Ep 73 Early Access (Patreon)

A rough ep, we've got some more rough ones ahead :"| lots more insight on home dynamic incoming.

Synopsis:

August Mars comments on how Doug's past/gift giving doesn't excuse the fact he's an asshole. Renee gets aggressive, shouting at Mars not to disrespect him- This fades into a memory of young Lily at the dinner table with a flipped plate of spaghetti. Doug is holding her arm up and shouting "Don't you dare disrespect me!"

Doug tells Lily that she'll need to finish her food whether she likes it or not. Lily says she can't in a soft voice. In a nightmarish sequence, Douglas transforms between being a human and being the monster from Mason's nightmare- his arm holding Lily up turns monstrous and the plate of spaghetti in front of Lily becomes overwhelmingly large. Lily, overwhelmed by Douglas' demands, has a meltdown. She screams.

Mason stops Douglas, who is half monster-half human, insisting he can handle Lily himself. Douglas, fully transforming into a monster, violently pushes Mason back. Renee catches Mason and yells at Doug in horror, insisting that he only wanted to help. Doug replies "I don't need help" then proceeds to shove Lily in the pantry and lock the door. Mason tells Doug that he can't just lock Lily away, but gets cut off. Doug then proceeds to describe his childhood- if he had acted as Lily did, he would've been locked in the shed overnight.

He then proceeds to describe how the kids don't know how good they have it- He and Renee saved them afterall. Renee protests, but Doug cuts her off, insisting she not sugarcoat the situation. Lily would be dead and Mason would be stuck with a deadbeat mom had they not adopted the two. Lily then cuts him off by screaming from the pantry- enraging Doug. He threatens to lock her overnight in the pantry if she doesn't quiet down. And Lily complies. Doug turns to Renee and Mason and says "Was that really that hard?"

He tells Mason that he needs to demand Lily to behave. "Do what Renee won't-- because Lord knows she's barely a mother at this point."

Doug leaves and Mason runs to comfort Lily. Renee stands back and cries.

We cut back to the gameshow. Present day Mason is horrified by how bad that memory was. But Renee turns to him and yells "Are you kidding me, Mason?! Is that really how you remember that?!"