Understanding Season 4 Maddie

[adyjdy]

This is a continuing discussion that began in "Every Father's Daughter..." under "Rate this episode." Season 4 spoilers abound!

I'm not saying in any way shape or form that David is blameless, not by a LONG shot. In fact, I agree with nearly everything you say about him, with a few exceptions that I won't get into right now.

My inability to--what's the right word here--move past being displeased with Maddie has nothing to do with her leaving for Chicago. I'm not really even that bothered by her prohibiting contact with David. (In theory. As a viewer, it sucked!) I don’t even feel she really betrayed David by marrying Walter. All these I can understand and/or forgive.

What I can't get passed, no matter how much I try are her reasons for telling David the baby is not his.
A number of explanations have been given over the years to mitigate her behavior, and as much as I want to believe them--and I really want to--I can't see the logic in any of them.

1. Some say she knows the baby is David's subconciously, but convinces herself out of pain, desperation, denial that it isn't his. I can understand that for a month or two knowing M has serious issues, especially when it comes to D. But at what point does this “subconscious denial” crap stop being a reasonable justification and start being just another excuse for childish, even cruel behavior?

Denying her feelings for David to him and herself is one thing, but the baby or its paternity are not “feelings.” They’re not “dreams” that she can wake up from. They’re not “ideas” that she can kick around. They are realities. While this may well be what Maddie did, I cannot help but want to grab her by her fluffy blond head and say, “Grow up!”


2. Some say she told D the baby was Sam’s because by that time she was married to Walter and it didn’t matter whose genes the baby had, Walter would act as the baby’s father. While it MAY be true that it didn’t matter to Walter and didn’t matter to her, she had to know it would matter to David. In other words, she just plain lied. And why? To keep from hurting David? If she cared about doing that, she wouldn’t have married Walter in the first place. To protect her child by giving him a better life with a better father (Walter)? If she really believed that, why didn’t she stay married to him. That really only leaves one possible reason. She lied to protect herself, knowing the lie would hurt David, and knowing it was, in fact, a lie.


3. It is said that maybe her doctor told her that the baby was Sam’s. While this is the kindest explanation, there is a hair in my bubble gum. In "Tracks of My Tears" M says she is a little less than 5 months along, and it is made very clear that she was in Chicago for 4.5 months. She's no doctor--fine--but it doesn't take a medical degree to figure that one out. (I don’t know why David didn’t call her on it.) I wish, oh how I wish, I could believe that she really believed it was Sam's baby, but for her to think that she would have to be pretty stupid, and she’s not. This little dilemma has been gnawing at the back of my brain since the show's original run. I just don’t know how she could honestly believe this.

To quote a famous man, “I’m not here to tell you that your daughter is a bad guy.” Plenty of crappy behavior to go around, certainly. For me, Maddie just went over the line with this incident, and I find myself constantly on the look out for an explanation of her behavior that I can both believe and live with.
Have any?

I know that much of my distrust of her could have been alleviated by a few scenes that showed things from her point of view in Season 4, but what I actually saw was not pretty, and I can’t pretend to see it otherwise, even if I really want to.

[queensgirl]

Well, yes. I have any.

I for one don't see malice in what she did. I am not kidding. It's more fear. Look at it this way.

When she is in the car, in that scene in "Heiress," and they're talking about it being "safe," which I'm pretty sure is a reference to protection or the lack thereof, she says it was. We know it wasn't. What are the possible reasons for this?

A) she's an idiot B) and he is too C) she had not been able to go home and take her birth control, whatever kind she's using, during the day or two she and David are traipsing around town following that case we see in "Maddie's Turn to Cry" D) she did, but it failed.

Okay. Start there. She may have thought she'd beat the odds of getting pregnant. She didn't, but at the time she seemed to think they'd be in the clear. So when that turned out not to be true, and Junior's on the way after all, maybe, just maybe, she felt guilt and shame that this had happened, and wanted to just get out of Dodge and bury her head in the sand. There is, as I said, the indignity of the wrong man being forced to raise someone else's child. As yet she did not know what David would feel about it, and if she at first had reason to suspect it might not be his baby, maybe going with that as the thing to tell him, even if it later turned out to be false, might have been her way of continuing the illusion that he did not have anything to be sad about. It's weird, but I said it.

I don't see overt nastiness in that. I see "Oh @%?&, I messed up, we're in trouble now..."

Marriages founded on covering up a problem pregnancy don't have the best reputations for happiness and longevity. David had already been through one of them! In her way of thinking, telling him that may have enabled him to put out of mind the overwhelming pain and confusion of the whole mess.

"In my own strange way, I've always been true to you / In my own sick way, I'll always stay true to you"--'Speedway'

Everything she'd been doing to that point had been to try to extricate herself from the growing problems of the agency and the emotional rollercoaster of the relationship.
If she told David it was his, he would only try to stay, and we can be sure disputes over children are generally about as much fun as getting glued to a fire-ant mound. (I've already talked about the problems of closing the agency and being bounced out on the street without a job.) Maybe, just maybe, in her mind what she told him would actually make things less painful and complicated. If it's not his, he has a lot less to worry about.

To be technical about it, I think the only way to be 100% sure of paternity is to have a blood test, to determine DNA matching, and this can only happen after the baby is born.

Which did not happen[/b].

So she had to go with all the charts and whatnot she was given. Which leaves what? Yep.

I ask you to tell me where she is seen gloating, where she appears happy to hurt somebody, where she says anything like "Ha ha ha, I'm glad that happened"--where is that? Your case is entirely circumstantial. I need evidence.

