S01.E01: Day 1 - Fade In

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

Emmy Award-winning actress Kyra Sedgwick (“The Closer”) stars in “Ten Days in the Valley” as Jane Sadler, an overworked television producer and single mother in the middle of a fractious separation. When her young daughter goes missing in the middle of the night, Jane’s world – and her controversial police TV show – implodes. Life imitates art: everything is a mystery, everyone has a secret and no one can be trusted.

 

[Lady Calypso]

So, that was something. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't great, in that I think I tuned out about 12 minutes before the end of the hour. I feel like this could have been a better movie, though my memory seems to think that is supposed to just remain a mini-series so we'll see if it stays that way (if my memory is correct; not sure why this show is associated with being one season only. I'm sure that I'm wrong but I wish I wasn't). 

Wow, Jane is...not that great of a person. I imagine the detectives are going to remain suspicious about her because she wasn't doing herself any favours. I think it hurts her case that she lied to the cops multiple times, and will continue to lie and then have to tell the truth when they unravel, so that's going to seriously diminish her case. I appreciate that she's a very flawed person who may still love her daughter, but will be the cause of her problems for the season. Not that she is at fault for her daughter going missing, but I wouldn't be surprised if her daughter went missing because of her work. 

I get that she just thought that her ex husband took her daughter and that's why she went about her day, but I bet the detectives are thinking differently. The ex is pretty much a douche from his few scenes, and of course he's hooking up with her assistant. 

I guess something's going on with the sister? I totally missed whatever they revealed in the doctor's office there. I'm guessing she's trying to get pregnant? Oh, which will probably put her on the suspect list because she'll probably have a crazy scene where it looks like she wanted Jane's daughter for herself (if my assumption is correct). 

I'll do another rewatch at some point to see if I like it better. If it is truly a mini-series, then I'll stick through it. 

[LakeGal]

I did enjoy the first episode.  Everyone seems to be lying.  Kyra is playing a flawed character.  I assume that each episode is a new day in the ten eps equals ten days.  

[shapeshifter]

It was interesting enough for me to watch more of it, but, for instance, next Sunday night I have to work, and I don't know whether I will bother to watch that particular episode later.

[Anela]

I hoped that it would be better, because I love Kyra Sedgewick. I've had my fill of people lying to the police, in tv shows, just so they can stretch it out over ten episodes, and bring more twists. I probably will watch next week, since I set the DVR to record the series, but I didn't think it was great. 

[candall]

Uh oh!  I thought it was excellent.  I thought every fucked-up move the "heroine" made could have been made by a real person without stretching credulity toooo far.  And some of the things that didn't fit in--e.g. who cares, at this point, whether she's not properly camouflaging the details of that true crime tale?--will apparently connect to the main story later, judging from the full season preview at the end.  So far, there are several threads I'm interested in seeing pulled.

 

I'm going to let them slide on making the assistant the ex-husband's mistress, but not on all those misgivings she wants him to explain.  Look, Twit--if he's bad enough to be a kidnapper and blatantly use you as his alibi, then looking anxious and whining at him for reassurance isn't going to make him 'fess up.  That's generally how secondary characters like you end up in shallow graves.

 

I enjoyed it, but I'd rather watch it in one or two chunks.  It's hard to create tension and then maintain it week after week when you're telling a mystery story.  The Sinner, anyone?

Edited October 2, 2017 by candall

[mwell345]

I guess I will sit at a table for one, because I thought it was terrible.   I kept thinking, they cancelled American Crime and this is what we get in its place?  And seriously, your daughter is missing, you know by this time your ex doesn't have her, and yet, you won't ID the guy on the bike....because...why?  Your daughter is MISSING!  I think that trumps everything else.  

I also thought  the writing was bad - the ex husband going on about a plane he was on almost crashing and how he felt relieved and now he drinks 11 kinds of tea..... 

I planned on giving it one more episode, but 30 minutes into it, I didn't care who had the girl.   I ended up watching HGTV.

[mtlchick]

It was...ok.  It was nice to see Malcolm Jamal Warner back on, but there's a lot of lying involved after 1 hour.  More to the point, she just automatically assumed her husband took their daughter again and just...went to work?  Still scatterbrained but still went to work?  

 

Since it's only 10 weeks, I'll PVR it but it's probably going to be a bingewatching at the end.  Too many shows on my plate. 

