chanelaforets:

Some thoughts on Abigail Hobbs and why she is unique within the show—

Abigail is very separate from nearly every other major character on this show and not only because of her age. While Will, Alana, Jack, Beverly, Freddie, Beverly and even Hannibal all have their weaknesses and blind spots, the study of violence (at whatever angle) is in effect ordinary for them. And the reason they’re able to treat it as a career and work within it and are able to retain their sanity and sense of well-being is that they view murder from the other side of the looking glass. They’ve trained themselves to be able to have some amount of distance and objectivity. (And of course, Will’s neuroatypicality prevents him from fully achieving that objectivity, but that’s another post.)

Abigail doesn’t have this sense of objectivity. Thus far, all of her encounters with violence have been entirely personal, from her father’s murders to her friend Marissa to the man she kills. Abigail is yet to have any experience of violence she can put at a distance from herself. While violence is actually something that is getting to be ordinary for her at this point, it’s not from the perspective of making it a job, it’s from an extremely close and intimate perspective. When we first see her as anything other than a victim, she’s a hunter on the other side of a gun. Whether a victim or a perpetrator, Abigail is always extremely close to the action. I don’t personally think she was assisting her father in his murders but either way, she’s never stepped back from the act of killing and viewed it at a distance. She’s obviously somewhat desensitized at this point but I think that’s a fairly obvious coping mechanism and doesn’t mean she’s actually come to terms with the fact of killing itself.

Abigail has only just entered a world in which violence is normal, a fact of life and she’s still learning how to cope with that. She’s not a Hannibal, who coolly kills or a Will, who’s trained himself to cope in some way or another or a Freddie, who stands on the sidelines and exploits the situation. She’s still working out her place in this landscape and how exactly she’ll cope with it.

I think in fandoms for designated Bad People Shows (and I’m not saying everyone on this show is a bad person) there’s a kind of glorification of competent evil, which leads to reviling any kind of uncertainty or failure or morality. We don’t know where Abigail will morally stand yet but her unstable footing within this landscape is honestly only to be expected. She’s neither a seasoned killer nor a seasoned professional.

She’s only just stopped being anything but normal.

(Source: annalouet)