Warning: LONG....read the last 2 paragraphs for the short version. I'm engaging in frustration therapy at the keyboard today. :banghead::furious:
Ok, here's one of my theories. Its just one of many-a-day, as the puzzle pieces come in and I try and make them fit the whole picture. I keep askiing myself questions about some of the main pieces that just don't seem to fit, and I keep trying out scenarios that will make sense of the mysteries.
Big mystery (to me anyway) is the Smith's attitude from the first that we saw of them in the media early on. How COULD they be so unattached to Gabriel's plight? How COULD they be so supportive and defensive of EJ's position?
So this is my newest theory: (please shoot holes in it, I beg you)
The Smiths latch on to Gabriel with a passion. TS clearly adored having him, held him, dressed him, shopped for him, fed him, renamed him, and began to think of him as their own. When Logan gets legal rights to custodial time, the Smiths see the 'dad' as a threat to their future with Gabriel. They become every bit as impassioned as EJ to keep Logan from Gabriel. Several days before Logan's period of custody, the Smiths formulate a plan and help EJ run, give her money, GPS, help in getting fake id, etc., and tell her to get out of town while they handle Logan. They are even prepared to let EJ live in their house in TN to establish a new jurisdiction while EJ, of course, allows them to care for Gabriel, much like what they did with H. It's just a matter of fulfilling a time requirement, after all, then they can act from there.
Their plan fails. Logan is not a sellout or a pushover. Desperate, the Smiths call on the person who had helped them before. Since she suffered some serious consequences the last time she helped TS, this time she tells them its not worth it, it won't work, their best bet is to go to that court date loaded with bear so that EJ can get full custody of Gabriel again. Maybe they had a plan to 'set-up Logan' with more charges/legal trouble. H's father swears this happened to him. Maybe they, for a moment, thought they could somehow push Logan over the edge and cause him to walk away from his son if they just had more time.
TS tells EJ to come back, they will MAKE it work out in the end. EJ is enraged at the indignity of having to go through the court to retain her full rights to do whatever she wants. Remember, she is probably BPD bipolar, this is how she thinks. She already told us that in her phone interview from Miami where she says she's mad that Logan went through the court instead of through her. EJ tells TS NEVER NEVER NEVER will I come back there and submit to Logan OR the court.
EJ then takes one step further the next time they talk: she tells TS she would rather DIE than bring Gabriel back. And if she can't have Gabriel 100% to do with whatever she wants, and TS can't have him, he would be better off dead too.
TS, because of her own past painful history with her kids, makes a comment to the effect that she thought the same thing many times herself about her own kids.
EJ ends up doing the unthinkable. She thinks it really is better for him in the long run, he's in heaven now with her mom, where every day is sunshine and roses. Many mothers who kill have this kind of thought process. Being narcissistic, she just can't kill herself too. So she leaves everything where it is, goes next door, assumes her multiple personality #2, and starts her new life.
Missing puzzle piece: How in God's name could the Smiths have been so kind and supportive to her when she just gave away Gabriel to a stranger or killed him?
Answer: The Smiths have knowledge that they said something that caused EJ to kill Gabriel, maybe not intending that to happen, because they don't understand BPD, bipolar, and obsessive compulsive thinking. Being in shock and denial, they go into "Gabriel is perfectly safe and happy, EJ is a good mother and would never hurt her baby". They continue to insist in the media and to anyone who will listen that "that baby is alive and well". It beats the public thinking they pushed EJ over the ledge. In the beginning, they didn't even think it would make them look suspicious as having him kidnapped themselves. They are defending EJ from the horrible act of murder and their own responsibility for it. In their first conversation with EJ after her arrest, TS coaches her to say to a nation that Logan did the pushing. JS coaches her to stick with giving Gabriel away because when his looks change, no one can ever find him anyway and therefore they can't prove she killed him either. TS can't dredge up any apparent anger toward EJ because EJ is Tammi's own story all over again in a sad historical kind of way, she identifies with her. She can't even be mad at the numerous lies EJ told, because she herself lies all the time and feels justified in it. Waaaay too much identification going on there!
My theory is basically that they have known from the beginning EJ killed Gabriel. Everything else since has been smoke and mirrors. Their seething anger at Logan for keeping them from what they wanted and had convinced themselves was what was right for Gabriel made them blame Logan for the whole mess, publicly, for weeks, rught up until the tide turned so overwhelmingly against them that someone convinced them they were hurting themelves with that position.
TS may have the "hell hath no fury" kind of scorn-produced rage that would lead her to send Logan that message I was told of by one of the family members that witnessed it " may God forgive you for what you have caused her to do". At that time, she did know EJ had killed Gabriel, and she was owning up to it then. Cover up started immediately afterwards, as she had deleted that message by morning. MOO MOOO MOOOOOOOOO