S01.E01: Scott's Story

[circumvent]

On 2/7/2023 at 9:02 AM, SunnyBeBe said:

Maybe what dad did didn’t ruse to the level to fit the crime, but I just wonder why Dad gave his troubled son that cash.  I mean…..even if he wasn’t so disturbed, you wouldn’t handle a large amount of money that way. Just ridiculous.  So, in my mind, he was partially responsible…..civilly perhaps.  

Sociopaths are master manipulators. Plus the emotional connection that Scott fell towards the son - the desire for connection. He was deceiving himself in hopes that the son had changed, or was changing, or wanted to change. Believe me, nobody is immune to their pull. Even when you know they are sociopaths, it is hard to break the chain in a definitive way. In this case, things went way beyond control and were much more serious. 

[possibilities]

I think it was absurd to give him the cash, but that being the thing that put the dad in the eyes of prosecutors amounts to him being a scapegoat for a systemwide failure. He tried to get help from medicine, law enforcement, his wife... every level of society failed, from the parents to the schools to the courts and the health infrastructure. It was everybody's fault and also no one individual's fault, but our system looks for scapegoats and easy answers. The kid would have found some other way to cause mayhem if he hadn't had the money. Giving him the money was stupid, but there were so many points of failure along the way to what happened.

[Mrs. Hanson]

Why did the older son not hug Dad?

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 2/11/2023 at 6:49 PM, Mrs. Hanson said:

Why did the older son not hug Dad?

I took it that older son either blames Dad for being a bad parent to Devin such that all this wasn't avoided or blames Dad for having seriously contemplated killing Devin in cold blood.

To a certain extent, I wouldn't blame him for the latter. Even knowing the outcome, it's a little creepy thinking that your dad could make the calculated decisions of "OK, I need Devin to die. These are the things I need to do to make that happen and not get caught." and basically was able to do those things.

Another possibility or two: Son sees what happened as no cause for celebration, because Devin and the people he murdered are still dead. Or son actually wanted dad to be convicted as an accomplice.