#35mmcu

-"leave luanne", in which luanne tries to leave richard with her two infant children, and we all know how well that goes

-i havent decided yet if ghosts are a thing and luanne actually haunts him, or ghosts aren't a thing and he's just having nightmares, but richard gets so terrified (this is where crazytown fits in) he takes the kids, leaves the swamp, and moves into the city just to get away from it all

-you can probably imagine what kind of parent richard is

-he hates/is scared of caralee bc she's the spitting image of luanne. he thinks cara is luanne come back to haunt him

-cara responds to this by acting out. well, as much as a two year old can act out

-meanwhile he spoils and favors sara and tries pitting them against each other (spoiler: it does not work.)

-then "caralee" comes into play

-enter manuel "manny" brooks, who bemoans the chaotic child he babysits and her infinitely more well-behaved sister. but like, in the fond way, the way you'd talk to an annoying cat

-i think he has some suspicions about their dad and what kind of person he really is, but nothing concrete, so he just tries to keep an eye on him

-however, nothing could have prepared him for, while walking back to his dorm, finding a 3 year old caralee alone in the forest, dangerously close to falling into the river

-manny is like "what the fuck", so he takes the child and tries finding her dad because jesus even if there's some sort of family drama going on there, he has to be worried about his kid, right?

-right???

-yeah, turns out, richard's paranoia got so bad he straight up left cara in the woods, packed up sara, and fled again, this time to some suburban small town halfway across the country, where nobody knows them

-so manny tries calling richard. no answer. okay

-manny goes to their house, with a crying toddler on his shoulder, and knocks frantically. no answer. he looks closer, and there's a "for sale" sign next to the house. alright then.

-so because it's nearly 2 am by then, manny goes home and plans to put cara to bed and call the cops then and there. but he accidentally falls asleep bc damn that day was exhausting

-come morning, he finds out the child currently occupying his bed has been declared dead. official story is she drowned in a lake, suspiciously similar to her mother's death. okay.

-manny is just. so confused and so, so concerned.

-i'm gonna skip all the legal bullshittery that probably happens after that, but all you need to know is, caralee berry is dead, and cara brooks is born