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Fan Forum Legend
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 305,968
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Hi everyone. Doing this rewatch has allowed me to view Everwood with a different perspective. For example, this time around, I’m much more empathetic toward Amy. When I first saw the show, I really thought that Amy was using Ephram, and that her friendship with him had ulterior motives, and that she basically abandoned her friendship with Ephram when Colin “woke up” and again after Colin died. This time around, I can see that Amy was basically torn between her feelings for Colin and her feelings for Ephram, and in early Season Two, she was so crippled by her situational depression that she could barely function, let alone have time to be in a serious relationship with Ephram. Still though, she might have gotten together with Ephram sooner in Season Two, and he could have helped her cope with her depression, except for one thing that not only affected her, but which set the tone for most of Season Two, she saw Ephram kiss his sister’s babysitter, Madison Kellner. Amy seeing Ephram kissing Madison temporarily derailed her and Ephram uniting romantically, and it set her on a self-destructive course where she dated a drug addict named Tommy and she left her home to live with Edna and Irv.
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That is great you have changed your mind on Amy. 
You weren't the only one who had mixed feelings on Amy. Although you had logical reasoning. Some were even unforgiving that she had Clinical Depression and thought she could control it and snap out of it at any time.
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As bad as that all was, Amy eventually came to her senses and broke up with Tommy and she never saw him again, and she worked through the depression that she suffered after Colin’s death, and her and Ephram got together as a romantic couple at the end of Season Two, to the joy of all of us who loved them and rooted for them as a couple.
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Yes, amazingly Amy's relationship with Tommy was relatively painless when you think about how much worse it could have been. They did not have sex and when he left, he left. Done. No lingering, we didn't need to see his mug again. Then Ephram and Amy finally got their chance to be together.
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One thing that hasn’t changed during my rewatch of the show is my hatred for Madison Kellner and every single scene that she was in, and I really got to see how she negatively affected Ephram, who became, in his words, psychotically obsessed with her, and she did real damage to Ephram’s relationships with everyone around him, especially his father and sister, as his obsession with her became all-encompassing and he neglected his relationships with everyone who loved him and cared for him and he behaved in ways that represented continuing new lows for his character.
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Completely agree. She did so much damage to Ephram personally and all those close to him. What I have seen in a different light during this rewatch is just how obsessed Ephram is with Madison. In all the other rewatches, maybe it is because I hardly focused on scenes when Madison was in them, so I didn't watch closely enough... but I never truly viewed and understood just how obsessed to a toxic level Ephram was with Madison. It was so toxic and painful. I cannot believe people actually questioned if they were in love. Seriously? It wasn't just about the illegal aspect. Madison NEVER loved Ephram, she treated him like a child, was embarrassed to be seen with him. She barely even respected him, let alone loved him. Ephram was never in love with her either, he was obsessed, nothing more. He needed help. He was a terrible friend to Bright, couldn't have cared less what his father was up to, and flat out ignored his little impressionable sister, often using her as a way to get closer to Madison in really cruel ways. This relationship never should have transpired and ended way before it did without lasting consequences. Instead, we see Ephram abandon piano not once but twice, and all the hell in general that happens as a result of Madison's pregnancy. It's a true nightmare.
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Unlike Amy and Tommy’s story and Andy and Linda’s story (which wasn’t a bad story at all, but it was a story that purposely was meant to be of a short duration) and later Andy and Amanda’s story, which had an ending, Ephram and Madison’s “romantic relationship” haunted the series for the rest of its run and we would have been forced to deal with seeing her again at the end of Season Four if Everwood didn’t get cancelled.
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That is the biggest key and nice word description: Haunted. That is precisely what Ephram and Madison's relationship did... haunted the series for the rest of its run. Yes, she was returning and the Ferris Wheel scene never would have transpired because the witch was returning to try and get the baby back who was legally adopted.
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Madison was, in my opinion, the worst character and idea for a character that we ever saw on Everwood. She was introduced as Delia’s babysitter, but she quickly became romantically involved with Ephram, and their paring was wrong on every level. Madison alternated between looking down on Ephram and acting like she was ashamed to be with him to being in love with him and telling him that her stomach gets all fluttery when he walked into the room, and when he kissed her she just came undone, which really turned my stomach because he was only a kid. Madison knew that being with Ephram was wrong, but she continued to be involved with him, even to the point of having sex with him when she saw how unstable he had become due to his obsession with her. Ephram was so insecure about his relationship with Madison that he acted in ways that were out of character for him and he was quite unlikable when he was with Madison, and I was so glad when they broke up. When I’ve rewatched Season Two this year, I really got to see how dangerously obsessed Ephram was with Madison, and how his character regressed when he was involved with her, and how badly he treated his father, his sister, his friend Bright, and even Amy. Everything about their relationship was illicit and oh so wrong, and I never viewed them as a normal couple, and I don’t understand why the writers took things so far with a teenage boy who wasn’t emotionally equipped to handle such a serious and sexual relationship with an adult woman who was hired to be his sister’s babysitter. Madison also hurt Delia who had to witness all the drama between her babysitter and her brother, until the point when she wisely “fired” Madison because she made Ephram so unhappy.
