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Ordeal By Motor Boat: a proposal.
Aug. 25th, 2019 07:27 amThe interesting thing about the boat ride is that for some reason, the MacRaes get slightly better at trying to disrupt Martha and Mike's relationship than Elly ever does. They screen mail in order to intercept letters from That Boy. They won't let her waste money calling That Boy long distance. They probably even tell her to her face that they liked the Poirier boy a lot better because he spoke to them like they were people and didn't try to grope her right in front of them like that dreadful little oik with the slicked-up hair. This is probably because something is happening right in front of Mike that he's too stupid to see: Fred, Harriet and Stan staged a break-down and an argument to see how Mike would react under pressure.
They got their first hint that they might need to do this when his reaction to being asked what his intentions were was to agitatedly fiddle with the door latch in order to escape instead of, you know, speaking to them like people. Next, comes the listening test. Lawrence probably knew going in that Stan existed because he paid attention to the sounds Martha was making instead of staring a thousand miles away and picturing her as being Bargain Bucket Laura Ingalls or something like that there. Mike stood around like a moron and got called one while Lawrence introduced himself. Mike sat there like a lump during a crisis because his mind was only on one thing. Mike didn't take ribbing with grace. Mike is a jerk. Martha needs him like a hole in the head. She doesn't realize this yet. She needs saving from herself.
This is why they deploy a communications barrier between her and that irritating, slug-like nitwit. This is why they are vaguely glad that they gave her the talk because even if she does something stupid, it won't mess up her life. I also think that this is why they encourage her to dress slightly more provocatively than she usually does in order to manipulate his idiot parents into telling him "I don't like the way that girl dresses so I don't want you seeing her." Since he's a Patterson, he's blind to the possibility that he's been measured and found wanting.
They got their first hint that they might need to do this when his reaction to being asked what his intentions were was to agitatedly fiddle with the door latch in order to escape instead of, you know, speaking to them like people. Next, comes the listening test. Lawrence probably knew going in that Stan existed because he paid attention to the sounds Martha was making instead of staring a thousand miles away and picturing her as being Bargain Bucket Laura Ingalls or something like that there. Mike stood around like a moron and got called one while Lawrence introduced himself. Mike sat there like a lump during a crisis because his mind was only on one thing. Mike didn't take ribbing with grace. Mike is a jerk. Martha needs him like a hole in the head. She doesn't realize this yet. She needs saving from herself.
This is why they deploy a communications barrier between her and that irritating, slug-like nitwit. This is why they are vaguely glad that they gave her the talk because even if she does something stupid, it won't mess up her life. I also think that this is why they encourage her to dress slightly more provocatively than she usually does in order to manipulate his idiot parents into telling him "I don't like the way that girl dresses so I don't want you seeing her." Since he's a Patterson, he's blind to the possibility that he's been measured and found wanting.
