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The Act - General Discussion

Meredith Quill

By Meredith Quill
in The Act

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For further discussion of all things Gypsy/Dee Dee related, particularly information that was not featured in the episodes, please continue your conversations here  https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/93312-gypsy-rose-blanchard/

 

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DangerousMinds

DangerousMinds

5 hours ago, Melina22 said:

Gypsy really did have a brief relationship with a 35 year old man she met somewhere, I think at a convention. Dee Dee found them together and put a stop to it. This really is true. 

On the other hand, she almost certainly never disguised herself and walked into a hospital, or any other public place. She wouldn't have risked it, because Dee Dee would have gone ballistic if people found out Gypsy could walk. 

It appears that Dee Dee's male friend is made up though, because there's no evidence of her having any male friends or relationships after her marriage broke up. I'm not sure why they made that up, unless they're attempting to humanize Dee Dee to some degree. 

I read somewhere that Gypsy really did visit a friend in the hospital after he was beat up: I think she was described to have been wearing a blonde wig instead of red.

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3girlsforus
3girlsforus

This sums up how I feel about all of this very well. I am not against the idea that she got just a 10 year sentence. I think taking her abuse into account as a significant mitigating circumstance in t

ElectricBoogaloo
ElectricBoogaloo

I think a lot of her poor judgment in this situation had to do with her being emotionally immature which was probably due to (1) Dee Dee treating her like a child (2) her extremely limited social inte

meatball77
meatball77

In some ways I feel as bad for him as I do for her.  He was autistic, mentally impaired and probably easily manipulated and I think that Gypsy probably manipulated him into the murder.  Not that Gypsy

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Melina22

Melina22

1 minute ago, DangerousMinds said:

read somewhere that Gypsy really did visit a friend in the hospital after he was beat up: I think she was described to have been wearing a blonde wig instead of red.

You could be right. I was going by an article I read yesterday breaking down what was and wasn't true in Episode 3, but they may have gotten it wrong. I'd look more deeply into it but... I can't be bothered. 😊

ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

Things definitely took a turn with Gypsy's new BDSM boyfriend.

Dee Dee continues to shamelessly manipulate her daughter into doing whatever she wants. That guilt trip about signing the power of attorney was terrible.

I also can't stand Dee Dee's ridiculous attitude about sex. Gypsy is an adult (even with her fake birthdate) but she's determined to keep her a child. When she started berating Lacey for putting ideas into Gypsy's head, I just rolled my eyes. This is why kids should be in public school getting mandatory and comprehensive sex education (I know we need a better version than what already exists but at least that's still better than the complete lack of information Gypsy is getting from her mom about it). And look what happens when you forbid your adult child from making friends, watching the sex scenes in Twilight and generally trying to keep them from knowing anything about sex or sexuality - she finds some rando online.

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Melina22

Melina22

I get the strong feeling Dee Dee hoped to keep Gypsy a small, childlike invalid forever. Because if Gypsy grew up and heaven forbid, moved out, Dee Dee would lose her entire identity as the saintly mother of a sick child, not to mention all the money and child support and perks She would have had to go out to work. 

If Gypsy had been legitimately sick or handicapped, it still would have been wrong to keep her dependent and childlike, but to do that to a completely healthy young adult is criminal and evil, given that she could only keep her in that state through drugging her and psychologically coercing her. It was a kind of kidnapping and confinement. 

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mamadrama

mamadrama

On 3/30/2019 at 8:12 AM, bmasters9 said:

Do you think perhaps that there are religious/spiritual parallels in the first episode of The Act:

--namely that Gypsy was meant to represent the victims of controlling/patriarchal/legalistic churches;

--that the Epipen that was stuck into her leg under false pretense for a nonexistent sugar allergy was like the controlling mechanisms that these churches would impose upon anyone who tried to take one taste of freedom from them;

--that Dee Dee represented the pastor of a controlling/patriarchal/legalistic church who would swoop in whenever a parishioner in such a church dared think for himself/herself and refused any longer to believe that what the church taught was the same as what Jesus Himself said;

--and that the cupcake (and the sugary icing on it) represented anything that the church said was a sin to do (irrespective of whether Jesus Himself said it was a sin or not)?

I mean, it's a true story that follows the real life events pretty consistently, with the exception of combining some of the real life people into one character. I don't think the things like the Epipen are meant to be symbolic since they're based on things that actually happened. If this were fiction, then maybe. 

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MonicaM

MonicaM

I lived in the general area where Dee Dee and Gypsy lived.  Even before the murders, I was vaguely aware of them because they were on the news every now and then.  Dee Dee was a very good PR person. 

