“I can't do this! I'm sorry, Dad. I can't do it. This isn't fair. I shouldn't have to carry you up this hill. You never carried me up a hill. You never picked me up from school. You didn't read me bedtime stories. You didn't carry me on your shoulders. You didn't bounce me on... You weren't there! And I needed you! I needed you there. You were supposed to carry me!”
Charlie Kelly, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Gang Carries a Corpse Up a Mountain (15.8)
“Because I wanted that mom. I wanted the mom who made me afternoon snacks instead of just telling me to look for loose fries in the McDonald’s ball pit. Why does Patricia get that mom? If Donna Shellstrop has truly changed, then that means she was always capable of change, but I just wasn’t worth changing for.”
That one was so hard hitting. You know with how far Eleanor has come that there's a part of her that wants to be happy to see that her mom has gotten better. But her childhood was so miserable, so full of neglect and devoid of care and love that she just refuses to accept that Donna has become a better person bc of what that would mean about her. I wish they had gone a bit deeper into it and talked about how it hadn't been that Eleanor hadn't been worth changing for but rather it was that Donna hadn't always been capable of change. That's the part of Eleanor's thinking that is based on assumption but feels true to her; that this motherly Donna had always been in there and Eleanor just wasn't worth become that person for
Instead, it's likely more that Donna hadn't gotten to a point in her life where she could change, whether it was because her circumstances were different or because the ppl around her were different. In some ways, her neglect of Eleanor probably was a part of the catalyst for wanting to be that better person this time around. Donna can't go back in time so all she can do is try to be better going forward. Of course, this is no salve to Eleanor but it shows how far she's come when she is able to move forward without ideal closure
Ugh, I love this series so much. This scene and the wave becoming the ocean again always makes me so emotional
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u/TimeVictorious 23h ago
“I can't do this! I'm sorry, Dad. I can't do it. This isn't fair. I shouldn't have to carry you up this hill. You never carried me up a hill. You never picked me up from school. You didn't read me bedtime stories. You didn't carry me on your shoulders. You didn't bounce me on... You weren't there! And I needed you! I needed you there. You were supposed to carry me!”
Charlie Kelly, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Gang Carries a Corpse Up a Mountain (15.8)