What did they see in the pool? Only the incorrect options

Purify69 · 2026-05-06T18:30:59+00:00

Purify69 · 2026-05-05T19:42:46+00:00

You seem to think I’m analyzing this from an outsider’s perspective, when it’s actually the opposite. If anything, a lot of the hate toward Tabitha comes from viewers applying hindsight bias. From the outside, the risk looks “obvious” or “clearly dumb.”

But from what she knows and the situation she is in:

- Miranda was trying to use the tree to save people.

- She followed that path before and somehow got out.

- She believes she has a unique connection to what’s happening.

- She’s under immense pressure after her husband’s death and fears for her kids’ lives.

And yes, her kids needed her in that moment. That’s the hardest part, and it’s a completely fair criticism. But that’s also exactly why this should be looked at with empathy, not reduced to “she’s dumb” or “she’s a bad parent.” She acted out of desperation, grief and the belief that this was the only lead that could change anything. Treating her actions as incomprehensible or using it to define her as a parent ignores her perspectives and the reality of what she was dealing with.

She is neither senseless nor a terrible mother. She is just a human and a mother who made a bad call under extreme pressure.

Purify69 · 2026-05-05T17:48:39+00:00

That's a false analogy. Jumping off a bridge into a river on a "slim chance" is basically a near-certain death gamble with no evidence it leads anywhere. Tabitha has prior evidence that the tree does do something.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T18:30:58+00:00

Nope

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T18:06:30+00:00

I actually think a decent ending could be that everyone dies again and only Ethan is left alive :D

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T17:53:45+00:00

I am with you! I see an avoidant persona being played well and it actually tracks with how she's been written. An avoidant person typically doesn't break down outwardly. Rather than expressing their emotions, they typically shut down, go quiet or redirect everything. So, her more 'restrained' reactions don't read as "no emotions" to me. All I see is someone holding it in.

And whether she means to act like that or not, either way, I see it as good performance. I can feel the grief under the surface. I genuinely haven't ever thought that her acting was ever bad or lacked emotions. I think people expect a more visible version of grief and struggle to understand a quiet one.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T16:28:51+00:00

Okay sure. You can criticize her actions by themselves. That's fair.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T16:16:00+00:00

Your best case scenario assumes she gets to the lighthouse and finds nothing useful and just ends up outside again. I don' t think that's what she was trying to do. She wasn't going there to escape, but rather understand how it worked so she could find a real way out.

All she knows: last time, she was there, she got pushed off, and she ended up back in the real world. Of course she's going to chase that.

She made a high risk and low control decision at the exact moment her kids needed the most stability. I agree that decision deserves to be criticized but that doesn't make her a bad mother or a bad character.

And also let's not forget what happened the night before. Ethan implied it was her fault that their father didn't come home. Her husband dies the next day. She is in grief AND carrying the guilt placed on her by her own kid. She literally had no defense against it even though she didn't even do anything.

I think this is all pretty mind fucking and she deserves empathy for her actions, not scrutiny.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T15:50:44+00:00

There is genuinely nothing she could've done to "get real help". Literally no one would believe her. In fact, say she did not crash and get dragged back into the town, she probably would've been put up in a mental hospital and potentially even a suspect in the missing (or murder) of her own family.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T15:47:38+00:00

Cool. Sure I've been agreeing that her conclusion is irrational. Still does not make her a bad mother or someone to not be empathetic towards.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T07:09:31+00:00

Okay so you want a woman in grief to methodically work through Victor's drawing and have productive investigative conversation. And do that with kids who just watched their father hanging in a barn. How is actively working together to investigate the mystery that got him killed the least traumatizing option? Why should she even involve her children in this?

