MovieChat Forums > Mysterious Skin (2005) Discussion > Two Questions...

Two Questions...

posted 9 years ago by tristandude14
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I don't know if this has been discussed before, so forgive me, but are we supposed to assume that Avalyn was also abused at some point in her life? I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be obvious, but it almost seemed like Avalyn had an abusive past with her father and this is the reason why she was also blocking out memories.

My second question is...did Brian always know that there were no aliens or did it only occur to him when he and Neil met and went back to the coach's house? I thought that it was all in his subconscious to the point where he didn't remember at all, but it seemed like he instantly remembered and was talking about it like he knew all along. I'm sorry if these are dumb questions and I don't understand the whole concept of the repressive memories, but I just wanted to clear up these two things.

[–] blakkdog 9 years ago

I think your questions are related. I assumed Avalyn was using the alien abduction theory as a way to cover up her own abuse issues. Which was probably why her father was eyeing Brian so suspiciously when he first came over. It was just easier for her to deal with her situation living alone with her dad by making the reason for her trauma something else and then obsessing about it. And Brian was doing the same thing so they were kindred spirits at first. They reinforced each others escape mechanisms. But when she tries to get sexual with Brian, I think thats the moment Brian realizes this is about something else because of his viscerally strong reaction to the sexuality. He knows theres something specifically about sex that is a problem for him. And he probably realized it was the same for Avalyn because of the crude way she reacted. And he was already focused on Neil at that point but now his focus shifted from them sharing an abduction experience to logically them sharing an abuse experience.

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