Why does Abby love Owen?

[DarkGuyver]

But there is one thing, which I believe most you are all either forgetting or haven't noticed that makes my arguement about Abby not manipulating Owen or Thomas, valid. In the movie, there were instances when Owen and Thomas could have simply left Abby, i.e.:
- When Thomas ask Abby "Please don't see that boy again?"
- When Owen enters Abby's apartment after he has seen Abby's vampiric form

Owen and Thomas could have clearly just left Abby during those points, with the expection of the scene when Owen says "I want to leave now". At that moment Abby could have manipulated Owen very easily, but she didn't. She simply moved aside so he could leave her apartment. During the invitation scene, when Owen clearly knew it was Abby knocking on his door. He could have just ignored her then and there. Abby would have probably gotten the message that their relationship was over, if he didn't answer the door and left.

As for Thomas, he could left Abby at any point in the movie after he discovered that Abby has become friend with Owen. In the scene when Thomas asks Abby "Please don't see that boy again?", he could just simply left her then, because she gave him the impression that she couldn't stop seeing Owen. She didn't say anything at that point or try to preswade Thomas to stay with her even thought the answer to his question was "No".

[sauvin]

really? you do? why? I only ask because its coming from you, the "eli is a stone-cold murderess" guy and i'm curious

Call it dualism. Call it dichotomy. Call it anything you want, but either little girl has it by the bucketload. Either can be disarming, and both do evil things because they must.

They're both stone cold serial murderesses because they continue their existences by consuming people. They're at least partly human, witness that we can identify with them enough to love them; I seriously doubt we could harbour similar feeling for giant spiders or man-eating Martians.

We are Eli; we are Abby. Eli and Abby both come from us. This means that we, too, sometimes do evil things because we must, and on rare occasions, other people die as a result. More accurately, it means that Eli and Abby are what they are because we are what we are.

What I've said on more than one occasion is that if I were to find she'd moved into my neighbourhood to threaten people I love, I'd hunt her down and let some sun shine in. That's simple pragmatism, and calling her a stone cold murderess is just being factual.

What I've also asked is... um... would I have the strength of this conviction if I were to look on her face before ripping down the sun shields?

Maybe not.

[jetboy]

But there is one thing, which I believe most you are all either forgetting or haven't noticed that makes my arguement about Abby not manipulating Owen or Thomas, valid. In the movie, there were instances when Owen and Thomas could have simply left Abby, i.e.:
- When Thomas ask Abby "Please don't see that boy again?"
- When Owen enters Abby's apartment after he has seen Abby's vampiric form

Owen and Thomas could have clearly just left Abby during those points, with the expection of the scene when Owen says "I want to leave now". At that moment Abby could have manipulated Owen very easily, but she didn't. She simply moved aside so he could leave her apartment. During the invitation scene, when Owen clearly knew it was Abby knocking on his door. He could have just ignored her then and there. Abby would have probably gotten the message that their relationship was over, if he didn't answer the door and left.

As for Thomas, he could left Abby at any point in the movie after he discovered that Abby has become friend with Owen. In the scene when Thomas asks Abby "Please don't see that boy again?", he could just simply left her then, because she gave him the impression that she couldn't stop seeing Owen. She didn't say anything at that point or try to preswade Thomas to stay with her even thought the answer to his question was "No".

Yeah Thomas could have left. But it has been somewhere around twenty to forty years he has been with her, working extremely hard without much pay. Is that a small number of years? Is Owen that good? So all of a sudden a bullied boy is supposed to match up to 20- 40 years of devotion....just because he's bullied?

[ColBlair]

Yeah Thomas could have left. But it has been somewhere around twenty to forty years he has been with her, working extremely hard without much pay. Is that a small number of years? Is Owen that good? So all of a sudden a bullied boy is supposed to match up to 20- 40 years of devotion....just because he's bullied?

He devoted his life to her, that's why he stayed. Who is to say that she didn't pay him? Heck, Eli didn't even pay Hakan in the movie.

[chirotob]

Hey everyone. New to the forum, and I just saw LMI tonight. I have never seen LTROI, but I have read that they are very similar in terms of storyline. As such, all my experience is with Abby, Owen, and Thomas.

