M O T I O N

FLORA

Dance is a vehicle deeply intertwined with many different facets of human existence. However, one of the most common avenues that connect it to the Human Being is its manifestation within spirituality. Across human history, from the Yoruba of West Africa to the Greeks of Eleusis to the tribes of early America to the modern Buddhists and so on, it is true that where there is worship, there is dance. Flora is an embodiment of this relationship between the divine and the immediate human world.

However, while her connection to spirituality is deeply ingrained into her identity, like any Human thing it is complex. A weapon as much as it is a shield, escape as much as it is salvation. In many ways, her connection to the intangible nature of the spirit is a shelter she uses to weather the difficulties and chaos found within the immediate world. In order to preserve this refuge she, at times, has the tendency to avert her gaze away from the truth that not everything makes sense. However, whether she knows it or not, to deny that truth is to also deny a fundamental aspect of one’s own humanity.

Over the course of the first season, Flora will be challenged by the mundane and sometimes darker realities of the dance world and we will discover the extent to which she can exist in a system she doesn’t necessarily believe in.

BAILEY

While dance is many things, it is also true that it is not many others. Between paychecks with not enough zeros, extreme internal (and external) competition, the constant fear of injury, and the eternal looming knowledge of entropy as it pertains to an aging body, professional dance is not the most stable of career paths. Bailey is slowly learning that passion is a privilege and only a single value in a world of many.

While he is an all around solid dancer with a genuine respect for the craft, on some level he is aware that the pursuit of greatness is not one that brings happiness. However, as that thought is still only just teetering on the lip of consciousness, he still has yet to realize why it is he doesn’t feel happy or secure with his life at Wolf Street.

This dissatisfaction lies at the root of his friendship with Quinn where, in exchange for ignoring all of the ways in which she is cruel with her distance, he has been able to find some vicarious satisfaction in her success. As Quinn spirals downwards, Bailey will remove himself from this dynamic and, now on his own, be forced to encounter that which he has been trying to ignore.

ANDREA

Heavy is the head that wears the crown and Andrea’s head has been graced (and burdened) by its weight for nigh on a decade. Perhaps it is the muscles in her neck weakening but as the years accumulate so too has the weight of it all. Whatever the reason, Andrea’s story is centered around this clinging. Through her we will understand what it means to wear a crown, what it means to let it go, and the understanding that this metaphor is really only just that, a metaphor.

Throughout the series, Andrea will stretch her branches out more fully into the other facets of dance and, from a new perspective, relearn most of what she knows of the games within Wolf Street.

MIA

The newest to Wolf Street, Mia is still finding her footing in the brave new world of company politics, professional dance, and adulthood. While she laments that the twilight hour of her youth has come, she is grateful that it has not yet passed. So, as is so often the providence of the young, we’ll discover both the extent of her plasticity and the depths of her appetite, the latter of which seems to almost border on the frightening.

In future seasons she will navigate the night of young adulthood and find that, in the inevitable morning, youth was only ever a state of mind and that somehow, her hunger to devour the world has only grown.

LOUIS

The Sun King. Confident, Louis moves as the sun does, with the knowledge that the world revolves around him. On what level he is aware of the limitations of his own humanity is a matter of debate and a debate he will certainly not engage in, at least not as an unbiased participant. To him, Wolf Street is his kingdom and the denizens that inhabit it are simply not yet aware of it having already been conquered. Whether this is all a stubborn, intentional manifestation of success or not, his excellence in Motion does seem to have an air of almost some divine providence.

While not meaning to, his confidence and ability will serve as a kind of antagonism to all those who encounter him, challenging each person to respond.

KETUGAY (KET)

Ket, a second-generation Senegalese-American, approaches her work thoughtfully and with great pragmatism. The expectations she sets for herself are high and just far enough away that she must always be reaching, in a constant state of continuous improvement. She works hard and believes that, eventually, it will culminate with her likeness etched somewhere within the halls of greatness.

Ultimately, she will realize that not all are bestowed with talent and while this will break her, it is through that breaking that she will be able to pick up the pieces and discover that she can reassemble them into something more than what was there before.

MATAN

An exchange member from the Batsheva dance company in Israel, Matan carries a heavy question of Home on his shoulders. Aware of the fact that his time in Wolf Street carries an expiration date he is doing all he can to make the most of his life in the present moment. He is learning all he can, experiencing all he can (within the limits of his values), and trying to be the best he can be in every moment he can be it. What he is still trying to figure out, however, is Who is he doing this all for?

tiff

As one weaves their own way across the wide tapestry of life, sooner or later they are likely to encounter a specific type of person, a kind of individual who doesn’t skip or sprint through the world as much as they seem to burst through it. Such people, when they pass you by, are able to somehow leave you with the faint sense that, for a moment, even you were a secondary character to your own life.

