They did kind of rush through all this very important stuff. I think the two hours would have been better served in just putting her into the house. If they had taken it slower, explained to us more who Carter was before she got re-kidnapped by her bio-family, what her life was like with this great mom of hers who thinks it's okay to take other people's kids, and a twin no less. Why just take the one? Rules out my first cop-out thought, which was that she was a surrogate or egg donor or some such and felt she had a right to the kid.

[Aliasscape]

I think the biggest mistake is that they didn't let us get to know her before everything happened, so we are seeing her at her worst without knowing what she's like otherwise, other than getting her ass thrown in jail which doesn't exactly endear her to me.

I can agree with that. We're stuck not knowing her at her best, and we don't know about the life she's missing. So we're stuck at a disadvantage of not knowing her life. Whereas every little glimpse of Grant we learn more. I mean he thinks Carter might be his salvation. Someone who will fix his family so that he can actually get loved too. He doesn't just want to get to know Carter, he wants to get to know his mother and thinks Carter being around is the only way that's going be able to happen.

 

I don't think we are supposed to like her much at this point.  Yes Max's "she looks so sad" was a little perfunctory and quickly withdrawn, but that was because Carter's rant in response was so vehement and pretty ugly.  I think were meant to see that Max didn't want to upset Carter, but still thought it was a little mean.  And the show is giving Elizabeth a perspective to counter Carter's that I think is pretty sympathetic.

 

I do like Max, but then I love Alex Saxon on The Fosters too.  I'm pleased at where the coming this season promos indicated for him.

I was trying to figure out why really rude unfeeling characters have driven me up the wall before but I was feeling a disconnect from that here and you were able to point it out. It's because we see the show recognizing that Carter's behavior is inappropriate. Taylor isn't "She skips school but we understand and feel for her." She's like no, she's dumb and won't come to class. She is mean to Elizabeth and even the high school dropout druggie boyfriend is judging her on it.

 

I'm realizing now I'm able to deal with a despicable behavior from a character if the show is not trying to tell me that behavior is acceptable by having everyone around them be like "you're awesome, you're great, that's fine."

 

Alex Saxon, every time I see him I think of Travis Clark from the band "We The Kings". Speaking of music and bands, I've had the show's opening theme song "Vagabond"  stuck in my head ever since.

[methodwriter85]

With the treatment of Lori, I'm wondering if they'll come up with some crazy twist like David staged a temporary kidnapping to promote his book career and Lori realized halfway through she wanted to keep Carter permanently.  Hopefully, it's something more realistic that does not let Lori off the hook after what she pulled.

 

 

      I'm betting anything that it's going to turn out that Lori and Carter's dad had an affair, she got pregnant and then miscarried, and thus went all "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" because in her mind, she was owed something by Carter's dad and Elizabeth already had two daughters.

 

     I must be a bad person as well, because I don't know- I didn't find Carter that repulsive, and it helps that she's being played a pretty capable actress who looks like an actual, normal teenager. (Even though she's really a 23-year old British woman.) I get having a massive chip on her shoulder, and constant lashing. It'll get tiring if she stays at the same place, but I haven't gotten the impression that we're supposed to cheer on Carter's antics. People are already calling her on her b.s., and Taylor seems to flat out hate her spoiled brat irresponsible self. I wish they could've done more than just "let's have them conflict over a guy!"- but it's not really about that. Taylor pretty much said it- she's resentful that Carter seems like she's gotten to do whatever she wants whenever she wants while she grew up in fear of getting kidnapped and murdered. And it forced her to become a mom-like figure because Elizabeth had clearly checked out in that department.

 

     I did like that Carter didn't suddenly have a change of heart after going and calling Elizabeth "Mom." Way too easy.

 

     Grant is definitely the highlight so far, and he's the only one I can actually buy being related to Carter in terms of looks. The parents really don't look anything like her.

 

      Gabe's way annoying, and I thought it was hilarious that Max either didn't get it or refused to play along when he played 3rd degree to try and make Max look bad to Carter. Dude, you don't know a damn thing about this chick. She doesn't want to be your girlfriend. Move the hell on.

[joanne3482]

I can agree with that. We're stuck not knowing her at her best, and we don't know about the life she's missing. So we're stuck at a disadvantage of not knowing her life.

