| Time and again, Kim Zimmer has excelled with whatever material was handed to her. But it's when Reva at last came face to face with the son she'd given away as a baby that Zimmer truly shone as bright as Springfield's lighthouse itself. She utterly captured the heartfelt tears and fears of being the mother of such a ticked-off young man.
She'd detested Jonathan's recent actions, but Reva couldn't help feeling consumed by her guilt over being the cause of all of his hurt. "There is so much pain in your anger, because you've gone to so much trouble to hurt us as deeply as you can," she cried. "What did you do, come here to prove that you could be evil? That you could hurt us?" Living With The Guilt Attempting to pry open the small window of vulnerability that Jonathan offered her while describing his abusive childhood, Reva desperately tried to soothe his pain as Zimmer walked the fine line between portraying a mother wanting to wring her son's neck and hug him close both at the same time. But as Reva refused to be defeated by her son's harsh words and accusations of too little, too late, Zimmer bared her alter ego's soul. "All the wrongs that happened to you started with me. Why wouldn't I want to try to fix it?" she exclaimed. "It broke my heart to have to give you away, but I did it because I thought it was what was best for you!" Reaching Out The tears of regret in Reva's eyes instantly turned to ones of fear as Jonathan put his hands around her neck; a second later, breathing a sigh of relief when his arms fell limp, Reva seized the opportunity to offer her explanation. But when Jonathan mocked her reasons for giving him away, all that she was holding in came flooding to the surface. "I can't turn back the clock," she cried. "I'm sorry that you were raised by people who made you believe that your real mother didn't give a damn about you, when that was the farthest thing from the truth." Grabbing her son's hands, Reva held them around her neck, daring him to finish what he came to do. While Jonathan begged her to let go, Reva looked into her son's teary eyes and choked out the words that she'd been longing to say, and Jonathan dying to hear. "From the moment you were born, I loved you. But I couldn't keep you because you wouldn't be here today. I had to make a choice. Now I know it was the wrong choice to make, but I made it." A talented veteran, Zimmer is a commanding force in any scene. But perhaps it was the actress' own motherly instincts seeping into this emotionally fraught confrontation between a parent and estranged son that left those watching applauding through their tears. |