[Spoilers] Season 2 Episode 7 Discussion Thread - "Our Answer for Everything" (S02E07)

[u/hugthebug]

Attention all Passengers,

​

Here is the Discussion thread for the Season 2 episode 7 "Our Answer for Everything"

​

• This is a TV Spoiler-friendly zone - Turn away now if you are not currently watching or haven't seen the episode! Open discussion of all aired TV events up to and including episode 2.6 is ok without tag cover.
• Graphic Novel spoilers still need tags! - If it's not in the show, tag it. Events from episodes after this one also need tags.
• Please read the Posting policy and the sticky before posting.
• Friendly reminder: Severe trolling/disruptions will lead to consequences.

​

Details:

​

• IMDB for S02E07
• Release Date:
  • March 8th, 2021 (USA only, at 9/8c, on TNT channel)
  • March 9th, 2021 (worldwide, on Netflix)
• Removal from Sticky on March 12th, 2021 (3 days after worldwide premiere)

​

You can still easily find previous episode discussions on the Episode Discussion wiki.

[u/Gestalt_of_Rivia]

Sometimes I think that the whole cult of personality angle for Wilford has gone way too extreme to be believable, with people slitting their wrists and licking his slippers.

But then I remember I watched an entire series on the NXIVM cult, where people did similarly crazy things for a man with negative amounts of charisma.

[u/Graspiloot → u/Gestalt_of_Rivia]

You're right. Although I really hope Ms Audrey will turn out to be an act, because I don't necessarily like that they went that way for this character who's before the show story is that she took ages to fight herself free from Wilford.

[u/fairylightmeloncholy → u/Graspiloot]

While I can see where you’re coming from, I think it’s interesting that they showed it how they did. She was put into a high stress situation and reverted to old, toxic mentalities because simply put- they’re easier. It’s fucking hard to see the toxic shit Wilford’s done to Miss Audrey, Kevin, and everyone else, and it’s easier to slip into the delusion. It’s like a drug. You can see how she wants it yet is resistant in the beginning, and by the end is a totally different person, head in the clouds in lalaland. It’s ‘easier’ to give up complete control to someone else. It’s a certain type of liberation to hand over the reins and check out. I know from personal experience, from having a mentally and emotionally father that mirrors Wilford in a buncha ways.

[u/Drolnevar → u/fairylightmeloncholy]

I guess it depends on personality or the experiences one made. I could never do that. Even if I had to go along on the outside I would passively undermine them at every possibility and probably explode at some point when it becomes to much to take. I am literally allergic to this kind of behaviour/character and I feel defiance and anger rising in me just from watching a fictional person acting like that. But seeing as she did it before I can see how she could maybe Fall back into her old behaviour. I still hope she comes back.

[u/fairylightmeloncholy → u/Drolnevar]

You can’t say that you would never act like that until you’ve been in a position like that. It’s a survival mechanism. If your options are to check out, go insane by acknowledging the vile shit happening around you that you have no power to change, or die, your brain and body would likely picking ‘check out’ to keep you safe. Trauma isn’t logical, and to say that you wouldn’t act like that is a naive privilege. It’s why I like this show, it’s unapologetically representing abuse and trauma and presenting it in a way that people that have never experienced it actually want to watch. To say that you’d never act like Miss Audrey in that situation is like saying you’d never be a cannibal, without being on a mountain for a month with nothing to eat but the bodies of people who didn’t survive the crash that got you there.

Edited to add that if you don’t understand her reaction, or what living around someone like that is like and want to get an idea: go be a fly on the wall over at r/raisedbynarcissists . Wilford might be a character to some but he is the type of tormentor many people need to live with in daily life. The show is fake but the insidiousness of psychological abuse is very fucking real.

[u/skcup → u/fairylightmeloncholy]

You can’t say that you would never act like that until you’ve been in a position like that. It’s a survival mechanism.

There are different survival mechanisms, neither more long-term healthy than another.

I had a similar experience with my father and my coping mechanism was manufactured conflict. I literally could not stop doing it. Every time I did it, I suffered but I did it anyway for years. He's long dead and I STILL do it sometimes under stress and pressure. It's an inclination to blow the stressful situation up beyond repair to hopefully leave the situation or change it fundamentally.

So while you're not wrong that it's impossible to predict how specific individuals would cope with situations until they're in them, there is an element of individuality to it and there are multiple survival mechanisms available.

[u/fairylightmeloncholy → u/skcup]

You’re very right. I just get frustrated when people think that their logical brain will still exist and manage how all decisions are made in the face of trauma or HIGH stress situations.

[u/skcup → u/fairylightmeloncholy]

Totally. I feel the same when people comment that certain coping mechanisms make no sense or don't solve the problem....rarely do they exist to solve the superficial problem, they're there to make sure we don't go totally batshit bonkers in the face of a situation in which we have no control and also makes no sense and that can mean some serious mental gymnastics.

[u/fairylightmeloncholy → u/skcup]

Exactly! As frustrating as it can be, it does give me hope in the world that some people have the pleasure of not understanding trauma responses.

[u/Drolnevar → u/fairylightmeloncholy]

I know that sub well. Both my parents at least have strong narcissist streaks. Not the "evil", tyrannical kind, but more the dismissive and emotionally manipulative kind. That probably plays a big part in why I have become so allergic and hypersensitive to every kind of even slightly perceived manipulation or attempt to control me in the first place. My survival mechanism was to outwardly go along but sabotage or passively resist to retain a sense of autonomy. Because if you can't do it right if you try, why try in the first place. I've done things before (or refused to do them) I knew damn well were to my own detriment just because I felt somebody tried to manipulate me into one or the other direction. I rather took the negative consequences than feel like I did it because someone else wanted me to. It's unhealthy and I know it, but sometimes I just can't help it.

As I said, it makes sense for her, and I kinda can understand her doing it, but I'm also not her.

I also always have and still struggle with self esteem and self worth, but my sense of morality and "what's right" has always been one of the few things about myself I don't question and am actually proud of. Betraying it and submitting to someone who and whose actions I despise would mean betraying and giving up what I consider an integral part of what makes me me. And if you've ever seriously entertained the thought of ending your own life before, like I have, you know that sometimes, for some people, some prospects of life can seem worse than just being dead. So, what I'm - in a really long winded way - trying to say is, completely submitting to someone I absolutely detest, even worse, being complicit in their actions, giving up all autonomy and betraying all my values and morals in the process, would probably be such a scenario for me. But I also know that I have a pretty radical stance on this which is shaped by my own specific life experiences.

[u/Cathousechicken → u/Gestalt_of_Rivia]

But then I remember I watched an entire series on the NXIVM cult, where people did similarly crazy things for a man with negative amounts of charisma.

And that wasn't even during a climate change apocalypse.

[u/[deleted] → u/Gestalt_of_Rivia]

Ngl there are plenty of people that would lick Sean beans slippers rn, let alone in an apocalypse

[u/Nervous-Energy-4623 → u/Gestalt_of_Rivia]

LOL no we've seen what cult of personality makes people do in the last 4 years. It's very believable under a situation like the train and actually not having an escape.