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Erin is one of Shawn’s girlfriends, and another victim of his abuse. Emily helps Tara to realize, once and for all, that she is not “deranged,” and that Shawn is truly dangerous. After staging an intervention with her family with the hopes of exposing Shawn’s abusive behavior, Tara’s parents gaslight her into believing that she is the dangerous and abusive sibling, not Shawn. Faye tells Tara that her reality is “warped,” and Audrey, who was also abused by Shawn and initially urged Tara to help her tell their parents the truth, betrays Tara to protect herself from the family’s ire. Now uncertain of her own mind and memories, Tara contacts Emily, whom she hasn’t seen since she was a teenager. Emily immediately confirms Shawn’s violent behavior, sharing that Shawn once choked her, and that he might have killed her if her grandfather hadn’t intervened. Later, Emily’s story is further confirmed by her cousin, who was also a witness to the abuse.
However, during Tara’s last visit with her parents at their family home, Tara finds messages between her mother and Erin, in which Erin tells Faye that Tara is lying about Shawn and is “lost.” These messages suggest that, just like Audrey, Erin feels she can’t tell the truth about her experiences when confronted by powerful members of her Mormon community. Erin feels safe telling the truth to her family, and to Tara, who is at this point an outsider, but she falls back into submission and compliance with Faye. Erin is a victim of fundamentalist, patriarchal Mormon culture, which expects and demands women’s silence in the face of abuse from male members of the community.