I am not 100% sure that Abby does love Owen, though there are definitely points in the movie where it is implied that she certainly feels for him. After reading all the responses, I have yet to see anyone mention about how Owen figured out that Abby had kept Thomas as her caretaker from the photos of them when Thomas was a child. Right then and there, Owen realized that Abby was looking to replace Thomas with him. Whether Abby has true feelings toward either Thomas or Owen is irrelevant IMO. The fact is that she needs a caretaker, and Owen fit the same MO as Thomas when he was a child... small, frail...basically he had "kick my a%# and stuff me in a locker" written all over him. Both Thomas and Owen are the type of characters that have low self esteem, will very rarely stand up for themselves and do as they are told when they are told to do it. The scene when Abby says, "are you going out?" and Thomas says, "Do I have a choice?" implies that he already knows there is no need to even be told what to do...he is defeated(and has been for years) and simply does what is expected of him...just as Owen has done with his mother and the bullies who push him around.

To me, it is clear that Abby's manipulation of Owen began when she first said to him, "We can't be friends", simply to get him asking "why?" and to garner his interest.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Abby is evil either. I'm saying she's a survivor and does what she must to continue to survive. If that means manipulating someone into killing for her, or doing the killing herself, then she does what she must. I'm also not saying that Abby is without feeling or emotion. It is definitely implied at times that she certainly cared for Thomas, at the bare minimum, being grateful for his lifelong dedication to her. It is also implied, in the bedroom scene(when she's laying down with Owen) that she wants things to "stay the same". This could be her manipulating him, because by pushing Owen away, it only makes him want to be around her more. It could also be true tenderness, insomuch that she truly doesn't want Owen to have the life that Thomas had because of her. The fact that she allows Owen to leave with her on the train, however, tells me that even if she didn't want Owen to have the same life as Thomas, Abby's survival instinct is stronger than any emotion, therefore making her need to manipulate stronger than those emotions.

What we know is that Owen cares enough about Abby that he will love her regardless of her "not being a girl". What we don't know is if Abby will leave Owen if he won't give kill for her to provide her blood. I'm not so sure she really does love him more than she simply needs him for survival. She can't continue to kill because she'll eventually be hunted. What better than always having a fall guy?

[sauvin]

Hey everyone. New to the forum, and I just saw LMI tonight. I have never seen LTROI, but I have read that they are very similar in terms of storyline. As such, all my experience is with Abby, Owen, and Thomas.

Welcome to the forum! If LMI affected you as deeply as LMI and/or LTROI has some of the rest of us, I think you're going to find our particular brand of insanity rather genial. I certainly hope so - the quality of your post suggests to me you have an inquisitive and analytical mind.

I am not 100% sure that Abby does love Owen, though there are definitely points in the movie where it is implied that she certainly feels for him. After reading all the responses, I have yet to see anyone mention about how Owen figured out that Abby had kept Thomas as her caretaker from the photos of them when Thomas was a child. Right then and there, Owen realized that Abby was looking to replace Thomas with him.

It's not for 100% definite that Owen figured out any such thing, partly because it's not 100% certain that the boy in the photos with Abby is in fact Thomas. Most of us speculate precisely this, however, and we do believe that Owen realised the photos' significance immediately, and thus his leaving her apartment in a rapid huff.

Whether Abby has true feelings toward either Thomas or Owen is irrelevant IMO. The fact is that she needs a caretaker, and Owen fit the same MO as Thomas when he was a child... small, frail...basically he had "kick my a%# and stuff me in a locker" written all over him. Both Thomas and Owen are the type of characters that have low self esteem, will very rarely stand up for themselves and do as they are told when they are told to do it. The scene when Abby says, "are you going out?" and Thomas says, "Do I have a choice?" implies that he already knows there is no need to even be told what to do...he is defeated(and has been for years) and simply does what is expected of him...just as Owen has done with his mother and the bullies who push him around.

And does Thomas actually have a choice? Maybe not, but maybe not for the reasons you're implying. When Abby returned from one of her meetings with Owen, she had in hand a copy of the Morse Code that she wanted to practise on the wall communicating with Owen's bedroom. She had to shoo Thomas away (rather unceremoniously and rather imperiously, if you're after my opinion) who had been listening to something on a Walkman while looking at something he'd been holding in his hand. He looked like he was lost in Memory Lane, drifting back into pleasanter days where one presumes he had known joy, happiness and pleasure.

He'd been looking at the photobooth pictures that Owen would later discover.

