In Carrie Season 1, Episode 6 “Home Economics,” Carrie just can’t catch a break. Every time she moves forward, something knocks her back two steps. And with Chris officially being exposed as the creator of the CarrieRed_ account, things at Ewen are going to get much worse.
What’s Happening with Carrie?
After everything Carrie went through because the video of her in the shower was shared all over school, I can’t believe that it happened again. Except this video appeared to show her talking to herself. When she was home alone. But she wasn’t talking to herself. She was speaking to Emaline. I’m not sure why Mike Flanagan created this moment where we find out Emaline hasn’t been there while Carrie’s talking to her, but I hope he makes it make sense at some point.
This revelation leads to Carrie experiencing more bullying from the students at Ewen. And it’s all her mom’s fault. Margaret set up hidden cameras all around the house. Carrie didn’t know. But Chris and Billy Nolan broke into their home, found the camera footage, and used it against her as punishment for Carrie’s mom creating the Realmaggiered account.
Carrie was furious when she realized what her mother had done. But she was more concerned that she may be suffering from a mental illness. Because Emaline isn’t real and Carrie fears that she’s losing her mind. When she tried to talk to her mom about it, she just shut her down. To Margaret, mental illness isn’t real, and it’s just a “Weakness of spirit.”
I thought that was the worst thing she could tell Carrie. She knows her daughter has been struggling since starting high school. And since her father died. But she’s still not showing Carrie the real support she needs. It’s not enough to fight Carrie’s bullies at school. She also needs to support her at home. Her mom’s attitude is exactly why Carrie is spiraling.
The Word Of The Day Is “Mediation“
After Sue turned Chris in, expulsion became a real possibility. Chris already can’t afford to go to Duke, but that doesn’t mean that her high school record won’t follow her wherever she goes. Also, Mr. Morton already warned her about her behavior. He told her she needed to decide who she wanted to be before leaving high school.
She only has two options: mediation or expulsion. Chris agrees to meet with Carrie for mediation. It umm… does not go well. Before the mediation even begins, Margaret has already made herself the mouthpiece for Carrie. She doesn’t want her to say a word. That’s ridiculous because the situation involves Carrie. It never was Margaret’s issue. She’s not the one on the CarrieRed_ account.
Chris’s parents are no better. The two do a lot of the talking. It’s like all the adults in the room forgot that this matter involved their daughters. They almost don’t even see them. And that’s part of the problem. Carrie and Chris have more in common than they realize. Margaret doesn’t listen to Carrie. And Chris’s parents don’t really listen to her.
Carrie is tired of all the noise. And everyone telling her what she should do. She speaks with Chris alone, hoping she can get her to understand. But what she wanted most was to know why Chris chose her to single out. All Carrie wanted was to be Chris’s friend.
When she pointed out that Chris put in a lot of effort to pretend to be her friend, when she could have been a real friend, I felt that. Bullying doesn’t make sense to me. Carrie was nice to Chris immediately. But Chris was always snarky. Things would have been so much easier if Chris accepted Carrie from the beginning. And her reason for what she did to Carrie only made me angrier.
She claims she didn’t know why she picked on her. But then she says that Carrie was “weird” and that she “pissed her off.” That’s not an excuse. Also, this speaks to how dumb bullying is. And I’m not talking about the act of bullying. I mean the reasons behind it because I think most bullies probably don’t even know why they chose to bully.
Chris again does what she does best and plays the victim. She makes the whole mediation about her. As if things couldn’t get worse, she has the audacity to tell Carrie that she would be “destroying her life.” She doesn’t see what she did to Carrie or any of the students and faculty at Ewen as wrong. Her lack of accountability is so frustrating. And in that moment, Carrie’s over it. And so was I.
Starting the CarrieRed_ account was diabolical, and it ruined a whole lot of lives. Chris wasn’t thinking about the people she hurt with the posts. Yes, I know some of them were submitted to her. She had several opportunities to hit the kill switch on the account, but she did not. I refuse to feel bad for her and her little sob story. Expulsion should have been on her mind the day she hit “Public” on CarrieRed_.
Melee At The Mediation
I’ll give Carrie credit for making one final attempt to reach Chris. It seemed like it might have worked. Until Margaret opened her mouth. Chris found out she also had to apologize on camera. For the world to see. Listen, considering all that Chris had done, this wasn’t that big a deal. A public apology was the least she could do. But of course, she chose the opposite, and we were back to square one.
That also meant that Chris Hargensen was officially expelled! In the words of Madeline in Death Becomes Her: “These are the moments that make life worth living!” If Chris wasn’t going to apologize, take responsibility, or delete the account, then good riddance. Expel her. It’s what she deserved. The students of Ewen High thought so too.
Unfortunately, things spiraled way out of control. I figured that expulsion wouldn’t make the students stop wanting blood from Chris. The chants of “Death to Hargensen” were deafening. Admittedly, it made me look at things from a different perspective. I don’t like Chris. But I don’t think people should wish her dead. At the same time, I also understood emotions were high and Chris isn’t innocent in this.
A full-on melee eventually breaks out, and things are out of control. And Chris is responsible for this. I know people are ultimately responsible for their own actions and I was just sympathetic to her for a second, but Chris lit the match that set the house ablaze. And now she’s trying to run away. But you can’t outrun your mistakes. Chris’s decision has lasting consequences, and things at Ewen will never be the same again.
Carrie Season 1 is now available on Prime Video.
