by vdrake » Thu Jun 10, 2010 11:13 am
I don't know about the 'position in the pack' thing...
Do you think for even a moment Gus isn't going to put the whole pack through hell to get her BACK? Or, for that matter, he'll leave her alone if he can't? The pack couldn't prove anything. What happened with Peter was a tipping point. Either they shut Butch down hard and Gus goes free (because they still don't have Butch's cooperation for that much) or they have to take a tender hand with Butch while still sheltering her from Gus.
So yes. Her life may improve: She's no longer being abused herself. But I also expect her stay at the Goodwins isn't going to be a sleepover. She's probably going to be treated like someone on the edge. It could be considered more of a halfway house than anything else: She toes the line or she's toast.
To say that Gus's methodology is right is horribly cynical. Sure, her position in the world may be improving, but I think if she had completed her rape of Peter, it wouldn't have happened. The whole thing reeked of desperation on her part. Sure, she could have told someone what Gus was doing. But is the pack equipped to deal with that? Imagine trying to take someone's kid from them, even if they were abused, without drawing say, child services into the mix. It'd never happen. Bluntly, this is practically a perfect storm scenario. You aren't prepared for it, you just have to endure it and pick up the pieces.
Getting Butch out of the crossfire could just be step one. Gus clearly isn't going to do it, so the pack leaders step in. The Stubbes SHOULD be providing help for Peter, but that's an issue for another time. Then again, the Stubbes really don't seem to care overly much about their runt son. They didn't tell him about spreading lycanthropy, and they certainly haven't provided him any support beyond tossing him out of the house at the first moment to resume doing the things that lead to him being born in the first place. Peter's the pack Omega. Someone has to have low man status. Right now, the focus is on preventing anything else from going wrong, clearing the tracks before another train comes. They took Butch from Gus. If he lets them, chances are that means he's going to look for a replacement, or someone to take out his displeasure on, and they can't let that happen.
The Stubbes are neglectful. Gus, on the other hand, is a monster. Peter will live. Butch might not. Peter's place in the pack isn't technically worse because he was already at the bottom. Now he's no longer living with Sarah: That's not the pack's fault. Sarah threw him out. Maybe because she thought he was cheating on her, maybe because she's decided that the pack is just too fucked up and she wants no part of it.
What do you suggest they do? This is a damn nasty situation. Butch is perhaps more victim than perpetrator, she did stop, albeit damned late, and we've had glimpses of her home life. For her to be NORMAL after all this would be shocking. Anything away from Gus is an improvement in her status, and I don't think anyone wishes him on her. Her 'place in the pack' hasn't really changed, because what Gus was doing was never really considered as part of it.
Gus is a complete monster: Butch, left in his hands, is apparently on the way. Fixing Butch is still possible. Fixing Gus... might be a bit harder.
Besides, this is all immediate aftermath stuff. They still can't prove Gus is abusing Butch, but it's suspected. The whole thing pretty much blew up in their faces. It's a terrible, terrible situation. Perhaps the Goodwins expected the Stubbes to offer some emotional support for their own son. Beyond that, Butch is going to have to take some precedence.
There are no perfect solutions here. Nailing Gus to a tree with silver stakes would probably be a start, but it doesn't undo the damage he's already done to Butch, nor would treating Butch like an irredeemable monster (which would just give Gus MORE control over her) do Peter any good. Personally, I have no clue what they can do. Do you?
Ugh. I feel like I wrote way too much.