In the LTROI sections, mostly with respect to the film, we've pretty much rejected the idea that Eli was manipulating Oskar into a lifetime of service as Renfield. Why should she? At twelve, he's hardly a seasoned and efficient murder machine, and won't be for some considerable time. He can't sign leases or rental forms, so he can't provide shelter for her or for himself. He won't be savvy with other legal matters, won't be very effective with logistical matters (moving around belongings and supplies, and the like). Fact is, preteen Oskar is not only not very useful right away as a servant of any kind, he's actually a liability, still more than young enough to make disastrously stupid mistakes and grave errors in judgement.

Short form: twelve year old boys do not make good servants, and probably won't for more years than it's worth.

Eli and Abby both need Oskar and Owen, respectively, for something very different.

In the novel, Eli recruited Hakan when he was well on his way to middle age. All the objections here disappear, and the only problem is how to turn a reasonably capable adult man into a serial murderer. Eli and Hakan had only been together for a few months, a few years at maximum, when the movie opens.

To me, it is clear that Abby's manipulation of Owen began when she first said to him, "We can't be friends", simply to get him asking "why?" and to garner his interest.

Strung out, tired, likely depressed and probably hungry but still not willing to eat him for reasons only $deity knows for sure, Abby and Eli may have detected a note of interest in Owen and Oskar's voice or body language. The warning may have been sincere: "Do not get attached to me. Death is my only gift."

I'm also not saying that Abby is without feeling or emotion. It is definitely implied at times that she certainly cared for Thomas, at the bare minimum, being grateful for his lifelong dedication to her. It is also implied, in the bedroom scene(when she's laying down with Owen) that she wants things to "stay the same".

She's a twelve year old child who'd just eaten the man who'd been in her life for about forty years. Time is short at the moment, so I'll just suggest that snooping around in the LMI section a bit more may yield alternative viewpoints; I'll just mention briefly here that Abby and Thomas' interactions shown look for all the world to some of us like the squabbling of a couple who'd been married for forty years and don't always get along so well. It's possible Abby wasn't ready to accept Owen as anything more than a temporary dalliance, a kind of return to unencumbered "natural" childhood, until she figures out where she wants to go from here. It's possible she was just letting Owen get away with something she sees as minor in order to prolong this dalliance without necessarily being cold enough to let him believe whatever he wanted before crushing him emotionally with an abrupt departure.

This could be her manipulating him, because by pushing Owen away, it only makes him want to be around her more.

It could, but it seems to place on the shoulders of a twelve year old girl the weight of some rather keen and sophisticated insight into applied human psychology. It implies a level of mastery that just seems beyond a preteen.

It could also be true tenderness, insomuch that she truly doesn't want Owen to have the life that Thomas had because of her. The fact that she allows Owen to leave with her on the train, however, tells me that even if she didn't want Owen to have the same life as Thomas, Abby's survival instinct is stronger than any emotion, therefore making her need to manipulate stronger than those emotions.

She allows him to leave with her? Suppose she actually asked him to do so? She's lost Thomas; she's found Owen. She has to leave Los Alamos, maybe sooner than she'd planned on or was ready for, but that doesn't mean she's ready to lose whatever value in their relationship she'd found with Owen.

What we know is that Owen cares enough about Abby that he will love her regardless of her "not being a girl". What we don't know is if Abby will leave Owen if he won't give kill for her to provide her blood. I'm not so sure she really does love him more than she simply needs him for survival. She can't continue to kill because she'll eventually be hunted. What better than always having a fall guy?

She doesn't need him for survival. She can kill quite handily on her own.

Your "fall guy" theory is fascinating, though. I think it's a bit misguided vis a vis Owen, but in the LTROI sections we speculate that Eli has a habit of recruiting morally or emotionally compromised men for a variety of reasons including buffering herself from immediate direct investigation.

As for what Thomas is to Abby, well... they'd been together for a very long time before he died. If Thomas were just a paid Renfield, wouldn't she have "retired" him the moment he started getting sloppy and found some other man (and NOT some other boy) to take his place, somebody already old enough, strong enough and sick or mean enough to "hit the ground running"?

[chirotob]

Welcome to the forum! If LMI affected you as deeply as LMI and/or LTROI has some of the rest of us, I think you're going to find our particular brand of insanity rather genial. I certainly hope so - the quality of your post suggests to me you have an inquisitive and analytical mind.

