#2.04 analysis

[foxmagpie]

First off, I’ve just read ‘Better Underwater’ and it’s pure perfection. I love the cute backstory. 😍 So, I’m currently rewatching season 2 and I was wondering what you think Rio was expecting to happen when he followed Beth to the bathroom in 2.04.

Thinking about their conversation in the car in season 1 where he told her to tell the police he was hitting it and her flustered and prudish reaction to it, I just can’t believe he thought she wanted to hook up. In a dirty bar bathroom, at that. I’m not sure if you’ve already addressed this. If so, just ignore me. 😅

(this ask is so old, im v sorry, but tysm and i'm glad you enjoyed it!)

as for your question, i've always interpreted it to be that he highly suspected, but didn't really believe he could be right until beth locked the door. even then, i think he was still shocked when she turned back around (not kissing him) and lifted up her dress.

i think this for a few reasons:

beth went to a place she suspected he'd be at because he'd already invited her there, but didn't seem to have contacted him to meet up. the place and timing was also unusual - it wasn't on two separate park benches in the daylight or in a back alley where nobody could see them, but in the middle of a crowded bar when he was out to be social. so i think he put the pieces together that it wasn't about work and it was therefore personal - and rio was dialed in and frankly just waiting to their sexual tension to break between them.

beyond that, i think the fact that rio knows that he's been invited to follow her to the bathroom - to even try the lock and find it open for him! - indicates that he was correctly reading the signals. typically a bathroom would be a place to find reprieve and privacy in a bar.

lastly, i think rio's choice not to speak - not to ask beth what she wanted or why she was there - was because he knew how fragile the moment was and wanted to see what would happen without his interference. rio's a man of few words, but he also typically likes to get to the point so he can smoke bomb out of there, and here was dead silent, waiting.

i think it's the same (but more complicated and layered) when she invites him back to her place in 2.09. he knows, but he doesn't entirely believe he's right, and that seems to be the case right up until the moment she closes the door and starts taking off her shoes and her coat.

imo, beth's unpredictability is something that fascinates him and keeps him hooked on her. in business, he finds it can be both advantageous as much as it can be disastrous, but in romance and their personal relationship, he seems to find it completely fascinating because he's always straddling a line of what he knows (that she's attracted to him, that she implicitly trusts him, that she blooms under his attention) and what he can never seem to put his finger on (for instance: how, exactly, to get her into bed, what the effect of prompting her jealousy will be, what she ultimately wants the two of them to be). rio seems like he has the upper hand because he's had more experience and he's her boss that has literally threatened her life and shot her husband, but in their intimate relationship, it's actually beth that holds the cards - partially because he lets her, and partially because she's just so elusive and unpredictable and, i believe, unusual in the sense that she has incredible levels of self-denial. frankly, i think rio's used to getting whichever woman he's interested in, and he's completely flummoxed that this isn't the case with beth, and he doesn't know why because he does know she's interested.

their lack of communication is an absolute curse for both of them, but they really do seem to like the game too much to ever give it up.

[foxmagpie]

Do you have any head canons about the bathroom break? 👀 Do you think they talked after? Etc

Definitely have some headcanons! Here are some off the top of my head:

Rio wanted Beth to kiss him but then he thought it was even hotter that she didn't

Rio thought one wrong move could implode the entire thing which is why he was careful to avoid eye contact (keeping his face in her hair) and why he didn't speak (though he'd have personally loved dirty talk)

There was hardly any real foreplay; I think he basically confirmed she was ready and went for it

He wanted to tug on her hair and make her look at herself in the mirror (but he refrained)

They didn't use a condom—Beth because she didn't think of it (the infrequency she was having sex with Dean coupled with the normalcy of not using them with him) and Rio because he didn't have one on him and bringing it up might've ended it all before it started. He's usually meticulous about it, though, and I think he specifically banked on the fact that chances were good she was on some type of birth control.

Rio initiated the move to the wall because he needed to be even closer to her.