After the murders, many people shared memories of seeing the two of them out and about and found that they were very pleasant and approachable.  However, apparently Dee Dee had a habit of helpfully telling strangers how they could make a donation to help Gypsy.  

In the series, when Dee Dee consulted the attorney about getting guardianship of Gypsy, I almost laughed.  We had to go through that process with a genuinely disabled relative and not only was it expensive, but it involved extensive tests and examinations by more than one doctor.  The disabled person was assigned an attorney by the court to ensure his legal rights were protected.  (If he had been able, he could have hired the attorney of his choice.)  This wasn't in Missouri, so it may be different there, but in this state there were safeguards at every step.

In our case, the guardianship was granted, but afterward, the guardian had to file a report with the court every month, accounting for every penny that was received or spent.  There were other restrictions and requirements as well.  

If Dee Dee had actually filed for guardianship, the fraud she was committing would likely have been discovered in the process of getting everything needed for court.  If, somehow, some way, the case had slipped by all of the safeguards and Dee Dee got the guardianship, she would have discovered that she had just tied her own hands in her attempt to further imprison her daughter.  

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kathe5133

kathe5133

I watched the HBO documentary so was eager to see this.  Watched the first two episodes and couldn't wait for number three.  Watched that as well.  Last night, halfway through episode four, I just turned it off.  I know how it ends, and I suddenly have no interest in watching it unfold.  I'm not usually like that with my true crime stories, but.........

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onatrek

onatrek

On 3/28/2019 at 10:47 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I’d bet that Dee Dee encouraged her to keep that high pitched baby voice because it helped maintain the illusion that Gypsy was still a child. The first time Gypsy used a slightly lower voice, I imagine Dee Dee saying, “Gypsy, my angel, whatever is wrong with your voice? Are you ill?”

Spoiler

I think you're right about it being encouraged to make her seem younger. I feel like in one of the documentary/true crime type things that may have actually been addressed.  Dateline or 20/20 maybe?

I just watched an ID documentary on the case - available on demand - that I'd not seen earlier and was struck again by the difference in Gypsy's voice in the later interviews. While I recall that from the other specials, for some reason this ID one it struck me even more. Maybe b/c of it overlapping with just binging the first 4 episodes of The Act.

One thing in this ID thing that I didn't recall from the other specials about the case was some of the comments from others who had been close to them, particularly the neighbor gal, and her saying that recent things she'd heard from Gypsy almost made it sound like she was finally getting what a typical gal would have gotten at a much earlier age in life (experimenting with makeup, gossiping with other girls, etc.)

Anyway, just FYI for anyone who wants to rewatch at least portion of the Gypsy interviews done post-arrest, the ID thing called "Gypsy's Revenge" will at least give you snippets of them (especially toward the end of it)

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Melina22

Melina22

(edited)

I don't know what this show will tell us in upcoming episodes but in interviews with him I got the feeling he really did care but Dee Dee made sure he couldn't see or speak to her often, presumably so he wouldn't find out her secret. He was so happy when he later found out she could walk. A good relationship with him is just one more thing Dee Dee deprived her daughter of. 

Imagine how she must have made him feel so sad and guilty over the years, letting him know how desperately sick his daughter supposedly was, but then making sure to live far enough away that he rarely saw her. Although he always sent money, as you see in the show 

And yet the whole time he had a perfectly healthy, bright daughter! What a waste. 

Edited by Melina22
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DangerousMinds

DangerousMinds

(edited)
8 hours ago, Straycat80 said:

Episode four finally mentioned Gypsy’s father. At least he called to wish her Happy Birthday and ask how she was doing. Dee Dee managed to cut him off by pretending bad phone connection. I wonder if Dee Dee railroaded that relationship or if he really did not care. Maybe a bit of both? 

Spoiler

IRL he did care.

Edited by Giant Misfit
added spoiler tags
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Violetgoblin6

Violetgoblin6

On 4/4/2019 at 10:07 AM, kathe5133 said:

I watched the HBO documentary so was eager to see this.  Watched the first two episodes and couldn't wait for number three.  Watched that as well.  Last night, halfway through episode four, I just turned it off.  I know how it ends, and I suddenly have no interest in watching it unfold.  I'm not usually like that with my true crime stories, but.........

I completely understand.

