Posted by moonbasegirl on
URL: https://www.shado-forum.com/just-joined-tp1506806p1506848.html

--- In [hidden email], "jeanster911" <jeanster911@y...> wrote:

> Maybe I'm the only one who wondered why Mary never acknowledged her
> part of the blame for poor little John's tragic fatal accident.
> After all,if she had allowed Ed to stay to see what little John
> wanted to show him (the boat) instead of sending him away, then the
> little tyke wouldn't have run out into the road like that.
>
> Guess it was easier for her to blame Ed.


I'd always thought she allowed Johnny to run after him in the hopes
that Straker would stop and be able to see the boat, but fate
intervened. What were the chances of a speeding motorist in a quiet
country lane like that, although they went to the trouble of having a
car slow and 'bib'their horn at Straker just previously, to
illustrate the danger.

Getting into Mary's psyche here, by not stopping Johnny, she saw an
opportunity to absolve herself of any bad feeling from both Straker
and Johnny in sending him away, only done to minimise any grief for
herself from Rutland. It seems to me that she holds Rutland
responsible for the accident, judging by her dismissive attitude of
him at the hospital, because it was her fear of upsetting him that
caused her to make a poor decision in the first place. Certainly
both men are too gentlemanly to point out her error in mothering
skills, perhaps because they silently admit they put her in that
position in the first place. Furthermore, all of them are in severe
shock and quite frankly hardly in a position to make sound judgements
about anything, hence Straker's appaulingly bad decision-making
throughout the episode.

Ultimately though, Mary holds Straker responsible for Johnny's death
because he failed to get the drug there in time, by this point it's
irrelevant why or how the accident happened. Imagine the opposite
scenario - drug arrives and Johnny lives? Straker was on a hiding to
nothing on this in trusting his own judgement. I dearly wish he'd
told Alec!!

I love that whole scene outside the house; it conveys so much
information about the family dynamics in so short a time! Extremely
well-acted by all.

Sarah (UK)