 

We can do some extrapolation, though, with the fact that they were eating yogurt with toppings for dinner and she went to hang with her friends. Said hanging out translated to breaking into a carousel and doing drugs (which led to the carousel getting shut down for the remainder of the year).  Until I'm shown otherwise I'm going to believe that she's used to doing what she wants when she wants. I agree with the posters above who say that Lori was trying to be Carter's best friend instead of parenting her properly. Christ, her mom asked her if Max was calling for a bootie call. I don't care how open you are with your kids about sex, I just have a hard time believing a parent would be THAT cool with her 16ish year old daughter having sex.  

[Aliasscape]

I got what she was trying to say here, but to me, this seemed like such a teenage way of thinking. It's Carter, yet again, not willing to even look at the situation from her real parent's perspective for even a second. What does she want them to do? Just let her go back to her kidnapper and forget everything? How is that fair? If she sat and thought for a minute, she'd see that 13 years ago, her kidnapper was her kidnapper, and home is her rightful place. Right now, she's lashing out and in shut down mode. She won't go to family therapy, she won't even try and open up. Her mind is set on escaping.

Yeah, it is a teenaged way of thinking. Putting yourself in your parents place is not a huge thing for teenagers, or even when they do they can justify away the parent's POV with, "Yeah well, of course they feel that way they're old and out of touch and don't get me".

Carter's not a parent. She's not going to think like a parent. She also has the problem of having a situation where no one around her can come to her and go "Yeah, when I was your age and I was sent back to my real parents, it was tough for me too." 

 

Carter grew up with no younger siblings. I'm not sure she's ever been a babysitter even. There's basically no way to know if Carter's had a single moment in her life where she had the responsibility of worrying where someone was, what they were doing, whether they ate or slept. 

 

I also don't think she cares what's "fair". She feels she's been dealt a hand that's unfair to her, why should she be fair to anybody else? As long as life's not fair, let it be 'not fair' to her advantage.

 

Right now, Carter continues to just be focused on how everyone else cares about her. It'd be interesting to see how she would react if she saw Taylor or Grant injured or sick. Or if one them ran away. I think we're likely to see her sympathizing with them long before we see her doing so with Elizabeth or the dad.

[benteen]

I was pulled out by the sheer implausibility of it all. First of all, the social worker and the officer that spoke with Carter in the beginning - completely tone deaf as far as extending compassion to someone who has clearly been raised to believe she is someone else. Her real parents would never have been able to burst into the room like that - their first meeting would have been facilitated by someone like the social worker to introduce them slowly and in a way that wouldn't psychologically scar Carter any more than she already has been. The idea that she would immediately be placed into a new school or get a job right off the bat also seemed to stretch it in terms of plausibility - from all the real life kidnapping accounts I've read the victims were slowly integrated into their new/old lives. I realize that they have a limited number of episodes to work with in a season, but this seemed ridiculously quick. She would also definitely be in counseling, likely with someone who specializes in issues like this.

 

The idea that her real mother would have been involved in the arresting of her kidnapper - ludicrous, with her being a party of interest in the case. The idea that her "mother" would be able to evade an entire police force surrounding the yogurt shop by putting on a visor and apron? I was pounding the couch at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. 

 

There seems to be very little to ground all of this in any kind of reality. I like Alexis Denisof, and the younger brother, but the premiere was just irksome from beginning to end. I realize that Carter is supposed to be expressing some sort of denial about the entire situation, since she has effectively been ripped away from the only mother she has ever known, but the actress comes across as just a brat and completely insensitive to what her family has gone through. 

 

Yeah, I gave her the benefit of the doubt too in the first hours but can't defend her repulsive actions in the second hour.  Or her "real mother."  It's apparent that Lori did a terrible job raising her daughter.  Carter is a recreational drug user, drinks, cuts school, and has no empathy for anyone.  It's ironic that a woman who wanted a child ultimately decided to be her "daughter's" friend instead of mother.

 

That social worker and the cop who told Carter the truth displayed no humanity whatsoever.  It's absolutely ridiculous that barely five minutes after they revealed the truth to her, they allowed the parents to barge in and begin the reunion.  That would do some seriously mental damage to a person.  In real life, the reunion wouldn't go down in five minutes and Carter wouldn't be returning home immediately.  Okay, I get it, it's television and of course they're going to create a moment like that, no matter how contrived it is.

