MovieChat Forums > Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) Discussion > Did Richard know at the reunion?

Did Richard know at the reunion?

posted 10 years ago by robinmimna
13 replies | jump to latest

This has been driving me crazy... lets think past the reunion for a second...

Peggy goes back in time (assuming she does actually go back) approaches Richard, convinces him she is a time traveller, they come up with some get rich schemes, he asks her to marry him which she refuses. Obviously she meant something to him. Then she ends up with Charlie and we assume - her life plays out from then on...

O.K now lets go back to the reunion...

Richard notices Peggy Sue walk in, as though he has been waiting for her, he approaches her, asks about Charlie, sits at her table, dances with her and seems to have a strong connection with her, and although she is pleased to see him - doesn't seem to have the connection he does. When they are on stage he's watching her very closely.

Do you know why? Because he knew she would go back. Think about it. He's a rich inventor. It's because of the things she told him. Has he been waiting all this time to see her and he can't say anything because he knows she's got to go back?

Thoughts?

[–] kailer35 10 years ago

That's the way I've always seen it.

[–] My_Name_Is_Lydia 10 years ago

That fits perfectly into this Burrito Theory. Good call.

[–] kmoss-4 10 years ago

When they were dancing at the reunion, even before she time-travelled/had a heart attack, he said she was one of the few people that was nice to him back in high school.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (47421091) 9 years ago

When they were dancing at the reunion, even before she time-travelled/had a heart attack, he said she was one of the few people that was nice to him back in high school.

That's how I always saw it.

I think Richard's main motivation to go to his reunion was to rub his success in the faces of those (most of them) who either bullied him or simply ignored him because he was an academic geek. He said as much to Dolores when she interviewed him.

As long as he was there, it's natural that he would seek out those few who actually treated him as an equal, something I'm sure he would never have forgotten.

[–] Adler-99 9 years ago

I think Richard was only nice to her at the reunion because, as he said, she was one of the few people who were nice to him in high school. Since I think she dreamed the whole time travel thing, no, I don't think Richard "knew."

[–] stazza 8 years ago

Richard was alrady smart, science club, etc... so he was going to make it. They didn't say he invented panty hose or anything. Just clever things they put in to make you think.
She didn't actually time travel. Just emotionally dreaming to access her real world.

What happend to the REAL teen aged Peggy while old Peggy was there, if she DID time travel?

[–] sdphilburn-460-781211 9 years ago

Holy beans I never thought about that!!!!! So then is it a continus loop? She didn't change anything she is still coming to the reunion unhappy? Which means it's going to happen all over again?

[–] rhonda-gram 8 years ago

I am not sure if I believe she traveled back in time.. or it was a dream.. however if it was a time travel thing.. and she did in fact tell him about the things that eventually made him successful...he was already on his way to that success in HS. Also.. when he saw her at the reunion, he said she was one of the only people that was nice to him..so he sat with her. Peoples dreams can run together and things from the past can happen in the same dream.. if Richard did know.. he didn't mention it to her because it may not have happened to her yet...

[–] janet-conant 7 years ago

Peggy never changed history by going back she was just seeing things in a different perspective than a teen standpoint. It wasn't like Back To The Future when Fox does go back and tries to get his mother and father together. Peggy had a vivid dream that we all got to share and afterwards realized she was as much to blame as Charlie for their bad marriage. In her dream she also realized the rebel poet character wasn't as deep as she thought.

[–] HelpMeRhonda (1155) 3 years ago

I thought he did. I do think Peggy went back in time. Therefore, Richard would've known! He became the inventor because of her, partially!

[–] strntz (10830) 3 years ago

Richard's reaction to Peggy at the reunion could be interpreted either way: either he remembered her as claiming to be a time-traveller or that he simply remembered her as someone who didn't make fun of him when he was a geeky high school kid. I think this was intentional.

When Peggy Sue woke up at the hospital, it seemed that her medical condition (like Dorothy's knock in the head in Wizard of Oz) was the cause of her experience, but that all changed when Charlie showed Peggy Sue the book that Michael had written and dedicated to her. She even said she hardly knew him, yet he not only dedicated the book to her, but described accurately the "dream" Peggy had of her night with Michael.

Peggy did go back in time.

[–] HelpMeRhonda (1155) 3 years ago

Then don't you think Richard would've retained that experience, if Peg actually did time travel?

[–] strntz (10830) 3 years ago

Yes. If Peggy went back in time, then to Richard, there would have only been one reality: the one where Peggy showed him future inventions.

Peggy was a bit flighty, but I think in the first time line, she probably was friendly to Richard where a lot of her classmates avoided him because he was bookish and nerdy. In the second time line, she was more involved with Richard. The movie doesn't show much of Richard at the reunion to discern which time line he experienced, which I believe was intentional.

So where I settle on this is that the writers of this film put in a scene where Michael Fitzsimmons, someone Peggy Sue hardly knew, would dedicate a book to her and describe their night together under the stars in the dedication. This shows me that the writers meant to tell us that she did travel back in time.