Lydia Deetz Character Analysis
This might not be the time or place, but Iāve seen many analyses about Betelgeuse that range in quality. However, I always feel thereās a lack of a good analysis focused on Lydia. Sometimes, it feels like we fall back into seeing Lydia as a passive element in the equation, or we simplify her into a single dimension like āsheās traumatizedā or āshe was just a kid.ā Other times, we outright ignore her experiences and project onto her our own ideas about why she should or shouldnāt feel attracted to or repulsed by Betelgeuse.
Letās start with the fact that Lydia has infinitely more screen time than Betelgeuse, and yet we ignore all the clues both films give us about her character development. From the first movie, Lydia is a complex character (yes, framed within the melodrama of adolescence) but complex nonetheless. She isnāt an innocent child; thatās not how sheās portrayed at any point. Sheās a teenager who feels misunderstood, who doesnāt fit into her family, who feels alone in the world, and who seeks solace in the macabre and the unknown. These things attract her. You just have to look at her expression when she imagines what Barbara and Adam might look like under the sheets. She wanted them to be grotesque specters. It was almost disappointing for her that they turned out to look like normal people. For this reason, Lydia is never truly afraid of Betelgeuse (except for the snake form, but she was also scared of Barbara and Adam in monster form, so itās fair to say both cases donāt really count).
The first time she sees Betelgeuse, sheās not even surprised to find a tiny corpse-like figure in the model town, she talks to him as if itās the most normal thing in the world. Again, the world of the dead fascinates her, and Betelgeuse is part of that world. Thatās why she has no problem turning to him for help the first time, to save Barbara and Adam. At that moment, the marriage is merely a transaction for both of them: she gets to save her friends, and he gets to escape his confinement (and probably whatever spell binds his name). The ones who make the wedding a big deal are Barbara and Adam. Theyāre the ones who warn Lydia about Betelgeuse and ultimately stop the wedding.
Fast forward 30 years, during which Lydia has likely tried to be ānormalā and failed. Letās assume Barbara and Adam eventually found a way to cross over. This would leave Lydia with a deep sense of abandonment. Her character is heavily marked by loneliness, and that remains true 30 years later. The Maitlands are gone, her marriage to Richard failed and he left, Astrid resents her and distances herself. This is why she clings so desperately to Rory, even though heās clearly repulsive. Initially, I struggled with this because I couldnāt see how teenage Lydia could become the woman she is now. But it all ties back to her core personality: she will do anything to avoid being alone. She knows Rory wonāt leave her, and she hopes thatās enough to sustain their relationship, even if it means compromising her principles by doing things like the TV show.
Meanwhile, Betelgeuse occasionally appears to her. He appears to her, itās not visions or flashbacks. Iāve seen people interpret these āvisionsā as signs of PTSD, but Lydia doesnāt have PTSD from Betelgeuse. Thatās impossible because he wasnāt an antagonist to her. Even if we consider the wedding a bad experience (which, knowing Lydiaās personality, Iād argue against), it only lasted a few minutes. The rest of Lydiaās interactions with Betelgeuse were, at worst, neutral. Letās not forget that he literally helped her save the Maitlands. His appearances likely frustrate her because, while everyone important in her life eventually abandons her, this entity, warned against by everyone, remains. What Lydia experiences is cognitive dissonance regarding Betelgeuse. She knows sheās supposed to hate him because others have taught her to, but she has no personal reason to.
Thatās why she doesnāt hesitate to ask him for help with Astrid. Lydia is smart; sheās probably read the Handbook a thousand times and knows plenty of ghosts from her ventures into the afterlife. Yet, the first thing she does is go straight to Betelgeuse, because she knows heās the only one (ghost) whoās never let her down. Not her family, not Richard, not the MaitlandsāBetelgeuse is the only constant in her life.
This is why Lydia has āunresolved feelingsā, because how do you reconcile the fact that the being everyone says is dangerous, a threat to both the living and the dead, the one youāre warned never to summon, is the only one whoās never abandoned you?
Betelgeuse will never leave herāthatās a fact. Heās tethered to her like a ghost to a house. If you ask me, Iām almost certain the reason Betelgeuse latched onto Lydia in the first place was to end his own loneliness. Thatās why he makes so many references to Lydia āgetting him.ā Heās also alone and hates it. Look at how clingy he got with the Maitlands after two seconds of meeting them, or how he tried to make conversation in the waiting room until he realized they were ignoring him. Yes, heās intense, a liar, and unpleasant, and his methods are all wrong, but at the end of the day, what Betelgeuse seeks is companionship. Meeting Lydia and realizing she needed the same was enough for him to become stuck on her for years (and probably for eternity).
Iām sure Lydia knows Betelgeuse will always be there, and her internal struggle is likely reconciling the part of her that wants him out of her life with the part that doesnāt want to lose that constant presence. Ultimately, no matter how much sheās buried it under years of rationalizing and adopting othersā narratives about how harmful and dangerous Betelgeuse is, Lydia will never lose her fascination with the grotesque, the macabre, the strange, and the unusual.
