Coincidentally, Max was sneaking around with a married woman already and it didn’t end great. Max told Carson that she had never been in love with her though, it was only about their bodies (I think this is also a tie-in to Carson’s situation but that’s for later).
After Max breaks it off with Carson, she makes the comment “why do I keep doing this to myself?” And goes back home to Clance. Max makes the comment about “being tired of wanting things she can’t have” but she’s associating it with staying away from baseball.
Baseball, the reason Max tells Carson is why she picked/choose Carson in the first place because she “wanted to prove something to herself”.
So why is she so obsessed with the idea/reality of Carson’s relationship status and how she’s viewing her romantic openness. It’s not like Max goes back to the married woman, she wasn’t in love and she wasn’t looking for an excuse. She needed that plot line to further drive home why she didn’t make a move and the barrier of Carson being entangled showed max a heart-breaking situation that she didn’t want to repeat again.
Carson Shaw who had one best friend growing up and thought that’s all love needed to survive. Carson Shaw who we never learned her maiden name but we know that she was given a unisex name. Carson Shaw who was told that the only good thing that she could contribute was a pie. Carson Shaw who brought a pie to church every Sunday because she didn’t have kids to show so she had to do “something right”.
She started making pies after her mother left, it was the only thing that she remembered about her mother. The one thing that her mother liked and her father loved. She wanted to be connected, even if her older sister Megan thought she was beating a dead horse. Holding onto a ghost. But Carson could do it. Pies can start a conversation. Pie and coffee is even better. They show skill, some version of “homemaking”, that she’s capable of “wifely duties”.
Carson Shaw who runs to baseball, forgets her pies, leaves her duties. Carson Shaw who is in foreign territory and has no one to lean on, not even her annoyed sister who is one of the last people she has. Carson Shaw who tries to bake for Dove Porter because that’s how people give her attention and she’s good at it. Love, attention, care and conversation through food. Carson Shaw who’s always been made fun off, who continues to get made fun of by the people close to her and her coping skills.
Carson Shaw who brought a pie to Max Chapman and she wasn’t ridiculed. Max Chapman who had been asking the universe for a pie since the pilot episode, because it shows good manners. Max Chapman who gave her the time and conversation. Who didn’t make fun of her. Who recognized and appreciated the gesture. It worked. Carson Shaw, who never seen her coping pies work before, but it worked on Max Chapman. It worked with her soulmate and maybe that’s enough.
Carson and Max’s first dance together and it’s terrible but it’s them. They get to be strange together because they’re not alone anymore. Truly Gelphie vibes.
Carson and Max both having train scenes, they sit on opposite sides of the train and in opposite seats, Carson likes the window seat, Max likes the outside one
Max is the first to bring up California and the concept of “integration”. She wants to play in the leagues, yes, but not specifically the Negro Leagues. She wants to play with white players like Carson but isn’t allowed. The subtext of Max wanting to bridge their legal gap
Greta cuts Carson’s hair without consent but it’s suppose to be an intimate act. Later we are shown that Max is the inheritor of a hair & nail salon. I wonder where they would’ve headed with this relationship later in the series
Carson passes by The Chapman salon on the peaches bus
Carson seeing Max’s name on a building and being the only/first white customer to break the barrier. To INTEGRATE. Carson once again showing up in Max’s space, trying to weave her way even more into Max’s life and narrative. Also, Carson finding a way to weasel her way into every space where Max works because she can’t find a platonic way to ask to see Max’s home.
Carson asking for Max to cut her hair specifically.
Max uses a pedicure to have sexual subtext with the woman she’s been sleeping with since 17.
Max also being there for Carson’s first sexual experience with a woman. She’s always been apart of Carson’s narrative romantic life. She can’t help herself.
Max says “Hi, again.”
Again??? Is she talking about when she saw Carson at the ballpark? Or when she saw Carson at the first of the bar? Or when she saw Carson get kissed just minutes before? THE INVISIBLE STRING!!
Did Max remember Carson even though she had changed her hair by this point? Carson remembered Max.
Carson asked who Max was and the universe answered.