[DoubleUTeeEff]

I like it so far. I can see her going to work since she already lost them $200,000 the last time her ex took her daughter. I mean if there is an established pattern of her ex running off with her child, why not assume that's what happened?

I think the detective was being Judgy McJudgerton when he brought up the cocaine to Jane. He needs to find out if it relates to the case but he should be more worried about the missing child than being judgy about it. Jane still should have told the truth about her dealer coming by that night, though.

[SunnyBeBe]

I thought it was just weird.  I really like Kyra, but, I just wasn't buying her character for some reason.  Maybe, it's because when the ex makes demands like he did at the door, who blows it off so quickly and goes about their evening like there's not a care in the world?   I would have checked to ensure nanny got to her car safely, double checked locks, checked security cameras.  I mean, who doesn't have lots of security in place when you have a demanding ex who is so pushy..........I don't know.  I don't think it's going to work for me. 

[JAYJAY1979]

After watching the first episode, I can safely say both parents are unfit..and maybe Julia's sister could take custody of the poor girl.  Of course, with nine episodes left..im sure we will see some emphasis 9n her as a suspect.

 

I kept thinking that Julia (Kyras character) kept making things harder on herself...but shed trying to cover up the fact that she was hanging with the drug dealer and fell asleep during the night.   I did question why she went to the shed when she could have done the rewrites in her living room.  I guess suspend disbelief.

[Anela]

I thought that guy delivered food, but I wasn't fully awake. Yeah - if your daughter is missing, you tell them everything that could help them find her. That's what bugs me so much. When they also try to make everyone look guilty, it feels like they haven't made up their own minds about who is guilty. The dad might just have gone to buy more tea or some cigarettes, at 3am, but at the moment, he's a mustache-twirling possibility. 

[Anela]

11 minutes ago, JAYJAY1979 said:

After watching the first episode, I can safely say both parents are unfit..and maybe Julia's sister could take custody of the poor girl.  Of course, with nine episodes left..im sure we will see some emphasis 9n her as a suspect.

 

I kept thinking that Julia (Kyras character) kept making things harder on herself...but shed trying to cover up the fact that she was hanging with the drug dealer and fell asleep during the night.   I did question why she went to the shed when she could have done the rewrites in her living room.  I guess suspend disbelief.

They are both unfit. She's dealing with drugs, and really bad criminals. Cop is freaking out - he could either lose his job, or he was undercover. I don't know, it was confusing. And then she leaves her daughter in a house with the door unlocked, and works in the shed? Get an overnight nanny, if that's a regular course of action. 

[walnutqueen]

Well, I am only partway through, and am inclined to let a Kyra show so highly touted have a little slack ... BUT - there isn't a writer in LaLaLand who doesn't know the difference between baby POWDER and baby LAXATIVE.  Guess which one you DON'T use to cut your "dope"?  Little things like that bug the living shit outta me (pardon the pun).

At this point, the show is just a little hot mess.  I'll watch, but only because I have no life, and little will left.  :-)

[shapeshifter]

11 minutes ago, walnutqueen said:

there isn't a writer in LaLaLand who doesn't know the difference between baby POWDER and baby LAXATIVE.  Guess which one you DON'T use to cut your "dope"?  Little things like that bug the living shit outta me (pardon the pun).

In the Breaking Bad podcasts it was pointed out that they often used fake-but-similar words and substances so it wouldn't be a how-to of drug manufacturing. Maybe that's what they did here too? Or not.

[Lady Calypso]

1 hour ago, Anela said:

They are both unfit. She's dealing with drugs, and really bad criminals. Cop is freaking out - he could either lose his job, or he was undercover. I don't know, it was confusing. And then she leaves her daughter in a house with the door unlocked, and works in the shed? Get an overnight nanny, if that's a regular course of action. 

I agree that she made many mistakes, like having an Ambien and drinking, falling asleep, buying drugs, and then lying about a whole bunch of things to the cops. Actually, those are more than mistakes. But going into the shed to work isn't necessarily the worst thing she's done. She took the baby monitor and was still on the property. I think her biggest mistake was not locking up behind her, as this allowed whoever got in the house to get her child. She wasn't planning to work that night, so at least lock the doors before you go to the shed! Don't just leave it open, especially with your drug delivery boy riding his bike over, and your ex husband being notorious for taking the kid at random! 

What is interesting is that the intruder got in, got the kid, and then left and locked the doors behind him. That's a pretty impressive intruder if he thought of locking the doors when he left. 