If they exchanged any words at all, it was during the position switch, and it was essentially meaningless phrases like "c'mere" or "what?" or "oh" as they readjusted

When they finished, they allowed themselves a brief moment where they just absorbed what happened, slumped against each other.

Beth left the bathroom first but she didn't rush; she wanted to appear calm, cool, and collected and not appear rattled.

Rio took the panties.

Rio masturbated thinking about it that same night while Beth tried to tuck it neatly into the past but failed miserably, which is why she gave up fighting it after the crow bar.

[foxmagpie]

okay but bath giving the bottle to nick just like Rio did in season 2 shows to me how much she copy his MO idk I love it

I love that it seems it both is and isn't a copy of Rio's MO?

Rio giving Beth the bottle of bourbon was, after all, a signifier of and reminder that he knew her—a key element in Beth finally letting down her walls and choosing to seduce him. In contrast, when giving the bottle to Nick, Beth specifically says, "Well, I figure [emphasis mine] it's what fancy politicians drink." It's an assumption and therefore a rather impersonal, generic gift based on her own interests rather than Nick's.

Like, Rio, though, Beth offers the bottle as somewhat of a consolation prize in a larger game that's being played, specifically one where she's using Nick as her fall guy like Rio was using Beth in season 2 by putting the storage locker (and everything else) in her name.

Both Beth and Rio have conflicting, personal motivations in these moves to pull the other person closer—the difference is that Rio's came from real feelings that he was developing for her, while Beth's come from a desire to take Nick down, which came from her feeling betrayed by his lie about not getting involved or being able to pull strings when she thought her sister was in danger.

And that's interesting because she's projecting that anger more towards Nick, who didn't help, rather than Rio, who created the problem in the first place, showing that Beth's given Rio a much different line than Nick in regards to what behaviors she'll tolerate.

[foxmagpie]

when rio said “i think you could be somethin” what exactly did he mean by that i kinda get it but i don’t know what that“something” is that he was talking about. thanks :)

It's a bit of an idiomatic phrasing, but essentially he means that she could make something of herself in the world of crime. At that moment, he believes she handled Boomer—something I think he expected her to fail to accomplish—and it impresses him. He thinks she has the capacity to be successful in their operation, but I think it's clear as time goes on that he has a limited idea of that success—one in which he remains on top of and in control of her professionally.

Like most things between the two of them, the compliment is both the truth and a lie. He does see her and respect her abilities, but he comments on them as a way to manipulate her and move her where he wants her to be (in this case, taking the keys to the kingdom and coming up with a use for the money that he can then swoop in and take over).

After all, even if he is impressed with her, I think Rio knows that there is a large experience gap between what Beth has accomplished so far in the world of crime and the hurdles she would be up against the further she fell into it, especially as he deliberately (particularly in season 2) limits her access to other parts of that world and the people that occupy it.

TLDR: he's telling her she's good at what she does and that she could get better and rise through the ranks, but he's telling her in order to get something he wants out of it.

[foxmagpie]

So I’m rewatching GGs and was wondering your thoughts on the unprotected sex between Brio. To me, it just seems very out of character for both of them (to happen not just once, but twice). I know that both sexual encounters are spur of the moment (especially the bathroom sex) and I know that Beth is older so the likelihood of her getting pregnant is not that high. It just seems odd that Beth would even allow that with her being a mom of four already but also with the possibility of STDs and whatnot (she seems like she would think that way). But also with Rio usually being in control and aware of his actions, the possibility that this could result in a pregnancy would occur to him and he would bag it up. Do you think they just get caught up in the moment? Or perhaps this is a physical manifestation of the possessiveness that Rio feels towards her? Beth seemed pretty happy with her actions in the car with Dean after the bathroom scene. Maybe the physical evidence that lingered after the actual act provided her with even more satisfaction in her rebellion of the “housewife” role that Dean assigned to her in the episode?

