The Perfect Child

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, child abuse, physical abuse, graphic violence, animal cruelty and death, and mental illness (including postpartum psychosis).

Christopher comes home one day to find Janie in soiled clothes that are hours old and confronts Hannah about taking better care of her. Hannah claims that Janie soils herself on purpose; Hannah doesn’t want to deal with it anymore. On another day, Janie takes Hannah’s phone, and Hannah becomes irate about it. To make matters worse, Christopher doesn’t want to believe that Janie did it and has everyone search for it as though Hannah lost it. When Christopher finds the phone in Janie’s room, he lies to Hannah about where he found it, making her believe she was mistaken.

When Janie takes Cole’s blanket, Hannah completely loses her patience and demands it back. She ends up finding it in Janie’s garbage can and threatens to send Janie’s cat away if Janie’s behavior doesn’t change. To prove that she doesn’t care about Hannah’s threats, Janie goes into her room and smothers the cat, killing it. She proudly shows Hannah what she did, and Hannah stares at the cat in shock.