3x05, "The Closet Monster"

[eschatonic]

Daphne's father might not care about having grandchildren, but that still leaves three potential sources of pressure. (More, if there have been divorces/remarriages. T's family is large, we know that, so there's probably some pressure on her.)

Well, in at least one LJ Chaz made some sort of sly comments about how their kids would be totally normal,etc., and as you noted, large Italian families tend to ask one about children rather regularly (I come from one, and believe me, they do) plus, you know, Tricia might want a baby too. Recent conversations with one's spouse on the general theme of Should We Have A Baby might make her more snappish than usual on the topic, especially if she's not sure what her final answer is.

[Felicia1066]

It could also be that Daphne wants a child, but isn't willing to quit her job and doesn't want to be away from the baby as much as her job would require her to. (It's hard enough to know that T is sitting at home dreading The Phonecall, but add a baby to that equation....) Given her own emotionally distant father, anything remotely resembling the whole absentee parent thing could be very difficult for her. Oh, and her job is risky, and she doesn't want to think of her own child losing a mother like she did.

[DavidG]

Daphne's father might not care about having grandchildren, but that still leaves three potential sources of pressure. (More, if there have been divorces/remarriages. T's family is large, we know that, so there's probably some pressure on her.)

Daphne's father is the only possible source of pressure I can think of on her side. Her mother died years ago, as we found out in "Ballistic":

Even with just T's family we have a minimum of T, T's Mom and T's Dad as potential pressure sources, and grandparents are entirely possible, not to mention siblings, aunts, cousins, great aunts..... Daphne may also have aunts and great aunts on her side of the family, though probably none that are close, the lack of references to grandparents makes it unlikely there are any still around.

And that's not forgetting the ticking clock, Daphs is 37, time yet, but less time than there used to be....

[kvon]

I'm wondering if the PTB deliberately assigned this story to coincide with National Coming Out Day.  Of course, if they didn't, they'll just smile and say that was the plan.

The bit with Danny's family at the end was the most powerful for me.  It seemed like his mother had suspected,  but his father never did.  I'm glad he had Grey to comfort him.

[txanne]

Er, I think I can confidently say it was not an accident. Because they're like that, our PTBs--tricksy *and* warm-hearted.

[jimsmyth]

Seems to me we're dealing with two types of monsterous closets, here.

And the serial killer was the 'B' plot.  I like that.

[AndrewJ]

To which Chaz replied:

Like they don't dump everything on us whether it's ours or not. They have 33 people. We have eight.

(Between Sol's retirement and Hafs' confinement, Now They Are Six. Oh, pooh.)

I see what you did there.

[txanne]

Aw, jimsmyth, I just noticed you changed your .sig! :-)

[jimsmyth]

Aw, jimsmyth, I just noticed you changed your .sig! :-)

[atlee]

It could also be that Daphne wants a child, but isn't willing to quit her job and doesn't want to be away from the baby as much as her job would require her to.

Or it could be that both Daphne and T want a child, are attempting to have one, and it isn't going so well. As same-sex partners, there's a reasonable likelihood that they're using more advanced forms of assisted reproduction than a turkey baster, especially if the partner who supplies the egg and/or the uterus is of advanced maternal age  Daphne is 37, but I don't think we know about Tricia. (We do, however, know via the Wiki that T had some sort of biopsy, which could also imply a reproductive-system complication.)

Maybe I'm projecting from my own history, but Worth reminded me very much of the way I used to be back when infertility was beating me up big-time.

[nebula]

I finally got a chance to read this episode now that my revision is over. Well worth waiting for and the idea of the closet monster being your everyday monster was interestingly chilling.

The hidden scene hit me in the guts. From the set-up of a scary monster phone call to the most awful phone call, it worked really well and although personally it hit all my buttons (I lost my Dad a few weeks ago), I thought it was very well done.

[miminnehaha]

Condolences, nebula.

[kayjayoh]

I'm so sorry to hear that. My thoughts are with you.