In a recent essay I wrote about the singer songwriter Adrianne Lenker, I went on at some length about her early career masterpiece “Mythological Beauty,” a stunning song she wrote about her mother that is appreciative, understanding and shockingly mature, given that it details some of Adrianne’s childhood trauma along the way.

This segment of episode 7 is basically the flip side of that song, an example of cross generational pain and resentment, with no one acting in the best interests of the child. If there’s any mythologizing going on here, it’s for the amiable (but actually rather useless) fathers who stay out of the conflicts and get to do the easy parts of child rearing.

It begins with a ringing phone. Majka’s father Stefan picks it up and as soon as he hears his daughter’s voice he seems to understand that she’s scheming something, but he’s not sure what. He says that Ewa took a sedative and might be asleep, but she enters the room at that time and asks for the phone.

Unlike Stefan, she doesn’t at all understand that Majka is up to something and when she hears that she has Anya, she’s greatly relieved. She asks where they are and offers to pick them up right away. But Anya tells her that things have to change — that Anya has to be hers.

She smokes aggressively and argues back at Majka — all of the paperwork supports her, no one will contradict her story that she’s the real mother, her husband Stefan “knows nothing” she says, as he’s standing right next to her. Then Majka says that Wojtek knows, leading Ewa to say “don’t count on Wojtek. I’ll tell you more when I’m retired.”

Anya has had enough at this point and decides to get aggressive, telling her that she robbed her of her baby and of love, then tells her she has two hours to think it over, then she will give instructions. She hangs up the phone.

We cut back to Anya with Wojtek. It’s a cute scene — she asks if he’s her dad, he doesn’t really answer, but instead asks if she wants to see how he makes teddy bears. She doesn’t really answer this.

The camera returns to Ewa and hapless Stefan. She asks him if she knew Majka was going to take Anya. He says no,

Back to Anya and Wojtek, she asks if he has any freckles and he denies that he does, but she then starts pointing them out on his face. She then asks if he’s a sorcerer and he says that yes, he was once an evil sorcerer. Majka enters at this time and at first just observes their interaction.

Majka asks why she isn’t asleep, Wojtek says “she woke up.” Anya then calls her Majka, setting off a cringeworthy scene where Majka repeatedly and aggressively demands that she call her mommy, without any success.

Eventually Majka hugs her and starts crying, still asking to be called mommy, never getting the response she wants. she lays her down on a bed, puts her head on her stomach and cries.

Wojtek then answers the phone — it’s Stefan. He denies having seen Majka, says he hasn’t seen her in six years.

Stefan hangs up the phone and says he knows nothing, he was asleep, then notes that they are bothering lots of people late at night. Charming Ewa responds “they’ll survive.” She then says that they know nothing about Majka and “lost her long ago.” Stefan says that she loves Anya and they may have no choice but to give her up.

Ewa responds that she can’t, that Majka was his little girl, but Anya is hers. Stefan notes that she was always so demanding of Majka that it was impossible for her to be her little girl, she couldn’t cope. And when she was caught concealing her pregnancy in her sixth month, leading Ewa to scream, the relationship was permanently damaged.

Ewa says “don’t tell me my family saga, I know it well. They she adds that she might want to take Anya away forever == to Canada. She says that maybe they should let Majka leave if Anya stays with them.

The scene ends with a vague hint of menace — that he used to know people who could help out with things like this. Perhaps his past political connections should lead us to believe he has police or mob ties. He denies any ties, but she answers “go wake up Grzegorz.”

It’s a menacing end to a painful set of scenes. The mothers seem to be acting extremely selfishly, the fathers are oddly detached and unhelpful. Stuck in the middle of it all is poor Anya, whose welfare seems to be unimportant to anyone.