I'm going to throw out an initial guess as to who did this; I'm going with the director. I feel like it is someone at work, probably not family, and probably not thug insider that Jane has. 

Also, what I noted is that the monitor went quiet when Jane first woke up, at 12:30am, so I'm guessing her daughter was abducted before then. 

[Clanstarling]

18 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

It was interesting enough for me to watch more of it, but, for instance, next Sunday night I have to work, and I don't know whether I will bother to watch that particular episode later.

I DVR everything. So I usually figure out whether a show has captured me by how many episodes stack up. 

34 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

I'm going to throw out an initial guess as to who did this; I'm going with the director. I feel like it is someone at work, probably not family, and probably not thug insider that Jane has. 

That was my guess as well - since whoever it was needed to know her habits and know that she was in the shed that particular night. Maybe someone who insisted on a rewrite.

It's a little rough, but first episodes often are, so I'm cutting it some slack given my love for Kyra and a few of the other actors.

[walnutqueen]

38 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

I agree that she made many mistakes, like having an Ambien and drinking, falling asleep, buying drugs, and then lying about a whole bunch of things to the cops. Actually, those are more than mistakes. But going into the shed to work isn't necessarily the worst thing she's done.

Is this the world we're still living in?   Because I have some Bad Mommy choices stories of my own, minus the drinking, drugging and wealth ...

[candall]

23 minutes ago, walnutqueen said:

Is this the world we're still living in?   Because I have some Bad Mommy choices stories of my own, minus the drinking, drugging and wealth ...

Exactly!  With her whole string of Bad Mommy choices, there wasn't one that tipped me over the edge into condemnation that "no normal person would ever do that."  Even when the police showed up and she lied about the delivery from her writing consultant-slash-coke dealer, she still believed her husband was just being a jackass.

Then later, it was interesting to see her weigh and choose which lies she was going to correct.  Not identifying the consultant/dealer will come back to bite her, but I had the impression she was so certain he wasn't involved, she decided not to narc him out, with all the consequences of arrest, drug distribution charges, prison sentence, etc. 

He told his supply guy he was about to be hired as a professional writer and I wondered whether he's been doing more of the heavy lifting on her scripts than she wants anyone to know.  Sounds like, between the dealer and the cop, Kyra might be having a creative dry spell and using other people to conceal that--something else she wouldn't be eager to spread around.

 

They did pretty well laying a lot of complicated groundwork for this thing to go any number of directions.

I also thought they did a nice job conveying what a delightful, involved mother she is--heh, to offset the viewer calls for Child Protective Services.

[Anela]

1 hour ago, walnutqueen said:

Is this the world we're still living in?   Because I have some Bad Mommy choices stories of my own, minus the drinking, drugging and wealth ...

Well, I said going to the shed after leaving her house unlocked. Leaving the door open. She just had a cop freaking out on her about what she was writing, dealing with dangerous people either now or in the past, her ex husband had her concerned, so she leaves her daughter in an unlocked house? In her world, it seems bloody stupid. 

The cop thing happened the day after, but it seemed like it wasn't his first freak-out. 

[walnutqueen]

Well, someone needs to say it.  If you are going off into a shed to "write" in the middle of the night, by candlelight, with your drug dealer on speed dial ... bad things may ensue.

[KaveDweller]

5 hours ago, Anela said:

They are both unfit. She's dealing with drugs, and really bad criminals. Cop is freaking out - he could either lose his job, or he was undercover. I don't know, it was confusing. And then she leaves her daughter in a house with the door unlocked, and works in the shed? Get an overnight nanny, if that's a regular course of action. 

Did I miss why she had to write in her shed? That looked like a pretty big house and she was using a laptop. She could have been writing just downstairs.

I mean, I guess meeting the drug dealer explains that, but I'm surprised no one else asked her that.

[candall]

You guys!  'Cuz that's her office, where she keeps all her scripts and continuity notes, where she writes!  She had tremendous pressure for that early morning re-write and she needed her environment, with her special creativity-boosting hemp candle, or whatever.  Plus, she took an Ambien, so she also needed some wakeup/concentration blow and didn't want to be snorting lines off the dining room table.

Also, I don't think the shed-house setup was so bizarre.  The front of the house was locked.  I could see leaving the back door open so if the daughter woke up, she would know "shed" and wouldn't just be in a big empty house looking for her mother.   There was a fenced back yard.   And the baby monitor system is apparently one she's used before to alert her if there are bad dreams or something.