I have a high tolerance for creepy, horror, disturbing stuff. I read My Sweet Audrina like ten times the summer before eighth grade. But I hear ya, I was really triggered with the Nick parts. And I teach kids with autism (which Nick had) who can be often monotone and have issues with language interpretation. In my twenties I met some really shady people like him, thinking they were vampires and into dark gothic stuff. When she was confessing her issues with Dee Dee and he said, "I want to show you something" and it was the pornographic picture...my stomach dropped. I'm no prude at 45 years old, I've seen stuff like that, obviously, I just was putting myself in Gypsy's place. I want to scream, "No, get away from him!" She was such an easy target. My heart hurts for her. 

I fear (d) for those sweet guinea pigs. I'm a type one diabetic and was disgusted by Dee Dee's lack of care for herself. When her blood was 74 I screamed, "Don't just lie there, eat something!" 

I am going to watch it, but I wonder if it's healthy for me. 

Btw: do Gypsy's dentures look filmy and disgusting to anyone else?? 

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Melina22

Melina22

13 minutes ago, Violetgoblin6 said:

diabetic and was disgusted by Dee Dee's lack of care for herself. When her blood was 74 I screamed, "Don't just lie there, eat something!" 

I wondered about this, not being a diabetic myself, and not knowing if this was considered a bad number. What's a healthy number? 

I have to admit I found this episode a lot creepier and more uncomfortable to watch than previous ones. I'll keep going though. 

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The Mighty Peanut

The Mighty Peanut

(edited)

So I've been following this case since Law & Order SVU did a story based on Gypsy's ordeal; it was weird then, and got weirder as I learned more, and now with The Act it is mega super weird. I love it! Personally I think PA is nailing Dee Dee but it does bother me that she seems perpetually disheveled and out of breath, which makes sense but in the doc 

Spoiler

she was always done up to the nines and perky; I think it's part of how she conned people. She also wrote bad checks, fed plant food to a sick family member, and left her dying bedridden mother dirty and starving, among other things.

I also agree that Dee Dee was planning to eventually kill Gypsy, because she had warned everyone that Gypsy would probably only live into her late teens. What I don't know is how she'd keep running scams without her cash cow. One thing that always strikes me about people who run these long cons...wouldn't it be so much easier to just get a job? I can't imagine the amount of time it would have taken Dee Dee to pull her stunts. From personal experience, it is hard to apply for govt assistance when you legitimately need it and they will actively look for ways to kick you off Medicaid, unemployment, disability, whatever. It's torture dealing with The System. I'd rather work.

Edited by The Mighty Peanut
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AllyB

AllyB

11 hours ago, The Mighty Peanut said:

One thing that always strikes me about people who run these long cons...wouldn't it be so much easier to just get a job? I can't imagine the amount of time it would have taken Dee Dee to pull her stunts.

The con aspect of it all feels so odd to me. I can kind of accept the idea of Munchausen by Proxy as a mental illness. That the parent, usually mother, is wedded to the personality of a parent of a sick child. That she thrives on the attention and sympathy and feels an inability to function without it. But when that comes alongside a series of lucrative cons that result in being given a house and a comfortable stream of income I have a very hard time as seeing that as part of an illness. It's just out and out premeditated criminality.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

17 hours ago, newyawk said:

Next Wednesday's show leaked online a couple of days ago, a screener version of it.  I'll just say this..things REALLY ramp up and get much creepier.  WOW.

It wasn't just this week's episode that leaked! The last four episodes of the season all leaked (and from the same person who leaked three episodes of American Gods over the weekend so I'm guessing Jennifer is in big trouble).

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newyawk

newyawk

(edited)
10 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

It wasn't just this week's episode that leaked! The last four episodes of the season all leaked (and from the same person who leaked three episodes of American Gods over the weekend so I'm guessing Jennifer is in big trouble).

Yeah, I noticed that stamp of her email addy too, lolol.  I wonder if Jessica lent it to someone. WOW. 

Edited by newyawk
Angelsmom1009

Angelsmom1009

On 4/7/2019 at 2:26 PM, Melina22 said:

Yikes! After the last one that's hard to imagine! 

I'd love to hear what Gypsy is thinking of this series. 

I wonder the same thing. Obviously I don’t think anyone has a Hulu subscription in the prison she’s in but someone in her life has to be watching, or at least hearing about it. It’s got to be weird for her. Also, does she get any money out of this? 

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newyawk

newyawk

(edited)

There is a new article from In Touch and in it, Gypsy's stepmom, Kristy Blanchard expresses how really unhappy she is with the series and thinks it is really veering far off from the truth a lot of the time. This is a quote from Kristy's writer friend, Fancy:

....................................................

