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Of course, the problem Elly had with playing family politics with Phil is that he defied expectations and ruined her life forever by not being as miserable, lost and confused as she was. It would have hurt worse if he and Georgia had decided to have kids and done a better job of it than she did but the pain of his being glad to be alive when he woke up still gnaws at her. This is because Elly simply cannot understand that his being basically an optimistic guy who only acts out when he's being wound up by her or set up to fail by her is an inherent property of his that gets in the way of her enjoying life to the fullest by being a vindictive old cow hung up on the dead past.
The reason that I mention this is that Elly used to by like seventy percent of Canadian homeowners in that she mistakenly believed that the Pattermanse was insured against flood damage. She learned that this was not the case when Michael developed a sudden case of recto-cranial inversion and forgot to check the sump pump that keeps the basement from getting flooded when it rains. When told that most of the problem was owing to the collective stupidity of the family, Elly didn't handle it well. She handled it even less well when told that no, the homeowner's insurance doesn't cover overland flooding. We are perhaps fortunate that we did not bear witness to her insurance agent admitting that while he did sympathize with her plight, Canadian insurance companies had decided that without proper data on flooding, the cost to both them AND the homeowner would simply be too prohibitive to make it feasible.
This, I should think, is because Elly does not like to be told that certain difficulties in life are inherent in the system and were not designed to make her life worse. The same woman who stands around bleating about how unfair and wrong it is that Farley will never understand English no matter how much she pleads, whines or shouts simply cannot wrap her head around the idea that the cost to her and the insurance company she's screaming about would be insanely prohibitive because she doesn't want to live in a world where she can't shout her way to victory. Admitting that nothing can be done about a problem no matter how loudly she shrieks leads directly to the other thing she doesn't want to admit: the people at AlteredState aren't trying to destroy her because they hate her. Living in a world where they feel bad but can't do anything is a bad thing that is bad because she doesn't even get to fight in the first place. If she admitted that, she'd have to do something scary and wrong and admit she's not the only person who can make good-faith errors,
The reason that I mention this is that Elly used to by like seventy percent of Canadian homeowners in that she mistakenly believed that the Pattermanse was insured against flood damage. She learned that this was not the case when Michael developed a sudden case of recto-cranial inversion and forgot to check the sump pump that keeps the basement from getting flooded when it rains. When told that most of the problem was owing to the collective stupidity of the family, Elly didn't handle it well. She handled it even less well when told that no, the homeowner's insurance doesn't cover overland flooding. We are perhaps fortunate that we did not bear witness to her insurance agent admitting that while he did sympathize with her plight, Canadian insurance companies had decided that without proper data on flooding, the cost to both them AND the homeowner would simply be too prohibitive to make it feasible.
This, I should think, is because Elly does not like to be told that certain difficulties in life are inherent in the system and were not designed to make her life worse. The same woman who stands around bleating about how unfair and wrong it is that Farley will never understand English no matter how much she pleads, whines or shouts simply cannot wrap her head around the idea that the cost to her and the insurance company she's screaming about would be insanely prohibitive because she doesn't want to live in a world where she can't shout her way to victory. Admitting that nothing can be done about a problem no matter how loudly she shrieks leads directly to the other thing she doesn't want to admit: the people at AlteredState aren't trying to destroy her because they hate her. Living in a world where they feel bad but can't do anything is a bad thing that is bad because she doesn't even get to fight in the first place. If she admitted that, she'd have to do something scary and wrong and admit she's not the only person who can make good-faith errors,