Blessed with a majority of the cornerstones of success: confidence, talent, work ethic, and, above all, the instinct and ability to be decisive, Tiff has no problem knocking down the walls that might take others months or even lifetimes to chisel away at. However, while she can move freely throughout the world in so many ways, climbing mountains as easily as hills, at the top of such summits she still looks out and feels like something is not quite right.

On loan to another company in New York, she will be largely absent for the first season but re-appear in the second.

Tiff is a question of Where, and naturally, through her we will explore its Why. In the third season, she will be one of the first to depart Wolf Street and her departure will challenge those who remain, daring any brave enough to follow in her footsteps.

b company

Debuting in the third season, there will be a second corps. Rife with the passion and the pitfalls of youth, this second-string company will challenge, learn, play and, above all, mirror certain crucial aspects of those we have known and familiarized ourselves within the company up until that point. As many of these dancers are at the beginning of their own lives and professional careers, they will naturally encounter questions that we will already have explored, however, through the growth of our main cast, will we now be able to see these questions in new lights and realize that, more than any answer, it is the questions themselves that are most important.

RYAN

Given the general patriarchal structure that has pervaded throughout the larger global landscape and settled across nearly all of our institutions and systems, it is odd to imagine men as an under-served demographic in any capacity. However, in the world of dance, a setting that tends to challenge the more traditional interpretations of masculinity, that is nevertheless the case. As a minority, the male dancer is generally insulated from the intensity of pressure and competition that is more common to their female counterparts. If they miss a step they can be given clemency. If they are out of sync they can be given grace. So while it is true that a male dancer is rare, it is an even rarer occurrence for one to be cut out. For a male dancer to run the rope out on the natural mercy given to their position as an endangered species, they must be consistently inadequate or the company must be in turmoil. In Ryan’s case it is both.

A dancer of middling skill, Ryan is the first but certainly not last corps member sentenced to the chopping block. As we first meet our characters in the pilot, his absence, and the portent of what is to come implied by it, looms over the corps at large. However, as we progress throughout the season, even his memory shall be quickly buried and forgotten as the axe continues to fall and others join in the legacy of the professionally executed.

As we begin to explore the larger dance world that exists outside of Wolf Street in our third season, Ryan will reappear briefly from an external position. While he won’t inspire anyone to follow him down his exact path of an acro (and clown), his illumination of yet another road to the outside will serve as a source of fuel that inspires some of our Movers to begin explorations of their own.

robert kurvitz – founder

At least in the way that we tend to think of it, in gilded, capital letters that shine across the landscapes of our mind, Robert was never destined for greatness. His providence was a quieter thing. Aware of his own limitations as a dancer but not as a person, he was blessed with the rare selfless kind of passion that was (and still is) able to infect those around him, stoking their fires into infernos that, when combined, seemed capable of moving the heavens. Robert’s love is everyone’s love and so Wolf Street’s success was everyone’s success.

However, outside of his passion, one of the other rare traits that placed him at the epicenter of such grander human conglomerates was the scope of his vision. He wanted to create something bigger, something that would last. So, out of the humble Kurvitz Studio spaces was Wolf Street born and so too did he step down as Creative Director two decades ago, as he became aware of the fact that monuments last longer than any statue.

That is not to say he is gone, however. As he constantly proclaims, until he dies will be alive so, as an eternal fan of dance and content with the pace of his own Motion, Robert still peeks his head in from above, offering help (or on rare occasions, orders), as he navigates the more pure political spheres of Chicago, being an envoy of the cultural one he knows as home. In fact, throughout his travels in these not-so-distant worlds, he encountered and hired Wolf Street’s latest executive director.

As a Human, Robert offers love and love and love.

GABRIEL COLEMAN – EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Hailing from Chicago’s non-profit branch of city hall more specifically, its Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Gabriel has been newly appointed as Executive Director. Although new to this role and this particular vantage point, he is savvy, dedicated, and, above all, patient with his approach to understanding.

