While her decision to communicate with and then visit William was rooted in good intentions -- the boy was seriously struggling to latch on to his cultural identity, amplifying his sense of "otherness" in the family and the world -- going to see him was a huge lapse in appropriate boundary-setting.
Could he have demanded his son back, ripping the kid away from stability and pushing him into the uncertainty of life with his Dad?
Situations like this have been debated in courts and the media for decades, but the benefits of giving the child guaranteed food, clothing, shelter and an opportunity to thrive outweighed a cultural connection and the hope of those things.
If there is a person alive who has not tucked a secret back into the dark drawers of the mind because revealing it would shatter peace, please, enlighten us all with TED talks about how to be perfect.
In the fall finale, we saw Rebecca try to comfort her panicked daughter Kate (Chrissy Metz) as she's having an emergency appendectomy; she grabs a twig off a wreath and tells her it's a magical Christmas branch that'll protect her from anything bad.
[...] that well-meaning instinct to do what's best for the kid and family is what good moms do.
Like he seems to be doing though, we can take a step back and look at the intent behind parents' colossal screw-ups, respect their decisions, forgive them and maybe in time marvel at how lucky we are to have parents who'll do anything for us -- including carry a secret that eats them alive -- just to make sure we're happy and safe.
