#2.08 analysis

[foxmagpie]

I love the music choice in this final scene, but I also love that Beth INSTANTLY knows that something is wrong even though her house is just as quiet and dark as it often is when she comes home late from crime. Like she literally feels a shift in the atmosphere.

[foxmagpie]

Do you think Rio's in love with Beth? I feel like he must be because of how he reacted to the shooting, imo he would've killed her pretty quickly if he just liked her.

I do think he’s in love with Beth, yes. I don’t think he wants to be, but I think he knows it and it irritates him. I read Rio as someone who is in tune with his emotions and that acts with an awareness of what they are, someone who is generally honest but that masks that with ambiguity, limited information, and behavior that’s intended to hurt and punish.

I think those feelings really started taking root sometime around 2.07, even if wasn’t ready to engage with them. The fact that Beth had put herself in danger seemed to trigger something in him, and despite what he said, he couldn’t stop himself from checking for Jane and then from retrieving and then returning the blanket—for no other reason than he could, for no other reason than it was important to her (even though it likely came with professional consequences since I believe that kind of move signaled weakness to either his enemies or his own boys). Notably, Rio did not have Beth meet him or come outside for that exchange, nor did he alert her that he was leaving it in her mailbox—like he couldn’t face her in the moment to reveal what he’d done for her. 

In 2.08, then, we see Rio at his most relaxed and open. Teasing, playful, loose. He offers to help her with no specified strings attached (or clear benefit to himself), gives her uncharacteristically open and clear advice about a turf war, and backs off with little more than a warning when she expresses that she wants to handle it herself. I think this moment is pretty powerful in showing what their dynamic might look like at its best, and Rio seems like someone that’s willing to protect, guide, and support her when things are good between them. I don’t think any of these things are things he gives away easily, and they signal very much how he feels about her.

Then, in 2.09, I think he was still taken aback by what the kiss unleashed. His reaction to the two first soft, tentative kisses look as if he’s just had an epiphany. He cedes all the games and fully seems to embrace letting her know how he feels, breaking to finally kiss her the way he wants to kiss her, without any apparent hurry to move onto the next step. Afterward, he looks comfortable and at ease in her bed, and we’re given access to his private reaction when Beth leaves him in her bed: blindsided and hurt.

In 2.10, he reveals that he still sees her (“they suck your soul out yet, or what?”) and that he’s bothered by her trying to cut him out of her life (“damn, that’s cold”) which is followed-up when he adamantly refuses to field her phone calls in 2.12 as payback—not to mention that during this time, he entertains Annie and Ruby and doesn’t touch them when they fail and fuck up the pill run, instead using it as an opportunity to get Beth back in business. This is really a juncture where Rio could have a clean break from Beth; the secret shopper scheme and the dealership have both imploded and the FBI is hot on her trail. Still, he ropes her back in, and he specifically aims to hurt her like she’s hurt him when he tells her that she’s “work” (I’ve said before that I think Beth’s reveal of the Boomer lie was one that impacted him significantly, particularly since their sexual relationship was jump started when he gave her the keys to the kingdom as a reward for handling Boomer, and made him think she was capable of surviving in his world). This, of course, results in him trying to push Beth—or rather drag her down in the dirt with him—in 2.13, only we know how that goes.

I still think he’s in love with her in season 3. First, at the height of his rage, he charges ahead with his plan to murder her, but he’s rattled when she tells him she’s pregnant. He lies low, processing the news, then takes her to a clinic—the same one he visited when his ex was pregnant with his son—where he’s sure he’ll catch her in the lie. Instead, what actually happens is that the doctor asks about the date of conception, triggering both of their memories of 2.09, and she then confirms that they supposedly made a baby that day. 

By the time Beth confesses that there is no baby (through more deceit, pretending that she’d “lost” it), that he has no reason to kill her anymore—Rio doesn’t seem to want to. There’s technically no barrier anymore—the reason he was keeping her alive is now irrelevant—but he struggles with what he has to do, taking a shot for liquid courage just to be able to muster up the strength to do it. Only then... Beth asks him how much it would cost for her life, and he puts on a show that he won’t even entertain the proposition, but then he does. 