 

Also contrived is the mother leading the investigation, which would never happen in real life.  But I get it, it creates drama.  Though apparently the police force Elizabeth works for learned from the law enforcement agencies of 24 how to secure a perimeter.  Seriously, they drive up to the yogurt place but say outside long enough for Carter to have a conversation with her kidnapper and get her out of there. 

 

Carter's dad is right about one thing though...Elizabeth has to realize that arresting Lori will seriously damage any kind of relationship she has with Carter.  I mean physically arresting her...of course they have to arrest her and they should.  Elizabeth is justified in her anger against Lori and wanting to destroy her.  But she can't be the one to take down Lori.

 

Then we have Gabe who for some reason becomes obsessed with Carter the moment he lays eyes on her and is already trying to make out with her after she's been back for all of one day.  Completely ignoring any consideration for his long-time "friend" Taylor.  A total lack of empathy...he's no different than Carter.

 

I seem to be in the minority but I couldn't stand Grant.  His wise-beyond-his-year dialogue made me cringe every time.  Though I did like his interaction with Carter.

Edited July 10, 2014 by benteen

[FAU]

You guys pretty much summed it up but Carter was pretty heinous. I walked away from the premiere hating her and wishing the biological mom would give her back to the kidnapper. The final nail in the coffin was the mall prank. Playing on and then mocking her mother's fear of losing her again was low down and despicable. Just a total lack of empathy. I'm not sure how many episodes I can sit through of Carter being a belligerent ass.

 

IA, especially knowing all she's been through and the writers also set up a love triangle with her sister unfortunately.  I'm already sick of her rebel teen cliche, the mall pranks was beyond forgiveable.

Edited July 9, 2014 by FAU

[RachelKM]

I agree and was going to post almost the same thing. After I thought about it I realized that he was even worse then I'd initially thought. He grew up with Taylor, so not only is it shitty of him to be so casual with the idea that she might like him and it might hurt her if Carter dated him, but he also had to have been there in a front row seat for the anguish the family went through for the last thirteen years. He has to have grown up knowing Elizabeth pretty well. She's his dad's police partner and presumably the families have spent a lot of time together. Yet it was his idea to set up Elizabeth with the fake texts and the mall prank. And he had not one moment where he paused and thought hey, maybe this is cruel. It was Max and the girl whose parents are rich who felt bad about the way it affected Elizabeth. Not Gabe.

 

I hadn't thought about that. You're right.  At least Carter has the excuse of being blinded by anger (shitty excuse, but I provides some breathing room from total monster).  Gabe did this horrible, horrifically cruel thing to a woman he's apparently known his whole life on a subject he has to be aware all but destroyed her and her whole family, including his supposed friend.  

 

Speaking of Gabe and Taylor's alleged friendship, I didn't get much actual give a shit on Gabe's part generally.  Other than the opening of them together, the party and the subsequent yogurt shop scene, Gabe seemed to have his own set of friends who were totally removed from Taylor.  It's like they only established him as Taylor's friend to give him a story line access point to Carter and the set up the idiotic triangle between the sisters and then the rest of that episode and all of the next, he seemed to hang exclusively with the poor little rich girl and Ofe(?).  So what was the point,  of making them friends at all?  Just for the sake of a cliched triangle pitting the sisters against each other (in the mildest way every) over the douchy-douche in doucheville?

[Nena]

I got what she was trying to say here, but to me, this seemed like such a teenage way of thinking. It's Carter, yet again, not willing to even look at the situation from her real parent's perspective for even a second. What does she want them to do? Just let her go back to her kidnapper and forget everything? How is that fair? If she sat and thought for a minute, she'd see that 13 years ago, her kidnapper was her kidnapper, and home is her rightful place. Right now, she's lashing out and in shut down mode. She won't go to family therapy, she won't even try and open up. Her mind is set on escaping.

 

It was really twisted for me how Lori/kidnapper showed up at the yogurt shop with that stupid "love you more" 10 dollar bill. She's continuing to emotionally manipulate a teenager even after the truth is out. So wrong.

 

Also, something just occurred to me: Where the hell was Lori Stevens the night Carter got arrested? Did someone tip her off that Carter was with the authorities so she made a run for it?

