Why was she always upset at Tommy? I get it he was a drunk, but he
1. Didn't cheat on her while they were married (as far as I remember)
2. He never hit her
3. He never hit his kids
4. He always paid the bills
For a drunk, he was able to provide a pretty comfortable life and all she ever did was complain. Many drunks don't do any of 1-4 above and then I could see her attitude.
What am I missing?
Quite honestly, she was just a bitch. One of those women you can't win for losing with. Never satisfied, never happy, can't please. (But, I do believe the trouble really started on 9/11.)
I guess by always either being at work or being drunk, she had to carry the load of a family herself. That I can see -- partly. But even if he would have been around to help out, the above paragragh still applies. LOL.
What I thought was funny was that he left her and moved directly across the street. Talk about too close for comfort, eh?
Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...share
I agree, she is an intolerable bitch. She, and that awful Nancy Botwin on "weeds" are amongst the most hateful female tv characters ever.
Her being such an awful person makes Tommy Gavin a very romantic character. He loves her too deeply and so needs her too much to actually move on when she throws him out that he actually moves across the street.
I was so disappointed that in the end he went back to her, even though she hadn't changed at all.
That's often the way it is in real life, though, the men who love deeply love the wrong women.
That's an apt description and I think she's a very similar character to Skyler White.
Ashara: http://i.imgur.com/cxv0bpL.gif?1
She's also one of those "I wanna stay home with the kids, so you work your azz off on however many jobs it takes to make it in NYC - then I'll bitch and complain because you're never home. I'll also use the same excuse to neglect said kids when I start having affairs" women. Seen plenty of those before and after 9/11, ya'll.
shareTommy is an emotionally devoid *beep* sober. He's just a much bigger one when he's drunk.
shareI totally agree, I always wondered about this, & was confused with her actions throughout the show.
Like for example, after Connor died, she hugged him in the hospital when doctors were unable to save him, then she slaps him a split second later.
I think she was just a b*tch. Either that, or she was bipolar. My only 2 theories as to why she was always like this. & yeah Tommy had a lot of anger, but like you mentioned, he never hit her, hit the kids, & always fully supported & cared about them as well. Puzzling.
Yea I didn't get her anger at him over Connor. I get she'd be upset, but it wasn't his fault. He can't possible watch him 100% of the time. Accidents happen every day. It's very sad, especially that it was his only son at that time.
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I think her anger came from him waiting for the ambulance instead of taking him right away -- so she blamed him for the time lapse in getting him to the hospital. but being a fireman, he would have known bettr than to move him after he was hit by a car like that. Anyone feel free to correct me on this as it's been a while since I saw this show. (plus, wasn't he working on the car anyway?)
I think she was blaming herself and projecting it towards him. Not only was she a royal bitch, but a royal UNPREDICTABLE bitch.
Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...share
@depaul, Agreed.
@moosefeathers, Tommy never waited for an ambulance, maybe you are forgetting the plot of the episode but basically what happened was. Connor disappears, Tommy sees a guy give him a puzzled look & drive away, Tommy goes to where the guy stopped at the side of the road (where he gave him the puzzled look at), finds Connor all mushed up, picks him up with blood all over him, puts him in the truck with Janet & drives to the hospital. I think she was just more so a whirl of emotions at that point of time in which she slapped him, but I still think it was uncalled for, seeing as how it wasn't his fault, not to mention that she JUST hugged him a split second ago in the same scene.
You need to watch it again. He didn't wait for the ambulance..he got his son right into the truck and sped to the hospital. The wife was just a horror...the kind of person who is never satisfied
shareShe was pissed at him because she blamed him for not watching Connor at the time he was killed. In her mind, if Tommy had been supervising Connor better, he might not have been hit by the car.
shareShe's just hateful and spiteful. Tommy didn't do every single thing she demanded so she gave him sh*t constantly.
Daggett: I've paid you a small fortune!share
Bane: And this gives you power over me?
I am pretty sure they address this in the last season. It was because after 9/11 she needed him too, and was suffering. But he was comforting Sheila instead of her. She knew Jimmy just as long.
shareFirst off... i think that she is angry and resentful towards him due to the years of drinking. she has heard the "im going to get sober... going to AA" for years. It is always a disappointment. He RAPED her.. and they only talked about it once after that. I really had a problem with that... cause they WERE physically fighting then he started ripping her clothes off while she was still fighting him. By the time he was done, she did appear to enjoy it... but it started as rape---anyway u put it. So he is just as much as a jerk as she is a witch.
another thing is that he was very mentally abusive---he moved across the street as a control factor. when she said she wanted to move away with roger he threatened her. when she moved to ohio, he hunted her down. she felt that there was no escape. She even told angie, "i respected you because u got away from this neighborhood and i never could". She felt trapped, and she blamed tommy for it.
but HE was a jerk.
To be honest there is hardly a person in this show that is worth the powder to blow them to hell. Really a bunch of corrupt idiots in a show that is way too much about sex. A show without a moral center and that is the problem. There has to be somebody normal you can admire.
I hate Janet because she is a lazy witch not because i give a damn about Tommy.
Good points RainyDal. I loved the show, I really did. The writing DID have a bit of a misogynistic aspect to it. Really, the way both of the women were written...lacked a lot of depth. The crazy volatile b*tch vs the ice queen b*tch. The writers didn't give Janet any depth. I disliked her character very much as well. She had little, if any redeeming qualities. But Tommy certainly was a control freak and had rage issues as well too. Thanks for pointing out those particular scenes...
I think the show was supposed to be for men. As a female some episodes were definitely cringe worthy, but that is real life. That's why I liked it so much.
shareI couldn't stand her. What a horrible, horrible character. There was rarely respite from the nagging, the hypocrisy, the unreasonable with her.
shareWhy don't more women object to such a sexist show? Can't get a more sexist scene than a woman being raped but liking it in the end.
I don't know. I am a woman and I couldn't stand the way she treated him and he was definitely a jerk but come on......
"Daddy! He's killed Steve and he's jamming the door with him!"
I absolutely hated her character. She almost made the show unwatchable. As a person, she was not likable enough to create any sympathy for herself when it came to Tommy. She was just as self centered as him. She expected him to support her without her working, she couldn't NOT be sleeping with another man, she said terrible things about him to his kids, she said horrible things to him ("I want this baby to replace what I lost...and you kind of lost"? WTF!?).
Bottom line she was a c%&t and it kind of ruined the show that he never dropped her ass for good.
Tommy in addition to being a alcoholic was a bit of a rageaholic, especially when he drank. He'd seemingly start fights with her for no reason, all in all his primary emotions were anger and bitterness (though to be fair if I had gone through what he went through I'd be like that as well) and I get the feeling that the manipulations and mindgames between the two of them started well before they split in season one. Though to be fair, she was a bit of a bitch.
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