This lady was an absent mother to her child and left him with the trauma of growing up without a protective/loving mother. He adapted and grew up accordingly. They have a very limited relationship now. She has no place shitting on his current relationship because she dislikes the way Mary treats him. This is some major dysfunctional projection.
Also, Brandan made some comment that he hopes Mary is nice to his mom and doesn’t trigger any sort of relapse. Mary should not have to walk on eggshells or put up with his mom’s nasty attitude because his mom has an addiction.
Also, her comments about the Phillipines and the poverty made her look like such an ignorant, arrogant American. I doubt she made an effort or took any interest to learn anything about the culture or language prior to her visit - even though her grandchild is from there.
I would cut her slack if she and Brandan were really close and/or she had been a supportive mother to him. But literally all she brings to the table in his life is negativity. She failed him as a mom, and now she seems to want Mary to let him down as well.
As someone who has a very checkered relationship with his mom, I’d put a lot more pressure on my mom rather than my partner (not that Mary’s the best cup of tea you could have). Bridging a gap and rebuilding a relationship with your child, she should I believe really tried to lean into Brandans needs, but yet she wants to mom him. Not gonna happen. I don’t see anything positive coming out of this next but they’re about to pull off. As much as I think brandan should take Mary and his kids America’s for a better life, first impressions, his mom probably shouldn’t have much to do with that. He obv did well enough for himself to build his gf’s family a house in the Philippines, but if he bounced back to the us, now Mary’s family has something nice and would possibly forever be respected by them by the work that was put in. Brandan doesn’t have enough ambition in his life right now and he isn’t sticking to his guns and trusting Mary that this is what their life will be. It doesn’t have to be like that though