Divorce : what was up with the other couple at therapy?

I didn't get it. She had a black eye and looked at Frances almost with disdain. Then in a later scene, still with the black eye, she looked all happy. What was that about?

love hate relationship

but seriously, i am wondering too

That seemed pretty bizarre, almost surreal. I found it really uncomfortable, especially given the black eye. Great he's abusive, however couple counseling helped them!

Abusive relationships are complicated, obviously

At first glance, I thought it was a black eye, then wondered if it was smudged mascara/eyeliner from crying.

Sounds like everyone else thought the same thing though, so maybe it WAS a black eye. Yikes

The story is sickening, acting terrible
Just don't see any humor and was really
hoping to like it. I'm done!!!

As someone else said, people in abusive relationships can be weird.

I used to date a woman who had this crazy Christian friend. The friend was constantly harping on my GF to stop seeing me because I wasn't Christian and our relationship was "immoral" (we were having sex without being married!). In a weak moment, my GF caved and called me to break up (that lasted about a week), after the call, the Christian friend came over to support her. When Christian lady showed up, she had a black eye and bruises on her neck. Her Christian husband got drunk and choked and beat her.

My GF was horrified, but Christian lady assured her that the beating was a gift from God because her husband now saw that his drinking and abusive behavior was getting out of hand and they made an appointment with the pastor for counseling.

I call BS on this story

It's obvious you HATE Christians and if your story happens to be "true"..it makes me wonder where you live in that there are so many weak pathetic women. There are plenty of Christians dating and married to NON Christians so I really don't understand how some friend of her's is putting forth so much time and effort into trying to change your GF's situation, when her life (being beaten by an alcoholic) sounds so emotionally exhausting and out of control. and I don't know ANY woman, who would claim getting beat is a "gift from God" sounds like someone with a fanatic delusional mentality to mealso, if you have a GF who can be so easily persuaded to "break up" with you simply for the fact of you NOT being a Christian, then getting back a week later sounds like there's either a whole lot you're NOT saying or you must live in a really backward and "cut off from the rest of the country" kind of placeshe's sounds so confused and easily lead, that SHE is the one who may need some counselling. Either wayyour comment about abusive relationships "can be weird" is like one of the biggest understatements I've ever heard.. I mean, honestly I can think of many ways to describe an abusive relationship but "weird" isn't one of them but as for the initial comment I think it was in poor taste to have that couple or that scene in a "comedy" This isn't "Shameless" it's supposed to be a realistic but comical take on modern divorce and it fails miserably.

Maybe instead of ridiculing her, you could have shown her that just because you are not a Christian doesn't mean you're a bad person by helping her or at least attempting to help her get out of a horrible situation instead of spouting off about how she's a crazy Christian. You don't have to be a Christian to be a kind and forgiving person by looking at the bigger picture that this abused woman needs help insteaf of being pissed off she c0ck blocked you for a whole week. Yeah, you missing out on 7 whole days of not getting head is WAY bigger issue than a woman having the *beep* beat out of her. You poopr thing, how did you ever survive that?


I'm erasing you and I'm happy!

Ha, a couple crazy Christians show up to reenforce that stereotype.

I had no motivation to help her. She already knew everything about everything. All the answers are in the book.

That woman married a guy she already knew had a drinking problem. She was going to fix him.

It's funny how because I disagreed with you you automatically thought I was a Christian WRONG. Alsoin your little 2 paragraph "story" you mentioned that she was a "Christian" 6 times!!! WOW did you think we were going to forget that the "protagonist" of your little story was a "Christian"???

It was a way to identify her without using her name. Obviously.

She also nearly always identified herself as a "Christian Woman". Lot's of Christians do that. Especially the crazy ones.

Couples often go into couples therapy not to solve problems, but to win the therapy. Almost like a mock-up divorce legal action. The easiest way to "win" in therapy is to have some kind of undeniable claim to exclusive victim hood. At first, we see Robert playing this card and Frances constantly on the defensive. Until at least she comes up the "emotional affair" false equivalency and then has Robert running for cover.

When we first see black eye lady, she is the one who looks nervous and her husband looks angry and defiant. She is probably looking at Frances assuming that Frances is automatically going to be judging her, like she is embarrassed about her black eye. Maybe you can speculate that the woman with the black eye has done something terrible, like an affair or she gambled away $100,000 or something and her husband assumes that he is the wronged party. When they get into therapy, the focus all goes to the physical abuse and now she has the upper hand. The next time they are in therapy, the balance of power is more even and she is more confident.

When Frances first saw her with the black eye, she (Frances) looked troubled by it, which I attributed to a few reasons: 1) the woman had probably been hit by her husband (!!); 2) sometimes people go to counseling too late, to try and salvage the unsalvageable, which probably gave Frances pause; and 3) the woman had been literally beaten up while Frances was being figuratively beaten up. Later, the other couple seemed happy, which was probably too much for Frances, who might have seen it as the woman's acceptance of abuse only to start the whole cycle again. Maybe Frances could imagine reconciling with her husband after the figurative "beating" but she knew their issues would still be there afterward.

Nice perspective

When Frances first saw her with the black eye .

I really like your take on this.

I was hoping Thomas Haden would knock this guy out when he walked past him.

The cycle of violence.

Husband beats wife (or the other way around, although rarer), then acts all sorry and says he's willing to do whatever it takes to make it up to her (like therapy?), it will never happen again, yada yada yada then things start to get better, wife is happier, thinks maybe it will really never happen again And then it does. Rinse, repeat until someone leaves or dies.

I'm not sure about the look she gave Frances but I interpreted as shame that she was still with the guy.

And on some small level, I think you owe me something for deceiving me so exquisitely.