i think there are several factors which makes it in-character to me:

like you said, both moments are spur-of-the-moment and neither character is prepared for the possibility of sex, so the chances of having a condom on-hand is lessened considerably

on top of that, each moment is very fragile. in the bathroom break, there is so much emphasis on the lack of speech and talking and the avoidance of the kiss. not only that, but dean is waiting outside. there is a clock ticking and one wrong move will likely explode the whole moment. pausing or trying to get their bearings is taking a chance that it doesn’t happen at all. 

i think that’s similar in the bedroom. beth is so tentative and nervous and they really are in their own little bubble and world. any condoms that would be available at that moment would be dean’s, and that would puncture that moment as existing just between the two of them.

as for beth, i actually don’t think she’d be very concerned about STI or pregnancy. she’s only been with one man in her entire life and hasn’t ever had casual sex, and therefore, she’s never—in her entire adult life—worried about the possible consequences of casual sex. her and dean’s sex life was basically nonexistent, but i imagine that before, when it wasn’t, they weren’t using condoms, instead using other birth control methods. i don’t think the potential of pregnancy would be front-of-mind in that case. it’s likely her normal sexual experiences didn't feature condoms and she didn’t have comparable experiences to make worrying about STIs a concern, particularly during the spur-of-the-moment.

for rio, i do think these would be more front-of-mind concerns, but that ultimately he was caught up in the moment and was willing to risk it. i think he correctly clocked that beth hadn’t been with anyone else in a long time, he had no idea that dean had stepped out on her, and therefore he assumed it was likely that she was not likely to transmit an STI to him. he probably also assumed beth was on some type of birth control.

i think it’s also shown time and time again that they are reckless when they are around each other and this fits into that pattern.

beyond that, i actually don’t think possessiveness or rebellion factored into their decision not to use a condom, but i do think it’s something that they would both find sexy after the fact. i can absolutely see that they would both get off to the fact that beth probably had evidence of their secret tryst between her thighs when she went back to her husband for exactly those reasons, but in the bedroom, i would tend to believe that wasn’t as present. however, i could see that they both enjoyed the closeness and intimacy of having no barrier between them.  

[foxmagpie]

Hey, I recently got into GG and I really like how you analyze the show, I agree with most of your theories. I was kinda thinking about whether Rio really wanted to get out of the business in 2.04 or it was just a ruse for Beth. I get the feeling like he wanted to try something new, or maybe distance himself from the girls. But he changed his plans when he slept with her, whereas Beth slept with him just to later 'break up' with him. What's your stance on this?

I suppose that depends on which business you think he was trying to get out of! I don’t think he was trying to leave crime overall, but I do think he was trying to flip his game, and I generally ascribe to @pynkhues theory about Rio’s business interests that she lays out here.

To summarize: it seems like Rio's counterfeiting operations were shut down in season 2, and that he pawned off money that had already been made in season 1 but which was likely useless to him as he was under too much scrutiny while his criminal case was open. He was moving into pill distribution, and when Beth delivered on a lucrative scheme that he could also use for getting his drugs into the country, he leaped on the opportunity, retaking control over the counterfeit cash but washing it exclusively through Boland Motors so that it was theoretically untraceable to himself. 

I think he would’ve eventually come exploding back onto the scene to collect regardless—we saw in 1.08 that he tends to think of all of his money as “his” regardless of whether it’s part of his employee’s payroll—but I agree with you that his plans changed when they slept together, and I think that sped up his timeline and changed the way the information was delivered (namely, he enjoyed making a scene in front of Dean). 

It’s pretty clear to me that his interest and obsession with Beth ratcheted up after the bathroom break, and I think Rio responded to personal cord tightening between them by trying to tighten the professional cord between them as well. 

Oh! And welcome to the fandom!!! 😘

[foxmagpie]

favorite moments in the iconic bathroom scene?

God, I love that whole scene start to finish. There’s so many perfect moments—so I’m just gonna break down my love for the whole scene if that’s okay?

First, we get this longshot of Dean in the restaurant where Beth took him to dinner. I love this because it sets up such a nice contrast between the place Beth chose and Rio’s bar. 

