BLUE SUN ROOM

Regan Tam

POSTED BY: SPACEANJL
UPDATED: Thursday, October 11, 2007 06:15
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Thursday, October 11, 2007 3:09 AM

SPACEANJL


A spin-off from the threads on Mr Tam.

Does she know? Or does she strive very hard not to know?

Parents with 'gifted' kids so rarely get a good deal in shows. They live in some kind of denial, grounded in a mundane round of the real world, constantly frustrating the Hero(ine) with a Mission. (Early Joyce, Mrs Bennett...) Or they are scheming loons. (Mr Bennett)

So, is she a good corporate wife and mother, who fills her days with a round of shopping and good works, maybe even a suitable little joblet (not essential for the family finances)?

Does she ever wonder what went wrong, that her pretty little dancer of a daughter (bright but odd, and wouldn't she be happier with kids of her own sort?) and her brilliant son (my son the surgeon, oh yes, top of his class and a good job lined up...prospects, you know...) are somewhere Out There, and they don't know why or where.

And does she ever look at the man she married (love? escape from home? arranged?) and blame him? But if you start blaming, that indicates that something is wrong, and that can't be admitted to, because then the walls come down.

Are there two empty rooms in a house much too large for two people, (even with the secrets that press against the walls, louder than anything spoken) that are untouched, a fine layer of dust on books and toys, held in time and hoping for their owner's return?



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Thursday, October 11, 2007 3:30 AM

JONGSSTRAW


My opinion, same as I wrote for the other thread, is that she is either a total ditz, or she is a lousy mother, or both. She puts her own comfort and secure status ahead of concern for her daughter...any concern. Real, loving parents would always know where and what their children were doing.

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Thursday, October 11, 2007 4:09 AM

GWEK


Haven't read the Gabriel Tam thread (I picked this one because it was shorter!), so I don't know how much of this has already been said:

In the original script for SAFE,there's much more implication that Gabriel knows that "something's up" with River and the Academy, and he basically keeps telling Simon "Be quiet. It's not worth it to raise questions. Enjoy what you have."

Regan, in pretty much every scene, has a drink in her hand.

Makes me think that Gabriel is in some way complicit in what happened to River, and Regan at least suspects.

Given that Gabriel is the one who arranged for Simon's bright future, I can't help but wonder if some sort of deal was struck...

www.stillflying.net: "Here's how it might have been..."

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Thursday, October 11, 2007 4:45 AM

REGINAROADIE


Given that Regan was in fewer scenes than Gabriel (she only had the one scene, whereas he had three), we know as much about her as we do about Gabriel, which is the say very little. And if you've read my fanfics, you know that I am willing to give them the benefit of a doubt and make them more tragic characters than mustache twirling villains.

**************************************************
"And it starts with a sentence that might last a lifetime, or it all might just go down in flames. If I let you know me, then why would you want me? Each day I don't is a shame. Each day I don't is a great shame."

Loudon Wainwright III - "Strange Weirdos" off the "Knocked Up" soundtrack

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Thursday, October 11, 2007 5:29 AM

SHINYSEVEN2


I tend to convince myself with my own stories anyway!--but I've written a couple where Regan Tam is high up in the intelligence network, and a True Believer. It's just unfortunate if a few people get caught in the wheels...

The script for "Safe" in the Official Companion has a flashback where Simon and Gabriel chat about "business" being good, although they don't say what kind of business. I figure that one kind of business where having a brilliant doctor in the family is a value is the pharmaceutical business, so the senior Tams may have a very good reason for not wanting information about The Pax getting out.

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Thursday, October 11, 2007 6:15 AM

WYTCHCROFT


well we certainly don't know much! a few things - Gabriel makes a joke at Regan's expense - 'If this were MY house' etc, which negates her.
I can imagine that Regan is very unfufilled - an intelligent woman, perhaps married for status (which way round, who knows). She would perhaps live vicariously through her children - except Gabriel seems to have got there first. He tells Simon he WILL be a successful doctor. Maybe Regan wanted him to be a chef - who knows? I don't imagine anyone much CARES what Regan thinks. So yep - the bottle.

I have sympathy with her - up to a point - but she is complicit* in whatever went down with River at the academy. She may have genuinely convinced herself that River was happy at the academy - but i get the feeling they lost a bratty daughter to gain a successful doctor son.

So villainess, weakling, caring mother but powerless, lush? all possible. she probably doesn't know herself.

Who knows what the impact of losing BOTH children woud actually have proved to be...
the casting off of children is very shakespearean - so some sort of reconciliation may not be impossible...

unless Gabriel is like the dad in heroes... gulp!

(*in my fic 'runners' i tried to explore the notion of FAMILY complicity - everyone is to blame/nobody is to blame)

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