#i was planning on antagonizing zoots mom and keeping her as a character that just never really appears to emphasize her absence

[posies-and-bundles]

Introducing Zoot's mom, Lena!

Lena is a businesswoman working in the film industry, advocates for muppets receiving more roles in movies and TV shows, especially ones that aren't comedies and where muppets aren't the butt of the joke

She is Puerto Rican and divorced twice over, she has two other kids beside Zoot, but she only ever sees them half the time

Lena and Gabe were fairly young when Zoot was born, and they tried to make it work, but unfortunately, it didnt

Lena loves Zoot and Gabe very much, but she did fall out of love with Gabe romantically and agreed to split if off. And to support Zoot individually rather than pretend for their son's sake and be miserable

This plan worked well for the first few years of the divorce, until Lena got remarried. Her second husband was manipulative and possessive, convincing her that she needed to be focused on him and their children, even threatened to ruin Lena's career and her family's life. Quickly after that she cut contact and moved.

Gabe did try and talk to Lena but there was a lot of stress in the situation and he eventually gave up. He didn't even demand child support because he was to emotionally exhausted and felt like he could handle it on his own.

Gabe knows why Lena cut contact for the most part but still doesn't like talking about her. He's told Zoot about his mom and his half siblings at some point, but Zoot always ends up forgetting anyway.

Lena of course divorced her second husband eventually, and did think about regaining contact with Gabe and Zoot, but she felt it was too late. She had already caused so much pain and it had already been so many years, she felt like the best she could do was stay away.