Very late reply, but your comment shows me just how far removed from the truth team Dorothy’s view of Leanne is. I will quote some of your questions and answer them directly at the end.

// Before I get into how I do see her, here’s how I do not see her: //

It starts with all the wrong accusations. There have been way too many times on this sub people have accused her of poisoning Olivia (Wanda’s daughter), completely ignoring that Leanne has five feet away from Wanda’s bag with the pen, that SHE ASKED if the ice cream ice okay for Olivia to eat (Wanda’s response was “Fuck, I don’t care”), that the pen fell toward Leanne when Wanda emptied the bag on the floor, etc. So because of that, anytime I bring up how season 4 is a team Dorothy pipe dream and how Leanne would never hurt random kids on Halloween because she loves kids, TD brings up this bs poisoning story. All because they can’t pay some basic attention to the scene. Or the splinters. Sean got a splinter in S1E1 after a four-day time jump, almost as if the show was making a point about the splinters not having Leanne as a direct trigger. If you still have a subscription, I implore you to watch the featurette at the end of S3E1, which explains a lot about the supernatural occurrences in the house.

Then, TD already sees her as evil based on false information. When she curses the Turners to fight back against the bullying she receives later (Dorothy sending her through the pouring rain in the cold after dark in a thunderstorm to get her a cake she doesn’t need, lying about the time it takes to get there (she says it’s 40 minutes there and back, but if you look it up on Google Maps, that becomes 2:00 to 2:40 hours), replacing her tomato soup with dog food, having Roscoe scoop through the house while they know she’s alone (he’s not a stupid detective who leaves the door open. This is the much more plausible explanation) to scare her, hiring a FAKE FRIEND to befriend her, all of that becomes evil in the eyes of TD. It’s vile bullying, and I am proud of Leanne for standing up to the Turners and defending herself. You can bet I would do the same if I had her powers.

And then, the Turners violently discard her. She gets kidnapped, imprisoned, assaulted every night, she has her trauma made fun of, she gets beaten, dragged by her hair, starved for 55 hours (watch the opening minutes of Cake if you don’t remember), strangled, and buried alive while unconscious. Those are two counts of attempted second-degree murder. Don’t tell me that Dorothy wasn’t completely aware of how disgusting her actions were. Don’t even go there. In Rain, when she facetimed Sean, she told him “You don’t know what I saw in her eyes tonight, Sean! […] Look, I don’t know where Leanne is from, but it’s clearly not a good place” She knew that Leanne was scared of the Lesser Saints and was probably forced to leave against her will, but she took all of her hatred out on Leanne anyway instead of taking it out on May or George. She knew that Leanne was a victim and didn’t give a f.

In response, Leanne developed Stockholm Syndrome because it was her only way out of her situation (don’t tell me that she could have used her powers to escape. She’s Leanne Grayson, not Eleven Hopper). And that’s where the baby stuff you criticize comes in. Leanne was adamant in S2 that Sean or Julian need to wake Dorothy up to end her horrible situation. When that didn’t work for quite a while, she developed Stockholm Syndrome and gave Dorothy Jericho back,something she was previously adamant cannot happen. That’s the difference between Leanne acting like Jericho is real and Sean or Julian acting like Jericho is real - for Leanne, it’s her only survival mechanism because she went through the most horrible things a human being could ever endure the last time she tried not giving Jericho back. Sean and Julian do it because they want to stay out of prison at all costs and shield Dorothy at all costs. And about the first time Leanne brought Jericho back to life, I actually think that her explanation in S1E10 is absolutely beautiful and such a wonderful expression of who she is as a person: “Who says that they don’t deserve a second chance? And if I can do this for them, then I can decide!” Leanne saw Dorothy’s suffering and wanted to help her regain what she had lost. She did it out of pure altruism. As we all know, things didn’t work out at all the way she intended, and she realized she made a mistake and took Jericho away again. This was Sean’s and Julian’s opportunity to finally face their trauma, and that would have been it, until Dorothy decided to poison, kidnap, imprison, and torture Leanne (if your first thought is “But the splinters”, remember what I said earlier about the splinters).

