Before watching tonight's episode I didn't give too much thought about Richard's potential parents, although I did think Audrey was the most likely candidate. After watching it became clear to me that the identity of Richard's mother is being withheld for more reason than I previously believed, which got me thinking. Here's where I'm at:

Although I haven't ruled out Audrey or Johnny (unlikely, but possible), I can't help but wonder if perhaps its not so simple. Now, bear with me for a moment. One thing's for sure, Richard's a total Dick (see what I did there?) so it wouldn't be out of the norm for his mother to no longer be in contact with him, thereby shrinking the apparent gap between Audrey and Richard's characters—Sheriff "Not Harry" Truman informing Ben about his grandson's most recent acts of douchbagery rather than Audrey—making the chances of her turning out to be his mother greater, although in my opinion less interesting. Then there's Johnny who, albeit unlikely, could very well have impregnated someone along the way. Plus, with his condition, it is clear that, if he were a father, his parental abilities would be limited to say the least, which would uphold Ben's comment on Richard not having a father in his life. Unlikely, yes, but still more interesting to me...not the most interesting, however. As far as we know, Audrey and Johnny are Ben and Sylvia's only children together and, based on their encounter, it's easily assumed that Sylvia is Richard's grandmother. That's all fine and well (and probably true), but what about the third possibility, Ben's only other child (as far as we know)—Donna? Could it be that Donna and Ben bonded since it was revealed at the end of season two that he was in fact her biological father, not the beloved Dr. Hayward. So, what happened after that? Isn't it possible Donna and Ben could have bonded and formed some sort of father-daughter relationship? But what about Sylvia seeming to be his grandmother? Here's my off chance explanation: Donna was angry with her parent's upon figuring out the truth. During this time, Sylvia arrives looking for Ben and we find out that she, too, has known the all these years and, once realizing what Ben was doing there, she exclaims, "What are you doing to this family?!" or at least something like that, expressing genuine care about the happiness of the Haywards. To me, this reaction shows that Sylvia doesn't resent Donna for being her husband's lovechild so, if Donna and Ben did bond, maybe she was there as well perhaps even filling the place of her mom in a sense, of course this is assuming she were angered enough at her mother for having lied to her her entire life. Or perhaps Donna and her mother did work things out but for some other reason, like death (she was a paraplegic, which would unfortunately shorten her life expectancy and would thereby increase the likelihood that she died sometime in the last 25 years), Sylvia became somewhat of a motherly figure or at least someone Donna would consider a grandmother to her children, which would account for the assumed Sylvia-Richard grandmother-grandson relationship. Now that would be interesting! But, alas, my far-out-there theory is probably just that...oh well, I guess well see (or maybe not, who ever knows with this show ha).

My theory is unlikely at best, I know, and Audrey will probably end up being Richard's mother. Still, I can't help but want something more than the obvious, you know? What are your thoughts?