Intervention is a show about human garbage. Each episode is a debate, negotiating the tipping point (with psychiatric coaching) of people's expiration dates. In tonight's episode we get both extremes. One family is deeply devoted to their daughter, they commit time, affection and around $8,000 a month to treat her anorexia. The other is a really stereo-typical Asian mom that’s just wants her heroin addicted daughter to be ...strong enough so she can control over herself. (Her words not mine)
GINA
Before we get started here’s the meme-in-making matriarch Hyon. She is Gina’s mother. She is human garbage.
We can see her story in four screen caps:
We can see her story in four screen caps:
The last quote was her reaction to Gina being raped at age 14. Yup.
Now, according to Gina, heroin has always been her best friend. It helps me out when I’m sad, it helps me out when I’m mad, she says.
You can do it on a Boat.
You can do it before a Joke.
You can do it yes you can.
Everybody likes Her-o-in.
Like her mother, who married a soldier in Korea for his money, just to realize the life in America he promised was Whorabbble. (translated from the Engrish, meaning horrible) is a working girl. She’s pretty honest about it, albeit a bit wordy.
I’m a private entertainers, I’m an escort-slash-dancer-slash-companion.
Despite her intelligent and supportive family-
Despite her intelligent and supportive family-
She just can’t seem to get off smack.
Leather faced newcomer Seth Jaffe (Mike From Breaking Bad) jumps right in. And boy, he tears right into Hyon. It's a really great (and deserved) beat down. ...Meanwhile a tired old native american man sleeps soundly.
Seth is my favorite interventionist now, in case you were wondering.
Seth is my favorite interventionist now, in case you were wondering.
KALIA
I’m choosing not to eat purposefully. I’m going against the laws of nature which a lot of people can’t do. So I’m special. I’m more powerful than you are because I can chose not to care.
-The scariest thing I've ever heard anyone say. -K
It's unclear what triggered Kalia's anorexia six year ago. They mention she attended a particularly ruthless private middle school in Los Gatos, California.
One of these schools is a maker of monsters.
Sean 23, Kalie’s brother (the fat one) describes her:
…People dying from genocide, that is kind of what Kalia’s figure looks like.
I don’t think it means what you think it means, Sean.
This is a desperate story. Desperate because her parents are smart people. Kal is nineteens and her parents treat her as such. They are trying really really hard. There’s no excuses or waiting around for the situation to resolve itself. They do seem like good parents. And although I feel they’ve done their best to treat her anorexia (a disease that I learned can cause your brain to herniate out of the bottom of your skull!), they probably could have talked her out of that marijuana leaf bellybutton ring.
As screen capture happy as I am today, to show Kalie's body in it's grand emaciation is just exploitive. Keep in mind she's been anorexic for 6 years, nearly one third of her entire life. It a terrifying image. She leaves treatment after twelve weeks and finds a grandmother in Los Angeles that promises a roof over her hear and a mouth not to feed.
Godspeed, Tiny Bird Lady.
JustIntervention - Conclusion
There were a lot of interesting breaking points in this episode. In real time we saw parents decided to keep their children around for show, porcelain angels on the mantle and another toss them like spoiled yogurt. That’s the stakes this show plays with. Human worth on trial in the people’s court. All I'll remember of Intervention is grainy footage of drug deals at night and how parents handled the sad news that their sons and daughters were addicts. What I mean to say is, after watching so many episodes back-to-back it's become clear how much the maturity of your loved ones correlates directly with the addicts recovery.
Kalie's really handsome fathers says,
We've moved past the point of feeling responsible. If she's going to be in recovery then we'll go to the ends of the earth to help her.
He no love you all time.