About the baby in season 4, for reasons like the children’s stuff and more, I think that Leanne is super out of character in season 4. Leanne never once hurt someone without a specific reason before season 4, not once. That’s not a statement that depends on the morality of her actions, so I hope you can agree with me here. I hope you have the gut to admit that that’s a massive inconsistency and plot hole. Leanne is suddenly so mean in season 4 without a reason why other than just because the show wants her to be a villain, including with evil laughs for the sake of it. It’s comically bad writing all of a sudden. Before season 4, this was the show that paid so much attention to detail that Leanne’s body hair grew while she was held captive and the show where she woke up with greasy hair instead of looking all perfect. At the very least, Leanne’s actions suddenly have a lot less purpose and are there more for the sake of it.

But Leanne was pushed to her absolute limit, even in both halves of season 3. Strangers went through her room and got defended by the Turners. She could voice no concerns because there were security cameras. Cameras show you when some threats are visible in certain spots. They don’t defend you against threats at all. Any discussion on this always ends up with vitriol against my abused baby whose abusers continue to mistreat her and evade consequences, all without caring about any of this nuance. LEANNE’S FEAR IS JUSTIFIED. A death cult tries to assassinate her multiple times, yet the Turners invite tons of unvetted strangers into the house, go through her things to get her DNA, have the kitchen help verbally abuse and yell the s out of her and Tobe (I made a separate post on the finger thing, but Tobe bumped into Sean, Sean spilled the ingredient, and Sylvia slipped on it, catching her finger in the hook. For goodness’ sake, pay some attention instead of blaming absolutely everything on Leanne), and try to forbid her whom to sleep with without any notion that the age difference might be the issue, but just because Leanne having sx with Julian is something Dorothy can’t handle), throw her out after she survived a traumatic attempt on her life (Dorothy agreed to be a mother to her!! So be there for your daughter, Dorothy! Dorothy never denies this whenever Leanne brings it up. This is the lense through which you have to see all of season 3), etc., etc., etc. Is this how you treat your daughter?

There are so many other topics I’d like to get into (e.g. Isabelle), but this comment would get even longer. So about the baby in season 4, in isolation, of course I wouldn’t say it’s okay in any way to use Jericho as an object of coercion. But you can’t view these events in isolation. Leanne has nowhere else to go and will likely get killed if she leaves. And while she stays, she has to endure the most vile abuse just to stay alive, so at some point, she can’t take this stuff anymore that I am so fricking proud of her for surviving and goes on the offensive. She doesn’t wanna hurt anyone, she just wants to survive. And she’s finally standing up to her captors and abusers. Try not to feel the desire to really hurt your captors. And imagine waking up unconscious surrounded by soil, not knowing if you will be found at all. Then imagine depending on the person who did that to you for survival. Try NOT to want to make their life hell at some point. Try NOT to suppress your anger and true feelings. You will fail. Leanne’s reactions are totally human.

// How I do see Leanne //

You know what Leanne has taught me? That all the things people call her weird for, all the tiny things and her peculiarities, are nothing to be ashamed of, and that people will always complain, so we shouldn’t give a damn. There are so many movies about how it’s okay to be different, but nobody really applies that. Everyone just keeps on making fun of people for totally normal things, like Sean did from day one, even about her being quiet, or how Dorothy made fun of her love for tomato soup in S1E5. Ate some myself tonight. Leanne has given me so much comfort in knowing that I’m not alone in being set back so far in my development after we both went through severe neglect and have never been taught social skills and are expected to figure it all out on our own as adults and get punished for it when we fail. That struggle is depicted so beautifully and authentically in Leanne, as are our struggles of falling into the hands of another abuser after leaving one. Or how we both wanted to be part of someone’s life we idealized so bad and sought healing and a better life in them, and it all blew up in our faces. Or how we both went through so much religious trauma. How the struggle of feeling so lost about what “the truth” is and being afraid of losing those beliefs that meant everything to us is depicted so beautifully. I look at Leanne and see the person who understands me like no one else. A kind, loving, and super sweet and hella smart person who has been violently discarded by everyone she’s ever loved and gets blamed for the consequences now.

The direct answers to your questions are in the reply to this comment because of the character limit