This restaurant is white and neutral and clean—much brighter, fancier, but also emptier. It’s a nice restaurant, but it feels sparse and barren in comparison. Who knows what the music in this scene is. It’s so nondescript that when you try to Shazam it, it just registers “Small Cocktail Party Atmosphere” noises—i.e. only the sounds of the various people chitchatting in the background of the scene. All of this just emphasizes the state of Beth and Dean’s marriage—which is boring and empty. 

Then we get this jolting change to the pair of them in Rio’s bar. Now, I didn’t watch this on live TV, but I’ve never gotten the sense that there’s a commercial break between those two shots? The shift between those two scenes is almost jarring, especially when we go from that quiet sort of background music to the louder hip-hop/rap music of Young Fathers. It’s darker in here and packed full of people—particularly younger people. There are a lot of hipsters here. This is not Beth’s usual scene.

Maybe Dean realizes that, but it doesn’t seem like he does. He just pretends that he finds the place “super dope,” emphasizing just how much he doesn’t fit in here either, as well as the fact that he’s oblivious that he’s already messed up his chances for the night with his “we each have our own superpower” speech. He’s still optimistic that this is going well.

And then he asks her where she found this place, and Beth could tell him anything—that Annie likes it, that she found a review online—but she says, “A friend.”

And I love that because she’s about to show us just how much she doesn’t view him as (just) a friend—but that first she claims him as one anyway, because the opening scene in 2x04 does establish them with a sense of camaraderie that we haven’t seen between them before when Rio wants to celebrate with her. Even lying and calling him a friend here as an answer to Dean’s question shows that there’s been a marked shift between 2x01 and 2x04 in terms of Beth’s feelings about Rio—more of an acceptance than a reluctance to acknowledge his place in her life. 

If Rio hadn’t reappeared on the scene and pulled them back in at the end of 2x01, I believe there’s a real possibility that Beth would have returned to normal life. She’s nervous when he reappears. She tries to leave the park before he finds her. She’s shocked in that scene, both by Marcus and by what he’s asking her to do. In 2x02, she’s resigned and vulnerable and afraid. In 2x03, they have the nice scene at the park where he tells her to be a boss bitch, but there’s still a distance, both physical and emotional, between them. She sits as far away from him as possible on that bench. 

That gap between them finally closes here at the bar, and I love that this line calling him a “friend” is the only verbal cue of that shift in a scene that is otherwise so powerful for its silence. 

Dean, however, is anything but silent in his role in this scene. Dean complains about the how the “service lacks a little professionalism” in a bar, where he’s perfectly capable of getting up and standing in line like everybody else—but of course, Dean sees anything but being waited on hand and foot as some sort of personal offense. How dare he be inconvenienced, right? Plus, Dean complaining about “professionalism,” when he’s had affairs with his employees on top of his desk in his glass office? What’s that saying about throwing stones while living in glass houses???

And god, I love how easily Beth catches Rio’s eye once she notices him. It’s like he feels her looking at him, and he looks at her, and his face doesn’t even register surprise. And she’s adorable fiddling with her hair, and I’m lowkey obsessed with the way he like smacks his lips open and closed over his teeth as he swallows his drink. 

I know people love this scene for the fuck-me eyes they’re shooting at each other, but I didn’t even register that the first time because it’s so brief? I love how brief it is, because it just underpins how much they’re on the same wavelength. They don’t need to draw it out here. They just know.

Beth disappears the moment she makes eye contact with him, and he just shifts his hips on that stool because she’s unsettling him (and because he’s a little turned on). I love imagining Rio’s walk to that bathroom—how he must’ve been intrigued and a little confused and very pleasantly surprised to find it unlocked, because as much as I imagine he’s imagined getting Beth into bed, I don’t think he could have ever dreamed this would be the scenario. It just underscores her capacity to surprise him, which is the exact reason he’s drawn to her in the first place (!!!!)

