she saw his house and thought..."thats my kids future sorted"
Pretty much yeah.
Also it signals acquired wealth/status to her social network. This is a once divorced woman with two kids... rubbing it in her ex's face ("see how well I did?") and also her mother's ("I married a richer man than you did"), these are very important considerations for a female.
Combine that with an obviously weak, confused man, more like a child than a man actually, a project, someone she can "fix". Another powerful attraction for someone used to "fixing" people (look at the drug court video for her "success stories")
To Em this is a win-win.
To hanky it's a also a win, because after years of fuckups and toxic relationships with either crazy women (like Spencer's mum) or alkies (like Angela Johnson) or all out sluts (like that bikini slut in Maui), marriage to a respectable woman signals to Bri's mother a transition to a grown-up phase ("He finally sorted himself out")
All bullshit of course.
Bri's problem is not not having the right woman, it is untreated mental illness. At some point it will manifest in some way that will be very difficult to ignore. Not the moronic pursues of faded athletic dreams at an age well past his prime or the inability to find/keep a job, or the law school debacle. Something really fucked up like getting caught with a teenage male prostitute or beating up some rando in a bar or cheesing off the wrong people and getting beat to a pulp or even raising his hand against Em. Oh, the drama!
