S01.E10: Episode 10

[tennisgurl]

Even ten years later, Claire is still making excuses and trying to downplay what she did and how terrible it was. The apology started out alright, but as soon as she started putting the impetus of the whole mess on Eric, it became clear that this was all just an excuse for her to try and make herself feel better and prove to herself that what she did wasn't really so bad and that Eric was really fine, not any real attempt to apologize for what she did. As much as Claire says how her life is "hell" because she cant get a job and people still judge her, she got off easy in the long term with a financially secure husband who doesn't find her being a sex offender to be a deal breaker so she can be a stay at home mom with two cute kids in a nice place where her only real issue seems to be that she is worried about what people think about her. Meanwhile, while Eric seems to be doing well now, its clear that him being this alright has taken a LOT of work and that he has been badly messed up by the abuse that Claire put him through, so while I partially wanted him to just block her number and never speak to Claire again, I am glad that he got the chance to tell her off and really spell out the damage she did. In retrospect, she crossed so many lines so quickly even before Eric moved to kiss her and its clear that she was angling for this relationship to become deeply inappropriate from the start. Even back then, when Eric kissed her in the classroom, she was more focused on how this could get her in trouble than how morally wrong it was and its just the same now. Its all about how much this sucks for Claire and not how awful it was for Eric and how her abuse of him caused him a lot of pain. 

I really liked a lot about this series, but I really wanted the episodes to be just a little bit longer to really dig deeper into these relationships. I feel like even after ten episodes we have just scratched the surface. I get why they did the time skip, but I would have liked to see a bit more of Eric's journey to realizing that he wasn't at fault for what happened to him and that he didn't "ruin Claire's life" and that their relationship wasn't love but abuse. I also would have liked to see more of Eric and his mom talking about the abuse, or even Claire's relationship with her new husband or if she and her brother have much of a relationship anymore, as it still seemed awkward between them in their brief scene together. 

[Empress1]

40 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

financially secure husband

I peeped that Tesla.

[BlackberryJam]

The damage to Claire’s ability to secure a new relationship was minimal. She could ‘spin’ it as, “My almost 18 year old student pursued me because I was so hot. He initiated everything and I was foolish.” Claire really repels me. 

[lightninggirl]

What bugged me (beyond the obvious Claire is still a garbage person, and everything else you good people have mentioned here) was that it was like the aging process was "Let's give Mara Rooney a haircut and call it a day!" Eric still look dead-eyed stoned and I guess his hair was a little longer. Claire was supposed to be 42 but still looked like she was in her late 20s. Sure, she landed a husband who gave her a comfy lifestyle and therefore she could afford botox, lasers, and fillers, but they just gave her wardrobe a glow-up and cut her hair. To me, Eric's mom looked YOUNGER in the 10-year jump with the longer hair - plus she looked less tired.

[BlackberryJam]

On 6/19/2021 at 11:49 AM, lightninggirl said:

What bugged me (beyond the obvious Claire is still a garbage person, and everything else you good people have mentioned here) was that it was like the aging process was "Let's give Mara Rooney a haircut and call it a day!" Eric still look dead-eyed stoned and I guess his hair was a little longer. Claire was supposed to be 42 but still looked like she was in her late 20s. Sure, she landed a husband who gave her a comfy lifestyle and therefore she could afford botox, lasers, and fillers, but they just gave her wardrobe a glow-up and cut her hair. To me, Eric's mom looked YOUNGER in the 10-year jump with the longer hair - plus she looked less tired.

It was Kate Mara, not her sister, Rooney Mara in the show.

[lightninggirl]

17 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

It was Kate Mara, not her sister, Rooney Mara in the show.

I'm sure they still wouldn't have aged Rooney Mara if she was in the show.

[BlackberryJam]

36 minutes ago, lightninggirl said:

I'm sure they still wouldn't have aged Rooney Mara if she was in the show.

Kate (38) and Rooney (36) have different looks. Rooney is hovers between vacant-stare pixie and Audrey Hepburn so she always looks younger than Kate. 

But even besides that, Kate is actually closer to Claire's 2024 age, which was supposed to be 42, than she was to Claire when the molestation of Eric began (32). I don't think Kate needed to be "aged up" because they had aged her down in the beginning. 

[lightninggirl]

23 hours ago, BlackberryJam said:

Kate (38) and Rooney (36) have different looks. Rooney is hovers between vacant-stare pixie and Audrey Hepburn so she always looks younger than Kate. 

But even besides that, Kate is actually closer to Claire's 2024 age, which was supposed to be 42, than she was to Claire when the molestation of Eric began (32). I don't think Kate needed to be "aged up" because they had aged her down in the beginning. 

Well, we'll agree to disagree. She looked identical outside of a different haircut to me.

[MissScarlett]

Recently watched this show and it's had me thinking ever since. I finally get it. I think the issue with how the show was written is that they never gave us time to really digest how Eric felt. There was too much focus on the physical sex. We didn't see his emotional trauma unfold fully. We saw glimpses of it. We saw more trauma with Claire than Eric, imo. 

He was constantly shut down and shut out by Claire. Anytime he wanted clarification for himself, she would manipulate the situation to get the best outcome for her. He sat there completely confused and unsure of how to fix things after it all fell to shit. He took emotional responsibility for her well-being. It wasn't HIS responsibility, it was hers. Why didn't anyone tell him that? Why didn't anyone make him a priority after the fall-out?

Claire focused solely on herself the whole time. She never thought about how it affected Eric, not even a little. She projected onto him and used his own trauma to bond. Whether she knew that was the outcome or not... that's what it was. 

Let's also say that Eric's mom, leaned on Eric like one would lean on a husband. Eric's home responsibilities were a lot. So, he was used to taking on a huge amount of responsibility at a young age. He was probably more in-tune with what others needed than what he himself needed. He was left essentially on his own emotionally, because people just didn't get it. The guys his age wanted to hear about how "hot" the sex was. How could he even begin to explain his very adult feelings to his friends who were too immature to understand?

It's actually less about the physical act of sex and more about the very grown-up intimacy that Eric was subjected to by someone who had no intention of falling in love and staying in love with him. For Claire, he was exciting. A solution to a dull marriage. There was one point near the end of their time together where she kept demanding he look into her eyes when they were having sex. That was a terrifying moment in my opinion, because that created an emotional bond that was soon torpedoed to hell. Of course this kid is gonna have problems reconciling the fall-out. Of course he is! Where the f*ck was his support?! Where the f*ck was his mom when he needed her? Everyone on the outside is like hurr hurr hurr.... sex with an older woman = hot. They didn't think about how very emotionally intense this affair got.

The teacher-friend saying "abuse of power" after Claire's confession. Now listen, her physical reaction was good but the words used to describe what happened was shit imo. The writing could have been a hell of a lot better to convey. I don't even think Claire was self-aware enough to realize what she did, at first. She was thinking about it from a very elementary point of view. He's 18! Physically it's legal!!  She's so f*cking self-involved. Interesting that dad brought up Al-Anon because I think she needed that for sure.

I wish we had gotten a full hour for the ending. I wish Eric had more time to confront Claire. I wish we had seen the emotional fall-out in those 10 years from Eric's perspective and experience and not just the cliff-notes version.

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by MissScarlett