One whole season and three episodes into Finding Carter and fans have certainly condemned, um, basically every character for some questionable actions: David had an affair, Elizabeth had an affair, Crash shot Max, etc. But what about Elizabeth’s parents? Are Carter’s grandparents at all to blame for her kidnapping? My Finding Carter theory puts Joan right in the center of the show's biggest mysteries.
So far this season, we’ve learned that Lori is actually the biological mother of both Taylor and Carter: Elizabeth and David used an egg donor to conceive the twins after struggling with fertility issues. And remember that picture of David sleeping that Lori had? “Duh”s were heard around the world when David and Lori finally confirmed that they had had a full-fledged affair when the girls were babies. Way to be even more of a jerk, David. He didn’t even tell Elizabeth about the affair when he knew it was Lori who took Carter — she only overheard Lori telling it to the police.
In the wake of this revelation, David and Elizabeth are separating, much to the chagrin of their children (Carter is the only one who knows why they’re really splitting, though). When Grandma Joan found out that her daughter and her no-good hubs were splitting, she could barely contain her glee. It was the best anniversary present that Elizabeth could have ever given her, and Elizabeth said as much. I get not wanting your daughter to be married to the awful David, but couldn’t you try and act concerned and not elated, Joan? Elizabeth’s father seems to just follow his wife’s lead, so I leave him mostly out of this.
Anyone who has seen Finding Carter knows that David never had the best relationship with Joan, and Joan has always hoped that he and Elizabeth would break up. David resents that he can’t earn the money to support his family, and Joan resents that David doesn’t seem to be trying to make money and she has to keep bankrolling his failures. What better way to get her daughter divorced than to bring to light her husband’s family-shattering infidelity?
That’s why I think that Joan had something to do with Lori coming back to snatch Carter. I think that Lori probably would have cut her losses or at least formulated a better plan to get Carter back than just, you know, grabbing Carter from a restaurant. She is a smart woman. Joan probably pushed this whole thing along: Joan and Lori both hate David so much that they wanted to punish him, and revealing all of these truths was just the way to do it. I think Joan was the person Lori was on the phone with during Carter’s kidnapping, and she’s the one bankrolling this whole endeavor (Elizabeth’s parents are loaded, and there’s also a theory that she could have paid for the egg donation that brought Lori along in the first place).
David is a real L-7 loser, so I completely understand wanting to exorcise that demon from the family. It’s not so much the infidelity itself that sucks about David’s storyline right now: It’s (and Elizabeth echoed this) that when he found out the woman he had had an affair with the same one who had snatched Carter, he didn’t say anything. It’s not the act of adultery here but the act of lying that Elizabeth is hurt by, and it just goes to show that David is, always has been, and always will be a complete liar. Come on, dude — get your head on straight. This is your family that you’re ruining.
At the end of the last episode, Joan whisked her daughter away to her home for what Elizabeth probably thinks is a night of rest and relaxation, but I’m willing to bet that Joan has more up her sleeve than that. Like, say, a waiting divorce lawyer?
Images: MTV; findingcarter/Tumblr (2)
