appreciation post for laurie barber because i see so many people hating on her and it makes me upset. i’ve honestly always identified with her character. y’all may think she’s annoying, but her character is so important to this story. i always felt that andy+

+was almost living in this fantasy and was so adamant that jacob couldn’t possibly do it that he refused to face the reality that he could have done it. i get it. it’s hard to admit that the person you raised would ever kill someone, and i think his father had a lot to do with+

+how he handled everything. he’s spent his entire life running away from his father and now his son is bringing back all the memories he tried to forget. he also is never very sympathetic to laurie’s feelings. he always shoots her down and invalidates her feelings.+

+laurie faced the reality that her son could be a killer early on. she chose the pessimistic mindset while andy chose the optimistic mindset. she even says “a mother knows her son” which isn’t to say that fathers don’t, but mothers have a much different connection with+

+their children than fathers do. the scene when andy and laurie talk to the psychologist about jacob’s childhood she brought up his violent behavior and andy dismisses it. yes, young boys play rough, but how many young boys think about chucking a bowling ball at+

+another kids head?? i don’t think she was being dramatic and trying to find behaviors that could explain how he could be guilty, i think she was just doing what most people would do when you hear something bad about someone. things start adding up in your brain to try to+

+make sense of it all.

this was a super long rant, but i wanted to speak my mind because i don’t see a lot of people sticking up for laurie. i’m not saying i choose her side over andy’s but i think it’s important to understand both sides of how they handled everything.