[craneyourneckmp3]

my favourite bits from various reviews of the third part of certain women (2016, dir. kelly reichardt)

Cassie Da Costa / Amelie Hastie / Jaime N. Christley / April Wolfe / Brooke Allen / Carlos Valladares / Lee Purvey / Kate Stables / Ryan Gilbey

[sisyphushotwheels]

aughhhh I can’t wait for the wedding banquet (2025)

[harrietdyker]

while I do think cam and becca had a thing before becca left for sure, and that their realization of queerness was done together, their exploration of queerness was largely done separately, and it was obvs a different sort of experience for both of them. becca, by nature and by circumstance and by privilege, clearly had the opportunity to be more outwardly with her exploration, while cam had clearly made it a more private endeavor — not entirely secret/closeted per se, but definitely something that is hers alone to know (still so attached to the classified ads headcanon, classifieds anon if you’re still here I will never get over it 😭).

but I feel like despite the differences, their experience was equally lonely. neither finding partnership through it, really, not for more than a night or few, maybe because they couldn’t allow themselves to look for one. both feeling things they couldn’t quite process because they couldn’t quite talk them through, or face the meaning of them.

when they were with each other as teens, when they were learning each other, when they tested and tasted queerness on their tongue for the first time, it was something they were doing together, even while it was also personal self-exploration. to have that be cut short not exactly because you wanted to cut it short is jarring and cold.

so I think there was comfort in returning to each other in that sense too, by which I mean there is comfort in coming back to a person you could sink yourself into because there is a shape there where you fit perfectly because you’re the one who molded that shape into being when you were both still malleable in each other’s palms. and their queerness was made in the image of this shape that they got to sink back into, their queerness was made in each other’s image, and to come back to that after spending all these years looking for this kind of warmth, well. that is comfort. and to have that comfort again allowed them to move on as much as talking openly through their past had.

[harrietdyker]

i have been SAYING!!!!!!

[limitedseries]

It's good to see you again after all these years.

Cam and Rebecca Under the Bridge (2024)

[bonkobarnes]

The bravest thing Cam did was go back to the rez. Braver than kissing Becca or confronting her dad or resigning. And there’s so many reasons for why but the biggest being she then incurs an incredible responsibility. It’s not something she can do half way. She has to commit to this part of herself. Everything she learns becomes something she is expected to pass on.

Reconnecting as an indigenous person is one of the greatest forms of resistance. And not only is Cam doing it, but it’s in direct opposition of the institution she held up for many years.

When your existence is criminalized, the bravest thing you can do is be present.

[xosiren]

𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲

1.04 "ʙᴇᴀᴜᴛɪꜰᴜʟ ʙʀɪᴛɪꜱʜ ᴄᴏʟᴜᴍʙɪᴀ" | 1.08 "ᴍᴇʀᴄʏ ᴀʟᴏɴᴇ"

[sisyphushotwheels]

highly recommend The Secret Life of Canada's two-parter episode on the origins of the RCMP, the national police service of Canada

[harrietdyker]

just thinking about rebecca and cam reconciling and deciding if they’re doing this then they’re doing this right which means they’re going on dates and taking things one step at a time and slow. and it’s about 10 dates in and becca is lingering at cam’s door and they’re feeling lighter than they’ve felt in many many many years. they’ve talked about some rough shit in the first few dates but now they’ve found themselves talking about small, brilliantly insignificant things. and rebecca is smiling while she lingers at cam’s door and cam steps closer to her and kisses her, hand casually pressed against her belly. becca melts into it instantly. they both do. they haven’t done this since before they fought during warren’s arrest. and now that they’ve managed to find solid ground with each other past all these moons and months ago, and they’re here, kissing, it’s easy to get lost in it again but they quickly realize it’s bringing difficult feelings that they haven’t entirely handled yet to the surface, because soon enough they’re making out and cam makes this pained sound and rebecca’s gasping and when they pull back and look at each other, they know they can’t be doing this yet. that they will have to deal with this one day but it can’t be today because they’re still so close to slipping back into their bad patterns of need and guilt and being a hectic mess. it won’t take much. it’s frustrating as hell but they step back from each other and leave it there.

