Nora Durst: Awesome Character, Horrible Person? Discuss.

[scrb]

She's a favorite and is matter of fact, which is appealing, cuts through other people's BS, doesn't suffer fools.

 

But she also steamrolls over people in her life, like poor Kevin.  So much for the macho, ripped, tatted sheriff, she buys the home without consulting him and then makes a generous donation, while he meekly squeaks.

 

Can't recall if she did the same with Jill.

 

It's also completely out of character that she'd be okay with Kevin seeing Patti.  Or patient and understanding.  She'd have yelled at him if not slug him for making her put up with his nonsense.

 

Or that she'd be taking care of Mary.

 

Maybe her husband and kids wanted out.

[MyPeopleAreNordic]

Absolutely nothing Nora has done has ever made me think she's a horrible person.

[Latverian Diplomat]

 she buys the home without consulting him and then makes a generous donation, while he meekly squeaks.

 

 

She buys the home with her own money. In the community they had mutually agreed to move to beforehand.

 

Personally, I'm finding "Crazy Kevin" almost unbearable, but it's not his fault. It's a mental health issue or a terrible idea from the writers, depending on how you look at it. But Nora is handling it in a very caring way. And she took on Mary's care as well.

[RedheadZombie]

I fucking love Nora.  I want to be Nora.  No, I don't want to lose my entire family in a flash, but she's so resilient, a protector.  She won over Jill in short order, and there seems to be a mutual warmth there.  She's providing Jill with what her own mother can't give her right now.  She stepped in and cared for Mary.  She talks to coma-Mary like she's a real person, and instinctively tried to protect her from the falling debris during the earthquake.  I loved her when she calmly hosed down Meg and friend to protect Kevin.  Hell, even Meg liked her for that!

 

I love that she doesn't get easily intimidated.  She took just about enough from the "she's not your baby", before finally screaming at her to shut the fuck up.  And when Lily was snatched, she chased her down and threw her body over Lily's to protect her.  When you compare her to Laurie, who abandoned her family, and Erika, who almost abandoned hers, she really stands out as a mother lion.  Matt was standing right there when that woman was harassing her, but Nora dealt with her instead of hiding behind a man.  Love her.

 

She seems like she's been beaten over the head with a bible by her parents and her brother her entire life.  "Fix that, Jesus".  Best line of the night.

 

I hate the thread name - can it be changed?  And I believe her name is spelled Nora.

[scrb]

No that's the point, the traits that make her an entertaining character would be emotionally draining in real life.

 

And why did she come back to Kevin in the end anyways?

[Misty79]

And why did she come back to Kevin in the end anyways?

 

Good question. Personally I would have liked a little more time in the finale dedicated to Nora, as well as Jill and Laurie. It's the only really off key note in the episode for me. I can fill in the gaps myself by assuming her dramatic experiences with Mary waking up and then what happened to the baby on the bridge and the whole GR fracas were enough to drive her home, but it would have been nice to see her motivations fleshed out a little. 

 

I fucking love Nora.  I want to be Nora.  No, I don't want to lose my entire family in a flash, but she's so resilient, a protector.

 

Yes! I can't decide if I want to be Nora or am just a little in love with the character. She's awesome.

 

I know people can go overboard with the Lost parallels with the Leftovers but both shows have deeply explored the tensions that exist between science and faith. And for me Nora is "Man of Science" (aka Jack) whereas Matt is "Man of Faith" (aka Locke). 

Edited December 9, 2015 by Misty79

[stillshimpy]

And why did she come back to Kevin in the end anyways?

 

Likely because having found out that Matt was never making up or hallucinating that Mary had woken up the first night they were in town, she realized that there was a possibility that Kevin was not simply mentally ill when he said he was being visited by the ghost of Patti in the GR.  

 

Basically, she had something prove to her that was more going on than met the eye, so she went home to Kevin upon realizing that.  

 

That's my guess at least.  I love Nora, she's the person you'd want on your side and never want to cross her.  I'm not sure I'd want to be her friend, but ....I probably would.  

[scrb]

So in the "Don't be Ridiculous" episode (S3E2), she won't tolerate the BS from the Brett Butler character nor Matt, who claim the pillar guy is the latest to have Departed.

She holds back the snark against Mark Linn Baker but tells him he's suicidal.

She packs aluminum foil so that she can cover up the smoke detector and smoke in her hotel room -- hotel should charge her card up the gills for that.

She then walks in on Kevin who's trying to kill himself -- he doesn't even pretend he was into autoerotic asphyxiation -- though Kevin claims he always rips off the plastic.  But she's understanding and kind, wants him to come along to Australia?

Yes behind that gruff exterior, she's wounded, as shown when she saw Lily and when she visits Erika.

But did her anger (when she raged in the parking lot) and her shortness with people only came about because of her loss?

[MyPeopleAreNordic]

I love Nora. I didn't like her in the beginning of the first season until we saw the episode all about her ("Guest") and then I realized I identified (though not to the extreme) with so much about her....coming off as cold when really she's just so hurt, such immense pain that causes her to offer up impolite truths to others, and at her lowest...wanting to feel something/anything just to feel. I've been there, but not to the extent Nora has. I think Carrie Coon is playing her perfectly. 

Her behavior in episode 2 of season 3:

Nora is broken but has been through stuff that would completely and with certitude break most people beyond repair. If my husband and kids departed at the same moment I wished they'd disappear for a second, I don't know that I wouldn't have ended up in a psych facility or doing something way worse to myself than paying someone to shoot me while I wear a kevlar vest.  Then add onto that a baby I adopted, bonded with, and raised for several years being taken away.....yeah, if I hadn't ended up in a psych facility or dead after my family's departure, I definitely woulfd have after that, especially when you add on the stresses of Kevin's issues as well. So I'm going to give Nora a total pass on breaking the electronic arm on the parking lot exit, breaking her arm/the tattoo stuff, printing out the picture of the dead guy and placing it on his memorial.  You do you, Nora, cause I certainly could not handle being you after all you've gone through....I couldn't "do you" for any length of time before completely losing it. 

Edited April 26, 2017 by MyPeopleAreNordic

[scrb]

Again, the character may be awesome but a person like that may be difficult to live with.

High maintenance may not begin to describe it.

[MyPeopleAreNordic]

Incredibly high-maintence. But so is Kevin.  I'm not sure if that makes them ill-suited or perfectly-suited.

[scrb]

Nora likes to disable or circumvent smoke detectors in hotel rooms so she could smoke.

She's too good for rules that other people follow, like having some respect for other people's property.

If she's such a tobacco fiend, how did she manage to survive a 15-20 hour flight to Australia?  Did she not do the smoke detector trick in the plane's bathrooms?

Also, Kevin and Nora have sex in the airport bathroom, which is improbably empty.  Since they were flying to Australia, it was probably a big international airport, probably DFW.

For such an iconoclast or rule-breaker like Nora, why wouldn't they try to do the mile-high club?

[scrb]

If there's one thing about Nora, she runs towards confrontations, not runs away from them.

So she got all up on the nun's business about having sex, even though it's really none of her business.

Maybe she wouldn't accost her kids, because they seemed happy.

But would she let her ex-husband get away with marrying someone else?  She might have at least ambushed him when he was alone, with "how dare you replace me."

Even though she did divorce him in abstentia.