“Seems like everything is fine as long as no one is watching. Except you I guess.” And Maxs next line of thought is “I didn’t notice, you’re married?”. Almost seems like a deep realization and then seeing a roadblock.
I don’t understand how these two are ever supposed to be separated from each other for long periods of time without talking. They are literally so co-dependent on each other when it comes to growth as people and in life.
In ep. 6, both of them have conversations and mention about how they don’t want kids.
They both cried during Wizard Of Oz
Max talking about how her head is spinning except when she’s with Carson vs. Carson saying she can finally hear herself think when she’s with Max. They are each other’s peace!
Then agreeing to see each other again to “play catch” aka a “back and forth”
When Carson comes back from hanging out with Max the 2nd time, Carson tries to pass on what she did with Max with the rest of the group and it doesn’t work. Their chemistry is wrong.
“I’ve never seen a woman pitch that fast. I only tagged it because you left it up.”
And then Max decides to give up baseball after failing to prove something to herself/Carson.
Carson brings Max a pie, which has been a running joke in a -Carson (derogatory), but Max is pleased to receive and is the only one not negative about it.
They are the symbolic pitcher and catcher
Blue & Red
When Carson has a bad moment with Greta about not being listened to, Carson runs to Max.
Carson calling Max “the best pitcher she ever played with”
When Carson said she liked Pride and the Prejudice because the characters fall in love over time. It’s a slowburn!!!
Max and Carson met her first day in Chicago.
Max was the first person to say to Carson “it’s alright.” after she kissed Greta.
When Max threw her first pitch and Carson was the only person to say “who’s that?”
When Max brought it up in E5, Carson said she remembered that moment.
Carson asks Max in E5 why Max picked her and Max never truly answered the question.
They are both told they can’t dance.
Toni warned Max about needing a husband, because it opens up opportunities in the world. Carson is in the same episode shown helping Max get food from the white side of town. (Some could try and make a point that this is a “white savior” trope but I think it aligns with the point of the convo in context.)
In E6, Max runs back to Carson to show off the suit that her Uncle Bertie had gotten her. Only after she had looked in the mirror herself. And only after Max had basically ran away from Carson before. She ran to Carson to ask her what she liked about Greta.
Also, Carson starts to talk about herself and get into her feelings (like apparently she usually does) but Carson senses something is wrong with Max and stops talking. She brings the convo back to Max.
Carson says “anyways, what did you wanna talk about?” And gets the reply “where’s your ring?”. Like, is that really important right now Max? (She ran there to talk about her identity and the first thing she notices is that Carson doesn’t have her wedding ring on anymore”)
Also, Carson noticing Maxs hair first and that’s one of the only things Max doesn’t change about the outfit….
This leads to Max dropping the suit jacket and keeping the vest. Carson metaphorically helped Max peel off a layer of herself no one else ever got to see.
No one knows about their relationship, they both only exist for each other. Which brings me to…
Max telling Carson about the first woman she was ever with and Carson asks if she loved her. Max says no because “she always wanted me to be a certain way…Everyone wants me to be someway”. But isn’t that why she goes to Carson??? Because Carson perceives her but only in a way that she likes?
Carson being the first person Max couldn’t wait to tell about turning down her boss about baseball. Not Clance or her dad or Esther…Carson. Out of all the characters she could’ve chosen to bond with it over.
Max asks Carson (of all people, the record talker being Shirley) to sit with her “in quiet for a while”. She didn’t want to even want to sit with herself, she wanted to sit with Carson. Because it (canonically) stops the noise in her head!
Carson is the reason that Max went through her mother’s past, because Carson told her to figure out what she was running from.
Carson is the reason for getting rid of her yips. And Max helps Carson be a better coach and person.
(Also, Greta and Max do sometimes say the same lines to Carson…and they transition each other a lot….but that’s a different post…)
Max and Carson being each other safe spaces. Carson can hear all the negative voice in her head until she goes to Max and she can finally hear herself think. Max has the yips and is insecure until Carson helps her face her problems and give her courage.
Max makes a comment about how Carson is the only one she can throw for and the noise in her head stops. They are each others peace. They seek each other out when they’re overwhelmed and overstimulated. They need each other to cope. Nobody else can give them the peace they require in their lives.
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