Poor Wanda

MeTV will be airing The Candy Queen on Monday. And while it remains a favorite, I have increasing issues with the defendant, Claire Armstrong, every time I watch it.

This post could be called “When Perry antagonists are right.” While of course Wanda wasn’t justified in committing murder, her frustration and hurt over how she was treated are completely understandable. It’s just as she said, the candy formula was as much hers as Claire’s. Why did the grandmother only give Claire the formula? Both girls had sold the candy as kids. Why didn’t Claire think about making Wanda a partner in the company, at least after it really took off? Why did she think making Wanda her secretary was good enough?

In Claire’s defense, she was not a good businesswoman. She was going to dump the guy who had helped her get started and who knew the business, in order to give the company to her spineless fiance. She also refused to listen to anyone who tried to open her eyes to what kind of crumb the fiance truly was. She even childishly hung up on Perry when he expressed concern at her business decision. Perry was diplomatic enough to say it might have been an accidental disconnection, but after seeing what Claire was like in the rest of the episode, I think it’s far more likely that she hung up on him.

Wanda was also upset at Claire’s nonsense, saying how Ed Purvis was worth ten Mark Chesters. Maybe Wanda wouldn’t have been good at running the company either, but at least she seemed to be thinking more logically until she ended up committing murder when she dug herself too deep in her scheme to get the formula that should have been partially hers to begin with.

One wonders what kind of sentence Wanda got. It doesn’t seem like the murder was premeditated, but an impulse decision when the gambler realized the woman he was talking to wasn’t Claire. Of course, it still wasn’t justified. But I have to admit that Wanda is one of the antagonists I really feel sorry for. In court, she breaks down on the witness stand exclaiming how Claire always gets it all and now she has it all again. “I hate you!” Wanda sobs over and over as the scene fades out. Despite being raised as sisters by their grandmother, they were not raised as equals and that has taken a heavy toll on Wanda all through her life. Why weren’t they raised as equals? Why did Wanda leaving to get married mean that she couldn’t inherit the candy formula too? There is so much more to the story that we’re left to wonder about.

Of course, Claire didn’t exactly have it all, being that she lost the man she thought she was in love with. And I’m sure that, and Wanda’s betrayal, will haunt her for a good, long time. But she does have the candy company still, and Ed Purvis saying he wouldn’t hurt her for the world. Hopefully the Claire at the end of the episode is a sadder and wiser Claire who will really appreciate what she has, including Ed.

Every now and then, the Perry antagonists really are characters one can feel sorry for or even possibly feel like were in the right. Are there any you hope got a better break after the episode’s events? How about Wanda? Do you feel she was right to be upset and that she wasn’t treated right by either her grandmother or Claire? Was she instead a whiny brat? Is the truth somewhere in between?