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Fictional Women Around the World: Rebecca Welton · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephane
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Never told your protection of I Heart Radio, and welcome
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to another edition of Fictional Women around the World subsub
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  Speaker 1: sub sub sub subsub segment. And this one was a
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  Speaker 1: listener suggestion, So thanks, as always for your suggestions. We
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  Speaker 1: do take them into account and we very much enjoy
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  Speaker 1: getting them. Today we're talking about Rebecca Welton from the
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  Speaker 1: critically acclaimed Apple Plus sports comedy show ted Lassa which
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  Speaker 1: I recently just watch all of them in a whirlwind
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  Speaker 1: today and I loved it. There are going to be
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  Speaker 1: some broad strokes of the show and plotline, so if
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  Speaker 1: you haven't seen it yet and don't want to be spoiled,
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  Speaker 1: come back to this one later. It's gonna be fairly unspoilery,
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  Speaker 1: but still spoilery, So just a it probably spoilery, just
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  Speaker 1: go ahead and say that. So. Rebecca Walton formerly Rebecca Manion,
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  Speaker 1: is played by Hannah Waddingham, who, if you're not familiar,
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  Speaker 1: she was the priest mother and Game of Thrones that
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  Speaker 1: did shame shame. I did not know that. At the
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  Speaker 1: end of the first season. I was like, what was her?
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  Speaker 1: But you should know this, so The show starts literally
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  Speaker 1: the very first scene with Rebecca going through a really
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  Speaker 1: hard divorce after she finds out that her husband, Rubromanion
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  Speaker 1: was having affairs that were printed in the tabloids. And
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  Speaker 1: Rubert Manion is played by Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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  Speaker 1: Oh really, did you not notice this? I didn't know that. No,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't notice it. Wow, I'm pretty sure you have
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  Speaker 1: face blindness. I'm very sir, just kidding. No, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: but yeah, that's and that's why I'm like, oh god,
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  Speaker 1: he's such a bad care but I loved him in Buffy.
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  Speaker 1: Why why? So she takes control over the football team
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  Speaker 1: aka the soccer team, which was originally owned by her
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  Speaker 1: husband and he loved it. It It was his life. Uh
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  Speaker 1: it is a f. C. Richmond As she knew he
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  Speaker 1: loved it and was glad to take it in the divorce.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yes, because he loved this team so much, she
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  Speaker 1: was determined to run it into the ground as the
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  Speaker 1: new owner. So as part of this, she hires Ted Lasso,
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  Speaker 1: an American football North American football coach who knows nothing
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  Speaker 1: about soccer slash football um and this action infuriates the
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  Speaker 1: fan base to Rebecca's absolute vindictive delight. But Ted is
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  Speaker 1: like so kind and he sort of his impervious to
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  Speaker 1: Rebecca's attempts to rebuff his friendship, his attempts at friendship, um,
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  Speaker 1: and he's like wearing her down with his biscuits with
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  Speaker 1: the ball. She's determined to hate him, and he's determined
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  Speaker 1: to not get let that get in away at her. Ever,
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  Speaker 1: so this doesn't happen all at once. The Rebecca tries
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  Speaker 1: to tarnish Ted's reputation by publishing pictures of him with Keeley,
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  Speaker 1: who is also another fantastic character, a model and the
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  Speaker 1: girlfriend of star AFC Richmond player Jamie Tart, but the
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  Speaker 1: picture doesn't get published nope. Um. Throughout the show, we
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  Speaker 1: see Rebecca healing and struggling with her divorce, and we
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  Speaker 1: see how that ripples out into her friendships. As part
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  Speaker 1: of her new duties, Rebecca is expected to host the
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  Speaker 1: tenth annual benefit for underprivileged children, something she's like really
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  Speaker 1: nervous about. It's never done before. It's actually one of
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  Speaker 1: my favorite scenes I think is when Keyely Rebecca reveals
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  Speaker 1: to Kiely she's really nervous about being on the red
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  Speaker 1: carpet and speaking, and Keiley gives her like this advice.
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  Speaker 1: It's like, oh, you've got it, here's how you do it.
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  Speaker 1: I loved it. I loved it. So this event gets
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  Speaker 1: worse when her ex Rupert shows up and kind of
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  Speaker 1: takes over. Rebecca confides and ted about how she can
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  Speaker 1: only see this side. She's the only one that can
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  Speaker 1: see this side of repert um and then tells Keiely
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  Speaker 1: that people must be held accountable for their actions, which
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  Speaker 1: leads Keyely to break it off with Jamie and go
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  Speaker 1: out for a drink with Rebecca instead. And Keely had
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  Speaker 1: previously told Rebecca that she respects her and is intimidated
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  Speaker 1: by her. Yeah. I love that whole thing. And from there,
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  Speaker 1: Keely and Rebecca's friendship grows. It's beautiful. I love it.
