Post by queensgirl on Jan 31, 2006 23:56:14 GMT -5
There is an interesting pattern in the times David and Sam lock horns in front of Ms. Hayes.
In almost all of them, Maddie freezes up and doesn’t know what to say, just can’t bring herself to make a choice, or perhaps is scared to take the same (verbal or physical) risks with her own safety as do the men.
First, there’s her paralysis at the dinner. This is just about understandable, considering how embarrassing and frightening this event is. The poor thing is an uncomfortable extra in the drama between the two men. She’s left to be the object over which they are fighting, not an active participant. Dave is very drunk and Sam is obviously fighting back the urge to throttle the guy.
It is amazing how, despite the fact the hostility is in plain sight, and I think they all know what it means, they all still try to pretend that there is this polite, fun thing going on, and oh boy aren’t we all having a good time. If anyone admits what is really going on, the bad blood will come to the fore, and there will either be a physical fight of some sort, or they’ll all get so angry they will never be able to speak to one another again. (Not to mention getting thrown out of the restaurant or even, worst case scenario, some kind of citation for disturbing the peace.)
Next, take the incident when Sam shows up at the office in “Maddie’s Turn to Cry.” He shakes hands with Dave, and they exchange what a writer once called “the smile of hate.” The men offer friendly greetings, again fake as a red dollar bill, while Maddie says something bland that immediately brings the conversation to a halt. “I had a good time too,” I think it was. Simple, but watch the two guys just stop their words short. It’s like the volume dying as you turn off a radio. Notice the men forget that it’s Maddie they were both originally concerned about in the first place! Through most of the scene, neither one of them even looks at her!
Third up is the infamous fight in the garage in “I Am Curious.” Although one wonders how Maddie could possibly be expected to physically overpower either or both of the two, it’s interesting to see her just completely refuse to deal with the moment at all. She doesn’t do anything, just runs into the elevator. She doesn’t try to find someone else in the garage to go and get help; doesn’t find a phone and call the police; doesn’t even get an ambulance for David or offer to take him in the car to get help, although it can be said he takes the choice out of her hands because he walks away.
Yes, I can understand Maddie being in shock and not really wanting to be there. But I have to wonder, when David bleats, "You should have seen it," is it possible that's just what he meant? Why weren't you around? Why did you run when I needed help?[/b] Maddie may have seen it as not knowing what the heck to do in a crazy situation like that. But David might well think of it as, oh no, she ran away, she doesn't care and it's a loss by default. By not saying anything, (it looked to him as if) she made her decision. And by walking away, he made his.
Once Maddie and Sam are in the car, one thing seems truly bizarre to me. When she gets mad at Sam, she dwells more on the fact that Sam told David about the proposal than the fact that Sam kicked the crud out of Dave. If I saw the two most important people in my life beat the stuffing out of each other, even if I missed most of it, I’d be so sick and disgusted I might very well refuse to go back in the car, even if one of them clearly started it. Again, she is passive, all but ignoring one of the most important issues in front of her. (Failing to leap to David’s defense—to do verbally for him what he had just done physically for her?)
I think you can look at these incidents two ways. Either Maddie is afraid to step in, still so confused over which of the men she should try to be with, or she refuses to do anything because she looks at it as them trying to make the choice for her. The second is the opinion she voices a few times in “I Am Curious,” in the car with Sam and later on to Dave.
In the trunk scene in “Maddie’s Turn,” she says, “What are we going to do?” Although she is clearly just as confused and angry during the next episode, even when she does make her choice, it’s something that is still profoundly difficult for her.
In a way, she did have a right to resent the fact the two men turned it into a battle between one another, instead of them asking in depth what Maddie herself really wanted to do with her life. The issue of whether or not to get married is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. Neither of them seems to give her much time to think about it. And I can certainly understand her being very scared and upset by the way things are going. The dispute is actually getting violent at this point; not much can be worse than that.
The brawl between Sam and David for the right to “talk to” Maddie is a presage of the last fight in the episode.
If for one reason or another you are unable to make a decision, whether because you are afraid or you don’t like any of the options open to you, life will still proceed, whether you like it or not, and things may get to a boiling point so serious there really is no turning back.