I love the way Beth looks at herself in the mirror, because she knows what she’s about to do—which means she knows, she’s confident that Rio will follow her—because it means she’s certain that he’s going to accept her invitation (because she would never do this if she wasn’t positive he was going to reciprocate). All of her denials of that electric charge between them falls away. She allows herself to admit that she knows that he’s attracted to her. That she’s attracted to him, too.

I love the way Rio comes in, how he looks out the door as he closes it, as if scanning to see if they’re safely alone. The way he doesn’t lock the door because he’s still not sure, and that’s up to her. The way he stands across from her, waiting. The way I read his face as looking at her, almost challenging her, to see what she’ll do next, because he’s still not convinced it’s happening. 

And Beth turns around and she walks toward him, and there’s this moment in the shot that’s one of my absolute favorite moments of this whole scene, and it’s when they seem to be eye-to-eye? They’re level with each other, as if they’re the same height when Rio is actually half a foot taller than Beth. It is just so symbolic of them being on even footing. 

And then Rio does the same thing that he does in 2x09, which is inch closer an closer to her even though he won’t make the first move. He just wants to make the leap as easy as possible for her—like he wants it to be easy for her to kiss him, so he’ll make his lips as close as he can to hers and just wait.

And then she just locks the door.

GODDAMN!!!

God, and then she just walks over to the sink and hikes up her dress and invites him to fuck her, and the positioning is so significant because:

Despite everything and all the ways that they’re closing the gap, there’s still something holding them back, so she chooses an impersonal position that allows them not to be face-to-face, and

It’s a position that emphasizes that she wants him to fuck her, like it’s an invitation for him to do the work to please her and impress her and pleasure her, and

It’s a position where Beth stays standing, exactly like she’s been standing on her whole two feet this entire episode, and it underscores the balance of power between them in a position that I think typically and conventionally suggests the man having power over the woman, but that’s subverted here?

And then there’s the way he looks at her in the mirror, and it’s often described as reverent, and no wonder, because it takes him a second to even react, to start moving towards her? There’s hesitancy there? He blinks and his eyes flick up but don’t meet hers in the mirror because he’s shocked. Even though she confirmed she wanted to fuck him in a public restroom when she locked the door, the way she wants him to fuck her—without words, from behind—is yet another surprise! Like damn, how many more ways can she floor him in one scene?

One of my very favorite parts of this scene is him splaying his hand on her thigh. And for so many different reasons! He could touch her anywhere, and it’s the thigh? I love that. It’s sort of sexy and forbidden in the way that most people don’t go around touching each other’s thighs, but it’s not exactly obscene, you know? This is a quickie, it has to be, but he knows that doesn’t mean it has to lack any build-up and tension—he’s not skipping over the pleasure of being able to really touch her for the first time.

Also, the splaying of the fingers—it’s like he needs as much of her as possible underneath his hands immediately. He needs to feel her. He’s tapped her, ghosted his fingers across her face, and slid his hand across her shoulders briefly before this, but this is lingering and full, not done by half measures. When he finally gets to touch her like this, you can tell how much and how long he’s wanted to in the flex of his fingers as he seems to be pulling her back into him as he presses himself against her. He wants them to be as close as possible. 

And then there’s just this juxtaposition between the ways he’s being gentle with her and the ways he’s being rough with her? I mean, he’s about to bend her over and fuck her against a bathroom sink in front of a dirty mirror, right? But then his hand moves to her breast, but it’s so… soft? Like he’s still testing her boundaries? And then he buries his head in her neck, and she just sinks into it? And then you get this shot of them in the mirror, and he’s not even at her neck, not really—so he must just be… biting her shoulder? And then her head falls forward like she can’t even control herself, she’s just given herself completely over to sensations, and then he yanks down her panties like that?!

I don’t know. I’m obsessed with the fact that his knees are bent into hers here, because I’m like, how much closer can you possibly get? Oh right. Much closer. But then he doesn’t even finish taking the panties off of her—she sort of has to kick them off? So we’re reminded again that she wants it? 

