If you haven't read my lengthier post on Merilee (played by a baby faced Mare Winnigham) on here, then do so. The crux of the matter is, she is a prize winner, goaded on by her mother to win, and when she loses the History contest to Buddy, on "Family," she commits suicide.
Now, I am still sympathetic to the mother's grief, and angry that she treated her daughter less like a person and more like a prize trophy at a county fair. Yet I still feel her grief over losing her child, and in such a disturbing way.
Which brings me to some points I did not go into, in the last post, and which David and I discussed.
Did Merilee plan all this, in advance? Did she intentionally throw the contest to Buddy? It bares examining, because there is a case both for, and against.
As to for, well, suicide, among many things, is an act of anger. And who would Merrilee be more angry at than her mother, who seems to only value her for her prize winning?
What better way to get back at Mother than lose the contest, and end her life? Because, I am sure, and James Broderck echoes this, in his speech to Buddy, if Merilee had won this contest, it never would have stopped. There would be the regionals, and then something else...and on and on!!!!!!!!!!!
The poor child could not take it anymore. And even if Merilee succeeded all the way, somewhere in her life, she would have come up against some form of failure--we all do--and how might she have handled it, then?
All this supports the idea Merilee may have engineered the whole thing. It could work for me, except for two things.
During the competition, when she misses the first question, there is such a deer-in-the-headlights look, of something she cannot handle, the first time she has lost something. And she is terrified to face her mother.
Secondly, when Buddy steps down the stage stairs to join her family, Merilee is seen, upstage, with the host, who seems to be consoling her. And she brushes him off. I believe if Merrilee had engineered this, she would not have acted this way, but walked down to everyone, as though nothing happened. Had this sequence not appeared in the episode it would lend more credence, I believe, to Merilee planning it out. With it included, it dispels that idea.
Also, no one sees what goes down between Merilee and her mother, in their drive home, or once they get there. But I can guess that following morning, because Merilee clearly did it at home, so her mother could see. I can picture the mother, urging a sleeping Merilee to get ready for school, and, when a sound is not heard the mother looks in, and sees either Merilee in bed, unconscious, dead, a bottle of lethal pills by her bed, or, and this in common in some recent
teen suicides, seeing her hanging by her neck in the bedroom. Either way, the poor mother, whatever one may think of her, is devastated, and will have to live with this, the rest of her life.
Some may still view Merilee as the engineer of her own destruction. I really don't think so; I think initial loss, her mother's disfavor, and lack of value Merilee felt in herself, culminated at the climax of the competition, and she just could not go on, anymore.
But you tell me. As I have said, I am curious to hear from readers.
My heart goes out both to Merilee and her mother.
And to all the real life Merilees still alive. Please remain so.
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