He hasn’t yet been able to decipher the creative personalities and mentalities that dominate Wolf Street, through the gives and takes of wins and losses that eternally pave the way of those who lead, he will one day be able to recognize the creative ego well enough to discern which parts are rooted in immaturity, stubbornness, and wishful thinking so extreme it borders on the insane, and which parts contain the fruits of philosophic or fundamental truth.

As a leader, Gabriel offers a dose of reality. The knowledge that while lightning is a powerful force, one can best survive its strike by staying grounded.

peter callison – CREATIVE DIRECTOR

The longest standing member of Wolf Street, Peter has been with the company for around 25 years. He wears the dedication of these years to the company as a general wears their medals, visibly on the chest and with a marshal sort of pride. Without any shadow of a doubt he believes that, given his complete commitment to the company, he is the person most aware and capable of steering the company to where it needs to go.

It is this steadfastness of belief, this rigidity, that will ultimately serve as his greatest foe. While his roots are deep and his foundation sturdy, it is also true that the trees that can’t bend do other things instead.

As the political games come into clearer focus in the second season, we will witness Peter be challenged by an up-and-coming artistic director hired by Robert. Subconsciously viewing Robert as a sort of father figure, he will take this hiring personally and with all of the despair of a betrayal.

As a pedagogue, Peter preaches unrelenting dedication. Believing that every wall can be broken down provided one’s head is hard enough.

theo – senior rehearsal director

A romantic at heart, baby Theo danced before he could walk. Grateful to be pursuing a life spent immersed in what he loves, he does his best to savor every moment, living unabashedly and moving with reckless thankful abandon. Although, as it always goes, for every up there is a down and, no matter how good one is, eventually there is always a faltering of balance.

So while it is true that his gratitude is the source of his joy, it is his gratitude that is at the source of his pain, leaving him with an inability to properly acknowledge and confront the moments in his own life that are difficult. On a subconscious level, he fears that if he acknowledges the difficulties of life then he is spiting all the goodness of it as well. Naturally this ambivalence provides fertile soil for guilt to grow in bountiful harvests.

In the first season, Theo will clash with Lyra as they approach teaching in fundamentally different ways, taking on a miniature kind of proxy war through those they favor with their mentorship.

In the second season, Theo will be forced to pick sides as a succession war wages for Wolf Street.

As a mentor, Theo highlights the value found in submission. That while one can gain power in controlling the world, there is also peace found within simply letting yourself be a part of it.

lyra – resident choreographer

Unless there is an intentional need for it, Lyra tries to avoid walking. In an ideal world her life would be skipping, trudging, stalking, clomping, or any other verb imaginable. While an excellent dancer, her most fundamental talent is that of a choreographer. She sees the leylines of the world and, with the human body as the brush, she is only interested in the curious endeavor of trying to capture or honor the faint outlines and silhouettes.

Having led a successful choreographic career from a relatively young age, she has staged her works around the world but, if asked, she’ll credit her success to the fact that she is ultimately unsuccessful. Every work she has ever created is not as good as it either “needs” to be or could have been (but not through any fault of the dancers she works with).

As an inspiration, Lyra offers access to reflection and connection. Giving voice to the truth that the most important work one can engage in is the learning of thyself and then after, the learning of what lies beyond.

Vanita – rehearsal director

Vanita is soon to be married and soon to be killed (at least from Wolf Street). While her outlook on dance does not extend far beyond its surface, she is a certain kind of radiance, bringing her own light of kindness and joy into any room that attempts to contain her. While her end at Wolf Street will be tragic and clinical, we will see, albeit briefly, that her natural elasticity will have her bouncing back before long. In some ways, she is the protagonist of a completely different show.

As a lesson, she will teach commitment. Retelling the story of Sylvia Plath’s fig tree and that, while you can’t have everything, it doesn’t mean you should leave yourself with nothing.

denise draper – artistic DIRECTOR

Fashionable and formidable, Denise’s arrival in the second season will herald change for Wolf Street. Her recruitment being the result of a deliberate orchestration, a political play meant to catalyze the company from its ragged limping. Her taste, approach, and political backing will create friction, sparks, and ultimately fires but, as we find in the pilot, sometimes burning something down can also be the best way to save it.

A modern woman of middling age, Denise lives for her family both out of the dance world and in it. She takes what she does seriously and by shepherding a small school on the east coast into a thriving hub of dance, she has long earned the right to take pride in the excellent work she does. While her arrival will naturally be viewed with the skepticism that comes to any outsider, we will find that, in many ways, her thoughts are sharp, impactful, and brings fresh air into the places where dust has long since settled.

