so i was thinking
tagged as revival discussion because it more or less has to do with the upcoming movie. with the anticipation of the movie, and more importantly the reveal of Spencer and Carly’s mother, we’re all curious what happened to her and why Carly and Spencer were abandoned. but i have more questions.
Spencer was 13 when Carly was born, going off of the pilot/season 1 of the original show. she was 13 and he was 26.
since Mrs. Shay had abandoned them at a point in time Carly remembers, assumed from the discussion about her while trying to salvage Mrs. Benson’s wedding she and Spencer had in the revival, this would mean Spencer had a good amount of time with their mother. she actually *raised* him, while Carly was abandoned at a young age.
in the pilot, it’s also fairly established that Spencer is Carly’s guardian, showing this had been the norm for some time. we can also possibly draw the conclusion that Sam and Freddie at least roughly know what happened with Carly’s mom, as neither of them have ever brought her up or asked about her on the show.
Sam also met Carly when they were 7 years old, and it would’ve been entirely possible for Carly to have already been under Spencer’s guardianship. he would’ve turned 18 two years prior, making him eligible for kinship placement by age alone, and given that Carly and Sam had attended the same school from that point until high school it shows they’ve consistently lived in the same area at least since then.
so it begs me to ask: what happened? what changed between raising Spencer and raising Carly? what changed between Carly being born and the point in time she was abandoned? how long had their father been in the military? did he spend time raising Carly and Spencer as a single dad? or did their mother leave once Spencer turned 18 and pass care of Carly onto him? how long before the events of the OG show was Spencer her guardian?
lots of words and questions just to say i’m even more curious about the backstory now. so many ideas we can draw from already existing details.