This semester I took a course, HD 1170, which explores human development during the adolescent stage. In a lot of ways, I noticed patterns in Beth’s childhood story that may give me clues about what she is like in her adulthood. The series starts with Beth running late and dousing a couple of tranquilizer pills. From this first episode, we start to understand Beth’s dependency on pills in her adulthood. At the orphanage she is given the pills for the first time to control the orphans but Beth realizes its abilities to get her mind focused on chess and away from the pain of losing her mother. One of the main themes in HD 1170 was that every little aspect of our environment during childhood and adolescence have the ability to shape us as adults. I think this look into Beth’s childhood thus did a great job of portraying this idea to watchers.