💬 2 🔁 1854 ❤️ 4228 · 5/5 stars, this horror film was art
Most horrifying scenes to me were just the ambient, low-grade terror of that win
"The Id, the Ego and the Superego in the Backrooms:" https://www.tumblr.com/sublimepeachtriumph/820261786362265600/the-id-the-ego-and-the-superego-in-the-backrooms
"There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one's head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people's pain.”
-"‘I don’t see what’s so hard about being a woman. At least, not as long as she’s got a man.’
- ‘That’s just it,’ said she. ‘Hasn’t it ever struck you that that’s a sort of humiliating necessity?’"
love him. love him and let him love you. do you think anything else under heaven really matters? and how long, at the best, can it last? since you are both men and have everywhere else to go? only five minutes, only five minutes, and most of that helas! in the dark. and if you think of them as dirty then they will be dirty—they will be dirty because you will be giving nothing, you will be despising your flesh and his. but you can make your time together anything but dirty; you can give each other something which will make both of you better—forever—if you will not be ashamed, if you will only not play it safe...you play it safe long enough...and you'll end up trapped in your own dirty body, forever and forever and forever—like me.
As I pointed out like a year ago, the cleaver is significant for its allusions to Christian teachings on marriage in which a couple cleaves together but it also carries a double meaning of splitting and martyrdom. So, actually a perfect encapsulation of Carmy's need to cling to Syd while simultaneously offering himself as sacrifice by promising to leave.
In Season 4, Syd tells Carmy when they are about to talk about the changed partnership agreement that she has lost her cleaver and he promises her a new one. The fact that she has lost her ability to split from him and also to cleave to him foreshadows the new terms of the partnership agreement. Some have even speculated that Carmy stole Syd's cleaver.
livelovecaliforniadreams
In the final season, we see Syd and Carmy chat about his plans to leave and his resume-worthy skills. As he is listening to Syd rib him gently, he is unwrapping his own cleaver. Notably, he unwraps it but never uses it. Syd lances the poison of Mikey's banishment by telling Carmy that he always has an opening back at the Bear.
livelovecaliforniadreams
At that moment, he seems almost overcome and, to her bemusement, walks away with a touch on her arm. I was confused by why he needed to step away from that conversation. But now I'm realizing that it meant that the cleaver lays between them, unused. So, in short, Carmy and Syd are cleaving together (she has lost her ability to split from him, he chooses not to use his to abandon her for his architectural pipedreams). By greenlighting Ebra's franchise plan in the very next scene, he is finding ways to keep their Bear ship afloat.
Now I want Syd and Carmy (with a careful set of confidantes) to brainstorm how to use that cleaver to split away the Bear from Unc-Cheese-Computer-Disney.
Love, love, love. Every little detail with this show.
I thought he did take her cleaver in S4 (like Tina moved his knife in S1) because he didn’t want her to leave, so he offers to leave instead In Goodbye.
Now is this him returning it? Or is it him giving her a new one?
Like, to your point, maybe Syd intentionally lost it because she didn’t want to fully commit to all this?
I did write meta on the cleaver sitch, and I remember her asking only Carmy about this in S4 and mentioning, very randomly, she also asked her dad if he had seen it.
Which definitely falls into that Christian bucket of a woman who is going to be married leaving her family and cleaving now to her new husband, creating a new family unit.
And then you throw in Worms and all the TJ stuff where Syd is clearly freaked out by the idea that Carmy is now being cooperative when she wants to stay mad at him.
I definitely think she was using the cleaver to open the scallop shells for the dish she won the stars for.
Carmy’s distraught face when he tastes the dish in S4’s Scallop is the moment he knows she doesn’t need him anymore. Also, Shapiro liked her scallop dish.
Now Carmy’s putting it between them and giving her the option to give him the chop (she not leaving the restaurant, clearly) and instead she’s not running anymore, she’s giving him an open door.
To continue the conversation we had earlier--the metaphor of the cleaver left on the table is also such a progressive approach to a relationship (personal and professional) because each party should always have the option to leave if they need to. In total contrast to Red Flag screaming, "You can't run away from me!" and boasting (threatening) that she knows his whole family. But if you recognize that the other person has the right to leave you at any point, then you have to work at earning their trust and love each day, showing up for them and supporting them. Trying, failing, failing better. It's not to be taken for granted.
I am so spoiled by this show and how many delicious breadcrumbs are left in the subtext, in the margins (written in the margins by the Bear for us to find), hiding in plain sight. Most other shows and films bore me but this one caters to me, rewards me for noticing and rewatching.
As I pointed out like a year ago, the cleaver is significant for its allusions to Christian teachings on marriage in which a couple cleaves together but it also carries a double meaning of splitting and martyrdom. So, actually a perfect encapsulation of Carmy's need to cling to Syd while simultaneously offering himself as sacrifice by promising to leave.
In Season 4, Syd tells Carmy when they are about to talk about the changed partnership agreement that she has lost her cleaver and he promises her a new one. The fact that she has lost her ability to split from him and also to cleave to him foreshadows the new terms of the partnership agreement. Some have even speculated that Carmy stole Syd's cleaver.
livelovecaliforniadreams
In the final season, we see Syd and Carmy chat about his plans to leave and his resume-worthy skills. As he is listening to Syd rib him gently, he is unwrapping his own cleaver. Notably, he unwraps it but never uses it. Syd lances the poison of Mikey's banishment by telling Carmy that he always has an opening back at the Bear.
livelovecaliforniadreams
At that moment, he seems almost overcome and, to her bemusement, walks away with a touch on her arm. I was confused by why he needed to step away from that conversation. But now I'm realizing that it meant that the cleaver lays between them, unused. So, in short, Carmy and Syd are cleaving together (she has lost her ability to split from him, he chooses not to use his to abandon her for his architectural pipedreams). By greenlighting Ebra's franchise plan in the very next scene, he is finding ways to keep their Bear ship afloat.
Now I want Syd and Carmy (with a careful set of confidantes) to brainstorm how to use that cleaver to split away the Bear from Unc-Cheese-Computer-Disney.
The fashion house that designed the dress is founded by two people who established their brand as a direct reaction to the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in which 1,134 garment workers in international fast fashion (mainly low paid women) were killed when an 8 story building collapsed because of heavy machinery negligently placed within a structurally unsound edifice. "By adopting a highly shocking, ironic, and non-glamorous name {Fecal Matter}, they sought to force consumers to buy their clothes for quality and originality rather than just a prestigious brand name. Their work often uses unsettling aesthetics to critique fashion elitism and corporate greed."
