yetanothercriminalmindsfanatic:
4.07 Memoriam.
Yet another reason I want papa Reid to eat dirt. I haven’t been able to watch that episode again because of the way he’s constantly excused. It’s ridiculous.
The way I see it, Reid has had some severe financial straits, and most of it is his dad’s fault. You see, since William left, Diana’s care has fallen squarely on Spencer’s shoulders. And while Diana undeniably draws disability, Medicare, SSI, and whatever pension she has from the college, I doubt it fully pays for her care at Bennington - and Reid can’t really put his mom on his insurance. (I’ve had governmental insurance. It just doesn’t work that way.)
That means that a good chunk of Reid’s pay goes to Bennington Sanitarium to keep his mother in the quality of care that she deserves instead of being shoved into a little room and neglected. Which means that Reid’s apartment isn’t great. It’s probably smaller than Garcia’s or, if it’s larger, it’s in a worse part of town. He usually eats cheap meals when he’s home.
His splurges are his coffee every day and his occasional meal at that Indian restaurant he likes so much because, if he spends too much money - whether it’s on bills or phone or entertainment or things other people take for granted, it means he doesn’t get to eat while they’re out on a case and there’s no way he can ask his teammates to pay for him to eat. That would be too big a blow to his pride.
Until the moment shown in the gifs above? He thought his father had fallen off the face of the world. But after hearing from Garcia just how much William had Googled him, how he’d watched his son accomplish all he’d accomplished, how could he do anything but wonder just how heartless his father was? First he’d walked out on an eight year old, leaving him to take care of his schizophrenic mother alone, and only moved ten minutes away to watch him grow up in the deepest hardship and still make it through, leaving him to live in near-poverty, full of scrimping and saving and having no such thing as brand new clothes except for underwear and socks while he has his house, his savings, his first edition books, and his sick cat.
I hope that Spencer’s three-month sabbatical to Vegas included him going to his father and demanding that he help pay for Diana’s care. I will say this for him. When they show him and Diana side by side, they still have love between them. And that’s why I think William really needs to start shouldering a part of the responsibility, and why Spencer Reid has every right to be pissed off at his father.
/tl;dr.
Sonuvafarkingdiddly, Chrome crashed twice and ate my words. Now trying again, by typing it elsewhere then pasting it.
Alrighty, agreeing with starsoverhead about the struggles Spencer likely went through after his father’s selfish choice to run from the problems. Additionally to that, seventeen years since he had last seen his father is a really long time for the resentment to fester. It will not go away overnight.
Then on top of the struggles young Spencer had to deal with while growing up and taking care of his mother, he had to hide the fact that he’s stepped into the role of a caregiver. He only committed her when he was eighteen, and who knows how long past his birthday before he worked up the nerve to do something that he knew would break his mother’s heart? But between his father’s departure until then, he was a minor without a parent/guardian who was capable of taking care of him. Had that fact gotten out, CPS would have likely intervened, placing him into the foster care system. That must have been a heavy weight on a young boy’s shoulders— trying to appear as if everything at home was normal, while being in fear that someone would find out and his world collapsing on itself.
It is quite likely that he had to work jobs on campus, and possibly some under-the-table stuff that made good use of his intelligence (such as selling essays/papers). There’s also a good chance that in the later years, he snuck into the casinos and used his talents to score a bit of cash (before getting banned from them— see “Snake Eyes”).
Having Diana well cared for at Bennington speaks of how much he continues to sacrifice for her. Part of it stems from the guilt of having her committed (see ‘The Fisher King, part I’ with his conversation with Garcia), but also because of sticking through the highs and lows of caring for her during those ten years. He had to grow up fast, stepping into a role that he shouldn’t have had to fill had his father stayed. Those years of looking after Diana meant putting her best interests ahead of his own, and it’s quite possible that he had spent a significant amount of time researching into institutions for the best there was that he could afford, and being frugal on his own needs meant that he could push the expected costs of Diana’s care even further.
After all the sacrifices he’s made, for not having much of a childhood experience because he had to grow up fast, and then finding out how close by his father had been living? It will take a herculean effort to get to the point where the hatchet can be buried. What Spencer had said to William towards the end of ‘Memoriam’ about how William could have come back, could have tried— it was all past tense, and had the finality of ‘we can’t undo what’s been done’, nothing could repair the rift. This attitude is quite evident when Spencer reacted to the news that his dad had been keeping tabs on him and his achievements.
I have had mixed feelings about the precinct scene on Diana’s end of things. It’s hard to think of what sort of reaction her character should have regarding her husband. She came across as being quick to forgive, but aware of the passage of time was she really? In that scene, she had gone off her meds so the truth behind Riley Jenkins could come out, so it wasn’t like she was unaware of the history with William and Spencer. Perhaps it could be chalked up to the love she still feels for him. But it seemed like there was no anger, if not for how he abandoned her, then for abandoning their son.
It might also be reasoned that at that moment, it wasn’t love, but gratitude for him helping with the coverup over Gary Michaels. When Spencer (along with Morgan and Rossi) went to see William, the door to the office space had a law firm name. It is quite likely that William, being a lawyer, had jeopardized his career by aiding in the concealment of a crime, and destroying evidence. Lou Jenkins had been arrested for his role, but what of William?
Another thing that hasn’t been covered in canon is the current state of William and Diana’s marriage. All that we do know is that he had left his wife and son, and left Spencer a letter. Perhaps during the sabbatical, William was pressed into some sort of financial retribution or an obligation to them. And yet, it’s also very possible that with seventeen years of bitterness and resentment, Spencer would not make the first move towards a reconciliation. The trip to Vegas would therefore be because of his mother and his concern and care for her.
This still ends with Spencer being incredibly PO’d at William, and with good reasons too.
(Source: maributerfly)
