4x07 // 7x04
Devastating parallel, yes; but I want to elaborate on that conversation in 4x07 between Claudia and Terry, because it exposes Claudia's fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of healthy loving relationships.
Claudia sees the plants moving because of Terry's magic, and the conclusion she jumps to is that he's controlling them. Given the coercive nature of dark magic, I'm not surprised that Claudia would think that. Terry corrects her misconception, explaining: "I have a very good relationship with plants. When I need something, I can depend on them."
It's a core theme of the show, love and trust; stronger together; we need each other.
Love and trust build a kind of strength that is much bigger than we each possess. To have that kind of strength, it's not enough to love someone. You have to trust them to share the burdens you carry.
This kind of reliance is something that Claudia struggles with, because when has Claudia ever been able to depend on others to respond to her needs?** Claudia knows, despite how desperately she needs someone, no matter how deeply she loves them, it doesn't mean they'll stay with her. It's a cruel truth that she learned when she was very young:
Biscuit had been the oldest of Barius’ collection of strays, all of them named after things in his kitchen, and Claudia’s favorite. It wasn’t fair that she’d died. She hadn’t even been that old. All her kittens still needed her, didn’t they?
For Claudia, love means never leaving. She doesn't can't won't trust that people who leave will come back to her, because she's been betrayed too many times before:
“Aaravos left me too, huh? Like dad and Soren, and my mo—" Claudia’s throat closed around the word. Lissa had left her years ago, but the space she had owned in Claudia’s heart remained. It was a dark place now, hard and hateful, its edges raw as a wound that had forgotten to heal.
She'll accept other's trust in her, but she won't reciprocate on it. She uses trust as a tool for control. Just like Aaravos. Just like dark magic.
And that's why her relationship with Terry failed the way it did.
Claudia used Terry's trust. To protect him? No. To control him. To protect herself.
Deep down, she's afraid that there's something wrong with her, that she keeps failing to keep the people she loves in her life because they can see--
I've been messing things up, and everyone's been angry with me. What if they're right? What if I'm... not good?
Would allowing herself to share this vulnerability have kept every one of her loved ones in her life? No, of course not; but in the end, love alone wasn't strong enough to keep him by her side.
**What about Aaravos? shhh This isn't about him--
--4x07 // 7x04 // 5x04 // Rise Again // 2x02 // Lost Child // 6x01 // Puzzle House // 3x07 // 6x08 // 7x01 // 7x09
