We Know Why Lori Kidnapped Carter — Again

"DON'T DRINK THE COFFEE!" That was me yelling at my TV screen during Tuesday night's episode of Finding Carter. But, of course, Carter drank the coffee anyway. And during the Finding Carter Season 1 finale, Lori kidnapped Carter AGAIN — right out from under Elizabeth's nose. The twist, which Bustle writer Kaitlin Reilly predicted weeks ago, came in the final moments of the episode while Elizabeth and Carter were waiting to bust Lori for being a kidnapper/stalker/raging psychopath and it hurt. Watching Carter get drugged hurt, watching Elizabeth run after her only to lose her again hurt, and we have to wonder why Lori would do this for a second time. Thankfully, Finding Carter showrunner Terri Minsky reveals to Bustle what motivated Lori to take Carter, and it's just as twisted as you'd expect.

"I think that Lori’s motivation is kind of encapsulated in the speech after she’s roofied Carter and she takes her out and she says, 'We were so perfect together and you belong with me,'" Minsky tells me when I ask whether or not Lori abducting Carter a second time in the finale had to do with all of the mentions of "the truth" throughout the episode. But the reality of the situation is that whatever happened in the past is exactly that, the past. And Lori's mindset has moved onto a huge issue — that Carter's forgotten what a great family they were.

In Tuesday night's finale, Lori returned and seemed more unhinged than ever, which Minsky attributes to the fact that "without Carter, Lori has no family." And it's difficult for her to accept that Carter's moved on and started to feel at home with her real family, which was evident in Season 1's penultimate episode when Carter finally called Elizabeth "mom" on purpose.

During Lori's conversation with Carter in the Wilsons' kitchen, it might have seemed like Lori just wanted to get Carter away from her real family's lies, but really, her reason is more simple and a lot more selfish than that. Minsky tells me that Lori's thought process is running along the lines of, "How can three months with these people wipe out 13 years with me and we were perfect together and don’t you remember." Because Lori and Carter's relationship existed as what Minsky calls a "mother-daughter relationship fantasy," where the pair were more like best friends than parent and child.

Minsky explains that, in the scene right before Lori takes Carter out the back door of the coffee shop, there's the idea that, "We’re a family and this is for your own good, but you forgot and I’m going to remind you," in Lori's mind. So, at this point, she's not trying to hurt Elizabeth and David like she might have been trying to do when she kidnapped Carter 13 years ago, she's trying to convince Carter that she belongs with her and not with these other people. Even though both scenarios are twisted, the latter seems so much worse right now. Because Lori actually does believe that she's Carter's rightful mother.

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