That's it....

[Frances Farmer]

I just finished the 19th episode. I can't take it, it cant be over!!!! It has I guess a sort of poetic end, unfinished, but not leaving things necessarily hanging. I just wish I knew what happened with reyenne, and ricky, and jorday, and my man krakow, and of course angela, I guess it will just be in my own imagination. It will take a while to recover, I almost wish I didn't watch it, cause it is so sad that it's unfinished.

[Natalija]

Hi,I'm from Croatia and I watched the Mscl reruns on HTV.The show is excellent,realistic which is more than I can say for most of the shows nowadays.And I can't help it I'm a big Angela&Jordan fan.

But the thing that bothers me is Graham's and Patty's relationship and marriage.Most of you say( in topics like Graham&Patty suck etc..) that they have a good thing going there.But it really doesn't look like it.I mean,would you want to have a marriage like that?
First of,Graham is thinking about having an affair with a girl in her twenties.As far as we now she could be his dauhter( age wise).I could be just an old fashioned Croatian person, but that's pretty sleezy if you ask me.And later Hallie.I'm just saying if you really love someone, you don't go around thinking about somebody else all the time.Not the mention their lack of communication.And the fact that Patty was his boss is pretty unthinkable(I think that's the word) from where I'm standing.

Anyway,the show is great,my favourite adult is Camille.Se's just so free-spirited,happy about herself and that's all that matters.Well that and having a roof over your head.
Bok iz Zagreba

[DarkApprentice]

I think Graham and Patty have severe, yet unpronounced, problems in their marriage, especially in areas that pertain to communication. Patty is what you would term a "control-freak". She demands (more or less) information about everything that goes on in the lives of the rest of the family. Angela, Graham and even Danielle are all greatly impeded by her frequent hassle. Patty often resorts to criticism and tends to judge people before really knowing them or the situation they are in [Rayanne].

[truncated excerpt from "Other people's daughters"]
Angela : Doing what's right? We're having a party for someone who isn't here. I'm missing Rayanne's party because...
Patty : Rayanne is not your best friend
Angela : Mom, she is so my best friend. I'm sorry you hate her.
Patty : Oh, well I apologize deeply that our house can not measure up to the joy of being at Amber's where your friend Rickie can guzzle beer a..and that that Amber woman reads your tea leaves
Angela : Oh, just stop it! Rickie doesn't even drink. Just stop being so hypocritical! You hated her on sight just...admit it.
Patty : All right, I admit it. I don't like her. I don't think that she's the right friend for you. [Angela leaves]
[/truncated]

This is a classic example of a Patty/Angela conversation. Angela wants to go hang out with her friends (as do all 15 yrs old). At that age, you often define yourself by way of your friends and you have this desire to extend your social circle beyond your family. You are about to discover the world and want to cut loose from the grip of your parents. But mothers (more so than fathers, I think) usually have difficulty letting go, because they still consider their son/daughter too young to really cope (and later in the ep. we'll see that they certainly are). This, IMHO, is Patty's huge dilemma and her greatest failing. She wants control, and if she could, she would gladly choose Angela's friends for her, perhaps without even asking for Angela's approval.

I can understand why she behaves like that toward Angela, at least to some degree. What I can't figure, is why she behaves in almost the same way around Graham. She hardly ever supports him. What Graham finds so attractive about Hallie is that she puts faith in him, as opposed to Patty who f. instance finds it very hard to believe that he can put up wall-paper (Life of Brian) or just basically do anything. Hallie is totally supportive. In fact, she wanted Graham to cook and partake in the restaurant-business (which was her idea) and she found an ingenious way to convince Graham. Graham realized that Hallie really really believed in him. What emotions that must have aroused in him! A feeling surely long missed...a feeling he has rarely, if ever, received from Patty...

Graham is partly to blame too. He has problems opening up to Patty and telling her things. This subject has been brought up before in the forum. Graham has "a tendency to shut people out" or denying ready access to how he feels and thinks. If he opened up more to Patty, she would have been able to interpret him better and understand his needs. I think she would have found a way to be more loving and supportive.

[Hunee]

yeah but the way they left it is so you can make up what you want so you can feel validated... I mean we can never know what would happen unless Winnie would tell us because she is the only one who could ever make it the truth... but you can take the show where you want and you can create the characters the way you feel will fit with the way you processed the show...

[Natasha (candygirl)]

Well, Winnie Holzman did actually share her thoughts on what would have happened in the second season during a Q&A session at UC Berkeley. You can read about it here. One of the great things about MSCL fans is that they are so creative - there is a great collection of episode 20s in the fanfic section here!

[Hunee]

yeah I read the q and a thing but i mean for some people its more of an in depth look rather then one sentence... I mean if sharon got pregnant then what would she do... would she tell her parents... would people treat her differently... and with patty and graham how severe would the depression go... how would it impact angela with her mother... with her fater... with her friends... how would danielle act? I mean when I said that about winnie I was talking about pages and pages of info... but thats only me... some people are just satisfied with knowing sharon got pregnant but I would want to know the out come of it all

[Natasha (candygirl)]

During the BF interview, Winnie says that she and the writers were going with the flow - even with the first season they did not plan all the story arcs and character development from day one, so what little information she has given us about what she wanted for season two is all that exists. The way the show ended is perfect because everyone thinks they know what happened (depending on whether they like Jordan or Brian) so they can imagine their version of a Happy Ending (unlike many shows which have crappy series finales and end up disappointing the fans).