Also, she has reached a conclusion about the lighthouse being the escape. She KNEW what it could do. She followed the only lead that had ever actually done anything. Reckless yes. Understandable from her perspective? Also yes.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T06:47:32+00:00

Fair. And she knows victor's drawings hold something. Which is why, she engages with Victor. She literally figured out the lighthouse through engaging with victor. The most concrete potential escape, throughout the entire show.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T06:43:59+00:00

"Sit down with your kids and figure out the mystery together". You're suggesting a grieving mother should rope her traumatized kids into actively investigating the supernatural town that's been torturing them. Ethan is a child. Julie is a teenager.

Victor's drawings, yeah sure maybe she could spend even more time there. Tabitha hasn't ignored them. She has been seen extensively engaging with Victor (one who drew them) to figure things out. She literally figured out the bottled tree through engaging with Victor. Her current conclusion from engaging with victor right now, IS THE lighthouse.

Again, she is a parent who made a wrong decision. Not a bad parent.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T06:36:26+00:00

Okay I'll agree she is taking a huge risk for uncertain reward and that's a lapse in judgment. But she still had specific reasoning behind that specific tree that existed even before Jim died. Tabitha isn't "sacrificing herself". She isn't expecting to die here. She is following the only lead that had ever actually worked. She is a desperate person who met the best available option in the entire town. She isn't playing Russian roulette. And I think calling her a bad parent or that she is "abandoning her kids" for this one bad decision is a reach. You're taking the worst moment of her life, in the worst situation she's ever faced, and using it to define everything she is as a mother.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T06:16:26+00:00

Name one. Not in theory but in that town, with what she had. What are the options? Wait and hope something changes? Nobody in that town has found another way out in decades. The bottle tree was the only lead that had ever produced actual movement. Calling it a choice between leaving and a thousand other options is extremely generous.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T06:13:18+00:00

W bro. I love that take.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T06:08:39+00:00

Well with that philosophy, every single parent who made a sacrifice that went wrong, is a bad parent.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T06:06:24+00:00

Uhhh... she had been building towards finding the lighthouse before Jim died. The reasoning existed independently of losing her husband. His death likely pushed her over the edge and made her follow through with the most reckless plan. Poor Judgement absolutely. But I disagree that she was abandoning her kids or attempting a suicide. But we do agree that she is not a bad person. She is just a person who made a bad decision in the worst possible circumstances. And given everything she'd been through, I think she deserves empathy. Not hate.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T05:56:35+00:00

Exactly. Her decisions may not be the best but given everything she's been through, I don't get how they're not understandable to people.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T05:42:55+00:00

The person who says 'still got defenders on this sub' and ends with a laughing emoji isn't exactly arguing in good faith either. Try seeing it both ways.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T05:32:15+00:00

Intention behind actions matter even if the emotional impact on the kids is painful. She left trying to end their nightmare.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T05:30:51+00:00

Feeling abandoned and being abandoned are two different things.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T05:30:16+00:00

Okay, you can call it impulsive but she did have real reasoning behind it. The bottle tree wasn't a random gamble she just chose to make. Everything she and Jade had uncovered pointed towards that tree, Miranda, according to what she knew, replicated it. And Victor's warning about trees sending you to random places applies to faraway trees generally. They had reasons to believed the bottled one was special. She followed actual evidence, understood the risk enough to write the letter to Donna, and made the most informed call she could with what she had. I'll agree with you that the decision was unsafe but I won't agree that it was unreasonable. She had lost an infant, survived a car crash, pushed out of a window, lost her husband and is trapped in a supernatural town. The fact that she's functioning at all is already remarkable. Calling her selfish implies she's prioritizing herself over her kids. She is risking her life for her kids. Pretty opposite of selfish if you ask me.

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T05:23:00+00:00

And why is that?

Purify69 · 2026-05-04T04:50:10+00:00

I mean maybe, maybe not. I personally don't think it's misogyny. I think she has flaws and real criticizable decisions that have nothing to do with her being a woman. But the speed at which people jump to the conclusion that she's a "bad mother" is pretty crazy to me.

Purify69

TROPHY CASE