The Yellow Snake

I’m very frustrated they didn’t more directly address Steve’s sexual abuse of Cal in this season. 

They’d set that up that Cal is a victim of child sexual abuse from the first episode and it explains a lot his behavior. 

Making Steve the perpetrator is not the choice I wanted to see the writers make. But now that they’ve made it, they have to address it directly. 

They can’t take back Brenda’s revelation. They have to address what it means that the founder was such an abhorrent human being. 

The Light didn’t enable him to resist his basest urges. He died thinking the Light was only testing him, not punishing him, while renouncing the “son” he’d abused. 

I do hope they actually face it head on in S3. 

I’m not sure how I want to see it addressed, but it needs to be. Whether it comes up in a session when Cal’s locked in one of those cells. Or maybe Sarah gets herself locked in one and what Brenda told her comes up. I don’t know. But they have to address it.

That he’s a victim doesn’t erase all the bad things Cal has done, or excuse him from them, but it sure counts for mitigating circumstances. 

theyellowsnake:

themeyeristmovement:

...

This is not the first comparison I’ve seen made to the most recent Catholic child abuse scandal. 

I sort of get what you’re getting at and yet I find it lacking. Because it’s not an equal comparison.

We’re talking about the founder, the NAMED PERSON OF THE RELIGION versus priests of a centuries old faith. 

You can’t compare a new “movement” to a religion that is also a sovereign state, that has permanent observer status with the United Nations, that has wealth that would make Cal’s little City Center blush, that has literally changed history for centuries. 

Let’s be (sadly) real - the Catholic Church has survived worse than the most recent child abuse scandal. And has done more good than Cal and Eddie could have done by actually going public with the water results rather than saving Sarah. 

And the Catholic Church was severely damaged by the revelations of what it did to protect those priests. It probably lost more members in the US alone than the Meyerists ever dreamed of having.  

But at the same time, the Catholic Church grew by leaps and bounds in other parts of the world.

But at the core - to be equivalent - we’d have to discover that Jesus himself, or Peter or Paul, had done these crimes. Those are foundational issues. 

Today, nearly 2000 years later, Catholics can say some priests have strayed, but the foundation is solid. Peter is still the rock upon which the Church is built.

If Steve is the rock, well good luck Eddie. Your moorings are but sand. 

Exactly!

I’ve had a similar discussion and I completely agree - it’s not the same thing. At all.

Steve is basically the equivalent of Jesus, to compare him to those priests isn’t correct. And if that was what Goldberg meant than she is even worse than I thought and needs to be fired. 

If, say, Silas or another one of the Elders was the one abusing Cal than people wouldn’t have an issue with Meyerism.

But Steve. The Prophet. The Founder. The one chosen directly by the Light. The one writings the “map for the spiritual development of the followers” -  being the culprit?

Nope. 

That put not only the Movement but the Light itself in discussion.

They could change logo, name, even distance themselves completely by the Old Movement but, personally, I would never never trust anything that was inspired by the same thing that inspired Doc.

No matter how ‘good’ Eddie is.

Ok, I know I’m an atheist so this will just annoy the shit out of everyone, but the founders of Christianity were ancient Romans who indulged in what was then a cult religion (read: small and private) that totally flew in the face of religion & spirituality as Romans knew it. Christians were persecuted by Romans because their views didn’t fit with their society: they didn’t want monotheism and it was far too conservative for them. Hello, Romans loved sex and violence and weren’t interested in being told to pack it in by a bunch of peasants. Then there was Jesus (not gonna touch this), but then there was really Constantine who said, Christianity is the bomb, let’s all do this shit and be Christians. Religions aren’t in vacuum where only the influence of the first person to think of it and “preach” it matters. They evolve over time and figures of importance & influence change their course.

All this is to say that I think you can compare Christianity to the movement. Any lasting religious movement will have many phases, incarnations and leaders.

But also, I hate religion and wish Eddie was not the “chosen one” because it’s boring. I would have much rather seen him desperately trying to stop Cal from making everyone drink Kool-Aid.

And the Meyerist Movement is at its first stage - the very beginning. 

Steven wasn’t a leader of a movement that already existed. He was the one that has received the message directly by this ‘superior being/consciousness’ and started it. That’s why it is not correct to compare it to the Church today or even Christianity centuries after Jesus’ death.

So, yes, religions evolve and change. But we are talking about the foundation here being rotten.

I’m very frustrated they didn’t more directly address Steve’s sexual abuse of Cal in this season. 

They’d set that up that Cal is a victim of child sexual abuse from the first episode and it explains a lot his behavior. 

Making Steve the perpetrator is not the choice I wanted to see the writers make. But now that they’ve made it, they have to address it directly. 

They can’t take back Brenda’s revelation. They have to address what it means that the founder was such an abhorrent human being. 

The Light didn’t enable him to resist his basest urges. He died thinking the Light was only testing him, not punishing him, while renouncing the “son” he’d abused. 

I do hope they actually face it head on in S3. 

I’m not sure how I want to see it addressed, but it needs to be. Whether it comes up in a session when Cal’s locked in one of those cells. Or maybe Sarah gets herself locked in one and what Brenda told her comes up. I don’t know. But they have to address it.

That he’s a victim doesn’t erase all the bad things Cal has done, or excuse him from them, but it sure counts for mitigating circumstances. 

