Lorraine and Olivia Healy, the mother and the daughter in “Wellmania,” never tried to understand each other. Their solution was to avoid dealing with the issue that has been creeping up on them since the day Olivia’a father died. Olivia and her mother end up living with each other unexpectedly, and during this brief period they try to resolve their problems by finally communicating. Unfortunately, they had a disagreement and they ended up being estranged all over again. This cycle of attachment and detachment has not helped either of them so far because it keeps them miserable and lonely, which they refuse to talk about. The mother and daughter want to be there for each other, but they are sure to keep a distance and not communicate at all because why be a burden when they both know they won’t understand each other?
Lorraine Healy is the aging mother of Olivia and Gaz Healy. Since the day her husband died, she has worked as a receptionist at a local doctor’s clinic, and ever since, she has never left that job and has grown close to everyone working in the clinic, including the doctor. Liv, on her visit to Sydney, notices that the doctor forgets the fact that her father died twenty years ago, which makes her inform her mother about the same. Lorraine wonders if the doctor is showing signs of dementia, which is dangerous, keeping in mind the profession in which he is considering continuing to work. She politely confronts the doctor about the same because she does not want him to have any medical negligence lawsuits filed against him. The doctor gets offended at her, even suggesting that he might have dementia, and he fires Lorraine from the job. Even though Lorraine has enough money left to retire and enjoy her life from here on, she misses being at work and being active all the time. The job gave her a sense of purpose when nothing around her was right. Lorraine, though, finds it hard to communicate the same to her daughter because the relationship they shared has always remained complicated, especially since the death of Liv’s father.
Lorraine spends days sulking over the job where she had served loyally; Liv, though, asks her mom to follow her passion instead of being upset over losing her job. Liv is curious if her mother fears being on her own, and she has always believed working and contributing through enormous hard work is the only way to keep herself happy and content. Liv makes it clear, though, that the job at the clinic gave her purpose after her father’s passing, and there is more to life right now than the job. Lorraine goes through some mental turmoil for a bit and asks Gaz’s fiancé, Dalbert, to help with accounting for the money she has for the rest of her life from here on. Dalbert is a sought-after realtor who makes all the calculations to conclude that Lorraine has enough money for her life from here on, and she can retire if she wants to. She requests that the doctor give back her job so that she can leave it on her terms. Lorraine quits the job at the end of the day and wants to celebrate the fact that she retired on her own terms and can now follow her dream of traveling to Perth by train. Lorraine felt she was on the back foot after losing her job, but she recovered quickly because she realized she’d spent her whole life taking care of the kids, and now, by sorting their lives out, she can be whoever she wants and travel wherever she wants. All this thinking comes to her rather quickly, and she can’t wait to start her journey.
Liv Healy is again a complicated person who refuses to deal with her issues head-on and wants to always move forward. She refuses to come to terms with the fact that there is no point worrying about the future if she can’t deal with her present. Liv, being a famous personality back home, has a hard time just keeping her head and mind sorted. It begins with her losing her mind over her green card being canceled, and since then, Liv has done nothing but spiral downwards. She does not realize that she must slow down to bring her health to normal parameters, which she refuses to do initially. It takes a while for Liv to understand that there is no harm in slowing down, something that will help her eventually. Liv, after being in denial for quite some time over her health and her green card getting canceled, gets her life back on track but rather clumsily and indulges in easy hacks to make things work. Liv comes across as a brutally honest person but never comprehends herself when she is told the truth. She quickly spirals, and she quite often suffers from panic/anxiety attacks and blackouts that she never deals with. Liv has her reasons, but not wanting to know the truth is being in denial of one’s health, and Liv wants to stay away from the uncomfortable truths of her life.
Liv gets into a regular exercise routine thanks to her brother Gaz, who brings her health back to normalcy, but exercise wouldn’t help her deteriorating mental health. Despite these flaws, Liv, just like her mother, is an amazing person who loves her people. Though she might not showcase her affection to her brother and mother, she wants to be there for them and not hurt them. This is what she feels for Amy Kwan as well, her best friend. She loves her to bits and would do anything to make Amy happy, and she never does anything to put their friendship to the test. Liv ends up unintentionally hurting all three of them; she comes around for Amy, but she again goes back to being unable to communicate her intentions to her brother and mother.
Lorraine and Olivia are more similar than different because they are adamant about not wanting anyone to tell them how to live their lives, which is a believable trait. Nobody should be judged for what they want to do or what they are doing in life. They are bad communicators, but they also want the best for the people they love. Lorraine, even though she is not on the best of terms with her daughter, she cares for Liv, and vice versa can be said about Liv. They both are honest to each other at different points throughout the season, and the similarities just keep on growing. Lorraine outgrows her sadness over losing her job by coming to terms with it. With Lorraine being the older one in this equation, one can easily say her age allows her to be wiser, and Liv, though she has more experience being outside of her comfort zone, still has a tough time readjusting to situations, especially back home. Liv though helped her mother by being more practical than emotional when the news of Lorraine losing her job was conveyed to her. That comes across as good quality. One needs a logical, pragmatic person in there to think clearly; Liv is that person for Lorraine.
Liv parted from her mother on difficult terms, but she is elated to have started her new job. Little did she know her conversation with Lorraine might have been the last one she ever would because Lorraine met with an accident. Liv, on the other hand, is unreachable via phone. There is no answer to what their relationship will be if Lorraine survives. Hopefully, the accident scare will bring them closer than before, and they will both decide to help each other out and heal from their traumas. It would be interesting to see that dynamic grow between the mother and daughter. In their relationship, being women from the same family, they are a lot more alike than they give themselves any credit for.