Before episode 4, we only saw Laura Moon from her husband Shadow’s perspective. An idealized beauty, languishing in bed while she waits for Shadow to come home. But when we meet Laura on her own terms, she’s miserable, nihilistic, and flawed. At one point she vomits embalming fluid from every orifice while her best friend calls her a “zombie whore.”
Laura was embarrassingly two-dimensional in the book, dying so Shadow could have emotional depth. This episode turns her into an actual person, subverting the fridged girlfriend trope and explaining why she cheated on Shadow while he was in jail.
The show draws the only conclusion that makes sense: Shadow and Laura’s marriage just wasn’t very happy. Shadow loves his wife deeply, but has a shallow understanding of her inner self. His memories are rose-tinted, barely recognizable as the cynical woman we meet in this episode. And as Laura’s friend Audrey points out, Laura treats Shadow more like a pet than a husband.
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I LOVED THIS EPISODE. It’s so refreshing to see a Beautiful Dead Wife character transform into such a messy, flawed human being.