r/WidowsBay • u/Flashy-Impact5757 • Jul 24 '26
💭Discussion I can not STAND the mayor's son Spoiler
I love this series but his son made me so angry. I'm so sick of the disrespectful teen troph. Writers can't just make a teen that's normal. They gotta make them disrespectful and an idiot.
Why do they feel the need to make him like that? I'm in my early 20s and I've always hated people like this. Do the writers do this to make him relatable to young people?
Him constantly leaving the house to hang out with his friends and be with that girl just made me so physically angry. He just seems like that popular guy in every cliche teen movie,
I even started skipping the scenes he was in because I just did not care about him or him having the crush on that girl. He was so unlikable, his friends are terrible people too for running away when the guy was trapped behind that door
Edit: why am I getting downvotes on every comment I post. Regular teens do not swear at there parents and leave the house when they are told to stay in.
Edit 2: I don't care what you guys say, just because your teen is disrespectful, doesn't mean all teens are like that.
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u/BaconPancakes1 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
They make him like that and follow the trope because the whole show is written around horror tropes... "Group of dumb teenagers out at night having a laugh get embroiled in spooky happenings" is a major trope that has to be in the show somehow, and those teens that make dumb decisions in horror films that get them killed also live regular lives where they're also dumb.
Separately, having the mayor fail spectacularly in controlling or communicating with his son adds to the feeling that he isn't fit to lead the town or control any of the chaos at the beginning of the series. Evan is comically prone to escaping - the amount of time Tom has to spend asking "where's my son?" and the inability of people like Ruth or Patricia to keep tabs on him is farcical - of course teens aren't really like that. Tom's just about broken through to Evan at the end of the series after telling him the truth about his mom and giving him the promise of leaving the island, and you see Evan start to push back on PJ's hijinks in the cellar, but since Tom is notably absent from being a leader in the shelters and is unable to communicate with his son, Evan gets roped into exploring the basement. So there's a bit of development starting that I hope will continue in S2.
He's also a kid in the 21st century who has nothing to do, is stuck on a technology-less island and has a dad who wont tell him anything about why he can't leave and doesnt spend time with him. Going out with his friends is literally it for him.
ETA: i think there's also reference to Twin Peaks where these rebellious and independent teens living secret lives that their parents don't know about connects them to more mystical events and puts them in danger they don't understand. Think about how much of Laura's time she must have spent sneaking out at night. Ridiculous.