Molly’s Turkey

Molly pulls the Christmas turkey out of the oven. The pan tips and the turkey slides out on the floor. Oh, the poor girl.

I haven’t had a lot of sympathy for her in this whole affair with Kevin, but my heart bled for her in this scene and the one leading up to it. That’s where Kevin breaks it off with her. What I liked in the follow-up scene was there was the turkey on its platter in the middle of the table, with Tyrone, Jack and all tucking into it.

Molly did what I’d hoped she did when I saw the turkey laying in the middle of the kitchen floor. She picked it up, wiped it off, put it on a platter and served it – ta da! – telling no one of its little side trip en route to table from oven. Now, girl, that’s what you have to do with yourself. 

Pick turkey and yourself up

Pick yourself up, look your best and carry on! Easier said than done, when your “great romance” has just told you that you’re childish and selfish and acts as if you were the only one with delusions of leaving partners and going off to a new and wonderful life together. At the best of times, that is difficult to hear from someone who has said he or she loves you. But when an hour before, it’s him who has persuaded you that it’s time to up stakes, tell the spouses that you’re leaving them and damn the consequences. All on Christmas Day? Even Molly, deluded as she is about the ease with which a marriage or two can be ended, seemed not entirely sure that Christmas Day, before the turkey dinner, was the best time to do this.

She really is still just a girl without a lot of experience in adult relationships. But she’s learning fast, as her look of hurt and stunned disbelief showed when Kevin lectured her about why he could now not leave Sally. That he had to stand by his wife, now she’s been diagnosed with breast cancer. Earlier he’d also told Molly that he had to stand by his family until Sophie was through her school exams. Molly said ok to that. But, after finding out about the romantic weekend in Paris that Kevin and Sal had, she said ok, enough!  Good for you, Molly!

But Kevin couldn’t leave it at that. No, he persuades her running away is a good, and romantic, thing to do. She falls for it – of course she would! She loves him or at least is infatuated with him or the thrill of an affair. Then, when he does the right thing and says he’s staying with his wife, he has to belittle Molly.

Power imbalance

There’s already a power imbalance between Molly and Kevin. She’s a lot younger than him, so he can feel good about having a young woman fawning over him. But he can also turn it the other way around when it suits his purpose; she’s silly and immature, too young to understand these things. And, being young, those words will hurt her without her realizing what it also says about him and his level of maturity. Molly has just learned an important lesson about relationships. Whatever someone says they like about you can be used against you in bad moments.

Meanwhile, she knows that she came within a hair’s breadth of destroying her life with Tyrone. It probably is already destroyed. But at least now she won’t be letting it happen because of the promises of a fool’s paradise with Kevin. Unless, of course, he decides he can’t cope with Sally and her cancer without the support of his “real love” Molly. Then he’ll put her through the emotional wringer again and again. If she lets him. I hope the dropped turkey and her fast coping with that shows her she’s got the emotional strength to deal with her other “dropped turkey” – Kevin.