Then why can’t it be possible that she decided as much as him? Sure there was pressure there but it was of her own making Scott never told her to put out or get out as they say. He WAS deceptive in that he didn’t disclose he intended on seeing others but at that point she should have drawn a line if she really wasn’t ready to have an adult relationship with him. I seriously doubt that many girls of any age lose their virginity feeling 100% ready and 100% unpressured (if that’s even a word).
That’s a dim view of human sexuality, and even if it’s accurate, it doesn’t mean I can’t feel bad for a kid who makes a decision like that for the wrong reasons. If Scott cared about her, he certainly had enough information to know she was doing it for the wrong reasons.
But anyway, my reading of the show was that Sarah succumbed to pressure, much of it internally generated. The kid has issues, and I feel bad for her, as she spent most of the season trying very hard to sort out her family’s craziness. Scott, OTOH, generates no sympathy from me. If he couldn’t be just a friend to her when she was so confused and upset, he should have left her alone and found another adult to fulfill his needs. I don’t see how that’s me having a low opinion of Sarah.
Scott was kind of a douche. I’m not hugely outraged by him, but more like a little skeeved. He’s cute (yeah, I was checking out that package along with Lois), but my estimation of him has gone down.
I also don’t think Sarah is so “retarded” when it comes to dating. She’s only seventeen. She (and Scott, for that matter) is making the same mistakes that most people make well into their twenties. I don’t really think that most kids going into college have all that much experience about how dating “works”…or at least, I didn’t. I mean, considering the small pool of “applicants” in high school, can you blame her? She had to go to an anti Mormon group to meet this guy.
Dim view? Where on earth did you grow up where girls 16-25 were so in charge of their sexuality that they only had sex in ideal situations? And there’s a difference between feeling bad for a girl not making the best choices in the world and lumping almost all of the blame on the guy that just happens to be benefiting from those poor choices. She has done the majority of the pursuing and made the majority of the choices in this relationship from my point of view and though I think the guy is a whimp (for letting her get threatened by her uncle and just sitting there) and deceptive (for not disclosing his other relationships) he does seem to sincerely care about her (when he went to her father to tell him about the incident) and trying to get her help when she ran out of the Ex-Mormon group.
He’s 27 and seems to have issues of his own it’s possible he was willing to be ‘just friends’ with her (his lack of direct pressure about the sex may have been a sign he thought of her as more of a friend then anything else) he’s trying to help in his own crappy poorly thought out way. Though I don’t like the character and no doubt he’s going to screw over Sarah big time he’s not really a ‘dirtbag’ or a predator. Just a loser.
OK, a realistic view, if you will. I don’t think that negates the possibility of feeling bad for the kid in this situation.
He had more than enough information to know that he was taking advantage of a bad situation in the life of a young and naive girl. I think that places the lion’s share of the blame on him. I also wonder if some of the reason he did it was to take a shot at Bill, who threatened him and told him to stay away from Sarah. His motives here are none too sterling, and they definitely do not come from love for her. She, at least, seems to think she does love him.
I don’t think so. Seemed pretty mutual to me. Once he found out she was still in high school, that should have been the end of it for him. Knowing all that he knows about her now, he definitely should have walked away before sex happened. I do give a 28 year old more credit for good judgment in these situations than a 16 or 17 year old.
I don’t think he’s a predator. I do think he’s a dirtbag and a loser, though we may have different definitions of what a dirtbag is. Overall, I think we agree about things. It’s not that Sarah has zero responsibility for her decisions; it’s that I think an older, more experienced, more worldly person has a pretty easy time taking advantage of the bad judgement of a younger, more naive person, and that’s what happened here. When stuff like that happens, I tend to pity the more naive person and think the more worldly person is a douche for taking advantage.
To change subjects, was anyone else kind of hoping they’d do something with the insinuations that Rhonda made about Sarah/Heather in this final episode? Or something with Rhonda, for that matter? I guess I’m still not sure if Rhonda was right, or if Heather was just afraid it would be right. I know they showed Heather telling her parents (well…telling them something) which would maybe suggest that there isn’t any truth to it. But the parents haven’t dumped Rhonda yet. And Heather certainly isn’t planning on telling Sarah…is she?
Then again, the look on Heather’s face suggested she was afraid when Rhonda said that. If there was no truth to it, why would she have been so scared of Sarah finding out?
That’s fair enough I suppose. I see him more as an opportunistic loser then actively corrupting her. He does seem to just say enough to assuage his own guilt then go ahead and get his rocks off. Which I guess makes him have a lot in common with Bill after all.
They really let the door wide open there didn’t they? I can see Heather being scared even if it wasn’t true because Sarah is her only real friend and she might be afraid of that driving a wedge between them. Why she’d think Sarah would believe anything Rhonda said is another matter. I’m guessing it’s true and Heather did some poisoning of the well where her mom was concerned. God only knows what she said to her mom and what impact that will have.
…such a low opinion that you have to make Sarah a simpering weakling to justify it. Even though SHE came back to him with a deal she thought would work “You can see other people because I’m not having sex.” and somehow he’s to blame? And how Sarah ASSUMED they were in a committed single relationship even though no apparent discussion happened, he’s to blame. It’s not like we saw a ton of their relationship in the series. It’s only been a few weeks since they met.
And I guess Scott’s Machiavelian machinations are what led Sarah to completely turn away from the beliefs of her family… and not… y’know the destructive effect their beliefs have had on her family. Sarah’s just a ball being bounced around I guess and has had no say in her life whatsoever.
Sorry, doesn’t hold up.
What is Scott anyway? 
Is he a grad student?
Sigh. Vulnerable, naive, young, inexperienced. Not weakling. But you seem set on taking an argumentative tone and telling me what I think, so I’m not sure it’s worth derailing this thread.
And he wasn’t suspicious or concerned when she suddenly, completely reversed herself on that very firm decision mere days later?
I’m not sure how long it was. She assumed because she’s a naive kid. She seemed to think they were in love and didn’t realize she had to make it explicit. That was a sign that they were at cross purposes and that he was operating on a different level than she was, as is so often true of 16 year olds v. 28 year olds, and why such a big age difference at that point in life is so often a bad idea. It just doesn’t mean as much to him as it does to her.
That’s not what I said. I thought he manipulated the situation-- took advantage. You don’t think so. Fine. Agree to disagree.
You made this up if you think I said this.
Suspicious because a woman changed her mind? Surely you jest.
I found Bill’s confrontation of Scott to be less than fatherly. Had a 28 year old man become interested in my daughter at seventeen, my private discussion with him woul dhave taken a much different direction than Bill’s, and the outcome would have been …different.
LH75, (father of two daughters)
Hello, Longhair! 
Keep in mind that the society in question is pretty different from ours. Bill’s moment with Scott might well have been fatherly given what fathering means to the people involved.
Suspicion that maybe you’re doing the wrong thing by continuing to have a sexual-type relationship.