I think this shows she is intelligent and insightful, but it also gives some insight into the sort of abuse and pressure these kids are under every single day to be Alice's puppets or lose her forever. Which may sound preferable to us but she is their mother and the prospect of losing her, especially now when they feel like they have lost their father, would be terrifying to them. I posted about trauma bonds between abused children and their abusive parent last year. I don't know how many people bothered to read the link, but given Ella's participation in her mothers campaign of abusing Ioan has seemingly stepped up, I hope more people who keep criticising her take the time to read this and get another perspective for why she might be acting the way she is. The reality is this isn't a black and white situation. We keep getting shocked by Alice's behaviour but keep forgetting that Ella in particular is living in this hell day in day out without even the respite of school anymore. She may very well be a narc in the making thanks to Alice, but her and Elsie are sadly Alice's biggest victims too.
Untangling the trauma bond that ties you to a narcissistic parent may be much harder than expected.