SPOILERS FOR BRIDGEWATER CHAPTER 9
In light of how the last episode ended (holy shit, holy shit, we were so right, I knew it!!!!), I've had some Thoughts™ about Jeremy, Anne, and Jeremy's mother.
We've already seen Anne's side of things. She's apologetic and pained, and yeah definitely guilty, but she's only half the story. She said "we decided". Not "I". It wasn't Anne alone that decided to keep Jeremy and Shelley in the dark about their dad, it was Anne and Jeremy's mother.
So now? Now, a part of me really wants to see Jeremy also call his mom to confront her about the whole Keeping Secrets™ thing, because it wasn't just Anne who was keeping Jeremy in the dark. It was both of them. They agreed to keep it quiet. And there's a part of me that feels like - if it had been Anne's choice alone, she would have been more likely to try and keep in touch with Jeremy after his dad disappeared. She already had a familial connection with Jeremy, though he doesn't remember. They were close. But Jeremy's mom? Very different story. After Thomas disappeared, and when she suddenly became the only parent Jeremy had? She would have been far more likely to advocate for keeping Jeremy away from the woman who her husband left her for. She would have been all for keeping her son away from the Other Woman, no matter how close Anne and Jeremy were at that point. (And Anne, in her grief, with her desperation to do what was best for Jeremy and - now - her daughter who no longer had a father either, she would have agreed.)
I have to wonder too - yes, we know that Thomas and his wife were separated because of the affair. But like Anne said - Thomas was the one who told her about the supernatural (hah, spn) stuff going on in the forest. Thomas was the one who believed it first. Thomas was a believer and was fixated on it before pulling Anne into it too, but based on the few phone calls we hear between Jeremy and his mom, his mom is very much against believing all that mythological stuff. She even calls Anne crazy for believing it, and warns Jeremy away from talking to her for that very reason. How much do you want to bet that Thomas' obsession with the explainable was another factor that led to their separation? (Unless, of course, Mom was less of a skeptic than she let on and is denying it all to keep Jeremy away from the Weird Shit and, by extension, to keep Jeremy away from Anne and away from the truth. Which...that was also a thing I registered while listening: that a big part of Jeremy's mom's determination to warn her son away from talking to Anne was so he never found out about the affair.)
Regardless, after this episode, I just want to give Jeremy a damn hug because this poor boy is going through so much. At the very least I hope he'll find family in all this mess because he figured out the truth. And I'd also like to smack him upside the head for being such an obstinate fool and ignoring what's right in front of his eyes. He got absolutely read for filth by Celeste this ep, and I'm here for it:
"... That's what you'd say, isn't it? A perfectly rational explanation for every single event, even if you have to stretch it over your memory of what actually happened, like trying to fit a rubber band around the world."
...if only he's let himself have a more open mind. Jeremy Bradshaw you absolutely fucking fool.