As a wave, she will provide perspectives centered around innovation and elasticity. She will remind us that while apprehension can seep into us as our minds grapple with the uncertain enormity of the future, the heart is an engine capable of converting that too into a specific powerful kind of fuel.

the board

In a way not entirely dissimilar to that of God, the board of Wolf Street always has its hand hovering over it. As our political game comes into focus, so too will the importance of this power. One of the more outspoken members, Ken Ishikawa, will take a more active role in these political games, ultimately conspiring to oust one of our two Creative Directors.

The board will be teased and lightly encountered within one episode early into our first season.

As a sect, the Board will presents the weight of power. They will force the lesson that the clarity of what one envisions sometimes demands the removal of either what is already there or what could potentially be in its way.

Isadora (isa)

Ancient and eternal, Isa’s strength has only waned physically and even then, not by much. If she has any say in the matter, she will die on her feet and even if she keels over, that act will still be some sort of poetic punctuation to a larger Motion.

Severe in the way a survivalist tends to be, Isa is a pillar of the dance world. Her tutelage is responsible for no small fraction of the “names” that eventually ring out, including Lyra and Andrea amongst them. And while all of her dancers initially fear her, eventually they all come to realize, almost suddenly and all at once, that somehow their fear has transformed into an equally ferocious sort of love.

Isa will stage one of her works at Wolf Street and there encounter Quinn. The two will eventually form their own mentor-mentee relationship.

As a force of nature, Isa instills ferocity and tranquility. That whether one moves with the wind or against it, they should be doing so with conviction, intention, and with their entire being.

BROADER forces

While Wolf Street is an institution, it is also a living entity. It was one day born, it will one day die, and is thus subject to all of the Motion that lies between a beginning and an ending. Forced into the eternal struggle of matching its own internal rhythm to the larger external one that exists outside of itself, Wolf Street is but a single creature within a larger environment, a vibrant tapestry of life.

This ecosystem teems with a diverse array of interconnected players. Rival companies woo sought-after choreographers and their libraries, while unions and agents negotiate the terms of engagement. Politicians and donors shape coffers, musicians and photographers curate expression, and reviewers and media relay tales of triumph, failure, and power, all while the audience sits in the stands as silent arbiter. And so while Wolf Street will help shape this tapestry, so too will this tapestry shape Motion, using these interactions not just to paint a world, but crucially develop those within it.

DOC BRIGHID – Physical therapist

Wolf Street’s thrice-a-week physical therapist, Doc Brighid has always been intrigued by professional dance and its relationship to the human body. She is captivated by the sheer latitude, elasticity, and elegance the art demands but she has come to be somewhat horrified by what it is the sport demands. Over the course of her decades in the profession, she has borne witness to one too many innocuous jetés that somehow end in rips, tears, and breaks.

While she is deeply aware of the inner mechanical nature of the dancer’s mortal coil, she has also come to better understand the significant inner nature that isn’t necessarily found in the flesh and blood. While her training isn’t in sports psychology she is smart, experienced, attentive, curious, and empathetic and so, as she stretches out the various muscle groups in some member of the Corps, she has been known to engage them in conversation at the same time, supporting, pushing, and even challenging these parts of the dancer that can’t be seen.

Brian – director of production

A kind of topiary bush worn on the lower half of one’s face, the beard is a curious thing. On the one hand, it is a reflection of the natural wilderness found within the wielders very spirit but when groomed, it transforms into a testament of one’s ability to control that very same nature. An homage to both the chaos from which Humans descend from and the order to which Humans are always trying to ascend to. In short, Brian’s beard is significant, meticulous, and is an ultimately fitting look for our director of production.

Pulled in a hundred different directions at any given time, Brian is constantly putting out the tiny million fires that are always found burning within the world of production. While he is able to find a certain contentment with the physical nature of his work, the sometimes overwhelming demands of his position leave him occasionally yearning for the more simple days he spent focused solely on lighting.

When one ponders the weight of the stress that he endures, especially as a season’s opening begins to loom, it is not hard to imagine why he is also bald.

ELIZA – STAGE MANAGER and head of props

A lifelong resident of Chicago, Eliza is content to be able to work at her place of worship, the theater. Having been indoctrinated by the original acolyte, her mother, Eliza was exposed to a production of Cats at too young of an age and tragically she stood no chance in being anything other than who she is: someone who is close with her family, has satisfying emotional relationships, and is overall content with her life (although she would like to get a boyfriend sooner or later).

