Golden Girls: 10 Plot Problems With Rose’s Character
Rose Nylund’s (Betty White) stories, riveting as they may be, have a few plot holes that the writers of Golden Girls missed.
Rose Nylund is the sweetest, kindest and silliest golden girl of the bunch. The Norwegian story-teller with a love of cooking bad Norwegian food has lived a rather tame existence of growing up on a farm with many siblings, and parents who loved them dearly. She married Charlie quite young, and soon became a mother and a housewife.
When Rose moved to Miami, she met Blanche, Dorothy, and Sophia, and the tame Norwegian housewife found friends to share her boring stories with. Rose’s stories, riveting as they may be, have a few plot holes that writers of the show missed, but which fans would most likely have spotted.
Rose Dated Miles Before
When Rose meets Miles, audiences are led to believe that the two characters have never previously met. Miles is a college professor who meets Rose at a dance, and the two soon begin dating exclusively. Rose even claims that she does not know what Miles sees in her, and cannot date him as a result.
However, Rose and Miles have met before, although he was not named Miles then. Or, at least, the actor who played Miles (Harold Gould) played one of Rose’s dates in earlier seasons of the sitcom.
Rose Volunteers In A Hospital
Rose hates hospitals. She told Sophia that she dislikes hospitals, because of their widespread germs. In one of her famous long-winded stories, she explains that she hates hospitals so much, that she holds her breath during the entirety of her visit to avoid breathing in germs.
This story contradicts Rose’s volunteer position at the hospital in later seasons, where she comes into contact with sick patients all the time. She is seen having no outward difficulty taking care of, and touching her sick patients.
Rose’s Childhood
Many of Rose’s stories about her childhood are inconsistent with each other, sometimes even contradicting a previous story. Rose tells Blanche that she never watched an episode of I Love Lucy because they never had a television at home when she was a child.
Rose grew up on a farm, so this seems very feasible. In another retelling of her childhood, however, Rose narrates the story about how her childhood dog in St. Olaf risked its life by running back into their burning home to save their television.
Rose’s Addiction
The Golden Girls is much loved among audiences, because it was not afraid to tackle difficult issues, like sexuality, immigration, sickness, and death. One theme the show also tackled was addiction, when the girls found out that Rose had been dependent on using painkillers for years. Rose is angry when the girls find out and tries to deny it, but, with the help of the group, she spends one day without taking her pills.
Then she leaves for rehab. When she returns a few weeks later, Rose tells the girls that she was taught that she should always see her addiction as a life-long issue. Despite this, the show never brings it up again.
Rose’s Allergy
Rose is a big animal lover on the show, alluding to her warmth and her kind spirit. In turn, animals also love her. Rose grew up on a farm with a pet pig, which is where she got her love of animals.
She claims that she is allergic to cats, however, in a flashback episode, she is shown holding a cat and petting it. She also refuses to give up the cat, choosing to find a new apartment instead of giving up the animal.
When Was She Adopted?
Rose claims that she was adopted by the Lindstroms, a fact which has never been disproven. The details of her story have been disputed by Rose herself, who has given two different versions of her adoption. In one version, she is left on the doorstep of the orphanage with some sausages, where the Lindstroms soon adopted her as a baby.
In another version, she lived in the orphanage until she was eight, which is when the Lindtroms adopted her. She claims that she learned at the orphanage that people will like you if you are always happy because she was not adopted until she started being constantly happy.
Rose’s Name
Rose married Charlie at a very young age, changing her name to Rose Nylund after the wedding. So how did people from her past, who did not know that she changed her name, find her? This was, of course, a time before the widespread use of the internet, so it is not possible that they checked online.
And even if it was possible to find her through the phonebook or something else of the sort, her name would still have been listed as Nylund. So how did her old boyfriend, Buzz, from St. Olaf find her when he went looking for her in Miami?
What Happened To Her Sister?
Rose’s sister Lily comes to stay with the girls for a little bit. Lily has lost her sight in her middle age and is still struggling to cope with the difficulties that her new disability has brought her. Mentally, Lily is also struggling with losing her sight. Rose frets over Lily, worrying that she has not made the adjustments necessary to live her life differently, but Lily dismisses her concerns.
After almost causing a fire accident, Lily agrees to go to a specialized school, to learn how to live as a blind woman. After this episode, Lily is never ever heard from again.
When Did She Move To Miami?
Rose told the girls that she moved to Miami immediately after Charlie died fifteen years ago. On the other hand, in a flashback episode, when the girls are recounting their most memorable birthdays, Rose’s flashback shows her celebrating her birthday alone, six years after Charlie died.
She talks aloud to her dead husband, telling him that she has decided to sell the house and move to Miami because she is too lonely in the house by herself. The Golden Girls used flashbacks often as a narrative device, however, these flashbacks often created narrative inconsistencies for audiences.
Grab That Dough
Rose and the girls head to Los Angeles to appear as contestants on a gameshow, Grab That Dough. Their trip is a disaster, and they are forced to sleep in the hotel’s lounge area. When they wake up, all their belongings have been stolen, and they are left penniless.
On the show, the girls also make no money, meaning that they are left stranded in California with no money, no possessions, and no passports. So how did Rose and the girls end up back in Miami so quickly?