“I’ve been scrolling Twitter for a couple of days to see reactions to things, and people really don’t take that last statement (the disclaimer at the end about the series fictionalizing some elements)… that way,” Fancy said. “People have now gone through, ‘Well, she stole money from her mom and she bought a computer and she bought a cell phone, so if she could do those things … then why couldn’t she get up and walk into a police station?’ Because those things actually didn’t happen. She didn’t steal money from her mom to go buy a phone and a laptop. That never happened.”

According to Kristy, she and Gypsy’s dad, Rod Blanchard, were the ones that bought the laptop for Gypsy and Dee Dee. “It was a shared laptop with her mom,” Fancy said. “The phone was a phone that she had on her mom’s plan.”

..............................

Unsurprisingly , Kristy and Fancy are working on their OWN TV movie of this story, working title, "By Proxy". It's kind of like an Oprah show: "YOU get to make money off of Gypsy and Dee Dee and YOU get to make money off of Gypsy and Dee Dee, and YOU, YOU and YOU get to make money off of Gypsy and Dee Dee!!"

Link to article: 

https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/gypsy-rose-blanchards-step-mom-kristy-speaks-out-about-the-act/

Edited by newyawk
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MilkMachine

MilkMachine

(edited)

I can understand why someone close to the story would be upset, but I don't think the fictionalized details really changed the essence of what happened, as far as I know. I have seen the doc (just re-watched last week), which Kristy says is more authoritative, and pretty much every other publically available interview with Gypsy. So far from watching the show I don't have a different impression of Gypsy's culpability or lack thereof.

I think whether an individual "gets" what Gypsy went through or not has less to do with the nitty gritty details and more to do with whether that person has empathy and understands the challenges that abuse victims face.

Also, the "real" details about how the phone was acquired, etc. don't make Gypsy look any better or worse in my mind. They just raise more questions, none of which are important to understanding the basic gist of the story. The point of those scenes in the show was to establish she had a phone and a laptop and used them in secret. It also established (IMO) that she felt trapped and was willing to go to desperate measures to connect with someone in the outside world.

Did Michelle Dean interview Gypsy herself? I can't remember--but if she did, some of those smaller incorrect details may have come from her conversations with Gypsy, who could have lied at the time or remembered them differently upon later reflection, or from taped interviews during the making of the documentary. 

I get how fictionalized anthologies and movies can be fraught, and this is a weird case in that Gypsy

Spoiler

was a victim of Dee Dee but is in prison for a crime

--as opposed to, say, the Farrah Fawcett movie about Diane Downs who was simply a murderer. But, seriously, I think the fears about what the movie is communicating are misplaced.

If the family gets their project off the ground, I'll definitely watch that too!

Edited by Giant Misfit
added spoiler tags
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Alice Mudgarden

Alice Mudgarden

On 4/7/2019 at 6:09 AM, AllyB said:

The con aspect of it all feels so odd to me. I can kind of accept the idea of Munchausen by Proxy as a mental illness. That the parent, usually mother, is wedded to the personality of a parent of a sick child. That she thrives on the attention and sympathy and feels an inability to function without it. But when that comes alongside a series of lucrative cons that result in being given a house and a comfortable stream of income I have a very hard time as seeing that as part of an illness. It's just out and out premeditated criminality.

Just today, I watched Gypsy's Revenge on IDGo and in it, a doctor mentioned malingering by proxy, where the main motivation for the deceit is personal gain. He brought it up in the context of Dee Dee being a case where it appeared that malingering by proxy and Munchausen by proxy intertwined, as she seemed to be motivated to get both financial support and all the attention, need and praise that came with her "situation".

I had never heard of malingering by proxy before, but it does sound like Dee Dee was suffering from that as well.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

Gypsy's plan for Nick to bump into her and Dee Dee in public so that he could impress Dee Dee just shows how immature they both are. It was like the kind of scheme that an elementary school kid would come up with. But I guess I should give her credit for recognizing one of them any obstacles that stood in the way of their relationship and trying to come up with a solution?

I know beggars can't be choosers but man, having sex on the bathroom floor at the movie theater? No thanks!

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Melina22

Melina22

3 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Gypsy's plan for Nick to bump into her and Dee Dee in public so that he could impress Dee Dee just shows how immature they both are. It 

Yes. Gypsy may have been quite bright, but clearly there was something really off in her perception, because not only was Nick apparently on the autism spectrum, but he also had an IQ of about 82. For her to think her mother would be impressed by him just shows how skewed her view of reality was. Not surprising, given her incredibly skewed personal reality. 

