Carnival Row - Legacy

Molly Dombey

She's not a big character (yet, maybe I'll have some more ideas) but I had an idea for her just now and I gotta share :)

Molly Dombey is Seargent Dombeys' wife - we haven't seen much of her, only that he seems to be nicer to her and his son than he is to anyone else...

My idea for her role in Legacy is the following:

By this point, they are approaching their 30th wedding anniversairy. She's always been loving and supportive, despite not sharing how she really feels about his attitude towards so many people ... having his back is what she's been taught, all she's ever seen from her family, it's hard to break away from that. And she didn't object when he expected her to be a housewife at all times and to give up her hobby of horses.

She dotes on her son Rafe, and they're often talking about their shared passiveness about Dombey's downsides. She misses her younger son Phil (an OC of Legacy btw) who ran away a few years before. And she is bitter about how her husband talks about him when he does - most of the time he pretends like he never existed.

Over the course of Legacy, she begins struggling to hide her unhappiness - after Rafe is thought dead, she firstly breaks down and attempts to confront her husband about how his attitude is responsible for their children's dismay ... and despite that she still can't really bring herself to that, he reacts angrily, threatening to divorce her if she ever raises her voice against him again. He inadvertedly started an avalanche, however - because he made her realize that his affection for her is conditional and depends on her pleasing him.

From then on, things just become colder and more distant between them - and he realizes he can't force her to have any genuine investment in their marriage any more. She'll have his back at home and pretend happiness in front of his colleagues - but her love for him is gone . Once more, he finds himself at the end of his wits brought upon him by his own actions.

At some point, her sons return - roll a scene where she, in a spur of exploding emotions, runs at Rafe, who revealed himself first, and tries to hit him with her handbag for letting her think he was dead ... only to be caught by Phil stepping out of the crowd as well, telling her that they're sorry, but there really was no other way, which causes her to break down in tears and drop it.

Later, there is a public event where the prostitutes of the Burgue step up to speak. The Madame calls out Dombey, who is present, greeting him with a smile and remarking on a mole on his back, while his wife is standing right beside him. Molly lowers her head - then starts laughing. As he tries to talk to her, she silently pulls off her wedding ring with her teeth and spits it into his face. She goes to the Madame, who still kind of expects her to insult her - but she thanks her, and gives her the ring. The Madame wants to refuse, knowing that it won't be easy for her to start a single life from scratch in the Burgue, but she insists, saying she still has her diamond engagement ring - and also her sons. She leaves the event with them.

Around the ending of the season, there is a final confrontation between Rafe and Dombey (in a far off area where gunshots would go unattended), where first finally sets himself lose completely from this man and remarks that he will not carry on his legacy, not even mention him to any family he may start in the future. But another step he can't take - he points a gun at him to try and end him for good, but can't ... and none of his friends or Telly can bring themselves to committ murder like this either. Dombey is the enemy, but he's become older and frailer with the years, and he can't attack them physically any more. He is snide at this, calling them weak.

"You pathetic bunch don't had what it takes! You never did."

To which a voice nearby responds:

"They don't..."

He turns to see his wife, holding the gun he taught her himself to shoot with if there was danger for her.

"I do."

She shoots him in the chest multiple times, tears of rage streaming down her face. As he lays dead on the ground, she looks at his son and the others, and coldly remarks after a few moments:

"Till death do us part."

She walks away, but stops to tell them:

"And he's wrong. Keep your hearts. Each one."

She ends up throwing the gun into the river (throwing murder weapons away like this happens at least twice during Legacy XD) and is even given a nice new occupation and place to live with someone by the end of the show, but that's a story for another day :)

Thank you very much for reading :)

Edit: we could add that her and the group remove the bullets and set Dombey's body on fire to destroy any hints as to how he died - also, I'd have Delly come into a higher position at her department around this time and negotiate with her colleagues that the investigation into his dissappearence/death if they did find a way to confirm the burn corpse was his, is dropped