All right. I promised more serious reflections on this update, so here goes. Looking at this scene again, I notice how relatively easy the rapport between Sara and her parents is, despite the awkward moment earlier when Iseul's and Theo's appearance caught her off guard. Compare this to chronologically earlier scenes of Sara
mouthing off to her dad and, albeit for more understandable reasons,
losing her temper with her mom. And also to the clear friction between Temperance and her parents, even though we don't know anything like the full story there.
This makes me more than a bit apprehensive and sad for Sara, Theo and, yes, even Iseul, because the revelation, about the affair, that we all seem to sense is coming is likely to undo this easy rapport, at least between daughter and mother. Somehow I doubt that Sara's reaction will be anything like Penny's when she thought Rob was having an affair. (Can you imagine? "Mom's been sleeping with a woman? That means she's gay, too? YAY! We can march in the Pride parade together this summer!")
That doesn't necessarily mean Sara will hold a grudge against Iseul forever. However, she's likely in at least the short term to feel betrayed (if not in the sense that Theo must/will feel). It's also possible she'll draw even closer to Theo, although that may depend on how long he's known what's been going on. I say "may" because assuming Theo knows about the affair yet, he probably hasn't known for long. (The choice of motel for Iseul's latest tryst, as well as her telling Elizabeth--whether she's certain or not--that it has to end, suggests that Iseul's either still keeping it from Theo or has confessed very recently, perhaps just before this campus visit.) There's the
remote chance that Theo will tell Sara, "I've known for a long time your mother's been sleeping with Elizabeth behind my back, but I pretended not to know because [
insert any number of reasons here]," and that Sara would therefore resent him as well for keeping up the charade. But again, I don't think that's likely.
In any case, I'm hoping the focus stays on Sara and parents for a bit, as opposed to switching to other, only just-recently introduced characters yet again. I'm content to let Marie be enigmatic, Michael hesitant and Ronnie self-hating all off-panel for a while, because unpleasant as what's to come may be, I really care about this family and want to see what happens next. Heck, I'd even accept less Lisa for a while, if that's what it takes. (At least we'd be leaving Lis in the process of getting lucky, as opposed to, say, doing the Jimmy Durante "walking alone and dejected under the streetlamps" thing.)