I die when he seems to almost roughly move his hand from her spine to her shoulder to push her forward, that they then just give us a perfect shot of her hand gripping the counter tightly as she prepares for him to fuck her in the way she wants to be fucked.

And then it’s this return to Dean and her in the car, his incessant chatter, unable to read her yet again after Rio has read everything so perfectly. And Beth looks down at her lap and she readjusts her dress and it’s this moment of power, this secret she has. She is satisfied, both sexually and emotionally, by crossing that line. She looks like she feels a little heady with power, and I am into it!

And then when we return to the bathroom, there’s been a position change. They’re getting closer, allowing themselves to be face-to-face now, but still not talking, still refusing to look each other in the eyes. And I am straight up obsessed with this, because I know Rio wanted to watch her face in that mirror (can you imagine? He absolutely wanted to see the faces he could get her to make) and I know Rio wants to kiss her (he was waiting for it when she faked him out and locked the door), but he’s following her lead and he’s trying not to spook her. I’ve always been convinced that he knows how fragile this scenario is, that it could slip through his fingers at any moment, and that he made a conscious decision to avoid doing anything to risk that happening. 

And they’re as close as they can be, right? He’s driving into her, his entire upper body is pressed against her entire upper body, he’s holding up her legs, and she’s gripping his shoulder for stability, but there’s still the barrier of their clothes—they’re not completely vulnerable with each other—and Beth tries as much as possible to touch him as little as possible, trying to make it so just the tips of her fingers seem to flutter along his shoulder. Just wow. Every piece of this scene is as complex and rich as their entire relationship is.

I mean, look at her fingers here—just. Ugh. 

And then there’s the scene where he pulls back from her and then just comes back to her with full force, and her mouth does that, and her hand flies to the paper towel dispenser, which releases a stream of paper towels as she tumbles over the edge, and I love it because she is precarious at that moment. He’s stopped gripping her legs to hold her up because his hand has moved to the back of her head, so her knees fly up all over the place and she just loses control in all senses of the word—but she’s fine, because somehow, despite the fact that he’s not holding her up anymore, Rio’s got her. 

And then it ends back in the car with Dean asking her if she needs anything? Nah. She’s good. 

Like, whew. What a scene. I honestly think it’s the best sex scene I’ve ever seen on TV—so like what’s gonna happen when they give us one where there are not so many walls between them?

[foxmagpie]

Do you think Rio was starting to fall for Beth? Even after the events of 2x13 you think those feelings are still there? What about Beth?

I 100% firmly believe Rio had fallen for Beth by the end of S2—that it was a slow progression from curiosity to attraction to genuine interest to genuine feelings, and I think it could best be summed up by the Pride and Prejudice quote where Elizabeth asks Darcy how he could have ever fallen in love with her and he answers, “I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation …  I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”

I think everyone has slightly different moments that they put on the chart for Rio’s deepening feelings for Beth, and they’re all valid.

These are the big ones for me:

1x02 - Beth’s speech that convinces him not to kill her and the girls - This is the moment where she piques Rio’s interest. I think he noticed her beauty in 1x01, but I think he pegged her as one type of way, and suddenly she showed him she was a different type of way. She was bold enough to stand up to him, and she came up with a fair argument on the spot despite the high stakes. She impressed him, period, and I don’t think he’s easily impressed. 

1x03 - Leaving him the pearls - I think he came to her house expecting a booty call, and was surprised again that he was wrong about her. I’m sure he’d bedded more than a few women that were intrigued and attracted to the dangerous vibe he puts out (even if it was far outside their normal “type”), what with the tattoo and the gun and the swagger, and I think he correctly clocked that Beth was attracted to him, even at this point, but then she wants in? She got a taste of crime and liked it? I think discovering this, combined with the fact that he might have thought he was about to hook up with her, probably made him very interested in it happening somewhere down the line. I think this is the moment that sets up other moments where he lets her off the hook when he shouldn’t—he wants to see it play out. 