 

Why would any teenager stop and think about things from a parent's perspective, when they don't HAVE a parent's perspective?  If she was omniscient, there'd be no reason to have a show at all.  Some major things have glossed over, but it would be entirely unrealistic for her to be a mature, capable adult, and react in a mature, thoughtful manner.  Kids don't do that when they're grounded, let alone when they're ripped away from the only home they've ever known without warning.  Even if she was an adult - how many mature, adults out there blame the person who tells them horrible news rather than the person responsible for it (the friend who clues them in to a cheating spouse, the boss who has to relay the message that someone upstairs has decided to lay them off)?

 

My struggle with the show is the atrocious acting.  A few of them are ok.  A few of them, so very not ok it's distracting.  I was giggling at one point, Gabe and his father are equally hamfisted with their lines, so in a way it's brilliant - a genetic trait for bad acting.

 

As for Lori's back story, I get the impression they're setting up an emotional abuse situation.  Not so simple as Elizabeth being a working parent - big deal, that's the norm 13 years ago as much as it is today.  Perhaps more along the lines of one locked in his office and the other too busy to spend time with them when she was home - it's a common theme in any cop show that they are distant parents and rotten spouses, to the point it's cliche.  We don't know how long Lori was there watching them, at least long enough to have made an impression as someone they'd remember after a single glance at a photo 13 years ago.  That's not someone who was only around a week or two.  

Edited July 9, 2014 by Nena

[FAU]

So the promo seems to indicate Carter being nasty to the people in her life especially after ODing, more love triangle antics with her sister (yuck), and hitting more angsty teen cliches.

[Pop Tart]

 

Why would any teenager stop and think about things from a parent's perspective, when they don't HAVE a parent's perspective?

 

It's not a matter of having a parent's perspective, it's a matter of having empathy for another human being, any human being. I totally get Carter's anger and fear and teenage angst and any other horrible thing a child who's life has just been torn apart would feel. But in order for me to empathize with her, I need her to have a moment here and there of empathy for these other people who have been just as affected by the upheaval. Not all the time. Not deep introspection that completely turns her around. Just a thought here and there about what her reappearance is doing to the other people in this mess.

 

In fact she worked best for me when she'd have a moment or two with Taylor talking about Taylor's version of what the past thirteen years ago. And though Grant is a bit too precocious, I also liked her moments with him. Though I was annoyed that she insist he call his own mother Elizabeth. If she doesn't want to call her mom, fine, but don't try to distance him from his own parent. The problem is that these moments were overpowered by all the other hateful behavior. 

 

Even after she wakes from her drug overdose, she remains unmoved. Again, I get it, she's a self-centered teen, but she's just woken from a several day coma, days where her family sat by her side, and nothing.

[atlanticslide]

Wow, this was bad. Bad. I was really interested in the premise and looking forward to it, but I definitely won't be watching again. Just awful in every possible way.

 

The implausibility of it all is waht got me first. The cops tell her she was kidnapped and then literally five minutes later they let her bio parents come barging in at her? And then take her home immediately after that? Ridiculous. And a kidnapped child returning home after more than a decade is a BIG DEAL. No way all of those journalists and photographers outside of their house would just bail after an hour. In addition to counselors and social workers, wouldn't the cops want to spend, like, days talking to her to get info on where she's been living and what her life has been like and about Lori?

 

Then there's the fact that everyone - including Carter herself - just seems so blasé about the whole thing. "Hey, why don't you and Taylor go take a drive?" "This is my long-lost sister, she just found out yesterday that she was kidnapped at age three," (also, if Taylor and Gabe have been friends for years, why would she need to explain who her long-lost sister is? Why is Gabe so shocked to hear that Carter had been kidnapped?). So ridiculous. Carter doesn't act like someone who's been traumatized or like someone who's been ripped away from her life, she acts like an extremely self-centered and bratty teenager. I didn't see any signs from her that she's freaked out or sad or scared or anxious or interested in getting to know her family or awkward being in a brand new home or anything other than pissy and selfish. It almost feels like the kidnapping is incidental to the whole show, because they're needlessly manufacturing typical teen show melodrama with a lead character who has the bad attitude of a kid who's been told she's grounded for a week, not someone who's entire life has been flipped upside down and has been forced to move into a strange home with a bunch of strangers.