[madronash]

It's easy to see how Becca is a hot mess and how her desperation for Cam's approval makes her flail and cause chaos. But what's Cam doing?

In my opinion, the question Becca asks in Episode 7, "Do you still think Gabe would be here if it wasn't for me?" changes so much of how I think about their past and relationship.

In earlier episodes we saw Cam running hot and cold with Becca, scoffing when Becca compliments her, flirting with her only under the pretext of asking Becca to get info for her, "I don't know if I want to sit through for dinner." I always thought this was a recent behavior, Cam protecting herself because Becca devastated her when she disappeared before.

But Cam can't say she doesn't blame Becca even now, not fully. Just, "I was a kid when I said that." Which is actually what Becca needs to say about her own words to Gabe.

@anandabrat and I were talking about the way that Cam makes a joke when Becca tells her she was left in a warehouse on acid (and Becca's relieved, "I made her laugh" face that echoes the way 13 year old Becca smiled at Cam) instead of being worried about her. Like, would you do that? Even with a girl you love/hate? Unless this is a long-standing pattern.

What if the way Cam treats Becca right now isn't new. What if it's how she's always treated her but Becca is convinced that's the only love she deserves after doing what she did? What if fucking is the only thing they ever got right? Not because either of them is bad but because they don't have better models and they had to keep a secret.

What if it's not quite that bad but this is how Cam treated her right after Gabe died and the Virk case has made them both revert to their worst selves? Is that why Becca is so desperate for any scraps that tell her Cam likes her?

[madronash]

I just read that, irl, Warren admitted to dragging Reena's body when he was on the witness stand at his trial. My theory is that they didn't include it in Episode 7 because they decided that the final episode needed to be when Rebecca is finally confronted by the cold hard truth, presumably during Kelly's trial. At the end of Ep7, she's all teary and huggy with Warren but I'm hoping that she'll snap out of it in the finale. Maybe Cam will finally forgive her for the Gabe incident and that will help Rebecca heal enough to be less delusional and hyper focused on Warren.

I am not sure why the show did this with Warren. And with moving his eviction date to the night of the murder. I think in many ways the point would be stronger if Warren *had* confessed on the stand.

That said, I disagree that Becca is going to snap out of anything or that a one time conversation with Cam could possibly fix what she's doing.

It's not that she doesn't think Warren took part in killing Reena. Her delusion is that she is *as culpable* for Gabe's death as Warren is for Reena and that if he still merits love, so does she. What she needs is not Cam's forgiveness but her own. And in order to do that she needs to come clean about what she did (which, to be clear: was not kill her brother! She was just being 13 and a dickish little sister! She did nowhere near the level of violence Warren did!).

I was talking to @anandabrat about this point and she noticed that Becca's dad called Gabe's death an accident.

Pause. What? Do they think it's an accident because they are unwilling to consider the alternative or because Cam and Becca lied to them about what happened? Either way, Becca gets no closure because what she sees as her part in it remains a secret to everyone but Cam. She needs her parents and a therapist to tell her she didn't kill her brother. She needs to realize Cam isn't the only one who thinks she's redeemable.

Cam needs to figure out whether she blames Becca or herself and maybe stop fucking her while she does so. But more on that later.

[anandabrat]

To me this idea that Cam and Becca didn't tell anybody what Becca said makes like every interaction between them, and between Becca and Becca's parents, and between Cam and well... Everyone... Make so much more sense.

Becca has never had someone look her in the eye and say being a thirteen year old with a mouth and a selfish moment does not mean you were responsible for your brother's death.