It's probably been a workable system for years, and that night it all just went horribly wrong.

[Lady Calypso]

12 hours ago, candall said:

You guys!  'Cuz that's her office, where she keeps all her scripts and continuity notes, where she writes!  She had tremendous pressure for that early morning re-write and she needed her environment, with her special creativity-boosting hemp candle, or whatever.  Plus, she took an Ambien, so she also needed some wakeup/concentration blow and didn't want to be snorting lines off the dining room table.

Also, I don't think the shed-house setup was so bizarre.  The front of the house was locked.  I could see leaving the back door open so if the daughter woke up, she would know "shed" and wouldn't just be in a big empty house looking for her mother.   There was a fenced back yard.   And the baby monitor system is apparently one she's used before to alert her if there are bad dreams or something.

It's probably been a workable system for years, and that night it all just went horribly wrong.

Honestly, I totally see this. My only issue with this whole thing is how she lied to the cops...and then kept lying. I know she came clean about when she went into the shed at some point, once she realised her kid was actually missing, but she's still withholding a lot of information. I can take a step back and see where Jane's head is at. But my other issue is that her ex is notorious for basically being a flake and a bad dad, with breaking their agreements and what have you. She was very calm about her ex just coming into their house and taking their daughter, as if he's tried to do it before (I can't remember is she ever said that he's done it before; I'm thinking he hasn't). I'm just not sure why she lied about when she went into the shed, in all honesty. What, are they going to arrest her for going to work in her shed from 10pm-4am while her kid's asleep? 

Her going to work in her shed was fine. She took the baby monitor, she was still on the property, and her kid was fast asleep. I mean, I questioned her drinking while on Ambien, but maybe her having a glass of wine before working works for her. Of course, the drug dealing delivery boy doesn't reflect well on her, and how does she know that he won't tell the cops the truth once they start questioning him? I assume they'll find out about his drug dealing and I imagine he won't be happy to find out that she is pretending not to know him. 

I just am more side-eyeing her for the lies, and still withholding information. Unless she thinks that her delivery boy took her daughter, she's just wasting the cops' time on a suspect that is only guilty of dealing drugs in his spare time. She's trying to protect herself, sure, but she knows why he was there, and it wasn't because he was kidnapping her daughter. I mean...he was on a damn bike. A hilarious image of the delivery boy kidnapping her daughter while escaping on a bike, but an ultimate waste of time. 

[luna1122]

I just watched last nite, and despite character- likability issues all around, I found it fairly entertaining.

But mostly, all I could focus on was Kyra wearing a Tom Petty t-shirt in the opening scenes.

[Clanstarling]

I'm guessing that part of the reason she told so many lies is that they have a messy custody situation. And what seems more or less okay for most of us, might not look so okay in a custody battle.. Even if the other parent has his issues as well.

[Whimsy]

5 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

She was very calm about her ex just coming into their house and taking their daughter, as if he's tried to do it before (I can't remember is she ever said that he's done it before; I'm thinking he hasn't)

He apparently has.  She said to (the cop in the car maybe?) someone that he took her daughter "again".  The way she said it too made me think that he's done it at least a couple of times before- not just once.  What parent in their right mind would go into the house in the middle of the night and just take a kid?  We all know that's not what happened in this case, but maybe that's how he did it before.  I don't know.  That is so horrible.  I'd be panicking, calling the cops, caterwauling, the whole nine yards if my kid just upped and disappeared in the middle of the night!

[jhlipton]

Off the DVR.  I'm not a Kyra fan, so that doesn't factor into all the other bad things: in addition to everything said above, a producer doesn't need to rewrite a scene like that.  Moving from an alley in the rain (beyond "lame") to an office would be handled by the director and/or writer of that episode (or could be farmed out to another director or writer).  

Pretty much the rest of the show is as lame as "Will they-won't they" partners hooking up, especially in the rain.

[Lady Calypso]

4 hours ago, Whimsy said:

He apparently has.  She said to (the cop in the car maybe?) someone that he took her daughter "again".  The way she said it too made me think that he's done it at least a couple of times before- not just once.  What parent in their right mind would go into the house in the middle of the night and just take a kid?  We all know that's not what happened in this case, but maybe that's how he did it before.  I don't know.  That is so horrible.  I'd be panicking, calling the cops, caterwauling, the whole nine yards if my kid just upped and disappeared in the middle of the night!

