After watching Netflix’s Unknown Number: The High School Catfish, everyone is asking why Lauryn Licardi’s reaction to finding out her mum was the catfish was so subdued.
In the police body cam footage where the sheriff reveals Kendra’s crimes, people on Reddit think she “doesn’t seem shocked”. Lauryn sits there quietly, doesn’t shed a tear and even lets her mum calmly touch, hug and comfort her.
Everyone is saying the reaction is a little odd, and some people have horribly speculated that she already knew about the catfishing or was “in on it”. However, in reality, it was actually a very normal reaction for her to have.
As one person on TikTok has perfectly explained in a video that’s had more than 1.5 million views, Lauryn didn’t seem shocked because she was so traumatised and numb by the revelation that she couldn’t even comprehend it.
“People are giving Lauren such a hard time for her reaction, or lack thereof. They’re saying that she just sits there and takes it, and isn’t mad enough at her mom. Do you understand how crazy that is to say?” the woman called Claire explains.
“First of all, let her dissociate. I wouldn’t want to think that this was real either. So the fact that she checks out makes total sense. Reminder that she’s a child, she does not have a developed brain. And everything she just knew as her safety and security is completely flipped on its head.
@claireeflynn She knew that monster for 15 years & she knew exactly how NOT to react #unknownnumber #laurynlicari #kendralicari #unknownnumbernetflix #fyp #truecrime
“Looking at this as if Lauren is having the wrong reaction to this betrayal is completely backwards. She’s grieving who she thought her mum was. We saw her mum with all of that fake love and affection toward Lauren on that body cam footage. The gaslighting and the manipulation go so deep that Lauren is literally having to grieve a parent who’s not dead.”
As explained by the NHS, lots of people react to traumatic experiences with “little or no apparent distress and emerge emotionally unscathed”. It’s normal to feel numbness, detachment, or denial as a coping mechanism.
People are agreeing in the comments, with one person writing, “She looks SO dissociated,” and another adding: “Lauren didn’t even comprehend what was happening at all.”
“She had dead eyes and a shaky voice the entire documentary. She’s clearly traumatised and just can’t see it yet, she’s young,” someone else said.
We see this at the end of The High School Catfish when Lauryn says she still wants to have a relationship with Kendra and speaks to her while in prison. She was clearly in denial about the whole thing, which is the saddest part of the whole film.
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Featured image by: Netflix