She admires the boldness of the people who work in Wolf Street and quietly attempts to emulate them, hoping that her innermost self will be able to capture and internalize some of their directness. Only half-conscious of it, she does so in an effort to better set boundaries with her parents who shelter her more than she would like.

penelope (pen) – head of WARDROBE

In her 20’s Pen one day looked down at the palm of her dominant hand and, although it was gripping a pencil, it still felt empty to her. After that realization, she embarked on a decade of wandering, an aimless era spent picking things up and putting them back down, dissatisfied by the heft of each. It was only after she sewed a patch into her favorite jean jacket that she looked down one last time and realized that it was the minuscule weight of the needle that satisfied her.

Now that she has found what to hold on to, she refuses to let it go. Calm, cool, collected and equipped with the worldly knowledge gleaned from a life spent wandering, Pen approaches her work as a true professional. Hailing from punk roots she never thought she’d find herself working for anything even remotely related to ballet but she has learned to appreciate the passion and energy of those she works with (although she maintains that many of them are really still “just kids.”) At times, she has been known to use the Corps members she likes as models to exhibit her personal passion projects and, although she’s not the expressive type to admit it, she does make these pieces for them as much as she makes them for herself.

Paul and casey – HEAD electrician and head carpenter (respectively)

With one holding wire and the other wood, Paul and Casey are united not just by the complementary natures as physical craftsmen, but also by their shared southern roots. Although Casey has only started somewhat recently, the two clicked almost immediately, each finding solace in the fact that finally, with someone, they can now talk about the kind of sports that have points.

On the weekends, when it seems that no one else is there, the faint sounds of music have been known to leak out from behind the closed doors of the production workshop and seep quietly into the halls. If one were to put their ears up to this door, there is a chance they would then be able to hear the muffled sounds of a pair of earnest, clumsy feet trying to move in rhythm.

Grechen – DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

Like any non-profit, Wolf Street is largely funded by the grace of donors, grants, and the like. Years ago, when she first joined as an Associate, Grechen initially found that she had difficulty in espousing the values of dance and culture to the contacts she made from her time spent in the world of academia. However, through no lack of hard work and dedication, she eventually came to realize the fundamental truth that what sells isn’t necessarily the steak, but the sizzle. A few short years after this epiphany, she was promoted to Director.

A businesswoman, and a good one at that, Grechen believes in Wolf Street just enough to give her pitches life. While she takes pride in the close and pleasure in the performance, she is constantly exploring new ways to sell the story of Wolf Street and those within.

As the political succession war comes into focus in later seasons, Grechen will function as a sort of weather vane, reflecting the larger sentiments that swirl around Wolf Street through the aspect of funding. However, whether it is the wind or just an almost invisible human touch, there is a chance that her readings might be prone to skewing in some directions more than others.

claudia – associate manager, marketing and communications

Set to join in the second season, Claudia is a child of the 21st century. Born by the internet and raised by the algorithm her hiring is yet another push to usher Wolf Street into the digital age. And while she is young and will face her own disillusionment as she finds that behind the Oz of adulthood is just a man with too many spreadsheets, she will ultimately rise to the challenge and find her own satisfaction, balancing the tedious minutiae of vendor relationships with bold experiments of digital strategy.

As our characters inevitably grow outwards and start brushing up against the ceiling and walls, by representing the Game that comes through social media, Claudia will offer yet another avenue into the larger world that exists outside of Wolf Street. Whether it be through likes or influence, we will eventually come to discover that the tiny little cameras in each of our pockets can also carry a crown of its own.

MAX Paek

Sena’s older brother. Dead by suicide.

hye-ja paek

When one thinks of the psychological archetypes that best embody the concept of strength, it is no surprise that one of the traits greatest bearers is the Mother. For reasons of both great fear and great love, the Mother is often the one compelled to carry not just the weight of their own world but rather the weight of everyone else’s within the family. As such, it is no mystery who Sena inherited her Atlas complex from.

However, Hye-ja is no Atlas, no Mother, no archetype, she is just a person. And like any person, her strength, as great as it might be, has limits. In the wake of her son’s death she is crushed by the weight of all that she has carried. The damage is absolute. It extends all the way down into even the most primal foundations that prop a person up against that imperceptible and unbearable lightness of being.

As Max’s passing is still somewhat recent, the dust of this collapse is still settling within herself but in its haze a silhouette is starting to take shape, faint, staticky, and by its lack of definition, to Hye-ja it is terrifying. Slowly, as she is forced to continue going through the mundane Motions of life, whether its grocery shopping or sitting on the couch watching tv, she can’t help but think that, just around the corner, there is someone or something out to get her.