In almost all of them, Maddie freezes up and doesn’t know what to say, just can’t bring herself to make a choice, or perhaps is scared to take the same (verbal or physical) risks with her own safety as do the men.
First, there’s her paralysis at the dinner. This is just about understandable, considering how embarrassing and frightening this event is. The poor thing is an uncomfortable extra in the drama between the two men. She’s left to be the object over which they are fighting, not an active participant. Dave is very drunk and Sam is obviously fighting back the urge to throttle the guy.
It is amazing how, despite the fact the hostility is in plain sight, and I think they all know what it means, they all still try to pretend that there is this polite, fun thing going on, and oh boy aren’t we all having a good time. If anyone admits what is really going on, the bad blood will come to the fore, and there will either be a physical fight of some sort, or they’ll all get so angry they will never be able to speak to one another again. (Not to mention getting thrown out of the restaurant or even, worst case scenario, some kind of citation for disturbing the peace.)
Next, take the incident when Sam shows up at the office in “Maddie’s Turn to Cry.” He shakes hands with Dave, and they exchange what a writer once called “the smile of hate.” The men offer friendly greetings, again fake as a red dollar bill, while Maddie says something bland that immediately brings the conversation to a halt. “I had a good time too,” I think it was. Simple, but watch the two guys just stop their words short. It’s like the volume dying as you turn off a radio. Notice the men forget that it’s Maddie they were both originally concerned about in the first place! Through most of the scene, neither one of them even looks at her!
Third up is the infamous fight in the garage in “I Am Curious.” Although one wonders how Maddie could possibly be expected to physically overpower either or both of the two, it’s interesting to see her just completely refuse to deal with the moment at all. She doesn’t do anything, just runs into the elevator. She doesn’t try to find someone else in the garage to go and get help; doesn’t find a phone and call the police; doesn’t even get an ambulance for David or offer to take him in the car to get help, although it can be said he takes the choice out of her hands because he walks away.
Yes, I can understand Maddie being in shock and not really wanting to be there. But I have to wonder, when David bleats, "You should have seen it," is it possible that's just what he meant? Why weren't you around? Why did you run when I needed help?[/b] Maddie may have seen it as not knowing what the heck to do in a crazy situation like that. But David might well think of it as, oh no, she ran away, she doesn't care and it's a loss by default. By not saying anything, (it looked to him as if) she made her decision. And by walking away, he made his.
Once Maddie and Sam are in the car, one thing seems truly bizarre to me. When she gets mad at Sam, she dwells more on the fact that Sam told David about the proposal than the fact that Sam kicked the crud out of Dave. If I saw the two most important people in my life beat the stuffing out of each other, even if I missed most of it, I’d be so sick and disgusted I might very well refuse to go back in the car, even if one of them clearly started it. Again, she is passive, all but ignoring one of the most important issues in front of her. (Failing to leap to David’s defense—to do verbally for him what he had just done physically for her?)
I think you can look at these incidents two ways. Either Maddie is afraid to step in, still so confused over which of the men she should try to be with, or she refuses to do anything because she looks at it as them trying to make the choice for her. The second is the opinion she voices a few times in “I Am Curious,” in the car with Sam and later on to Dave.
In the trunk scene in “Maddie’s Turn,” she says, “What are we going to do?” Although she is clearly just as confused and angry during the next episode, even when she does make her choice, it’s something that is still profoundly difficult for her.
In a way, she did have a right to resent the fact the two men turned it into a battle between one another, instead of them asking in depth what Maddie herself really wanted to do with her life. The issue of whether or not to get married is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. Neither of them seems to give her much time to think about it. And I can certainly understand her being very scared and upset by the way things are going. The dispute is actually getting violent at this point; not much can be worse than that.
The brawl between Sam and David for the right to “talk to” Maddie is a presage of the last fight in the episode.
If for one reason or another you are unable to make a decision, whether because you are afraid or you don’t like any of the options open to you, life will still proceed, whether you like it or not, and things may get to a boiling point so serious there really is no turning back.