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  Speaker 1: With Rebecca taking Keely under her wing, they go on
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  Speaker 1: a work trip together and Rebecca introduces Keely to her
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  Speaker 1: good friend Flow Slash Sassy love her as well, and
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  Speaker 1: we meet her daughter later on by the way. Later
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  Speaker 1: that night, Sassy volunteers at Rebecca for ka Yuki and
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  Speaker 1: she sings let It Go from Frozen Beat Dubs. She
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  Speaker 1: kills it and has an amazing voice, just in case,
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  Speaker 1: Ted has a panic attack about his divorce with his
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  Speaker 1: wife during the performance, Rebecca comforts him. Ted later texts her,
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  Speaker 1: thanking her, and then Rebecca has a one night stand,
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  Speaker 1: but not with Ted, and Ted also has a one
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  Speaker 1: night stand. Yes he does, but we do get to
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  Speaker 1: continue to see a supportive friendship blossom between Ted and Rebecca.
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  Speaker 1: When Rebecca is nervous about meeting some shareholders called the
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  Speaker 1: Milk Sisters, she asked Ed to come along for moral
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  Speaker 1: support to this meeting. The pair arrive only to find
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  Speaker 1: Rupert is there with a young woman he is now dating,
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  Speaker 1: named Beck's Um, and Beck's bought out the shares of
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  Speaker 1: the Milk Sisters as part of the Rupert's plan to
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  Speaker 1: regain some control over the team. Angry on Rebecca's behalf,
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  Speaker 1: Ted challenges Rupert to darts Um with the stipulation that
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  Speaker 1: if Ted wins, Rupert cannot join Rebecca in the owner's box.
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  Speaker 1: And Ted wins. And it's very satisfying. It's very very satisfying.
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  Speaker 1: It does feel good. Yes, Rebecca still sometimes puts getting
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  Speaker 1: back at Rupert over what's best for the team, eventually
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  Speaker 1: causing her, like long time assistant Higgins, to quit Keiley
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  Speaker 1: finds out that Rebecca was behind the Paparassi photos of
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  Speaker 1: her and Ted and confronts her, demanding that she telled
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  Speaker 1: Ted the truth, which were Becca eventually does. Ted, of
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  Speaker 1: course forgives her. Later, she finds Ted on Christmas uh
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  Speaker 1: and spends the day with him, handing out gifts to
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  Speaker 1: children in need, not wanting him to be alone the
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  Speaker 1: first Christmas after his divorce. It's very very sweet. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: their relationship is real sweet. And by the way, in
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  Speaker 1: this whole time, there is a dating site that happens.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's after No, it's during the Christmas episode
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  Speaker 1: that we find out that Rebecca is talking to somebody
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  Speaker 1: and so as Ted, I was so confused, just so
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  Speaker 1: I want to put that out there. Yes, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people were. I think there were so many back
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  Speaker 1: and forth. I was like, what anyway, So because that
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  Speaker 1: wasn't obviously are they going to get together as they're
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  Speaker 1: going to hook each other up with what's happening? And
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  Speaker 1: I think they've done a really good job in maintaining
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  Speaker 1: that as a friendship. I love that. So we get
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  Speaker 1: to see Rebecca successfully bond with our goddaughter on Nora,
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  Speaker 1: who is hilarious and sassy as well, so probably appropriate
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  Speaker 1: that it's Sassy's daughter. Um. The two had a close
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  Speaker 1: relationship when Nora was younger, but after Rebecca kind of disappeared,
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  Speaker 1: kind of faded, and Rebecca offered an excited Nora did
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  Speaker 1: the chance to shadow her at work after doing some
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  Speaker 1: MAYA help us and with Nora's help, she refuses to
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  Speaker 1: fire the player who wouldn't wear Dubai Air as a
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  Speaker 1: sponsor due to their track record in his home country
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  Speaker 1: BT dubbs. I had to look up if it was real.
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  Speaker 1: It is not. Dubai is not is not a real
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  Speaker 1: company because I really thought it was. I was like,
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  Speaker 1: oh my godness, it is not, because that was one
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  Speaker 1: of the number one questions to Yet the player Sam
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  Speaker 1: was in a commercial with Dubai Air and he asked
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  Speaker 1: to pull out of it after his dad was like,
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  Speaker 1: oh no, no, no, do not know how it's happening
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  Speaker 1: in your home right? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, so yes. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: Keily is helping Rebecca get back into dating using this
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  Speaker 1: new app called Banter that Keiley is promoting, and Rebecca
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  Speaker 1: as a few matches, but she meets one she's really
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  Speaker 1: excited about. She learns later it was one of the players.
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  Speaker 1: Though she knows there are all these reasons they shouldn't
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  Speaker 1: see each other. She's his boss, she's older. They do
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  Speaker 1: go through with it anyway. That's kind of where it ends.
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  Speaker 1: By the end of the second season, which there are
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  Speaker 1: only two out right now, she has really grown and
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  Speaker 1: become one of the team's top supporters. So there are
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  Speaker 1: a couple of things that are interesting about this character
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  Speaker 1: in terms of portrayals of women in positions of power.
