Thanks for the recap, I have actually watched the show in its entirety.
It still makes absolutely no sense to me that she could run away to be with the boy she was seeing, but couldn’t run away to a place of safety. She had no problem stealing money from her mother’s safe (I think it was a thousand dollars) to fund this attempt to run away so she could be with this ‘boyfriend’ yet she couldn’t go to a motel or call the cops or a lawyer etc! Or even her father or stepmother.
I’m sorry but I’d have been telling anyone I could and focussing my attention on hatching a plan to run away to safety, not to run away to have sex with boys I hardly know.
She also had no problem meeting up with Nick at the cinema, to “lose her virginity to him” whilst her mother was sat watching the movie! Come on, it’s ridiculous!! Something is really off about this whole thing and as a survivor of child abuse, I really want to be able to understand her choice of actions and to champion her freedom, but all things considered (the things that came from her own mouth during the Prison Confessions doc), I just can’t!
Its a fascinating and tragic story. I havent seen The Act, only the Mommie Dearest documentary, and the first 2 episodes of her Prison Confessions And there seem to be differences in how the story is perceived or told?
I think Gypsy had such a dysfunctional childhood, she is going to be in therapy for the rest of her life, she obviously has very little understanding of concepts like truth or lies, or the differences between facts and fiction. Her mother manipulated and controlled her so completely and Gypsy knew nothing else. I also think that there isnt much money in the family, and to some extent, Gypsy sadly needs to do this publicity stuff to fund her continuing treatment and support.
She is a great example of the whole Fight, Flight or Freeze kind of psychological thing. Where she was so confused/or badly educated or frightened she spent most of her life Frozen into inaction. She was so isolated, who is she meant to trust? She didnt go to school, had no friends her own age, and no close relatives she saw, apart from her mum. Who was she meant to trust, who was she meant to run away to?
In the Mommie Dearest, documentary, they had comments from her, from the trial I think? that meeting Nick at the Cinema was a disaster, and they barely had a chance to speak to each other. Something about meeting up at a showing of Cinderella, and Nick looking extremely weird and standing out, as a single man at a teenage girly movie. They did go into the toilets together, but .....it wasnt a great success!
I do feel very sorry for Nick, and hope that he gets some kind of retrial, as its not fair that he is still in prison, but she isnt. Gypsy is of course guilty and complicit in the murder of her mother. But she came across in interviews as a irresponsible child, who had no understanding of the effects of her actions. And she was under considerable stress and pressure- Her mother abused her for years.
She is an odd creature....and not necessarily coming across that well in this reality show style format... but I do feel sorry for her. She was too compliant and well behaved as a child, to be able to cope with the conflict generated with her mum, as she became as a teenager desperate for a boyfriend/relationship, adult life.
She never had any money of her own, or 'street' skills of knowing how to cope on her own. knowing who to trust, etc
That clip doesn't surprise me at all.
which is ironic. She also mentioned a time when she was really close to her mum when child services came round, yet then she says she knew what her mum was doing 