Cam has been holding onto the idea that she covered up the real cause of her friend's death out of... love? Desire? Cowardice? No wonder she can barely look at Becca even when she's fucking her. No wonder there's so little grace for anyone else's errors, especially her own.

It's another layer. Another way things can go, when teenagers are making decisions that have lifelong adult consequences.

[madronash]

Whoo boy. Had to sleep on that episode. This show is doing such an interesting thing with Becca as a character, even more so since the real person was the author of the source material the show is based on.

Becca fundamentally doesn't get what happened with Reena Virk. She's not paying attention to race and she's used her guilt over Gabe's death to project herself onto Warren, at the expense of her ability to connect with anyone else involved. At the expense of her ability to really understand the power dynamics in play.

Aside from her early attempts to manipulate Jo, she seems most comfortable relating to the men and boys of the story and giving them the most empathy. It's fucked, and it's a really wild choice for a show that was created *in collaboration* with the real Rebecca Godfrey. It's indicting the book she really did write as much as anything else, while still being an empathetic portrait of the effects of trauma, in my opinion.

Fundamentally, Becca's impulse towards restorative justice is a good one, even if it's harmful that she is only trying to put it in practice with one of the kids. The justice system can only lock people up and compell them to testify. A practice of restorative justice tries to reintegrate people and offer methods for accountability to a community. At the same time, as the story shows, the risks of a community based practice are that it might not be extended to every person who would benefit from it. Dusty vs Warren.

And then there's Kelly, which so far the show is painting as remorseless and certainly in need of mental health care rather than expensive lawyers. Becca and Cam get to represent this question of how to respond to violence in terms of justice and accountability in a show that doesn't offer good answers, just complicated motivations.

[harrietdyker]

rebecca only being able to fall asleep in cam’s bed meanwhile cam trying to sleep on her couch i have to wonder if it’s because her bed now reminds her of becca

[bentlands]

!!! i was similarly confused/angry abt the choice to make warren’s eviction the same day as reena’s death. like, i understand it strengthens the connection btwn him and becca (the whole lashing out at someone who didn’t deserve it thing) but i don’t understand why that’s such an important subplot or why that’s the main perspective becca is bringing to the case. if anything i think it undermines what the show has been trying to say abt cycles of violence/abuse bc ep 7 shows that warren basically killed reena bc he was having a bad day rather than being like…a reaction to shitty circumstances (which we see more with jo’s character). or maybe that’s the point?? idk anymore but i’m nervous about how they’re going to wrap this up, the becca/warren/gabe storyline has def taken a weird turn imo

right??? because here's the thing: we already felt sorry for warren, because we already knew that his life has been difficult from the start, and it wasn't at all necessary for condensing the storyline or anything. and again, i do think he is one of the most tragic players in this story because he is someone who clearly lacked in literally everything; resources, mental health care, stability, even parents, and we've been shown that time and time again through the show and how that influenced him to give in to rage and anger at one of the worst possible moments. i think it also cheapens his story a little because it's very clear his rage and violence wasn't in reaction to one single event, but a whole lifetime of misfortune and injustice. i think they are going to wrap this decently, because his and kelly's endings go hand in hand, i just found that tidbit so unnecessary.

[bentlands]

it was so hard to hear them beating reena : ( and her mom was so right: warren wouldn't have been so quick to do such a thing if reena had been the traditional pretty girl (white, thin, hairless, etc.).

archie panjabi and lily gladstone both gave such excellent performances, but the dialogue in this episode was appallingly bad.

what really struck me was that they made his eviction from his trailer the same day reena was killed. i'd have to check again but i'm pretty sure that was made up for the show which adds another layer of weird flip flopping with warren; yeah he went on to savagely beat this girl to death but he's homeless now! and his dad fucked off to the usa and won't be back in canada for years! like. again warren is one of the saddest kids and i get they had to condense storylines/backstories but i feel like writing his eviction/abandonment as being november 14 was just bad writing? idk i'll have to rewatch though. the beating scene was brutal... i have to give the writers and actors credit though they did an amazing job with really showing how brutal and savage the kids beating reena were without making it torture porn/re-victimizing her; we don't see her really beaten and bloodied in the attack, but we hear her cries, and we see how soulless and brutal the kids attacking her are. warren jumps in and kicks her instinctively with a cold look in his eyes and it's chilling.