Oh! Then why the hell doesn't she lock her doors, then? If something has happened once before, you'd think you'd learn to lock your doors, even if you are still on the property! If this was the first time, I was willing to give her some lenience for not thinking about her ex possibly coming to get their kid, especially after their fight about skipping school. But if it's happened before...nah, Jane apparently hasn't learned anything to protect her kid. Plus, she gives her key to everyone in her life so many will be suspects because of the locked door. This intruder definitely got lucky, or knows her well enough to pull it off. 

Not that locking her doors would have done anything since the kidnapper has a key, but still.

[shapeshifter]

On October 2, 2017 at 4:31 PM, Lady Calypso said:

I'm going to throw out an initial guess as to who did this; I'm going with the director

Currie Graham does always seems to play characters who are up to no good, but maybe he'll just be a red herring.

 

The assistant sleeping with the boss's shady ex has just set feminism back a few years, or at least signals the rebirth of the Blonde Bimbo.

[stonehaven]

Yeah...I gave it a try...for Kyra....I lasted 15 minutes before I gave up....sad that she's wasted in this....I just don;t like any of the people...give me someone to root for...the kid to be found...but no one to root for...so..not for me.

[Clanstarling]

13 hours ago, jhlipton said:

Off the DVR.  I'm not a Kyra fan, so that doesn't factor into all the other bad things: in addition to everything said above, a producer doesn't need to rewrite a scene like that.  Moving from an alley in the rain (beyond "lame") to an office would be handled by the director and/or writer of that episode (or could be farmed out to another director or writer).  

Pretty much the rest of the show is as lame as "Will they-won't they" partners hooking up, especially in the rain.

Need to, no. But there are those who do (say JM Strazinsky, for example). It is clearly her story - based on her documentary and life. Of course, that doesn't really track with the discussion and her reaction when told to rewrite the scene.

[AuntiePam]

On 10/2/2017 at 6:13 AM, mwell345 said:

I guess I will sit at a table for one, because I thought it was terrible.   I kept thinking, they cancelled American Crime and this is what we get in its place?  And seriously, your daughter is missing, you know by this time your ex doesn't have her, and yet, you won't ID the guy on the bike....because...why?  Your daughter is MISSING!  I think that trumps everything else.  

 

 

23 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

I'm guessing that part of the reason she told so many lies is that they have a messy custody situation. And what seems more or less okay for most of us, might not look so okay in a custody battle.. Even if the other parent has his issues as well.

Yep.  If she admits to knowing the dealer, she risks losing custody.  She must know the dealer fairly well and not just as a drug connection or she would have come clean.  I hope.  

[Kirsty]

This was a lot better and more enjoyable than I expected. I didn't expect a female lead on a network show to be on Ambien, wine, and cocaine when her child is abducted. And I liked how stressed she was for a significant portion of the episode ie. so stressed she nearly made me anxious watching her!

I found all her choices believable. That's obviously her writing office; lots of famous writers have done their work in a converted garden shed. She used the baby monitor for a child who isn't a baby just to keep an ear cocked, so to speak. And she's right outside! Burglary seems like more of a risk than a stranger kidnapping your child from her bed in the middle of the night.

Maybe she's got into the habit of pouring herself some wine when writing at home or at night. I assume she took the drugs because she'd already taken an Ambien and fallen asleep at her desk and she wanted to combat the sedative effects.

She didn't want to reveal any details that would reflect badly on herself or her parenting so she lied to make herself look better. None of that stuff should have mattered anyway, because she believed that her ex had the kid, and she didn't even call the cops. I found all her casual lies totally believable.

On 3/10/2017 at 2:52 AM, candall said:

It's probably been a workable system for years, and that night it all just went horribly wrong.

This exactly.

The personal assistant sleeping with the ex was the good kind of reveal that seems obvious in retrospect.

So, who's her love interest? If it was her husband, he'd be more appealing to the viewers. So I'm guessing one of the cops? I like that both her bad family history and her source at the police station are going to come into play during this mystery and investigation. There are obviously cops who at the very least resent her for her work.

I wasn't planning to watch any further than the pilot but I was pleasantly surprised and I'll tune in next week. I thought it was going to be way dumber, blander, and nicer. The ratings were poor though, sad to say.

