Aahana Swrup
HBO Max’s ‘Miss You, Love You’ is a drama film about grief, where two perfect strangers find themselves in a unique situation. After losing her second husband, Henry, to a terminal disease, Diane is left with the daunting task of making funeral arrangements. Even in these trying times, her son, Tyler, remains as estranged as ever. Instead of showing up at her house in New Mexico himself, the son ends up sending his assistant, Jamie. Naturally, this makes for an awkward first meeting between the widower and the man whose job for the next seven days is to help her clerically but perhaps also emotionally. This results in some conflict, some bigger than others. One small example of this arrives early when, on his first morning at Diane’s place, Jamie fills up the bowl for Barnanby the Cat, a pet who is not a member of the Patterson household. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Barnaby the Cat Fell Victim to a Swooping Owl
Initially, Jamie’s time at Diane’s house remains a treasure trove of awkwardness and emotional volatility. The widow is already grieving a monumental loss. On top of that, she has to reckon with the fact that her son doesn’t care enough to actually show up and support her. Worse yet, he has sent in a stranger to help her, completely disregarding the emotional needs of the situation. While Diane deals with the direct consequences of the situation, Jamie is also remains as much affected by it. He’s trying to extend emotional support to a woman he knows very little about.
To make matters worse, he’s an easy proxy to take the occasional hits of the mother’s resentment over her son. Still, he tries to make the best of the situation. On his first morning at the house, Jamie wakes early to get several chores done, for his own benefit as much as Diane’s. One of these chores includes filling up the cat bowl. However, little does he know the ritual is no longer necessary in the household. Diane tells him how their cat, Barnaby, was carried off by an owl a while back. Nonetheless, in the aftermath, Henry, who was always more beloved by the feline, insisted on keeping the bowl around.
The act was likely a practice in hope, however futile. Her husband, who was dealing with the very real possibility of meeting his own demise soon, was unwilling to entirely let go of the hope that he would get to see his pet cat again. This showcases a stark difference in personalities between Diane and her now-departed husband. Where one holds on to resentment as a defense mechanism, the other prefers to cling to choose unearned hope. Although the film never declares Barnaby’s fate definitively, the implication is clear. It’s unlikely that the cat would have been able to survive the attack from the hunting owl. Therefore, Barnaby, the Cat, has likely been dead for a while at the start of the film.
Read More: Miss You, Love You Ending Explained: Why Did Tyler Send Jamie to Help Diane?
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