I’m gonna be honest – this feels really unrealistic to me.
Todd found out…a few months ago at most, I think? that he has a daughter that Andi had hidden and lied about for YEARS. A daughter he thought he buried. A daughter he wasn’t given a chance to have a relationship with. That’s a betrayal of the highest level.
While it’s actually been years since *we* found out, it doesn’t feel realistic to me that he would be at this level of comfort with Andi so soon. Just my two cents.
Probably true in a real world context, but if thats not the focus of the story, resolving that conflict, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to speed things up a bit to help move the story along.
Some people are quicker to forgive than others, especially when he realized how much of a hand Andi’s mom had in said adoption. Also, he is trying to keep cordial relations with the mother of his child to keep in her life as well. They may never get back together, and it is strongly hinted at their remaining separate (some wounds remain as scars, after all), but they can at least be friends.
It is best for a kid, that they feel loved, even better is two parents. If the two parents don’t cohabitate, at least they shouldn’t fight, — that’s not helpful, and might create more problems than it solves.
Todd and Andi don’t have to have sunset walks on the beach, but they do have to pull together. Being civil is a great step forward. Todd may recognize that, yes he was betrayed by Andi, and that as a minor Andi did not have independent agency in what happened. Notice .how. involved Andi has been with The McClelland, since Andi found Mandy; didn’t even see her at Christmas. That is a statement right there.
Old patterns are easy to fall into, especially when you’ve got good reason not to rock the boat. Andi and Todd were together for what, a decade? There’s lots of old pattern there to fall back on, even if he’s still angry.
I kinda feel like this moment, they might be the only two people in their town to have seen that movie to be able to make jokes about it. They are both artistic and have a lot of history together. And things have gone more smoothly since Andi has apologized and is making amends in being a mother to Amanda now and isn’t trying to like horn back in on Todd.
While she did something horrible to Todd, you’ve gotta realize the plan for these two was eventually to get married. Those feels don’t die easily and I don’t think that Andi is unredeemable, at least in Todd’s eyes.
What I’m saying here poorly is that Todd doesn’t have to forgive to reconcile.
I think what is most bothersome about it is most people I know who betray on that level either had a drug dependency issue or continued to abuse/betray others…and sometimes learned to hide it better.
That said, I can see someone making a mistake like this during and after birth. The hormones and drugs and feeling of helplessness can really make a new mother (especially someone who is so young) easy to manipulate. Once Andi’s mother talked her into adopting out Amanda, I can see how very human it is she would go along and help her mom make up the lie.
Add in her age difference, and it makes it a lot more understanding, and we saw Todd was also very much a child still.
Todd’s probably had a hell of a lot of therapy in his life considering he was an older adoptee and a child abuse victim…yet he turned out to be pretty well grounded. He has a successful career, was able to adopt a child (who technically has special needs), and he is mostly a very good parent.
If someone can heal from such a child to an adulthood, they usually have learned a lot by that point—including how to necessarily deal with difficult people and when to forgive (and set healthy boundaries with) people who made terrible mistakes, but genuinely want to do their best for a second chance.
I know I should have said this last strip, but that thing about the happy screams takes me way back, my little sister used to have a friend who would make “happy screams” whenever they would play together, I would often think something was wrong. On another note, atfirst I thought Todd was talking about his birth dad, but a picture to scare your kids so they’ll be safe is a huge step up from beating them.
Is she saying it went badly?
Stuff like that shouldn’t happen to a,… well, Dog, Gromit.
what’s an “Andalusian dog?”
It’s a movie. A horrifying movie.
(Does a Google search) Oh. THAT movie! I’d seen stills, but I didn’t memorize the name of the film I’d seen the stills FROM! Dang.
As a kid I saw “that” scene from the movie. I had nightmares for days.
I’m gonna be honest – this feels really unrealistic to me.
Todd found out…a few months ago at most, I think? that he has a daughter that Andi had hidden and lied about for YEARS. A daughter he thought he buried. A daughter he wasn’t given a chance to have a relationship with. That’s a betrayal of the highest level.
While it’s actually been years since *we* found out, it doesn’t feel realistic to me that he would be at this level of comfort with Andi so soon. Just my two cents.
Probably true in a real world context, but if thats not the focus of the story, resolving that conflict, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to speed things up a bit to help move the story along.
Some people are quicker to forgive than others, especially when he realized how much of a hand Andi’s mom had in said adoption. Also, he is trying to keep cordial relations with the mother of his child to keep in her life as well. They may never get back together, and it is strongly hinted at their remaining separate (some wounds remain as scars, after all), but they can at least be friends.
It is best for a kid, that they feel loved, even better is two parents. If the two parents don’t cohabitate, at least they shouldn’t fight, — that’s not helpful, and might create more problems than it solves.
Todd and Andi don’t have to have sunset walks on the beach, but they do have to pull together. Being civil is a great step forward. Todd may recognize that, yes he was betrayed by Andi, and that as a minor Andi did not have independent agency in what happened. Notice .how. involved Andi has been with The McClelland, since Andi found Mandy; didn’t even see her at Christmas. That is a statement right there.
Old patterns are easy to fall into, especially when you’ve got good reason not to rock the boat. Andi and Todd were together for what, a decade? There’s lots of old pattern there to fall back on, even if he’s still angry.
I kinda feel like this moment, they might be the only two people in their town to have seen that movie to be able to make jokes about it. They are both artistic and have a lot of history together. And things have gone more smoothly since Andi has apologized and is making amends in being a mother to Amanda now and isn’t trying to like horn back in on Todd.
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While she did something horrible to Todd, you’ve gotta realize the plan for these two was eventually to get married. Those feels don’t die easily and I don’t think that Andi is unredeemable, at least in Todd’s eyes.
What I’m saying here poorly is that Todd doesn’t have to forgive to reconcile.
I think what is most bothersome about it is most people I know who betray on that level either had a drug dependency issue or continued to abuse/betray others…and sometimes learned to hide it better.
That said, I can see someone making a mistake like this during and after birth. The hormones and drugs and feeling of helplessness can really make a new mother (especially someone who is so young) easy to manipulate. Once Andi’s mother talked her into adopting out Amanda, I can see how very human it is she would go along and help her mom make up the lie.
Add in her age difference, and it makes it a lot more understanding, and we saw Todd was also very much a child still.
Todd’s probably had a hell of a lot of therapy in his life considering he was an older adoptee and a child abuse victim…yet he turned out to be pretty well grounded. He has a successful career, was able to adopt a child (who technically has special needs), and he is mostly a very good parent.
If someone can heal from such a child to an adulthood, they usually have learned a lot by that point—including how to necessarily deal with difficult people and when to forgive (and set healthy boundaries with) people who made terrible mistakes, but genuinely want to do their best for a second chance.
I know I should have said this last strip, but that thing about the happy screams takes me way back, my little sister used to have a friend who would make “happy screams” whenever they would play together, I would often think something was wrong. On another note, atfirst I thought Todd was talking about his birth dad, but a picture to scare your kids so they’ll be safe is a huge step up from beating them.
Theo is a hero, no doubt about that.
Un Chien Andalou… such a masterpiece!