The Act: Gypsy Rose Blanchard's family believe that Dee Dee also killed her mother

18 April 2019, 11:56

By Sam Prance

Dee Dee Blanchard's mother Emma is in 'The Act' but the true story is even darker...

Gypsy Rose Blanchard's family believe that Dee Dee killed her mother Emma Pitre years before Gypsy killed Dee Dee.

Over 100,000 people sign petition to free Gypsy Rose Blanchard from prison

Hulu's new crime drama The Act is currently receiving critical acclaim. The series is a dramatic adaptation of the true story in which Dee Dee Blanchard abused her daughter Gypsy for years on end (she convinced Gypsy Rose that she was severely ill and made her use a wheelchair) until Gypsy killed her. This week's episode, focused on Dee Dee and her relationship with her mother Emma (Margo Martindale) and it turns out that the real story behind Emma is even darker.

Did Dee Dee Blanchard kill her mother Emma Pitre?

Episode 6 of The Act makes out that Emma was not too dissimilar from Dee Dee. When Gypsy is born, Emma in the series is controlling of Dee Dee and barely lets her be with her own daughter. Dee Dee is later sent to prison for shoplifting and Emma says to her: "When the cops came I could have told them you weren't here. But you needed to learn your lesson. I knew she was better off with me from the day she was born."

Later, we see Emma ill and bedridden. Dee Dee wants to send her to a hospice but Emma refuses. In retaliation, Dee Dee seems to stop catering to her. In another scene, a nurse says that Emma only has a few days left to live and, when Emma cries out for help, Dee Dee ignores her. When Emma dies, Dee Dee is with her, emotional, but The Act doesn't confirm whether or not it was because of Dee Dee or natural causes.

By contrast, Gypsy's family outright blame Dee Dee for Emma's death. In the HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest, Dee Dee's stepmother Laura says: "To leave your mama dirty and asking for food and not want to feed her? That's evil." In another interview, Gypsy's stepmother Kristy Blanchard says: "Dee Dee was starving [Emma]. Dee Dee wasn't giving her anything to eat."

Kristy then explains: "I asked her sister — you know, I was like, 'I hate to ask this, but you think Dee Dee had anything to do with her mom's death?' And she, you know, said, 'Now I wonder.'" That's not all though. Laura claims that Dee Dee tried to kill her too. "She was putting some poison in my food. The same thing she had put in the plant" and Laura's family support her allegations.

Dee Dee's dad Claude says that Laura: "stayed nine months in bed" when Dee Dee was living with them. "She couldn't get up. I didn't think she was going to make it." Dee Dee's nephew Bobby backs up the accusations: "She was poisoning my stepmother. Supposedly, she was giving her some Roundup in her food and stuff."

It's currently unclear if Emma was as horrible to Dee Dee as The Act implies and Gypsy's family are yet to comment on the episode. However, both Gypsy and her family have condemned the series and announced that they intend to pursue legal action against the show's creators. As it stands, Hulu have not responded.

What did you think of the episode?