A little meta about Tony in Rivals...
Thinking back on Tony, Maud and the camera story with his father, it's been interesting seeing how that's been interpreted. I'd read online that some people took Tony's twisting of the story, from it originally being one where it sounded like he was the one being bullied/abused by his father, to the opposite being true, where he's the violent, 'crazy' one.
I thought Tony telling the story initially was him being vulnerable, and that us, as an audience, making the inference that his father was abusive, by taking the camera and pulling the film out of it and it being thrown out the window, was correct.
When Maud gave him the camera as a gift and inferred his dad being abusive, I don't think Tony properly realised what he'd communicated, let alone had anyone respond kindly to being vulnerable like that before. He's very much a guy who puts up airs to appear tough and strong (like a peacock lol, and as bullied folk tend to do), so it made him tremendously uncomfortable, being properly seen like that, as he's not used to exposing himself, and perhaps doesn't quite trust Maud yet. So Tony walked his story back and lied that he was the one who threw the camera out the window as a proxy to "smashing his (his father's) face in", to appear the tough, strong one again. Although that was evidently his desire with his father. In a way he was testing Maud out further, to see how she'd respond to him being more forthright about his darker feelings, and to find that she'd not baulked from him, or looked at him with disdain, afforded him solace. Enough for him to laugh, and her along with him. Which is to say that Maud's original interpretation of it was the right one, and his father was actually abusive to him as a kid, fact.
There's also the symbolism at the end, with Tony ruining the video tapes, that infers he's now become his abusive father and repeating the cycle. I'm thinking this further supports the idea that Maud has clocked him accurately, and feeds into the media talk around them being kindred spirits. In any case, it's an interesting detail, among his villainous hijinks.
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