The problem with the password
Re-watching “Mistakes Were Made Part 1″ this week, I expected to be infuriated by the retcon involved in turning Holly’s confession that Rebecca is William’s daughter into a do-over involving Ryan. This episode set the path for the rest of the season, a path that has now been bypassed and marginalized by the Justin-Rebecca Superhighway.
I was surprised, then, to find myself angry not so much at the writer’s blatant disregard for the plot they set in motion here, as with what a mind-bogglingly dumb plot it was to begin with.
Turns out, I can buy that Holly’s claiming of Rebecca as William’s might not be the final word on the subject; that she may discount the small possibility that David is Rebecca’s father because she had so much more history with William, and William’s family has so much more to offer Rebecca, and Sarah all but has a gun to her head.
What I can’t buy is that Sarah, sensible Sarah, top of her class in business school and by all accounts a smart and capable woman, would insist that you can prove paternity with a password. Or would accuse Holly of withholding information when Holly had willingly given her exactly the information she needed. I could buy Sarah accusing Holly of misleading William as to Rebecca’s paternity, causing him to use the initial when the child was not his. I could buy Sarah accusing Holly of withholding information if she had denied having a daughter at all, or refused to provide a name. But as is? Nah. Not buying. Now, or when they do this again with Ryan.
In case the writers want to rethink their dependence on the “R is for an illegitimate child” password theory, I’d like to propose Nine Other Possible Explanations for the Password SKTKJR. Show some creativity, why don’tcha?
1. Initials of a whole bunch of illegitimate kids — Susan, Karen, Timmy, Kenneth, Jerry, and Ruth. Collect the whole set!
2. Initials of all the Walker kids plus William’s pet name for Nora, “Runt.”
3. Initials of the Ojai Foods employees of the month for the previous half a year.
4. Mnemonic for William’s daily lunch order: Salad with Kiwi, Tomatoes, Kidney beans, Jalapenos, and Roquefort dressing.
5. An unfortunately relevant entry from the Random Password Generator.
6. A tribute to his brothers, Steve, Kurt, Teddy, Keith, Jason, and Roger.
7. A remembrance of his sisters, Stella, Kelly, Tammy, Katie, Jill, and Roxanne.
8. His vanity license plate, which stands for Sarah, Kitty, Tommy, Kevin, and Justin Rock!
9. His kids’ initials plus a random additional letter, because what kind of doofus hides his embezzlement behind a password made entirely from his kids’ initials?
Photo: ABC.com
July 27th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
But Terri, as a mother, do you honestly think Holly would risk putting her daughter in such an emotionally vulnerable position, no matter HOW small she thought the chance was? To me, it’s the height of callousness for Holly to do this to her daughter because she wanted to selfishly lay claim to William’s legacy as his mistress. (Remember, at this point Holly had no idea about the land deal so there could have been no financial motive in her confession.)
And yeah, Sarah was stern, but she hardly was holding a gun to her head. If Holly wanted to deny Rebecca’s paternity or (better yet) be fully truthful about her uncertainty, she certainly could have.
But then again, we’re talking about a scene that was written, directed and acted with the intent that Holly was telling the truth and that there never was any “real” one-night stand. (It was just Holly’s cover story she told William.)
I still can’t believe what damage they were willing to inflict on the series’ integrity for the stupid J/R “romance.”
As for the password…yeah, it was a contrivance, but I never took it out on Sarah’s character. In the context of the show, I suspended disbelief.
July 29th, 2008 at 4:25 am
As sensible and as smart a person Sarah is, she is also very emotional and obviously the realisation that her dad was not just an adulterer and an embezzler but also now fathered another would have made her tremendously upset and angry. So when the ‘R’ fit she automatically jumped to that conclusion and pounced on Holly. I really don’t blame her.
As for the lame password - well this is just a family drama after all (so the initials were in keeping with the familial relations I suppose), and B&S has never been highly technical about these sorts of things (based on all the laughable computer-related scenes they’ve had!).
But the pathetic attempt at deWalkering Rebecca and getting some other R person to explain the photo and the password is completely inexcusable. If they deWalkered her then fine (even though it was a sucky SL) but they should have just stuck to the belief that William mistakenly thought Rebecca was his child (which would have been a rational explanation for the password and the photo) but they couldn’t stick to logic, could they?
Btw, loved No 1. Terri - Collect the whole set!
July 30th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Scott, as a mother, I honestly can’t imagine raising a child not knowing that her father is the man her mother is still having a serious relationship with. That’s some emotional trauma right there, so whether Holly’s lying now or lying then, I think she’s already booted that Mother of the Year award.
I think we’re at an impasse here. I’m willing to give the writers some leeway on Holly’s truthfulness, and you’re willing to give it on the password, the interpretation of which continues to tick me off.
We’re still in complete agreement on the photograph, though. I have no spin for why Holly would lie about the photo. It was indisputably established as a photo of Rebecca, and I don’t think they get do-overs on that. And it’s all silliness, since they could well have pursued an alternative sibling plot without it.
July 30th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
If I were Holly I would simply claim: “I didn’t really look at the picture, and no matter what I would said no one believes me anyway.” squeeze some tears out of those eyes and make myself the sad, misunderstood person. The Drama-queen!