The End
So just a few
notes... I mostly wanted this
story to be about the January segment
but figured I should write Psyche's
re-introduction in. I felt it
necessary to show that it was out of
character for her to not want to stay
with Vincent. But I didn't wanna
devote a whole lot of time to the
November segment. Thus, I hope I
didn't make Robert and Allison seem
doltish. It occurs to me that two
people whose daughter was abducted might
not so easily let her stay with a man
they just met. However, I do think
their gratitude is immense. It's
in no way hyperbolic to say JenniAnn
might have died without Vincent.
So there's that. Plus, there's
this excerpt from Vincent's letter to
Psyche:
"I learned only later that your
parents had kept you from it [the TV
show] after you had spent an entire
night wailing following an episode in
which my character was held captive by
gangsters and rendered temporarily
blind."
I've always felt like, because of that
incident, the Chandlers knew their
daughter loved this guy. The
wailing was probably pretty wretched to
behold. So when they saw Psyche's
and Vincent's reunion... I think that
majorly softened them towards
Vincent. Ya also gotta consider
that they know Vincent was her primary
caregiver for 4-5 months. He'd
proved himself trustworthy.
I enjoyed writing this for many reasons
but a big one was it allowed me to
write, at points, from a child's
perspective. BatB was a grown-up
show. True, there were children
but it never really delved too much into
their perception. Through Psyche,
I was able to step back and ponder what
exactly this passionate, frustrating
romance would look like to a
child. For one, I think she'd
assume Catherine and Vincent were
married. If people loved each
other, they got married. End of
story. At five years old, I'd like
to think Psyche had no idea about sex
let alone complications surrounding
it. She lived with the belief that
mommies and daddies always loved each
other and thus stayed together every
night. Mommies and daddies who
didn't stay together were bound for
something very scary and sad:
divorce. Of course as an adult I
know Psyche's view was vastly
over-simplified. Couples have
separate rooms for a variety of reasons
and it doesn't spell impending
doom. And that's to say nothing of
completely enamored couples separated by
familial, job, religious, and military
obligations. But to Psyche at
five, none of those exceptions existed.
I'm sure at some point the grown Psyche
(JenniAnn) put together what exactly had
been going on. I'm sure she
carried that with her into her adult
life and into her relationships.
She likely had a deeper understanding
than most that intimacy (regardless of
the type) doesn't always come quickly
and sometimes needs to be won and re-won
over the course of years. She will
never face the exact battle Catherine
did because she doesn't want what
Catherine did. But I think, in
their own way, JenniAnn and Andrew came
to a sort of emotional consummation (set
off in "Abide" and realized in "Chava")
and I do think it only happened because
JenniAnn had learned from Catherine and
Vincent that no relationship can
continue and be healthy when one party
persists in locking the other party
out. It's interesting to consider
all the ways people's lives and
histories brush up against each other.
Oh and Catherine's lullaby is directly
from the BatB episode "Ashes, Ashes."