FAQ

Some parents who fear the "empty-nest" syndrome keep their children's bedrooms exactly as they left them behind. These rooms serve as a memory of a bygone era that will not come back, but also to remind them of happy moments when parenting was more than a weekly phone call. My own parents keep all children's rooms and friends do the same. The dusting bit is very OCD, but I guess they want to keep the place clean.

Mavis had a difficult young adulthood in Mercury - she lost her first love, she lost her first child, she developed psychological issues (hair pulling) and started to drink heavily. After getting married she wasn't able to make the marriage work.

While her parents still look at her like the innocent daughter she once was (and, in parts, still is), they also desperately keep the memories alive that remind them of happier times (her room, her old car, pictures of her wedding, her wardrobe, and everything else). When Mavis has a meal with her parents her mother even brings up only the positive elements of her wedding (but not the negative ones).

Matt is referring to Sylvia Plath, the mid 20th century American writer and poet who suffered from clinical depression for most of her adult life and eventually committed suicide. The joke being that, like Mavis, Sylvia Plath was also not an "authority on happiness".

Beth did. Just before she prints the picture, you can see it says "From: Beth Shade". Later Mavis discusses this with her Asian friend over coffee and says "When you send something this soon, its to the inner circle, right ? Its not to the ex-girlfriend of the father who doesn't speak to him anymore", which confirms it wasn't sent by the father (Buddy) of the baby.