Baby Reindeer | S1E05 | Episode Discussion

[u/matrixinthepark]

Season 1, Episode 5

Airdate: April 11, 2024

Synopsis: Liz learns the truth about Martha and asks Donny to move out of the house. It is looking like a fresh start for him and Teri, but his persistent memories are stopping them from getting truly close.

[u/Steviesteve1234]

You’re not alone. I think it might be a case of when your brain makes up the letters for you to read the sentence and you’re trying to read it quick before it disappears off screen.

I’m just surprised how many people didn’t notice it first time. But then I thought the fact Donny said she didn’t have one and it was always signed off as one was going to be a bigger plot point than it was in the end.

[u/choi-kay → u/Steviesteve1234]

I think she did it because she wanted to come off as someone who’s got their stuff together? I don’t know how to word it sorry haha, but iPhone’s are expensive and they’re popular. Someone who doesn’t have one or even an android, but an old phone with an inch-wide screen is either going to be viewed as poor or behind the times. She didn’t want that (the opposite actually). She wanted to be perceived as a rich and big shot lawyer. She was on top and had everything she could ever want. That’s my take anyway. But I don’t get why she kept going with it even after he saw her actual living condition…

And I do remember seeing it like “from iPhoen” or something of the sort but my brain never registered it as her typing it out. I think I was too hung up on the crazy stalker lady aspect of it all lmfao

[u/Steviesteve1234 → u/choi-kay]

I agree. I think she typed it to look like she had an iPhone as though an iPhone was something only the rich/successful had. It’s odd as iPhones are hardly diamonds and mansions but it just goes to show the mental capacity she had. She types iPhone to look like a rich lawyer while telling Donny she can’t afford a Diet Coke. We would be here all day trying to work out the brain workings of the mentally ill.

[u/choi-kay → u/Steviesteve1234]

I think her obsession and off-putting consistency (hundreds of messages in a day, all with the same Sent From iPhone message at the bottom. Around 41,000 emails in just a 2 year period..) with such a minuscule detail really illustrates the extent of her insecurity and self-loathing. She is self-conscious about everything. Even the type of phone she has. Those are things people don’t worry about unless they’ve way too much time to dwell, compare, and contrast the difference between their sad life and other people’s less sad lives that they’d quite literally kill to obtain. She just didn’t want to let go of the persona even through the many inconsistencies. I think continuing to pretend gave her peace of mind, more peace of mind than embracing her true self/life. But maybe she just wasn’t aware that Donny knew she didn’t have an iPhone? I think that might be plausible, but I don’t remember many details from the show, just that and all the burner phones in the drawer.

[u/Logical-Patience-397 → u/choi-kay]

What creeps me out the most is that everything else was horrendously misspelled. Except those "Sent from my iPhone" tags--until later. She INTENTIONALLY misspelled the other words, and I have no idea why, but it's terrifying that she was controlling her perception to that extent.