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  Speaker 1: For one, though she's technically the antagonist, or she starts
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  Speaker 1: as the antagonist, anyway, it's hard to hate her. We
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  Speaker 1: can see where she's coming from and empathize with her.
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  Speaker 1: It's rewarding to see her get revenge against her husband.
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  Speaker 1: We want her to get revenge against her husband, even
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  Speaker 1: if that is not fitting with our also want of
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  Speaker 1: ted Lasso to do well on the team to do well.
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  Speaker 1: We see her character arc and growth, especially through her
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  Speaker 1: friendship with Ted, which I also find very refreshing that
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  Speaker 1: it's a platonic friendship between these two. She goes from
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  Speaker 1: using Ted like a pawn, uncaring of what that means
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  Speaker 1: for him, to apologizing to him and hugging him. After
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  Speaker 1: Higgins quits, she seeks him out and sincerely asked him
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  Speaker 1: to come back. She apologizes to her best friend for
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  Speaker 1: letting her marriage drive their friendship apart drive this wedge
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  Speaker 1: and their friendship. We see Rebecca making these amends even
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  Speaker 1: though she struggles with desire for revenge. In the end,
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  Speaker 1: she chooses justice to live a better life than move forward.
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  Speaker 1: And that's you know, that's what they say, isn't it.
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  Speaker 1: H A life well lived is the best revenge something
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  Speaker 1: like that. Another thing is Rebecca is a fully fleshed
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  Speaker 1: out character. While she looks the part of the ice
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  Speaker 1: queen or your stereotypical p our boss, she has layered um.
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  Speaker 1: In some moments she shows vulnerability carrying down all these
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  Speaker 1: different sides of her. She has friends and families. She
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  Speaker 1: has a career and a life, which is very rare.
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  Speaker 1: We get to see a woman having both. While she
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  Speaker 1: does have all of this pain from the divorce, um,
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  Speaker 1: we get to see her struggle with that. We also
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  Speaker 1: get to see her heal too and have these healing moments.
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  Speaker 1: And another thing, as we do get to see Rebecca
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  Speaker 1: support of friendships with other women. I think every time
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  Speaker 1: I would watch the show, because I was always suspicious
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  Speaker 1: of motives of like the shows. It was genuinely refreshing
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  Speaker 1: to see these relationships. Her and Keeley, who are two
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  Speaker 1: very different people who come from very different walks of life,
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  Speaker 1: gave each other great advice and really helped build each
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  Speaker 1: other up. They don't compete with each other, they don't
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  Speaker 1: compete with other women's lovely and I also really do
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  Speaker 1: love seeing I'd love seeing her relationship with her mom,
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  Speaker 1: like there was a giant breakdown, and I think we
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  Speaker 1: can all relate to you not wanting to be exactly
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  Speaker 1: like our mom's and and seeing the flaults and praying
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  Speaker 1: that we're not like that. And for Rebecca, she actually
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  Speaker 1: goes through a moment of like, I'm being like my
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  Speaker 1: mother and don't I don't want this because we find
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  Speaker 1: out during her father's funeral so many bad things, and
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  Speaker 1: we've already been introduced to her because she was threatening
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  Speaker 1: to leave him because he was being inappropriate or I
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  Speaker 1: think having affairs. I don't know what he was doing,
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  Speaker 1: but it was apparently he's an ass and that's how
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  Speaker 1: it's built up and the mom and she's been wanting
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  Speaker 1: her mom to get out, but it doesn't happen, and
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  Speaker 1: then they're like real breakdown of their relationship and having
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  Speaker 1: a real conversation about that how that impacted their life.
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  Speaker 1: I thought that was a really genuinely nice moment too. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I think it's it's nice. That's one of the things
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  Speaker 1: that I think people are it's really resonating with people
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  Speaker 1: about the show, which is it does feel like just
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  Speaker 1: a nice representation of somebody who you think is going
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  Speaker 1: to be the villain and it staid you're kind of like,
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  Speaker 1: oh no, I see, and you do. You do have
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  Speaker 1: all of this growth and you see all of this kindness,
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  Speaker 1: and I love seeing these relationships between women, UM that
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  Speaker 1: just feel very real and really thought out. UM. I'm
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  Speaker 1: very very supportive. I love it. I love it, UM.
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  Speaker 1: And we do also get to see online dating as
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  Speaker 1: an older woman and what that's like for her. That's
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  Speaker 1: pretty rare as well in our media landscape. So yeah,
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  Speaker 1: just all around recommend it. If you haven't checked it
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  Speaker 1: out yet, I would say go do it. There it
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  Speaker 1: is UM. And in the meantime, we always love getting
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  Speaker 1: suggestions from you listeners. You can email us at stuffidia Mom,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: stuff at iHeart media dot com. You can find us
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: on Instagram at Stuff I Never Told You or on
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Twitter at Moms Toff Podcast. Thanks as always to our
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: super producer Christina, Thank you, and thanks to you for
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: listening Stuff I Never Told You the prediction of I
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcast on I Heart Radio her
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: if you app Apple Podcasts, or ever you listen to
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: your favorite shows, h