First, thank you for the warm welcome. I do intend on seeing LTROI in the near future, but I watched LMI on a whim on Netflix last night, and really felt compelled to discuss some of the things I felt with SOMEONE. I'm glad I found this forum. I'm glad you feel that I can contribute, I look forward to it.

It's not for 100% definite that Owen figured out any such thing, partly because it's not 100% certain that the boy in the photos with Abby is in fact Thomas. Most of us speculate precisely this, however, and we do believe that Owen realised the photos' significance immediately, and thus his leaving her apartment in a rapid huff.

While it's not 100% definite, it's certainly what the movie wants us to believe. Its not left to chance that Thomas is looking at that set of photos, that the child in the photo looks like a young Thomas, and that the young Thomas also resembles the same meek features that Owen has. We were definitely led to believe that Owen realized SOMETHING from that set of photos, so IMO it's definitely that Abby had been "down that road" before, and though I realized I'm reading into it, it's certainly between the lines that he "sees himself" in that set of photos as well.

And does Thomas actually have a choice? Maybe not, but maybe not for the reasons you're implying.

It's also quite possible that Thomas, knowing what he knows about Abby, even though he has dedicated his life to her, acquiesces to her because he lives in constant fear of what she could do to him should he not comply with her wishes. He may simply feel that he doesn't have a choice if he wants to live.

In the LTROI sections, mostly with respect to the film, we've pretty much rejected the idea that Eli was manipulating Oskar into a lifetime of service as Renfield. Why should she? At twelve, he's hardly a seasoned and efficient murder machine, and won't be for some considerable time. He can't sign leases or rental forms, so he can't provide shelter for her or for himself. He won't be savvy with other legal matters, won't be very effective with logistical matters (moving around belongings and supplies, and the like). Fact is, preteen Oskar is not only not very useful right away as a servant of any kind, he's actually a liability, still more than young enough to make disastrously stupid mistakes and grave errors in judgement.

Short form: twelve year old boys do not make good servants, and probably won't for more years than it's worth.

While I certainly agree that 12yr old boys don't make great killing machines, Abby choosing them so young, and impressionable allows her the time to arm the child of her choosing with one of the most powerful weapons out there: devotion. Owen is frail, afraid, has low self esteem. Abby makes him feel important. More important than his mother, than school, and at the end, when he closes the door on the dying policeman, more important than his conventional knowledge of right vs. wrong, which Abby immediately reinforces by hugging him after she is done with the policeman. Though not outright said, it is very heavily implied that Abby chooses the boys she chooses each cycle with similar traits, allowing her to mold them into what she needs over the course of time all while making them feel important enough to devote themselves entirely to her existence.

Strung out, tired, likely depressed and probably hungry but still not willing to eat him for reasons only $deity knows for sure, Abby and Eli may have detected a note of interest in Owen and Oskar's voice or body language. The warning may have been sincere: "Do not get attached to me. Death is my only gift."

I agree that is a valid counterpoint to mine. I do, however, believe that the two opinions are linked. She may see something in him, and, if Abby's character feels remorse, she may not want the same life for Owen that Thomas had, but again, her survival instinct is stronger than her emotions, and the manipulation, at least from my point of view, starts simply by enticing Owen into the relationship.

This could be her manipulating him, because by pushing Owen away, it only makes him want to be around her more.

It could, but it seems to place on the shoulders of a twelve year old girl the weight of some rather keen and sophisticated insight into applied human psychology. It implies a level of mastery that just seems beyond a preteen.

Yes, it is definitely a stretch to think that a pre-teen could have such depth of thought, but the strong implication is that Abby has been through this before and though she retains some/most of her child-like demeanor, she definitely understands what she needs to do to survive without being the target of a vampire hunt.

However, earlier you say(though I'm sure it is hypothetical for argument's sake):

It's possible Abby wasn't ready to accept Owen as anything more than a temporary dalliance, a kind of return to unencumbered "natural" childhood, until she figures out where she wants to go from here. It's possible she was just letting Owen get away with something she sees as minor in order to prolong this dalliance without necessarily being cold enough to let him believe whatever he wanted before crushing him emotionally with an abrupt departure.