I was also disappointed JG went there after she explicitly said she wasn’t interested in that angle, and I have to wonder if she even had that planned from the beginning. The ‘clues’ you mention in the first episode are so flimsy they could have been anything. But that she has made Steve an abuser to the fullest extent should speak to more than making the Movement a fraud. I have been pretty damn vocal and pretty long winded on the endless things I find wrong with this show, but I don’t understand this criticism that the audience can no longer “root” for Eddie to save/refashion Meyerism if it’s based on the teachings of a pedophile.

When The Boston Globe broke the story on the priest sex abuse scandal, it rocked a city. Families were devastated. But so many in the world have not given up on Christianity, have they? The Vatican still stands. People still need to believe. Eddie has tapped into something that has nothing to do with Steve, he just doesn’t know it yet. Meyer preached a lot of bullshit, but he could have also legitimately seen a glimpse of the divine. It can be two things.

I remember watching this doc, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God, and it followed the testimonies of four deaf men who had been abused by one priest for years. Rev. Father Murphy eventually admitted to sexually abusing over 200 deaf boys in the school he ran spanning two decades, and of course the Vatican covered it up. There was footage of someone trying to interview Murphy and the man really thought he’d been ‘tested’, and that no one had the right to judge him other than God. It was horrifying stuff. But as weak as she is, I think Goldberg is trying to make a point about the difference in believing in a higher power and what draws people to that, versus the story of how a “business” like religion has the power to distort and corrupt those who purport to spread it. How does one consign their beliefs in an institution with such a wretched history? She’s looking at it in a smaller scale.

“Some people who aren’t well versed in psychology might not see the symptoms of being a victim of abuse that Cal shows and might not believe his mother’s accusations.” — who is this referring to? The writers or the audience? Because if this is to suggest that the audience isn’t allowed to dislike Cal because he’s simply a blameless victim and Steve made him this way so we should only feel pity for him, then I have to disagree. Cal is a grown-ass man. He is responsible for his actions. He didn’t “accidentally” kill Silas, and he certainly hasn’t owned it, as he likes to preach. This is the core of what’s wrong with Meyerism. For all their talk of damage, they don’t know how to cure anybody. Cal hasn’t come to terms with what happened to him, nor does he have any idea how to. Even Eddie fell fast to old patterns when the Meyerism rug was pulled out from under him. I think the only person that can actually help Cal is Eddie, because Eddie understands Cal more than he realizes (and what is up with Father Deens in the Garden, anyway?). Sarah is useless.

I sort of get what you’re getting at and yet I find it lacking. Because it’s not an equal comparison.

We’re talking about the founder, the NAMED PERSON OF THE RELIGION versus priests of a centuries old faith. 

You can’t compare a new “movement” to a religion that is also a sovereign state, that has permanent observer status with the United Nations, that has wealth that would make Cal’s little City Center blush, that has literally changed history for centuries. 

Let’s be (sadly) real - the Catholic Church has survived worse than the most recent child abuse scandal. And has done more good than Cal and Eddie could have done by actually going public with the water results rather than saving Sarah. 

And the Catholic Church was severely damaged by the revelations of what it did to protect those priests. It probably lost more members in the US alone than the Meyerists ever dreamed of having.  

But at the same time, the Catholic Church grew by leaps and bounds in other parts of the world.

But at the core - to be equivalent - we’d have to discover that Jesus himself, or Peter or Paul, had done these crimes. Those are foundational issues. 

Today, nearly 2000 years later, Catholics can say some priests have strayed, but the foundation is solid. Peter is still the rock upon which the Church is built.

I’ve had a similar discussion and I completely agree - it’s not the same thing. At all.

Steve is basically the equivalent of Jesus, to compare him to those priests isn’t correct. And if that was what Goldberg meant than she is even worse than I thought and needs to be fired. 

If, say, Silas or another one of the Elders was the one abusing Cal than people wouldn’t have an issue with Meyerism.

But Steve. The Prophet. The Founder. The one chosen directly by the Light. The one writings the “map for the spiritual development of the followers” -  being the culprit?

Nope. 

That put not only the Movement but the Light itself in discussion.

They could change logo, name, even distance themselves completely by the Old Movement but, personally, I would never never trust anything that was inspired by the same thing that inspired Doc.

There didn’t seem to be the round of “the showrunner explains that finale” interviews like last year.

The season did seem to end with a whimper of “renewed for season 3.”

I’m very frustrated they didn’t more directly address Steve’s sexual abuse of Cal in this season. 

They’d set that up that Cal is a victim of child sexual abuse from the first episode and it explains a lot his behavior. 

Making Steve the perpetrator is not the choice I wanted to see the writers make. But now that they’ve made it, they have to address it directly. 

They can’t take back Brenda’s revelation. They have to address what it means that the founder was such an abhorrent human being. 

The Light didn’t enable him to resist his basest urges. He died thinking the Light was only testing him, not punishing him, while renouncing the “son” he’d abused. 

I do hope they actually face it head on in S3. 

I’m not sure how I want to see it addressed, but it needs to be. Whether it comes up in a session when Cal’s locked in one of those cells. Or maybe Sarah gets herself locked in one and what Brenda told her comes up. I don’t know. But they have to address it.

That he’s a victim doesn’t erase all the bad things Cal has done, or excuse him from them, but it sure counts for mitigating circumstances. 

I will say that Eddie finding her on the street was pretty heartbreaking.

I cheered when Abe said he was going to go find her. 

And pissed when it became clear that she didn’t have the better life I was hoping she’d have free of the Movement. 

I get why. She had zero security net, etc.

Hugh Dancy as Cal Roberts

We want to believe the sad angry boy can become the king.