 

I also really didn't get what we're supposed to be feeling about Carter, her friends, her antagonism with her mother. I guess it's interesting to see a central character who's a huge jerk, but the way the narrative was set up, with the group of kids scheming together to set up this prank, I got the sense that we were supposed to be rooting for them to stick it to those mean 'ol cops who have the audacity to try and arrest a kidnapper (seriously, none of those kids stopped for one moment and said "hey, I get it sucks to be watched all the time like this, but maybe we should lay off your bio mom seeing as she spent 13 years thinking you might be dead").

 

The only thing I'm mildly curious about is what the "there are things you need to know" is all about, but I can't think of anything that would justify taking a child from a seemingly decent home and family, especially when Taylor wasn't taken as well. If there's some deep, dark issue with one or both of the parents, why wouldn't Lori have taken both children?

Edited July 10, 2014 by atlanticslide

[benteen]

That's another great point about the cops...they would still be coming around to question her about what went on.  They'd want to know what happened to her during her time with Lori and there would likely be some kind of medical stuff too.

[lorikauai]

I enjoyed it but I enjoy PLL so realism is not all that important to me.

I felt Carter's behavior was understandable given that she was taken from the only life she knew and thrown into a family she didn't know.

Loved Meredith Baxter as the grandma but I may be the only one in this thread old enough to remember Family Ties.

Yes, they threw in some teen cliches like bad twin/goody-goody twin (Sweet Valley High anyone?) and fighting over the same guy but that's to be expected with any teen show.

I also agree that there is more to Lori's story and the dad is bad. I wonder if they were having an affair. I even wonder if the dad asked her to take Carter to give him something to write about. That sounds terribly cold but he's also taping family therapy sessions and writing another book about her without her consent. Carter hates the mom more not just because she's a cop but because she represents what Carter has lost. It will be interesting to watch her discover that dad is probably the big bad.

I also think it's weird that the kids are all named after presidents - Taylor, Carter, Grant. Maybe that's just me. ETA: reading back it's not just me. Yay, I feel less weird!

Edited July 10, 2014 by lorikauai

[Cranberry]

I'm okay with how Carter's acting -- yes, she's being an unrepentant brat, but she is a 16-year-old kid who was just ripped away from the person she loves most in the world, and she's not used to having any sort of real parental guidance, so this reaction is pretty much what I'd expect from her. We are seeing glimpses of a good person, though, like when she (repeatedly) rejects Gabe because she knows Taylor likes him and when she's affectionate with Grant. It will take some time, but I do think she'll bond with each member of her new/old family and will start to shift some of the blame onto her kidnapper. Right now she's running on pure emotion, not logic.

 

(It was hard to like her in the moment when she laughed at the food court "fuck you," though.)

 

More importantly, however, as others have mentioned, the audience is not supposed to side with Carter and see her as being in the right. We get to see how hard this has been (and still is) on everyone in the family, especially her birth mom. It's not black and white, and I like that. I'm gonna keep watching.

[FAU]

 

I also really didn't get what we're supposed to be feeling about Carter, her friends, her antagonism with her mother. I guess it's interesting to see a central character who's a huge jerk, but the way the narrative was set up, with the group of kids scheming together to set up this prank, I got the sense that we were supposed to be rooting for them to stick it to those mean 'ol cops who have the audacity to try and arrest a kidnapper (seriously, none of those kids stopped for one moment and said "hey, I get it sucks to be watched all the time like this, but maybe we should lay off your bio mom seeing as she spent 13 years thinking you might be dead").

 

It's annoying cliched rebel/teen angst and it's things like this that makes people annoyed with many kid/teen characters in movies/tv shows because of how insufferable it's portrayed especially if it's your main character the show is about.

 

IA about the prank, especially with how losing her most likely probably affected her the way she is in the first place so for her to take advantage of that and use that against her was just terrible considering how it was like reliving her worst memories of losing Carter in the first place and suffered years of emotional/psychological trauma.

[Aliasscape]

I think I decided as my fan reason for why the reunion didn't go the way it should have would have been Elizabeth working in law enforcement. Normally the fingerprints flagging a match would have had to go to authorities, then they parents would have been contacted and told how things would go. But Elizabeth probably was able to know immediately since she works at a police station. She also may have known judges, social workers whomever she needed to pull the strings to say just give her back immediately. Still a major stretch but it's what I'm going with.