This to me shows a very masterful knowledge of her own psyche as well as how to manipulate others. If she wants a "return to innocence", she certainly recognizes her loss of innocence and that being with children of her own "age" give her, albeit temporary, a sense or normalcy for her age. To understand that she needs to keep him at bay while trying to figure out what to do with him, be it "promote" him to caretaker or leave him and emotionally crush him, she needs to have a fairly high level of understanding of complex emotions and psychology to think and plan on that level.

Your statements are in conflict with one another. If she's capable of the depth of thought to plan what to do with him without crushing him emotionally, then she's certainly capable of manipulating him into being interested in her by telling him from the get go that he can't have her.

She doesn't need him for survival. She can kill quite handily on her own.

Yes, she can, but that's where my "fall guy" theory comes in. She needs the buffer so as to remain anonymous, and she needs someone armed with devotion in order to pull this off. Devotion takes years to cultivate. Though I have not seen LTROI, it seems that Hakan is not devoted to her, but is devoted to being lustful of Eli. Does Hakan even know Eli is not a girl? Is Eli deceiving him about that? While I could easily say, from all that I have read, that Eli and Abby are on different parts of the spectrum, they are still both on the same spectrum, and certainly not polar opposites. My point being that Eli didn't have the time to cultivate devotion from Hakan the way it is implied that Abby chooses her caretakers at an early age in order to cultivate that level of devotion. To me, it comes across as if Hakan's devotion is lust and obsession based, on the ever existing "dangling carrot" in front of his nose that Eli will allow him to sleep with her(him?), whereas Thomas' and eventually Owen's devotion comes from years of cultivation from an early and impressionable age.

As for what Thomas is to Abby, well... they'd been together for a very long time before he died. If Thomas were just a paid Renfield, wouldn't she have "retired" him the moment he started getting sloppy and found some other man (and NOT some other boy) to take his place, somebody already old enough, strong enough and sick or mean enough to "hit the ground running"?

This again refers to the lust vs. devotion argument. Not once during LMI is it implied that there is sexual desire from Thomas directed at Abby. This seems to differ from LTROI where Hakan desires Eli. If talking about Abby, then no, she would do as she did, and try to cultivate devotion though many years, but if it were Eli, she(he?) would look to entice another man with the qualities of Hakan who would do for her simply based on the possibility of a sexual encounter.



What I love about this movie is how it challenges your views of morality. Not only are we faced with the question of whether Abby is simply manipulating Owen or if she truly cares for him the way he does for her, but the answer leads us to question our own morals.

See, if Abby does in fact care for, if not love Owen, then Abby becomes this complex character. She becomes this perpetual child, forever trapped physically, and it seems mentally in a 12 year old's body and mind. She understands right from wrong, that killing is wrong, yet her survival instinct, her desire to continue to exist drives her to kill or ask others to kill for her. She represents a paradox in which killing is wrong, yet, the circumstance she is in is seemingly not of her own doing, and therefore we are left to feel her pain, to sympathize with the fact that struggles with trying to be good while living as a creature that the world around her inherently views as evil.

[DavidZahir]

Welcome, chirotob!

Gotta say--I don't see that we can make that much of what kind of person Owen is, at least in terms of who might might fall into Abby's orbit. She is so outside the norm, nobody "normal" will probably ever form a relationship with her. Myself, I doubt all her companions have started that relationship as boys her own age. If she's been around a real long while (and the fact she doesn't remember her birthday argues for that) then my guess is she's been with several different types over the decades and decades and decades. I'd venture to guess she's spent long periods alone as well.

But fundamentally, how useful is a twelve-year-old boy? He can't really sign rental agreements, nor dispose of corpses Abby cannot take care of. Police will be looking for that kid who disappeared in New Mexico following a blood bath in a swimming pool. Yeah, as he gets older--and if he stays--Owen can be real helpful. But that doesn't make him a carbon copy of Thomas, just as my college girlfriend was not a twin to the girl I went out with after college. Each relationship is unique. Which brings up what I personally believe she longs for from Owen most of all--company.

Your comments about the duality or polarity of Abby are well-taken, imho. A pet peeve of mine has been those who see Abby as either totally innocent or inhumanly manipulative (one reviewer referred to Abby as a supremely clever animal manipulating Owen from long before he ever sees her).

[chirotob]

Welcome, chirotob!

