Where this was said
Maternal Instinct Full Recap: Con Woman, Country Boy & Fake Pregnancy
At 35:55 · chapter starts 30:30
The episode's centrepiece is Hannah's extended recap of Maternal Instinct, delivered with the enthusiasm of someone who has just discovered a new religion. A beautiful woman arrives in a small Oklahoma town and sweeps Wade — an earnest, chunky, country-loving farmer — off his feet within days. She's loaded, she says, but can't access the trust fund just yet. She buys him a truck (there is nothing a country man wants more), then buys his mother a nice car — which is repossessed within three weeks because no payment was ever made. On Christmas Day, she gathers the whole family to announce she's buying them a $4 million farm. Everyone is cautiously excited. Then comes the pregnancy: she says she's expecting but won't let Wade touch her, won't let him come to appointments, and sends him a 2016-dated ultrasound as proof. For nine months, he never sees her stomach. She does a full photo shoot with a fake baby bump. The documentary opens — crucially — with her being stopped by police claiming she's just given birth in a car.
Con artists are fascinating because they fully believe their own lies. Hannah Berner argues that their superpower is opting out of shared reality — when you believe the con yourself, it becomes real.
The con woman in Maternal Instinct bought Wade's mom a nice car, but it was repossessed within about three weeks because it had never actually been paid for.
The Maternal Instinct documentary subject told the whole family on Christmas she was buying a $4 million farm for them.
Paige DeSorbo argued that if you get a gut feeling about someone, nine times out of ten you are right — and acting on it isn't being a mean girl.
