Eric's Therapist was a Quack
Eric's only grievance after the affair was that nobody saw him as anything other than a toy boy at best and a victim at worst. Aside from being annoyed to the point of storming out of a room anytime someone brought it up, he seemed to be handling things as well as he could. He probably would have pushed it out of his mind altogether if people would have just dropped it. After going to therapy, Eric's now a basket case who freezes up when he sees Claire again. When they have their final meeting, Eric starts pointing out how Claire was 100% at fault for the affair (ignoring that it was Eric who kissed her first on school grounds).It's possible that the therapist who treated Eric was chipping away at his self-esteem to keep him dependent. No baggage, no business.
- He was having issues before he went into therapy. Even before they officially cross the line, he mentions feeling confused and uncertain, e.g., “She’s playing hot and cold.” Then at the ranch, he tells her how much he hates that she’s married. He says he wants a real relationship, but he knows that can’t happen, and he’s torn up about it. Then, in his mind, he put someone he loved in jail. After that, he’s binge drinking and risking his safety. So he did need help. And therapy isn’t magic; some things aren’t easy to fix.
- "When they have their final meeting, Eric starts pointing out how Claire was 100% at fault for the affair (ignoring that it was Eric who kissed her first on school grounds)." I'm sorry, but what?! Of course she was 100% at fault! She's a fucking teacher who preyed on a teenage boy!
- It's not out of the realm of possibility to assume that Eric simply didn’t fully comprehend how abhorrent the affair truly was until seeing a therapist, similar to other teenage victims who were in such predatory relationships. Eric likely just didn't view himself as a victim and at first thought of Claire as his girlfriend or ex and only began to label her as what she truly was, a pedophile, after getting help, which would logically cause him to finally feel the emotional weight of being preyed upon. Also I know the troper above mentioned it, but seriously: Eric being the first to kiss Claire doesn't matter. The responsible, adult thing to do would have been to reject him, report it if Eric refused to stop his advances, and establish a firm boundary of her being the adult teacher and him being the fucking teenage student. Claire was the adult, Eric was a teenager, a child, she is 100% at fault whether he kissed her first or not.
- ^ This. It's not uncommon for someone to rationalize away the truth that they were victimized and they will "seem to be doing OK" until they stop and unpack that what happened was wrong, which will naturally also mean they have to deal with all the new emotions they were suppressing or denying before - having to work through complicated and painful emotions about something he had been suppressing up to that point does not make Eric 'a basket case'. Also as mentioned above, Eric's binge drinking and shutting down on his mother and girlfriend when they try to help or empathize with him are very much indicators that he is already not OK, he's just trying to convince everyone that he is. (Also also, he admits to his mother that he needs help before he starts to see a therapist). Not to mention that even before he realized the full extent of what Claire had done to him he arguably already could have used a therapist for help dealing with the messed up way all his peers were treating him. And to hammer it home as the other tropers did, it was completely Claire's fault. She was the adult in a position of power and authority over Eric and supposed to be acting in loco parentis to him. Even if he kissed her first, it was her responsibility to re-establish boundaries and ensure it didn't go any further (and it's very easy to argue that she had created the scenario where he would gain feelings for her, as she started to confide in him in ways that are not appropriate for a teacher-student relationship). That she persisted in tutoring him and encouraging him out to her car so she could sleep with him are knowing and wilful acts of continuing to prey on a student for her part and her friend Kathryn was absolutely in the right to report her the second she found out about it. Eric was also vulnerable in that he was determined to get into a particular college and initially scoring just under the required SAT points required, which Claire could leverage so they could continue to spend time together (part of Eric's initial panic about kissing her was that he couldn't give up his tutoring)
