Linda is probably the least sympathetic major character in Home Movies. McGuirk is a jerk, but he's so simultaneously desperate and
content in his loserdom that it's hard to dislike the guy. Same with Lindenson, who's so clueless that his nastiness seems benign. Shannon is a bully and a thug, but his ability to surpass the low expectations placed on him gives him an air of nobility. Andrew Small is probably the real villain of the series, but he's presented as a nice, well-meaning guy and we learn very slowly how his shallow and selfish actions have damaged the people around him, and will continue to damage every new sphere he comes across, while he's probably doomed to never realize. But that's coming.
Anyway Linda. She's smart, young, pretty and spends all her time volunteering in hospitals to help people. Only she's exceptionally petty and self-centered in a show where EVERYBODY is petty and self-centered. She resents Brendon as soon as she meets him, considering him her boyfriend's unwanted baggage. She's gotten together with Andrew in order to have a chance at starting her own family, so Brendon is a nuisance at best, and competition at worst. Linda gives Andrew a few ultimatums in the script, but there's one that's implicit. Andrew must choose between her and Brendan.
The writers were brilliant to make her a volunteer. Not that it adds some human dimension to her character,
Crash-style, but it helps her make more sense while adding a socio-political critique. Probably a couple years out of college, I think we're meant to see Linda as someone who's forever lived with ease and privilege. She transitioned straight from being supported by her parents, to Andrew, who is essentially her sugar daddy. Only the fact that she volunteers at the hospital gives her this sense of moral superiority, even though she's only able to do so because she's financially supported by her corporate lawyer boyfriend. The writers are sort of making a political statement and showing the entitlement of the privileged left, but Linda's also her own woman more than a stand in. While in a show like South Park that hypocrisy would be highlighted and monologued against, Home Movies leaves it as a piece of characterization, and all the politics stay implied.
Now let's go back to Andrew. Good fathers, forced by girlfriends to choose between girlfriend and child, have the sense to understand that the girlfriend in that instance is not right for them. But Andrew is not a good father. He likes Brendon, but ultimately doesn't care enough to put in the work to be his father. He accepts Linda's ultimatum because he doesn't really want Brendon to be a part of his life. Ok, accepting her ultimatum isn't what happens. He tries to have it both ways, taking Brendon and Linda to therapy together. The therapist's whole "gentle talk" thing is bullshit, but he's sort of right when he singles out Brendon as the problem. Not in the way he thinks, as Brendon's paranoia wouldn't be a problem if Linda weren't genuinely resentful, but that Brendon, Andrew and Linda can't live peacefully together, and Andrew and Linda want to be together more than Andrew wants to be Brendon's father.
And this is particularly sad because Linda brings so little to the table. She's with him for comfort and security, so she can continue to live in her privileged shell, and he's with her because, well, she's a hot 20something who's willing to fuck him. I dunno, maybe there's more on his side, but I don't see it. When Brendon asks him, all he can muster is a meek, "she's not always like this."
Tellingly, in Linda's last episode, (Season 3's "Halloween") she's pregnant with Andrew's baby and he's nowhere around. There isn't a huge deal made of this, but it's become kind of clear the cycle is repeating itself. Andrew is great at giving the appearance of the kind of responsible, fully grown man that Home Movies clearly lacks, but all he does in the show is start families and then abandon them. As Linda says when dealing with an ADD Brendon during her lamaze class, that's "what happens when you get knocked up by an eight year old."