Raised to be self-contained and bare suffering in silence, she does a good job at appearing fine but here and there, something slips out, worrying those around her. Despite Sena’s insistence, she will not seek psychological help and so, resigned by the love a child can only have for their parent, Sena shoulders another thing to carry too.

There will be no singular resolution to this, no tear-filled confrontation that solves all of these issues. It is a life contending with death and everyone’s answer to it can only be their own.

Sang-wook paek

Sang-Wook is a smart man but he has always struggled with understanding. He can tell you how it is that a thing functions, how it is the heart that is the organ responsible for bringing oxygen to the tissue and carries metabolic waste to the lungs, but he could not tell you why it breaks. What a ridiculous question he would say. After all, if it breaks doesn’t that mean it stops functioning and if it stops functioning then doesn’t that mean you are dead?

In this way, he is the line between intelligence and wisdom.

As we all are, he was shaped by all that came before him. His own father instilling what he knew to be strength, determination, an unyielding resolve. He doesn’t understand the ways in which these traits can be weaknesses – rigidity, inflexibility, unforgiving. So he struggles in quiet, perpetual confusion as he is confronted by the small inefficiencies of the world. Raging at the ways he will never understand why it is that the driver ahead of him has left his turn signal on for the past mile. Raging at the ways his wife seems to fear nothing around the corner. Raging at the ways he will never understand why it is that his own son could have done something so stupid.

And while he doesn’t understand why it is that Sena could pursue such an unstable, unwise career, sometimes, as he sees the look on her face as she moves in a space that seems both here and elsewhere, his silent war against the world ceases as he can’t help but Move with her.

CONOR MARTIN

From the grand banquet halls of a wedding to the confines of a cramped apartment, it’s ten minutes after Conor enters a room full of people, no matter the size of the crowd or the room, that all within begin to feel a quiet change. The laugh of a neighbor, once thought obnoxious and shrill, takes on a certain charm now and chimes in a high champagne falsetto. Cups take on a certain satisfying heft and, whether filled with water or wine, the contents are smooth and quench more than just dehydration. Stilted observations about the weather and its effect on the traffic become captivating epics as man struggles against nature and those who hear in it delight and spin the threads of their own everyday heroics. The lighting stays the same but everything becomes clearer and everyone sees there was only ever more reason to love the stranger than fear them.

But, as he notices the window for the first time, it is around the twentieth minute that Conor feels the urge to leave . For while he is a man of presence and curiosity and an embracing kind of softness, he is a man who seeks more. And he knows that there is always more but even still, he cannot help it. As he leaves the room to heed the siren call, he does so with a melancholy ache, aching to be embraced by something that he can never seem to feel. It has evaded him his whole life and still, he seeks it.

From a Catholic working class family it lead him through the creation and sale of a successful contracting business, he sought it in marriage, the birth of a child, and twenty years later, through divorce. Even now, it still haunts him in his retirement. Retaining only a mailing address, a phone, and a carry-on suitcase, he wanders the Danakil desert and witnesses the rituals of remote Indonesian tribes, hoping to find an answer as he turns each corner of the world, .

Despite his general but genuine embrace of the world and those who populate it, with Quinn, his acceptance and understanding is marred with the complexities that come between a parent and a child. For while he loves her and only wants what’s best for her, as he notices the parts of himself in her, he can’t help but see the familiarity of a melancholy ache and feel guilty for it.

While we will witness the occasional end of a phone call with Quinn, we will not introduce Conor, who is on the other line until the third season.

mary whelan

It is often forgotten, the power of a name. In some cases, it can be a promise, a foreshadowing of what the child might carry into their future and a prophecy that speaks of the impact of their arrival. In others, a name can be an obelisk, a beacon that evokes the noble ghosts of the past and honors them through one of the greatest gifts anyone can offer, life itself. For Mary, it was annoying.

As a child, she was displeased with her first name. Mary. Not only was it far too common but it was also hyper-traditional, a thought that she couldn’t help but taste as dust, dry and choking. As an adult, it was her last name: first Whelan, then Martin, and now once again Whelan, it seemed to be a slippery thing, unable to be pinned down. And it wasn’t that she was living her life with that goal in mind but as a nurse calls out her name in the doctor’s office, it takes an extra half-second to remember that it is hers. Again.

The divorce wasn’t

So she left it

Oak Park