Edited October 4, 2017 by Kirsty

[xtwheeler]

On 10/4/2017 at 9:40 AM, AuntiePam said:

 

Yep.  If she admits to knowing the dealer, she risks losing custody.  She must know the dealer fairly well and not just as a drug connection or she would have come clean.  I hope.  

I found this particularly believable (and extremely hypocritical) given that the ex mentioned having to pee in a cup twice a week as a condition of custody. She's obviously made a big deal about sobriety in the custody case, and here she is VERY familiar with her local adderall dealer who happens to run out of Addies and deal coke on occasion.

[UsernameFatigue]

Hard to believe that this woman has sole custody of her daughter. Poor kid. And she apparently does not watch (or write about) a lot of true crime, or she would know that leaving your sliding door unlocked is a no-no. Not to mention that she is unsure if her ex has a key to the house, and doesn't seem particularly concerned even though he has taken the kid before. Wouldn't you change the locks if you thought he might still have a key? But then, he doesn't need a key if she routinely leaves a door open.  Add in that Jane needs the nanny to work seven days a week, even on the days that her daughter is with the father, and is a druggie, and I find myself thinking that whoever took the kid may be an improvement.

[ButterQueen]

I just watched, and I loved it.

I can't wait to watch episode 2.

[tennisgurl]

I like this so far, everyone seems to be lying, although I cant tell for now who`s lying about stuff that actually matters to the missing kid, or who is lying to cover other things up. I have never had much of an opinion on Kyra either way over the years, but I thought she was good here. She certainly seemed all kinds of stressed, and I can see how she made the choices (including the bad ones) she made here. 

Lying to the cops is definitely going to bite her in the ass, even if I can see why she is doing it. She didn't want to get busted for drugs or to rat out her dealer when she thought her ex was just being an asshole, and she seemed to be thinking that nothing about her drug dealer or drug use had anything to do with her daughters disappearance. Her going to work after her daughter vanished looked bad (and will certainly look bad to the cops) but I can kind of get it if this is a habit for the ex to do. He shows up and takes the daughter and they go off somewhere and he brings her back. I guess she should have talked to the courts about this, but she didn't seem to think her kid was in danger, and she and the ex seem to have some residual feelings for each other, so she probably never saw this as being scary, just annoying. 

Really, both of them seem like they suck as parents. Kyra presumably sucks less (her shed isn't really a big deal, but drinking a bunch of wine and buying coke while her kid was around isn't a good thing) but she cant claim that much moral high ground from her recovering addict husband. Maybe they should just give custody to her aunt. 

I`m thinking that this has something to do with using real cases and criminal activities for her scripts. My guess is she was having writers block, so she started using this cop and her dealer for real stories. Maybe she used something in a script that wasn't supposed to be known? 

[hatchetgirl]

I'm watching for Kyra too, but I'm bothered by her "Closer" acting. There were times she did the doe eyed southern thing like Brenda. 

I was bothered by the shed working. She took an ambien  for goodness sakes. She has a  laptop. Work in bed, with your child, who you seem to rarely see! Gah! 

Ex with assistant was lame and the assistant is an idiot! 

I like the cop. Although he seems judgey, he also seems to have heart.

I don't get the gardener and nanny side. Are they setting up a cartel thing?

[Clanstarling]

8 hours ago, hatchetgirl said:

I was bothered by the shed working. She took an ambien  for goodness sakes. She has a  laptop. Work in bed, with your child, who you seem to rarely see! Gah! 

Not approving of the ambien or the cocaine at all. However, writing is hard work, and everyone's process is different. Few writers I know (myself included) could do any effective work laying in bed with a child. You need focus. It's also hard to know, in the fairly brief scene, how important the work area is to her writing. Does she have plot beats, notes on the wall, easy access to details she needs to consult? There's a lot more that goes into writing than keying in the words. 

[biakbiak]

13 hours ago, hatchetgirl said:

was bothered by the shed working. She took an ambien  for goodness sakes. She has a  laptop. Work in bed, with your child, who you seem to rarely see! Gah! 

She was 10 feet away and probably closer to Lake's bedroom than she would be in a lot of houses. I know of no parent who works in bed with their child, that seems really weird to me. There would be a light on and noise why would Blake not be safe in her room? It is clearly something she does regularly illustrated that she still has a baby monitor and nothing has ever happened. I also don't think there would be a lot of bonding time given Lake was asleep.