Sterling Point's Creator Responds To Claims Annie's Mom Is The Villain

Every teenager hates their parents at some point, but Sterling Point takes that to a new level. The series runs on family secrets, which means most of its adults make life-altering decisions that are hard to defend. After Season 1 revealed that Annie’s adoptive mother, Goldie, left her husband in New York, fleeing to raise her twins (and a secret new daughter) on a small Canadian island, fans have spent weeks arguing about her. Some viral social media posts have even labeled Goldie the show’s true villain. But creator Megan Park isn't taking that position, or the opposite one.

“I know that a lot of people have been commenting the parents are all the worst parents on earth. And I'm like, ‘Fair.’ But I definitely don't see either one of them as a villain,” Park tells Elite Daily.

She views Goldie as someone desperately trying to find the right environment to raise her new children, and running out of options. “I understand Goldie very deeply as a woman, especially being like, ‘Oh my God, I've gotten lost in a world that's not who I really truly am. And I want to be happy. And if I'm happy, my children will be happy,’” Park says. “I think it’s just one of those tragedies where you can't ask people that aren't here anymore their reasonings. You can't mend those wounds in the way that you want to.”

She extends a similarly sympathetic read to Goldie's husband, Steven, who pulled Annie and Connor off the island and raised them in New York City. She teases that next season may provide even more redemption for the character. “Steven really has an opportunity to be more understood and to mend things with his children in Season 2,” Park says.

Her case for him starts with the deal the couple made. “He and Goldie made a decision to adopt children together, and they made a decision to have them in New York. Then Goldie changed her mind, which is also fine, but it was such a dramatic shift. And Steven’s sort of like, ‘Well, this is not what I want. I can't do my job here.’”

Park also points out that Steven never got the conversation he needed. “He was put in the position where he didn't get to understand her choices before she passed away,” she says. “And I think he really didn't want to speak ill of their mother to the children.”

The reason neither parent reads as a sympathetic character, per Park, is whose eyes we're watching through. Because of Sterling Point’s nature as a teen show, viewers still haven’t seen the full story of Goldie and Steven.

“You're seeing it from the perspective of the children; the parents don't necessarily get to share all the intricacies because these are younger people,” Park says. “But they'll be older by a Season 2, so there will be more to uncover.”