Do You Want To Look As Undignified As Carrington Lane From All’s Fair?
Sarah Paulson plays Carrington Lane in HULU’s All’s Fair | Photo Credit: All’s Fair/Instagram
There’s always another way to handle the injustices caused by others. Revenge to hurt your oppressors is never the answer
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During the Christmas break I do what I normally do, and that is to binge watch TV series and movies. For two weeks I watch something right after another from morning to evening. And this past December All’s Fair on Disney+ was part of my roster.
Now, the series didn’t get the best criticism nor did Kim Kardashian get good reviews for her acting, which I think is unfair. There were some poorly written and acted out scenes but all that can’t be put on Kim’s shoulders, and overall, I think she and her fellow cast of phenomenal actresses: Glenn Close, Niecy Nash, Naomi Watts, and Sarah Paulson did an amazing job. And, I can’t wait for season 2 to come out.
If you haven’t seen the series, perhaps it’s best to stop reading. In watching the last episode, I was moved by the absolute vitriol, hate, and drive for vengeance from Sarah Paulson’s character Carrington Lane. Known as Carr in the series, she’s a bitter lawyer who wasn’t in the in-crowd. She was overlooked and not invited to join when Kardashian, Close, Nash, and Watts’ characters started their own law firm. So, she spent the next years trying to get and take what they accomplished, from starting her own law firm, to having an affair with Kardashian’s character’s ex-husband, to applying for a job in their firm, and ultimately being motivated to take them down.
Sarah Paulson did a beyond amazing job portraying the rage, bitterness, jealous, and demonic spirit of Carr. Can someone get her an Emmy? You’re going to have to watch the show for yourself. It’s almost uncomfortable to watch in some parts, the rage Paulson is able to act out. But, as humans, and the flesh and blood that we are underneath, can make us identify with her rage.
Not all of us have felt at Carr’s level to be as hateful as she is, but we can all relate to wanting to retaliate and having anger, unforgiveness, and some form of rage by what someone has unjustly done to us. What’s shocking is that the in-group of women apologize to Carr for leaving her out and being caddy. And Close’ character fought to bring her into their firm. But Carr couldn’t let go of their past behavior and was motivated by total revenge.
In her book Living Beyond Offense, Yana Jenay Conner writes:
“He [God] invites us to selah- to pause and think- before we follow our anger’s suggestion to retaliate and seek justice with our own hands or on our own terms. Though He understands our desire to do so, He encourages us to choose a different path… to redirect our anger when it reaches its full, can’t-be-quieted capacity and is getting in position to retaliate against an offender.”
In the last episode, we see Carr at her maxed out can’t-be-quieted capacity, positioned to retaliate against her offenders. In watching her rage, I was uncomfortable. She looks stupid, she looks desperate, she looks sorry, she looks sad, she looks wounded- my she just looks pitiful. It’s clear that she has wounds that she never sought to get healed. And then it hit me: this must be how we look to God when we refuse to forgive others, and go the extra mile to try and take them down.
As hard and annoying as it [The Bible] commands, God says we need to forgive 70 x 7. Ugh. I know. Sometimes I just want to be unforgiving and mad. But this isn’t the way and nature of God. No matter what someone does to us, we must forgive. And Carr’s 50-year-old temper tantrums and grotesque revenge plan on each woman just looked so pitiful. If only we could see ourselves in our unforgiveness and petty behavior with others. We too in some form look like Carr. And, I know don’t know about you, but I don’t want to look like Carr in God’s eyes.
There’s always another way, a freer way to behave when unjust acts happen to us. Showing out like a toddler and scheming to take others down is never a dignified solution. Even if justice never happens on this side of Heaven, justice always happens in God’s courts. No one, not you and not I can escape God’s judgement. He always has the last say and this why revenge is unnecessary because God will judge that person, and God will also judge us for unrepentant injustices we have done to others.
So, the next time you are motivated by your anger to have revenge, to take others down, to hurt someone for the wrong they did to you, picture Carr in the last episode of All’s Fair (well really throughout the whole series). Remember how ridiculous and undignified she looks and ask yourself: do I really want to look like this in the eyes of God?
“Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper— it only leads to harm. For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the LORD will possess the land.”