1x04 - “We’re not here to try, we’re here to win, bitch” - I think this is where he lets his interest in her be known a little more? I mean, he sneaks in through her bedroom, rifles through her stuff, asks about the husband he clearly knows is her husband, challenges her to admit he’s not good at his job, and then gives her that look when she asks what he wants. Then she surprises him (AGAIN!) by coming up with a legitimately good idea! She’s smart! She might actually be kinda good at this, and she’s actively chasing after it! She’s a bit goofy in the delivery, but she’s trying to show him that she’s in. But he still can’t figure her out, exactly, and he likes that, which is why he asks her point blank what she’s doing with someone like him the very next episode, and puts the idea into her head of fucking him. I think at this point he’s still just curious and attracted and wants to bone her, but he wants it enough that he sort of forgives her panicking and backtracking immediately after asking to be let in? And while he threatens her, he doesn’t harm her when he thinks she’s stolen from him?

1x06 - “Just give me a name.” “Beth Boland.” - I think this is the moment where he moves from being more amused by her to more impressed by her. She’s the leader of her crew. She takes responsibility for her mistakes. He gives her advice. He wants to set her up for success in this world. She ignores it—because she likes doing things her own way. He doesn’t like it, but I think he respects her tenacity—especially when she tells him never to point a gun at her again? Like, the audacity? Did she just forget who he is? He just leans against his car and watches her drive away and just uuuuuuugh. Yep. He’s into her. So he spends a little more time with her and meets her alone in cafés and tells her she’s pretty.

1x09 - “What you and me had is done. Over.” - I mean, the language. He could’ve said “you’re fired,” “you’re out,” “I don’t need you,” “I’m done with you,” but no. What you and me had? Over? There’s an “us” there. There’s an avoidance of naming what, exactly, they had. It’s break-up language—and it’s more than a break-up than we get in 2x09, honestly. And I’m curious whether this really would’ve been the end if Beth hadn’t tried to get him arrested, because I think this is sort of a heat-of-the-moment breakup? The feds have been breathing down his neck, he had to shut down all operations, and he had a kid turn. He just had to kill that kid, one of his own. He’s had a week. He means it when he says he doesn’t need her bitch-ass drama. He thought she was up for it, and she’s cracking here, and I think it frustrates him because he expected more from her? 

2x01/2x02- The touching!!! - I mean. He’s got legitimate feelings by this point, right? Even if he’s not really engaging in them? He would kill her otherwise, I think. He just killed Eddie for talking to the cops—she set him up for the cops. She actually got him arrested! But I think more than anything, this plan just shows him that she’s bold enough and crazy enough to match him. She’s not on his level, but she could be, someday. He touches her face, because he can, and sees that she lets him. Oh, sure, it’s performative. It’s show for Dean, it’s manipulating her, but he’s also escalating in the ways he’s touching her. He knows he’s got her feeling all sorts of ways, too. He reveals to her that he has a kid, and that’s manipulative, too, but he wouldn’t do this with just anyone. I think he knows the effect it will have on her. Then, when she fails to kill Boomer, I don’t think he’s actually that surprised—she couldn’t pull the trigger on him all that long ago, and he’s good at reading people. I sort of headcanon that he showed up at her house in 2x02 to kill her, but couldn’t. He touches her face again. He’s soft for her, and he knows it, even if he wouldn’t admit it out loud. He promises to teach her because he wants to bring her more into his world. 

2x04 - Bar Bathroom - He believes she did it, that she crossed over, that she got her hands dirty, that she can’t leave his world, and he’s excited. Then she initiates sex? While on a date with her husband? In public? I’ve talked about it a lot, but this is a huge shift for him. He gets openly jealous, destructive, and starts escalating in trying to maintain her total focus and attention. He flirts, but it’s more lighthearted than it was before—he’s not trying to get her off-kilter, he’s trying to get her to come closer. He’s still too into “the game” to just outright invite her into bed again, but he tries so very hard. He’s got it bad. 

