How quickly it seems Bitch Of The Week time rolls around! Here we are again, girls, and this week's winner is a fascinating one.
She is fictitious. What is interesting is, as I was watching an old 'SVU' episode entitled "Hothouse," I had no idea the actress I was watching playing this week's winner, Jennifer Banks, was Sarah Hyland, the same actress now playing the bimbo older daughter in "Modern Family." What a range Sarah demonstrated in this episode.
And what an episode. It triggered my issues about medicating children for academic advancement, which was explored in that book which outraged me, "Accelerated," by Bronwen Hruska. And, as we, the viewer, got to know Jennifer, it was understandable that, as heinous as her crime was, she was caught in a horrible trap.
So, too, was her victim, Elsa Lychkoff, whose body was discovered floating on the Jersey side of the river. Elsa was a victim from the start; she and her sister, Katrina, were home schooled and abused by their father, Joseph, who pushed his girls to a point beyond endurance, in order that they achieve the academic brilliance he was denied, when ousted from a PhD program. His poor wife, the girls' mother, watches on in passive horror, afraid to do nothing. Typical in an abusive household.
Katrina gets smart, rebels, and is kicked out onto the street. Elsa, who follows her parents' program, is put into a private school called Norwood, which believes in pushing their students, like Joseph Lychkoff, while the students push themselves by abusing drugs like Provigil, to help them stay awake, and keep their mind raising, so they can study harder and faster. Jennifer is obsessed with being number one, and getting attention, so she takes this drug. Now, I can relate to this, and there were other classmates I envied, sometimes hated, but the thought of doing them harm just never occurred to me. Besides, from as far as I can remember, I always had this sense that I was better than others around me. And that has been borne out!!!!!!!!!!!!
But Jennifer's Provigil use played havoc with her health and esteem. M.E. Warner says being sleep deprived for seventeen hours can have the same influence as a lot of alcohol, resulting in delusion and sometimes crazy behavior.
On the day of Elsa's murder, their friendship had reached an impasse, because Elsa could not take Jennifer's competitiveness and covetousness. Elsa had a boyfriend, Danny, over in Jersey. Her had dropped out of Norwood, and Elsa was planning to do the same. She had had it with the school, her father, everyone. Jennifer, on some level, still wanted Elsa as a friend, but not as competition. There was no second place, for her. She HAD to be Number One. So, she followed Elsa onto the ferry to Jersey, got into a fight with her, resulting in slamming her head against the fence, knocking her out, after which she pushed the presumably dead girl into the river!!!!!!!!!!!!
After confessing this to everyone, Jennifer then cheers up telling her mother, "I'm Number One, now! Aren't you happy for me!" Girls, I was never this over the edge, even during MY adolescence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But you gotta love Jennifer for being so fascinating, even if she is addicted, and lacking in self-esteem, she takes actions! But then, she has no impulse control. So, is it the drugs, or Jennifer???????????
During the final court scene, where she goes off her rocker, gets up on the table, screaming about being number one, chess, the game, and having to be carried out of court, I was convinced that while the drugs exacerbated things, something in Jennifer's psyche felt she had to be this way, in order to prove herself "as good as, if not better."
As I said, I could relate. But I would never have even thought of going this far! And drugs? Forget it; never entered my mind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, girls, don't get too whacked out over your class ranking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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