now that i've had time to think about it i was kind of disappointed with how they did warrens trial, in an effort to make him seem more sympathetic i guess? irl warrens girlfriend (syreeta/samara) DID testify against him and she was really heavily scrutinized. i think dusty also testified against him as well and without having any witnesses it kind of makes him seem more innocent which for a show that has taken such care thus far has been.. weird.

[copcarmitski]

ok so very preliminary thoughts after finishing episode 7 and yup. yuppp. it's so clear that rebecca identifies with warren because, yes, she sees gabe in him, but also because sees herself as gabe's killer, and this is her way of making amends with him (and herself). she's alluded to it in prev episodes (iirc she says something along the lines of "i know what it's like to take anger out on someone who didn't deserve it") and her insistence on calling his actions a "mistake", refusing to ask directly about that night, and the whole convo she has w cam only furthers this. if there's a comparison to be made with gabe here i think it'd actually be reena, and i think becca's hesitance to write about her points us to that. it's increasingly clear she's actually writing this book to absolve herself--if people can see past warren's actions, can write it off as a mistake, as the consequences of a troubled home life, then maybe, just maybe, they can do it for her too.

however.

on paper, becca and kelly have much more in common than becca and warren, in that they're both white, from well-off families (for becca i'm mostly just extrapolating from the details we've been given abt her life but i don't think it's a farfetched jump to make), had/have good home lives (slightly arguable for becca i suppose but in any case def not comparable to any of the seven oaks kids), and most importantly, both don't have an "explanation" for their acts (quick side note to say that obviously past trauma does not excuse violence but the show does make it a point to show that abuse begets violence and acts of harm are as much communal as they are interpersonal, and kelly [in the show] is the only one of the shoreline six that doesn't have this). and becca is absolutely right when she says that because kelly is privileged and has access to resources that warren doesn't there's a likelihood she'll get a lighter sentence, but that doesn't excuse what warren (+ the other seven oaks kids) did either.

what i think, narratively, this coupling of becca&warren rather than becca&kelly and its subsequent aftermath does is actually force becca to contend fully and honestly with her actions on the day of gabe's death. up until now i think she's been trying to explain/excuse it away as a mistake. while that can be true, it also is true that her brother was bullied, she said something mean to him for no real reason (besides sibling rivalry/messy teenage emotions/angst ?), and that all happened on the day he committed suicide. i don't think becca will truly get over her brother's death until she faces her role in it and comes to terms with the fact that mistakes, too, have consequences, and while that isn't life-ending (and shouldn't be! i also have thoughts on what ep 7 had to say about what justice looks like, particularly when the only avenue we have for that, currently, is incarceration) it is something that is now a part of her/her life.

& what i think all this does on a wider level (and is the point i've taken so far to finally get at) is that the role of becca/kelly/gabe/warren is the show's way of raising the very important questions of--how do we have accountability for interpersonal violence while living under Systems of violence that constrain our actions? what do we do with acts of violence that seemingly have no "source"--how do they fit into the larger conversation of cyclical and structural violence? and most importantly, how do we make sure we're also centering the victims/survivors and their desires for justice (while also recognizing that our very concept of justice/accountability is formed under a punitive system)? which are all very real questions that those engaging with abolition grapple with daily. the show doesn't propose solutions (not that i expect it to and not that it should), but it does provide a much-needed intervention in the true crime genre that i hope reverberates throughout

[sisyphushotwheels]

ah so Rebecca really didn’t let anything that Suman said get through to her, huh.