I see her the whole time from departure to return to L.A. as fairly wrecked and distraught. I don't see her assertive about much of anything. (Very unlike her character at all.) She hardly smiles the whole time. I've said before, it looks like the worst time in her life.

Think about it. She spent the previous three years sparring with David, fighting, and yelling her head off, making clear in no uncertain terms what she thought about everything from cases to what to spend on paper clips.

Yet as soon as she goes to Chicago, she looks like someone who's taken massive doses of sedatives. She looks sapped, lifeless, and horrible. The only time I remember her brightening up is in the conversation in the car with her mother.

I believe one of the reasons she took so long to get involved with David is that Maddie is not the kind of person who will do something unless she has a chance of doing it right. You can think of her as either very reserved, and afraid far beyond what is reasonable for her years... or someone who, quite the contrary, cares so much that she won't go near trying to be in love until and unless she can be sure it's going to be good for them both.

It could be said she is too cautious.

She and David are so different, and they fight so much, she had to have guessed that it might not be the most simple of relationships once they got started.

And she was right.

For every "You're not who I'm supposed to be with," I'll see you that, and I'll raise you a "load of peat moss you hand 'em just because you tell 'em you love 'em first." They are both pinheads sometimes, dadgumit. We want it to be easy.

It's not!

If she could not be honest in her heart, maybe the only thing left to do was to walk out.

If she really wanted to hurt David, then I can’t see why she specifically instructed Agnes not to break the news. Heck, letting him know openly and earlier could have messed him up even more.

If she really wanted to hurt him, why stay in Chicago so long? I know that sounds backwards, but I think the real way to take advantage of him would be to falsely reassure him that she was happy in the relationship, go back home and open up that college fund for L'il Man on the way.

Pretend she's happy when she's not.

Live an illusion of a full life when she is in reality only partially committed to it.

There is a divorce rate in the United States at present of something like 52%, give or take.

Twenty years ago, it was something like ten percent worse than that. I'm not kidding.

In her mind, it may have become better to live a white lie than a big lie.

“The lies you tell / aren’t meant to deceive / they’re not there for me to believe.” – ‘Dangerous’

She'd had an entire three, four years to p**s him off about something else. Could have done it at any time. (Did, as it seems. ) There are far easier ways to get somebody's attention than this. Which is why I believe she didn't plan to hurt him.

Dave, bless his heart, is an idealist. Maddie is a realist. David wants to believe in blue skies and roses. Maddie looks at the bottom line.

She said she loved him. And he said he loved her. I believe both of them.

[adyjdy]

To begin with, I don’t think I’m 100-percent clear on the scenario you lay out, and I want to be.

Just a few questions: (By the way, are you enjoying this as much as I am? This type of analysis… Yipee!!!)

1. You’re saying you believe that she knew or at the very least strongly suspected that she was pregnant with someone’s baby BEFORE she left for Chicago, right? (It seems key to your argument that’s why I want to make sure I’m clear.)

2.

queensgirl said:

In her mind, it may have become better to live a white lie than a big lie. [quote/]

Just confirming here: The white lie is the paternity of the baby. The big lie is living “an illusion of a full life when she is in reality only partially committed to it.” Right?

3. Okay, last one.

queensgirl said:

As yet she did not know what David would feel about it, and if she at first had reason to suspect it might not be his baby, maybe going with that as the thing to tell him, even if it later turned out to be false, might have been her way of continuing the illusion that he did not have anything to be sad about. [quote/]

I’m just a little lost here. He didn’t have any reason to be sad about her leaving? About her marrying Walter? Or are you just talking in a general sense?

Sorry about all the questions. I just want to make sure I understand. J

[queensgirl]

Sorry, the reference may have been unclear. What I meant is that if he were made to believe it wasn't his baby, he wouldn't have to be sad that he wouldn't get to be around his baby.

And though M. may have known she was pregnant just before she left, having been with one person one day and then another the day after that, she would have reason to be confused over the paternity.

[adyjdy]

Hmmm… Interesting theories. I’ll give them some thought.

There is one more really nice one I forgot to mention. It’s in a fanfic called “Maddie's Diary” by Dana. It basically tracks Maddie’s feelings/psyche while she’s in Chicago. I love it because I can TOTALLY understand Maddie’s feelings and many of her actions. In fact, in the end—I won’t give it away—it’s easy to see her marriage to Walter as a selfless act, and, believe me, I prefer to see her that way.

Ah, if only Dana had collaborated on Season 4…

[adyjdy]

Here's the link for "Maddie's Diary."
home.rochester.rr.com/smkmoon/Maddie's%20Diary.htm

[queensgirl]

I am familiar with it, and it is a really good one. I love the descriptions of her and David together.

Also grateful for the fact that she addresses that particular plot hole of which we hear but never see in "Father Knows Last."

"...she said no."



I would have loved, I mean really loved, to see this in an actual on-film scene, either the way it's written in the fan piece or at least some other way. It's pretty important! And I'd love to know why on Earth she said no. (That is, if they had filmed it in the show, from their writers' point of view.) Was he nervous? Upset? 'Had a few,' as they say? Anxious to prevent her from thinking of Sam again as the superior option? Or was she already so depressed she was starting to become detached right then and there?

What a puzzle. But thanks for the link, it's always good to read again. (I think the same piece is also on FanFiction.Net in the ML section.)

[adyjdy]

I know what you mean about the proposal scene. That's another that I would really love to at least know the timing of. Before Chicago? During Chicago? ARGH! Alas, we shall never know. Sigh