[spoilers] Harry and Ruth. The Wonder Years.

[A Cousin]

(16-11-2010 04:13 PM)Silktie Wrote:  Upon rewatching 9.1, I'm a little confused as to what the truth is behind Ruth keeping Harry at arm's length. In 9.1 when she rejects his proposal, she clearly says that she can't marry him after the choices he's made - referring, we all assumed, to George and Nico. But in 9.7 she tells him that he's wrong to think that she still blames him for that.

Was she referring to other choices he made in 9.1, and if so, which choices? Or did she only realise when confronted with Nico's photo that she really doesn't blame him for that anymore, and that the problem is that she is apparently dead inside?

I had a little epiphany upon my rewatch of 9.1 the other night that pertains to this question. It is all still very vague in my head, but I'll try to express it succinctly.

Watching it with the knowledge that she doesn't blame Harry for George/Nico, rather that she blames herself for not feeling more guilty about it herself, the thought occurred to me that Ruth is questioning Harry about why it is so easy for him to compartmentalize and seemingly "move on" after "all the choices he has made" from an operational standpoint. The expression on her face after he insists that they "move on from this" is complete confusion at the shift. She then drops the bomb about Nicholas Blake (who says that Harry is the only one with rotten timing? ) and realizes after the fact that he is not reacting very well to the info. Does she know what he is going to do with it? I don't know. But she certainly knows what he did with it after the fact. Which he gives lip-service to as "sad" and she calls his bluff with her "Not really."

To offer my opinion re: your second question, I think she can't express the problem verbally until the conversation in the hospital. I don't think it is any grand revelation. It has always been there. She has just found the words for it. Or maybe she didn't realize that he thought that was why she was holding him off at arms length?