Do you think Ted knows he's complicit in aiding in Jamie's abuse? What about Rebecca?
Ngl I donât even think Ted realized it is that bad. As far as Jamie goes, he has a huge blind spot in regards to this topic. This could be for a multitude of reasons: the generation he was born into. The fact that he himself used to play sports and may have internalized the idea that âsports dads can be like thatâ without ever looking deeper. The fact that his own childhood contained a different sort of trauma, watching his own father struggle with mental illness. Then his trauma with how he lost his father. In a way, Ted follows the opposite of Occamâs Razor- when he looks at Jamieâs relationship with his dad, he sees complexity, he sees zebras.
He doesnât see the simple facts, the hoof of the matter: that this is a mean person who hurts his kid with the intent to do so.
So before Ted has any realization about how his actions might have exacerbated the situation between Jamie and his dad, Ted would first have to come to terms with how he failed to recognize how bad it was in the first place.
Iâd also throw in here that part of the tragedy of all this is how thereâs no one character who actually has the full Jamie Tartt backstory cheatsheet- itâs spread out amongst Ted, Roy, Keeley, Jamieâs mum. And Jamieâs not good at asking for help, let alone accepting help.
I do think that of the immediate people in his life, the ones who have the clearest idea of Jamieâs abuse are Roy âheâs a living piece of shitâ Kent and Willis âalright thatâs enough / *head smash* / Iâm gonna take a walkâ Beard. They might not have the full story, but something about the way they react has a âwell thatâs all that I need to seeâ vibe to it.
(In a darker speculative turn, I do wonder if maybe Beard has mentioned some of his own experiences to Ted. If knowing about Beardâs own experiences with (what I imagine) was also an abusive upbringing may have given Ted the wrong impression about What Abuse Looks Like and how people react to it, and if that plays into his impression of Jamieâs dad maybe not being that bad if Jamie himself appears confident and well-adjusted. A sort of unconscious bias if you will, the kind of paper-thin reasoning that doesnât hold water when examined but if Tedâs never had reason to examine itâŠ)
Oh. You also asked about Rebecca. Honestly, unless Keeley is talking about him, theyâre talking about him in terms of the club, or he is literally standing in front of her, I donât think Rebecca thinks of him much at all. Not cruelly. Itâs just- she mainly knows him as a player and through Keeley. Sheâs picked up a bit about him, she cares for him the same way she cares for all her players, maybe a little more because of Keeley, but heâs not really a part of her life, nor is she a part of his.
Sheâs does wonder sometimes, what mightâve happened if sheâd never sent him back to Manchester, but thatâs from the perspective of the club. I donât think she knows what that cost him. I think sheâd feel awful if she did know.
Thatâs the other tragedy of Jamieâs story- for any of this to get resolved, someone would have to talk about it. And no oneâs talking.