When She Returned

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of addiction, child abuse, self-harm, death, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

The complexity of family is a fundamental focus of When She Returned. Scott is married to both Meredith and Kate, and both marriages and families focus on the same child, Abbi. Each marriage also features a running conflict grounded in the different desires and perspectives of spouses. Part of the reason for Kate’s abandonment of Scott and Abbi is the fact that Kate wants to try new things, but Scott is set in his ways. Scott and Meredith’s marriage features an uneven power dynamic in which Meredith values her relationship with Scott over her prior marriage to James, but Scott values his marriage to Kate more than his marriage with Meredith. Meanwhile, Abbi is caught in the middle of these conflicts: She is fed an outdated, idealistic vision of Scott and Kate’s marriage, excluded from the “adult” conversations surrounding Kate’s return, and perpetually uncomfortable with Meredith as her stepmother. Through these characters’ struggles to maintain and even define their families, Berry illustrates the importance of communication and compromise in marriage, parenting, and family.

Berry presents Scott’s inability to compromise and Kate’s lack of communication as two important factors in Kate’s abandonment.