Family secrets come out when Christy and Bonnie are asked to join Violet's therapy session.
"Free Therapy and a Dead Lady's Yard Sale" perfectly shows just how strong this show can be. Yes, it is shot in front of a live studio audience. But Mom is very much interested in showing the honest and dark emotions of real life struggles. This is a family with many problems and the show has never shied away from showing these people at their worse and most defeated.The history with Violet's father is a piece of this family puzzle that has been missing for awhile now. It was a piece of information that had to revealed at the right time in order to get as much emotional resonance that it deserves. And boy, is that reveal that he was physically abusive to Christy fantastic. It's tragic and brutal. Life would be so much easier for Violet during this therapy session if she could just place blame on the parental figures in her life. And yet, life is much more complicated than that. Christy has been shielding her from the truth. But now, it's time that she knows some of her parents' real history.
Violet's arc this season has been less defined than the first season. Her pregnancy gave her a defining arc for the first year. Giving up the baby for adoption obviously has weighed hard on her since. She is willing to use that as an excuse repeatedly in order to avoid responsibility and direction. I thought the season was making progress with her a few weeks ago when she went to the Taylors to see baby Gwyneth. And yet, she's still just a young adult who doesn't really know what to do. She had this hard experience and now she just wants to be young and have a fun time without him mother and grandmother annoying her. The family has come under hard times. Both Bonnie and Christy are fighting to keep this family afloat while Violet is moving throughout this universe without a care in the world, getting drunk and making out with random guys.
Free therapy helps the family get all of these issues out in the open. Violet gets some new and helpful insight into her mother's past. Both mother and daughter are allowed moments of introspection. Violet apologizes for not being a good daughter lately while Christy apologizes to Baxter for being a bad person during their marriage. Both women realizing that this needed to be done is remarkable growth for each of them.
But there's still the brutal honesty that Christy is building this new relationship with her daughter on a whole new lie: That her father is dead. As Christy has learned through the AA program, people are capable of change. It's easy to see that getting sober has made Christy and Bonnie better people to take care of this family. The same goes for Baxter. His new girlfriend provided him structure and a purpose. And now, he is a vastly more important character in this universe. He is now able to have an honest and serious point of view. He's no longer just the deadbeat ex-husband who likes to get high. Christy has seen all of this personal change. And yet, she still refuses to see Violet's father as anything other than the man who used to beat her. She would rather have her daughter believe that he's dead than see if he has changed. That graveyard scene was terrific even though I kinda knew that Christy was lying about all of it.
The lie will likely make things much worse in the future once Violet's dad does come back into the picture somehow. And yet, it's very easy to understand and sympathize with Christy's decision to lie here. She just wants to look forward and build a better life for herself and her family. Digging up old wounds wouldn't help with that. So she gives Violet an explanation and now she is starting to accept the responsibility for her actions. That is an important thing that Violet needed to accept. However, the situation remains very precarious for the future.
Some more thoughts:
- "Free Therapy and a Dead Lady's Yard Sale" was directed by Ted Wass with story by Chuck Lorre & Susan McMartin and teleplay by Gemma Baker, Marco Pennette & Adam Chase.
- The dead tenant that Bonnie found was largely just to bring some levity and laughs to this very dark episode. It worked but the plot itself never actually went anywhere except a few good lines and some misunderstandings.
- Spencer Daniels is still listed as a series regular but this is only the second episode he has appeared in this season. And now, Luke and Violet have broken up. So, I'm unsure of how he's still a relevant character in this universe.
- I love that Baxter is so proud of being salesman-of-the-month. It's literally the only thing he can talk about in his interactions with Violet and Roscoe.