 

But knowing this was the wrong way to go about it, I'm with @Shermie that it's a crucial part of the concept. That they went about this the wrong way, that they're pushing her, that they forced a fast reunion, that she's not getting the proper solo therapy, that it is not all on her that she's acting the way she is.

 

She is the "child" in this situation. Acting out, being immature, shutting down her emotions in self-protection, escape, get me out of here mode while not a "fun" behavior for others to be around is a realistic behavior.

 

The bio parents recognizing that this isn't going the way its needed have plenty to be faulted on. Let the Lori chase happen with others, stay home with your kid for a bit. Why not show her some photo albums? Home videos? Show her how beloved she was? Show her little twin baby photos and special occasion pics. Show her who she was and that she was LOVED. Then, show her who YOU are. 

 

Please just fit into our lives when we don't know each other at all is yeah, gonna result in some traumatized teen behavior. She may not be having panic attacks or refusing to eat or talk but I think most of her behavior still represents that she's suffered a trauma. Angry outbursts, emotional numbness, destructive and disrespectful behavior can be  post traumatic stress reactions. A kid with a normal life could just be spoiled and bratty. A kid whose just been ripped from their home and improperly introduced into a new one? That's not just being a brat. That's lack of coping skills for an extraordinary situation.

 

[Kromm]

I think this is an intriguing premise.  

 

I get that we don't want to see anything seeming to boost the kidnapper, or give excuses for this girl acting like a total bitch, but I think it's pretty realistic for those things to be there.  The kidnappers in cases like this often DO push themselves into being super-mom types to try and make up for what they did (not that they actually can), and the way this transfer to a new family was handled seems clumsy and almost designed to create hostility from the kid.  That way of informing her and handing her over seems like the real "what the fuck" aspect of this.  It's all so ham-handed, you'd think the FBI had never handled a case like this before.

 

The key here has to be what changes, and when.  I can take some hostility, even meanness, and some dumb-ass emotional blindness from the girl, if we get clear indications of it being part of a storyarc.  We need to see breadcrumbs she's actually changing.  If it all happened TOO quickly here, this would be boring as paint (and actually quite unbelievable).

It's annoying cliched rebel/teen angst and it's things like this that makes people annoyed with many kid/teen characters in movies/tv shows because of how insufferable it's portrayed especially if it's your main character the show is about.

But the main reason those cliches are so unbearable is that the characters involved rarely seem to have proper justification for acting that way.

 

I'd argue this one DOES.  Admittedly her choice of targets doesn't tweak our sympathy, but if anyone has a reason to be angsty, I'd say this girl does.

[FAU]

I think this is an intriguing premise.  

 

I get that we don't want to see anything seeming to boost the kidnapper, or give excuses for this girl acting like a total bitch, but I think it's pretty realistic for those things to be there.  The kidnappers in cases like this often DO push themselves into being super-mom types to try and make up for what they did (not that they actually can), and the way this transfer to a new family was handled seems clumsy and almost designed to create hostility from the kid.  That way of informing her and handing her over seems like the real "what the fuck" aspect of this.  It's all so ham-handed, you'd think the FBI had never handled a case like this before.

 

The key here has to be what changes, and when.  I can take some hostility, even meanness, and some dumb-ass emotional blindness from the girl, if we get clear indications of it being part of a storyarc.  We need to see breadcrumbs she's actually changing.  If it all happened TOO quickly here, this would be boring as paint (and actually quite unbelievable).

 

The problem is that there's always a lingering possibility of the writers completely whitewashing her actions especially with them hammering the 'love you more' moments over and over again.  I'd prefer if they were able to tackle on a complicated situation but it just seems like just shoving in drama for the sake of it like having the bio mom be the one to chase the kidnapper or shoving Carter into the family straightaway without any proper help after what she's been through and instead has the character constantly snaps at Elizabeth.

 

 

But the main reason those cliches are so unbearable is that the characters involved rarely seem to have proper justification for acting that way.

 

I'd argue this one DOES.  Admittedly her choice of targets doesn't tweak our sympathy, but if anyone has a reason to be angsty, I'd say this girl does.