2x06 - “You know, I think this thing with me and you has run its course, yeah?” and “Oh, you think you’re special, huh?” - Yes? She does? She knows he won’t kill her? He knows he won’t kill her? He knows that it’s true, that she is special, which is exactly why he says it! He wants her to believe that she’s not because she’s got him all messed up. Again, he uses break-up language her. “This thing with me and you”? “Run its course”? What thing, Rio? You think this is how he fires his boys??? No fucking way. Then she bests him in the 50/50 deal and he’s pissed, but fuck is he turned on. I 100% believe she drives him fucking crazy but he could never fall so deeply for anyone that didn’t challenge him on that level.

2x07 - The Dubby - Dude knew it was gonna fuck up some things professionally, did it anyway. This reminds me so much of Darcy paying off Wickham for Lydia. It doesn’t benefit Rio at all. He doesn’t even really want the credit. He was soft with her the very next episode in 2x08, offered to help her—for free—deal with her problems. Laughed with her. Teased her. I still think he was avoiding how genuine his feelings had become (I mean, there’s a reason he avoids giving her the dubby in person) but I think he knew, at this point, that she was different, and he stopped denying the feelings. 

2x09 - The kiss - Now it wasn’t just that he stopped denying it, he had to openly confront it. He stopped holding himself back here, and we saw that just in the kiss. He had to engage with the idea that maybe it was more for her, too. I think that sex was intense, and I 100% think he lets himself sink into the idea that they could have something real, in their own fucked up way. I don’t think he’s felt this way about anyone (ever, or for a very long time) and I think he comes to accept it, even if it’s outside of his comfort zone. He is so relaxed and so comfortable in her bed. And she dumps him by quitting. There’s no “you and me” or “what we had.” It’s “I’m done.” It’s “no more cash, no more pills.” It’s not about them at all, and I think that fucks him up a little (and is tied to his work comment later). 

2x11 - 20 questions - Rio is more impressed and amused that Beth broke into his house and learned his real name than anything else (I’m convinced it is his real name, not another alias). He allows her to follow him all day, which means, in his own way, he allows her in to his life and his privacy—even when they’re separated! I think he knows it’s not over between them, which is why he allows himself to play the game again and rile her up and make her want him—because it’ll be so much sweeter if she comes back to him. He’s willing to play the long game. 

2x12 - “That’s what I am? Work?” - There is so much good analysis of this scene from pynkhues and lunafeather, but this is resignation and frustration and exhaustion at her inability to commit one way or another. He has feelings for her, but he’s mad at her, he’s disappointed in her, and she’s dumped him (or rather, quit) but now is trying to demand that he name this thing between them in a way that she won’t? At this point, he’s made the gestures, done the flirting, and let himself be vulnerable with her in a way that she just has not reciprocated. I think he knows they’re not over, not really, but the only reason he wants to hurt her so badly in this scene is because she has hurt him.

Yes, I think those feelings are still there after 2x13. I think he had allowed himself to feel things for her that he hadn’t allowed himself to feel for anyone else, and I think they’re deep enough that they don’t just disappear, even under the circumstances. I don’t think Rio’s going to be engaging with those feelings or pursuing them, though. At this point, he’s been deeply betrayed by her, and that betrayal stings more because of how much he cares for her. (And at this stage, I do think it’s a deep, genuine care, and not love—I think they’d both have to have their walls down a little more and a little longer than the space that 2x09 allows to have it turn into love—but I think they’re on their way). 

Oh, he’ll fuck with her in S3. He might taunt her and flirt with her if he knows that it will make her off-balance, but I’m sure his walls are going back up and he’s cutting her off emotionally. I’m interested to see how they come up with a justification for him not killing her after this—because if they want me to believe that he’s a big, bad crime boss, that needs to be addressed, and I think based on where I expect Rio to be emotionally at the beginning of S3, I don’t think it’s going to be waved away easily by the suggestion that he still cares for her.

As for the Beth question, I think that’ll have to be explored in another ask, haha. This one got pretty long!