Gotta say--I don't see that we can make that much of what kind of person Owen is, at least in terms of who might might fall into Abby's orbit. She is so outside the norm, nobody "normal" will probably ever form a relationship with her. Myself, I doubt all her companions have started that relationship as boys her own age. If she's been around a real long while (and the fact she doesn't remember her birthday argues for that) then my guess is she's been with several different types over the decades and decades and decades. I'd venture to guess she's spent long periods alone as well.

But fundamentally, how useful is a twelve-year-old boy? He can't really sign rental agreements, nor dispose of corpses Abby cannot take care of. Police will be looking for that kid who disappeared in New Mexico following a blood bath in a swimming pool. Yeah, as he gets older--and if he stays--Owen can be real helpful. But that doesn't make him a carbon copy of Thomas, just as my college girlfriend was not a twin to the girl I went out with after college. Each relationship is unique. Which brings up what I personally believe she longs for from Owen most of all--company.

Your comments about the duality or polarity of Abby are well-taken, imho. A pet peeve of mine has been those who see Abby as either totally innocent or inhumanly manipulative (one reviewer referred to Abby as a supremely clever animal manipulating Owen from long before he ever sees her).

Thanks for the welcome!

I certainly agree with you about company. This is the human side of Abby, no doubt. The part of her that touches us.(paradox notwithstanding) Its the part of her that makes us believe that though she is a vampire, she is inherently human, at least on an emotional level. I wouldn't be here if the character didn't touch me on that level. All of my previous stated views are simply based on mostly what I see, not always what I believe. I WANT to believe that Abby is inherently good...and I think that LMI does a good job of leading us in that direction by presenting us with this paradoxical character who would be universally shunned and considered evil by the nature of what she must do to survive, yet it seems clear that she does not choose this life, its what she's stuck with.

In terms of usefulness of a 12yr old, again, there isn't much he can provide for her. It's the level of devotion she's looking to cultivate from years of being together. This, IMO is the "vampire" part of Abby. This is the part that knows what she's doing and what makes her such a paradoxical character. She is forced to live through "evil" means though she seems to wish to not have this life. This is duality of the character and how she has to play both ends against the middle in order to survive.

[cmfireflies]

Welcome chirotob!

In honor of your arrival, I would like to present my favorite paranoid evil Abby theories:

1. Abby climbed into Owen's bed with a bloody mouth to see if he'll obey her every word, no matter how arbitrary. It's the same gambit as pandora's box or the apple in the garden of eden. A test of obedience, if you will, a popular pastime of gods who mingle with mortals. It doesn't matter if it's a harmless peek back or just a bite of an apple, the idea is "obey me or suffer." Unlike the unlucky in many myths, Owen passes the test, but it's brilliant because Owen would have almost certainly reacted if he had seen Abby's bloody mouth, it's a test that grades itself: Owen's scream of horror would have been the indicator that he is dinner, not helper material.

2. Abby showed Owen the photo of Thomas to ensure his future loyalty and followed up with the "invite" scene to quell any immediate anger. What's the biggest threat to Abby? How about a disenchanted helper who might turn bitter and kick her out into the sun once he realizes the implications of his fate? The photo is actually a brilliant ploy to ensure that future Owen doesn't take his frustrations out on her. If she had remained silent or made up a lie about Thomas, Owen probably would have still figured out their relationship years later, perhaps when he is struck with a sense of deja vu seeing his aging face in the mirror. That realization would have likely lead to resentment or hatred. BUT tell the 12 year old boy right now, when he still doesn't understand the implication of Thomas's sacrifice and what will happen in the future? Isn't it likely that Owen would be more loyal thinking that he willingly chose this fate? Wouldn't he view Thomas as a competitor, motivating himself to serve Abby better than Thomas did because he obviously "loves her more?" By showing the photo, a potential time bomb is not only diffused but made to work in Abby's advantage. Sure he'll be angry at her now, but it's nothing the ol' my-life-is-in-your-hands ploy wouldn't fix. After bleeding out in front of Owen, he probably pushed the photo to the back of his mind.

3. Abby paid the bullies to make their move at night. Isn't the last attack a perfect chance to get Owen on her side forever? A life debt and a ticket out of town. And how did she come at the perfect time anyways? What if she never left and was waiting? But how to ensure that the bullies make their move at night? She could have set it up herself, of course. Some money, some taunts, plant the idea of violent revenge, suggest the means and everything will be ready for her to come and save the day. Snacks included, too.

Of course, I'm not saying I believe in any of these. But it's fun to think about a smarter, more capable Abby.