SPOILER

The minister comes to see Sophie and Sian about their blessing and goes to the Barlow house by mistake. He talks to Tracy, she finds salvation and publicly confesses all her wrongdoings.

April Fool!  Unfortunately.

Apple and Tree

I’ve been amazed for a long time at what Deirdre will tolerate from Tracy. I’ve been amazed at what she will do to protect her. It has often seemed misguided and not really doing Tracy any favours. How far did the apple fall from the tree – is Tracy actually more like Deirdre than it appears?

But Thursday’s episode when Deirdre continued to keep her mouth firmly clamped shut about the truth of Tracy’s miscarriage absolutely appalled me. I don’t think the writers are changing Deirdre’s character in this storyline; it’s just taking what she has done before to a new level of scary motherhood.

Becky at the Barlow house, with only Tracy and Deirdre there and all three of them knowing most of the truth, and Deirdre allowed Tracy to continue blaming Becky for the miscarriage. Becky, heart in her eyes, pleading for Tracy to tell the truth, saying Tracy ok you’ve won, you’ve got Steve.

Deirdre very upset about not speaking up, but not speaking up. Not saying Tracy enough is enough, you can’t do this. Oh, she said it afterward to Tracy when they were alone, but not really very forcefully. And one manipulative little peep from Tracy about “I’ll have nothing to live for” was enough to shut her up.

I don’t believe it’s fair to automatically blame the mother, or father, when a child goes horribly bad. But if Deirdre can help Tracy conceal the truth about this, well, I think we’re seeing where Tracy learned her conniving and lying skills – from her mother. Deirdre’s silence makes her as culpable as Tracy.

If anyone knows Tracy…

If anyone knows the depths of Tracy’s inner psychotic self, it is Deirdre. And that’s not just because Deirdre is her mother, but because she is the only other person that knows that Tracy killed in cold blood. Tracy told her mother, with a smirk if I remember correctly, that Charlie Stubbs had not been attacking her when she killed him, that she just killed him. It was pretty hard for me to accept as reasonable that Deirdre would keep that information to herself.

But Charlie was dead and sending Tracy to prison for life wouldn’t bring him back. You still might want to think about whether you are doing the right thing in “protecting” a murderer even if she is your daughter. You might be next in her sights. So ok, Deirdre has a misguided notion of a mother’s protective role.

But totally scuppering Becky’s life and reputation? I do not see that doing that, or allowing that to happen, is justifiable in any way. And this incident with Becky and even the murder of Charlie Stubbs, are not the only horrible things that Tracy has done to destroy other people’s lives and that Deirdre knows about. Deirdre is harbouring a sociopath and by doing so she’s made me think that, this time, it is fair to blame the mother. The tree is likely to be near where the apple lands.