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Unfortunately for Ephram, Madison, and everyone else involved in their story, and most unfortunately for us fans, Madison’s saga didn’t end when her and Ephram broke up, because she revealed to Andy at the end of Season Two that she was pregnant with Ephram’s child, and Andy told her not to tell Ephram and that he’d pay her to basically go away and stay out of Ephram’s life, and so “Madisongate,” as we called it, hung over Season Three like a pall and it tainted the happiness we would have otherwise felt watching Ephram and Amy become a couple and watching Ephram and Andy become closer.
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I remember watching Andy sending her away, basically telling her not to tell Ephram, and thinking it would be a disastrous move in the end. I remember thinking Ephram finding out would interfere with Ephram and Amy initially from finally getting together and while it wouldn't be fun to see, at least babygate would have been dealt with head on right away and Andy wouldn't have to take the fall for Madison and Ephram being ridiculous and getting pregnant due to a relationship that never should have gotten started in the first place.
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We then saw that Madison revealed to Ephram that she had his baby and gave it up for adoption, signing the papers “Father Unknown” at the worst possible time, right on the eve of his audition for Julliard, which sent him into an emotional tailspin and it ruined his relationship with not only his father, but with poor Amy as well, as he lashed out at her because she knew about Madison’s pregnancy before he did, and we had to endure seeing Ephram break up with Amy and break her heart in a really cruel and unnecessary way and go off to Europe, and even when he returned, him and Amy didn’t get back together because he had hurt her so much, and we only got to see them get back together because Everwood was canceled.
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I will forever be bitter over this reality. I cannot stand how Ephram treated Amy throughout all of the baby reveal, dumping her while she was dealing with her mother recently diagnosed with cancer, bailing, laughing in her face at the thought of her seeing a forever for them. He was so horrible to her. We also know he lied to her in S3 to try and see Madison and her band which was a form of cheating if you ask me. Not physical cheating or even emotional cheating... OK maybe not cheating but deception. Pure deception. He's lucky Amy didn't break up with him after that stunt. But he repays her back not too far into the future by breaking up with her because he couldn't handle the pregnancy reveal and blamed her for knowing for about two seconds before he did. Just awful. I loathe how all of this went down.
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As we saw in the alternate ending to Everwood, we wouldn’t have been done with Madison yet, and instead of being able to see Ephram and Amy reunite in that beautiful Ferris Wheel scene, we would have gotten to see poor Amy standing out by that Ferris Wheel by herself, while Ephram went back into his apartment to call Madison, which would have infuriated everyone, and it would have delayed, or possibly ended, Ephram and Amy’s reunion, and for what? Why bring back a character that everyone hated and rehash the baby storyline that had gotten closure in Season Three?
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Frustration is a word that cannot even justify how so many of us would have felt had all of this transpired.
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What aggravates me the most about Madison is how we were never allowed to be done with her and her story because of her pregnancy. A lot of people didn’t like Amy and Tommy or Andy and Linda, and they especially didn’t like Andy and Amanda, but at least those storylines were allowed to end and they were never to be mentioned again, but Madison kept on turning up like a bad penny and she loomed over the happiness of all the major characters like a black cloud, and she did damage to the show itself by making her storyline a soap opera.
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If they would have broken up after Ephram's ridiculous behavior at the bar (should have broken up way before this time, and never gotten together in the first place) it wouldn't have been so bad. But no, they had to linger, torturing Delia even more, and like we discussed, all the other damage that takes place.
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Therefore, I have to conclude that Madison did more damage to the main characters on Everwood and the show itself than any other character or storyline.
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100%. I completely agree. I cannot think of any other character that did more damage to the main characters of Everwood. You can say Colin caused chaos but the guy entering a coma and temporarily surviving only to die a short time later affected not only both families but the entire town; however, Colin had some not so great traits but this scenario cannot be blamed on him.
No, Madison deserved this award. She was the dark cloud in this otherwise beautiful series.
Last edited by jediwands; 10-28-2021 at 09:00 PM
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