 

It's unbearable because all the writers have shown is her being insufferable without trying to show another side of her character so basically the writers just dumped her into the drama without much build up of her character and her situation.

 

It's also unbearable because of the teen excuse for the character acting out the way they are and that's unpleasant to watch, it's why many people have a harder time connecting to teen/kid characters most of the time.

Edited July 10, 2014 by FAU

[Kromm]

The problem is that there's always a lingering possibility of the writers completely whitewashing her actions especially with them hammering the 'love you more' moments over and over again.  I'd prefer if they were able to tackle on a complicated situation but it just seems like just shoving in drama for the sake of it like having the bio mom be the one to chase the kidnapper or shoving Carter into the family straightaway without any proper help after what she's been through and instead has the character constantly snaps at Elizabeth.

Admittedly they've created "DRAMA!" by having the real mother be a hardass cop, who bungles just about everything. But taking a "lingering possibility" and being too hard on that aspect of the show before it's had any fair shot of proving that wrong seems premature.  

 

Kidnapping a kid?  Well, yes, short of the birth parents actually being abusive, it IS pretty black and white in terms of it's morality.  But from the standpoint of the daughter there's no way it would ever seem that way (again, since it seems the kidnapper was a "good mom" and not an abusive one).

 

I don't admire the show for going with this ridiculous, over the top plot where Bio-Mom is the very worst thing that could possibly be presented to her returned daughter--someone who's totally tone-deaf to how the things she says and does impact what's basically a brand new, and on the other side forced, relationship.

 

But getting past the clumsiness of them having this plot element, and all of the other stupid soapy touches, I think there's about 0% chance the show won't have the Bio Mom come around somewhat.  As for the kidnapper?  They have a trickier road there.  They can't simply make her a cliched baddie.  We need to see some slow evidence unfold that she's mentally ill.  Maybe that might come off like an "excuse", sure, but I think if you do it any other way there's no avenue to have the kid fit back into her original family.  The girl has to make that hard jump to realizing that the woman might have acted like a good mother, but that she wasn't.  If you ignore either part of that equation, you're left with either delusion on her part, or that whitewashing you're scared of.

It's unbearable because all the writers have shown is her being insufferable without trying to show another side of her character so basically the writers just dumped her into the drama without much build up of her character and her situation.

Yes, it's certainly true they didn't let us know enough about her before we got into the meat of the story.  It was a horrible mistake on the part of their writers.  But given that we're already into the show 2 episodes and can't undo that mistake, I think we have to roll with it a bit.  We don't know if she was a decent kid before any of this, but you know what?  If she WASN'T there might be story potential in us uncovering that in coming episodes, having HER realize that, and figure out that it was a result of bad parenting from faux-Mom.  

[RachelKM]

Yes, it's certainly true they didn't let us know enough about her before we got into the meat of the story.  It was a horrible mistake on the part of their writers.  But given that we're already into the show 2 episodes and can't undo that mistake, I think we have to roll with it a bit.  We don't know if she was a decent kid before any of this, but you know what?  If she WASN'T there might be story potential in us uncovering that in coming episodes, having HER realize that, and figure out that it was a result of bad parenting from faux-Mom.  

 

I wish we had seen more of Carter and her life before the switch.  As others have mentioned, it would likely help with accepting her current behavior to have a more concrete notion of what was taken from her.

 

However, with that said, what we did see prior to the kidnapping reveal was a fairly permissive mom and an already a bit wild teen.  Faux-Mom let her go off with her friends late in the evening (they'd already seen a movie and were getting post movie yogurt) and Carter didn't seem at all concerned about how her mother would react to her having been arrested.  No matter how fun and "cool" a mom might be, I cannot imagine any mom who isn't doing the attempt at BFF instead of parenting  thing wouldn't be fairly pissed off about an arrest. And Carter was clearly doing recreational drugs and breaking into hangout spots.

 

So if they try to sell me a line that Not!Lori was a really great mom (as opposed to an ok mom with issues that Carter didn't recognize or understand), I'm not inclined to buy.  It doesn't appear that Not!Lori was horribly unstable or cruel, but I won't be ok with a "But for this one act, she was awesome!"

Edited July 10, 2014 by RachelKM