Is Mandy a Murderer?

Although we hated Karen for leaving her child, and her mother, and Lip – for skirting town and running away – somehow we empathize with her. I have known similar people. While these people were not even close to as extreme as the characters on this show, I’ve had people that were close to me that ran away, for whatever reason, emotionally or physically. People sometimes feel it’s easier to run then to stick it out and fix what’s wrong. It’s flight or fight. I’ve wanted to run away at times, too.

So, when Karen comes back, I didn’t really hate her. In fact, I hated her more when she was still in Canaryville, fighting with her mother and Lip – the only two people that really cared for her. I wanted her to go so that she couldn’t walk all over the only people that truly loved her in that rundown town. Now that she’s back with her “tail between her legs,” I don’t hate her at all. I want her to get her life back together, back on track, make up with her mom, take care of her little baby. But that was never bound to happen.

After the viewers learn that it was actually Mandy that ran down Karen and left her bleeding in the middle of the street, we flinched. We recoiled at the implications. Something about what Mandy did was so vicious, so vindictive it’s hard too even grasp. Mandy puts a lot of effort into planning and executing this attempted murder. Firstly, Mandy steals Lip’s phone, and texts Karen to meet her in the park. Karen, thinking she is meeting Lip, agrees. As Karen heads down the street, accomplices in the first car distract her by hanging out the window and honking loudly as they drive past. While she is watching the first car disappear down the street, Mandy makes no mistake in aiming her vehicle directly at Karen’s tiny frame.

We don’t know all the details, we don’t even know about Karen’s condition, if she is alive or dead. We don’t know if Mandy was actually the one driving the car that careened into Karen. And Karen hasn’t been an exemplary human being. She has caused a lot of pain. Since Karen came back, she has only antagonized Mandy, not to mention slept with her boyfriend, Lip. And let’s keep in mind that in cases concerning adultery cars sometimes do tend to hit those involved. 

But directing 4,000 pounds of steel toward another human being is awful. Let’s remember that Karen and her mother Sheila were fighting that same day, and although they sort of make up, Sheila is going to be devastated. Cars and people don’t mix. Cars are weapons and we shouldn’t forget that. What Mandy did was so evocative because it was so venomous. Mandy has just irrevocably altered Karen’s life, and whether or not we care to see Karen in another episode, we can help but think of the implications.