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

18 minutes ago, Melina22 said:

Yes. Gypsy may have been quite bright, but clearly there was something really off in her perception, because not only was Nick apparently on the autism spectrum, but he also had an IQ of about 82. For her to think her mother would be impressed by him just shows how skewed her view of reality was. Not surprising, given her incredibly skewed personal reality. 

I think a lot of her poor judgment in this situation had to do with her being emotionally immature which was probably due to (1) Dee Dee treating her like a child (2) her extremely limited social interaction with anyone other than Dee Dee and (3) the rest of her social cues seemed to come from Disney movies which are not very realistic.

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Melina22

Melina22

(edited)

I finally saw episode 5. No wonder this story has mesmerized and horrified so many people. Every time I watch the show I think, "If I didn't know this was true, I would never, ever believe it." 

Patricia Arquette is doing an amazing job as Dee Dee. She's allowing herself to look absolute awful! But they're portraying her as so sick and feeble, like she's about to lapse into a diabetic coma at any minute. Is that even true? And if so, couldn't Gypsy have just waited a little longer to make her escape? I do question this aspect. But they've done a good job of showing that Gypsy didn't just want to escape. At times she really hated Dee Dee. I mean she'd have to, under the circumstances, or she could never have wanted her to be killed. But naturally her feelings were extremely mixed. 

It seems like such a long wait for the next episode. How many are there? 

Edited by Melina22
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newyawk

newyawk

People need to keep in mind that even though all the episodes have leaked online, not all of them have aired yet. Episode 5 is supposed to air today, and that is the one where Nick and Gypsy finally meet. So anything from that episode should be spoiler tagged until after today, and anything from episodes 6 - 8 should also be spoiler tagged.

DangerousMinds

DangerousMinds

5 hours ago, Melina22 said:

I finally saw episode 5. No wonder this story has mesmerized and horrified so many people. Every time I watch the show I think, "If I didn't know this was true, I would never, ever believe it." 

Patricia Arquette is doing an amazing job as Dee Dee. She's allowing herself to look absolute awful! But they're portraying her as so sick and feeble, like she's about to lapse into a diabetic coma at any minute. Is that even true? And if so, couldn't Gypsy have just waited a little longer to make her escape? I do question this aspect. But they've done a good job of showing that Gypsy didn't just want to escape. At times she really hated Dee Dee. I mean she'd have to, under the circumstances, or she could never have wanted her to be killed. But naturally her feelings were extremely mixed. 

It seems like such a long wait for the next episode. How many are there? 

Right, I found myself wondering why they just didn’t wait for DeeDee to get sicker before escaping. She seemed so sick that she wouldn’t have been able to stop them.

1 hour ago, newyawk said:

People need to keep in mind that even though all the episodes have leaked online, not all of them have aired yet. Episode 5 is supposed to air today, and that is the one where Nick and Gypsy finally meet. So anything from that episode should be spoiler tagged until after today, and anything from episodes 6 - 8 should also be spoiler tagged.

Episode 5 aired this morning at 12 AM on Hulu.

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The Mighty Peanut

The Mighty Peanut

(edited)
8 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

I can't undo this quote from another thread. My apologies.

Anyway. Patricia Arquette always sounds like she just swallowed a bottle of valium. I love it!

The Disney is so, so weird. Weirder than the BDSM. I can't imagine being so warped that at 18 you WANT to dress in bad Cinderella cosplay to meet a boy for the first time. At a movie theater. With your mother. In some ways I admire her resourcefulness. 

I am not sure if it's how the show is making him out to be, but I feel a little bad for Nick. Obviously he brutally killed someone, but he is clearly very autistic and I think an argument could be made that he can't differentiate between real and tv. 

Spoiler

In the doc he was portrayed as a more self-aware person who was somewhat of a predator, albeit not a good one.

Edited by The Mighty Peanut
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trudysmom

trudysmom

On 4/7/2019 at 5:09 AM, AllyB said:

It's just out and out premeditated criminality.

Yes, and DeeDee admitted it to Gypsy when she got her sign the papers for Power of Attorney.  She told her she'd been to jail, didn't want that for Gypsy, something like that. So yeah, she knew.

23 minutes ago, The Mighty Peanut said:

I can't imagine being so warped that at 18 you WANT to dress in bad Cinderella cosplay to meet a boy for the first time.

Spoiler

But she didn't.  Gypsy put on jeans and t shirt, her mom wanted her to wear the dress. DeeDee was still trying to keep Gypsy in her little-girl-Disney-fan persona.  

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For further discussion of all things Gypsy/Dee Dee related, particularly information that was not featured in the episodes, please continue your conversations here  https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/93312-gypsy-rose-blanchard/

 

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