Could Rio use the money? Sure! His pill business and counterfeit operation has been imploded—by her—but do I think he actually felt that 100K was a sufficient price for her life, even temporarily? Not at all. Not considering how severe her betrayal was, not considering what it put at risk for him, and not considering how we saw how he handled Eddy in S1 or how much we saw him charge her to retrieve “Boomer’s” body. Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t ever remember actually seeing Beth pay him this money—the debt seemed to be erased once he decided he “needed [her] alive” at the end of the episode and took her business out from underneath her instead.

I think taking over Beth’s operations benefitted him, absolutely. But I don’t actually think he needed her, that he’d have been in an absolutely impossible bind without her. It was convenient, yes. It was beneficial, yes. But enough to keep her alive? I don’t personally think so, not without feelings steering the ship of his decisions, at least.

That was actually a moment where a lot of people did come out and say that they didn’t understand Rio’s decision here, and I think the show came back in 3.05 to really reiterate the true motive when the script had Dean announce: “He won’t kill something he loves.” The way the entire Lucy situation goes down is interesting, because I actually think Lucy was the most valuable person (able to continually reproduce passable counterfeit artwork) even if she was the weakest link. Beth, Annie, and Ruby all share the same knowledge about the process, yet they all remain untouched—Rio refuses to cross a line he knows he can’t uncross with Beth. It’s interesting, because you’d think that he’d feel the same way about the shooting—that Beth couldn’t come back from that—but it doesn’t seem to be the case? He doesn’t let it go, no, but he seems determined to address it (“that ship sailed when you put three slugs in me,” “maybe you’re right, I’m the problem,” and “next time, empty the clip”) at the same time that he continues to refuse to physically harm her, despite the fact that she’s still uncontrollable, which she proves when she steals from him. He basically admits to her that his threats are empty, too, when he tells her that he can’t incentivize her with a “gun to [her] head.” 

I don’t think Rio wants to go off riding into the sunset with her, or even necessarily that he wants to be with her. But he seems to feel something for her that he can’t control and which influences his decisions, often making it so that she’s the exception rather than the rule in terms of how he chooses to handle her. 

[foxmagpie]

the ruby/stan/beth conflict is so good and so angsty. after ruminating on @riosnosestud's (extremely painful) parallel gifset and @delicatelingon's post and writing about it a bit here, i have many thoughts.

i think it's very realistic that what beth thinks is an easy choice turns out to be much more difficult when she's actually the one making the decision. she asks ruby to pick her over stan because as she says, "i would always choose you every time." but when reality sets in, when she's thinking about how it would affect her children, when she's responding to the fact that dean took the fall for her in the same way stan took the fall for ruby, suddenly the choice isn't so simple.

this season is playing around with beth facing consequences in so many ways I'm really loving, not only with the confrontations with fitzpatrick and stan and phoebe and dean, but with beth's own words coming back to haunt her in both this instance and her flippant wish in 3.09 that "just once" rio would show up at annie or ruby's house so they would understand what it's like to be her. she'll absolutely be eating those words in 4.12 when annie goes missing because, at the end of the day, beth will always choose to go down for annie and ruby. as much as she resents being the one that faces the most difficult choices, the truth is she'd rather it was her than them.

in that vein then, although the choices seem similar on a surface level, they really aren't. in 2.08, ruby makes an active choice to betray beth in order to save stan, but ultimately fails to commit. in 4.10, beth's initial choice to run has nothing to do with ruby, but ruby becomes an unintended casualty of beth's decision. that decision then becomes intentional when beth agrees to stan's terms.

beth and stan also put ruby into very different positions, and while both hurt ruby, they do so in distinct ways.

beth asks ruby to make an impossible decision without real understanding or empathy about the weight of that decision. it's selfish and self-centered, but the onus of responsibility lies with ruby—and regardless of beth's feelings, it always did. ruby had to make a choice and she had to live with it, regardless of who she ultimately chose. ruby's choosing stan makes sense, but so does beth's pain in reaction to it.

in contrast, stan doesn't ask ruby to make a choice—he asks beth. ruby has no agency in this dilemma. her choice is made for her, behind her back.

that means beth and ruby's roles aren't just neatly flipped in this scenario, despite the fact that they're both placed in the dilemma of choosing between their best friend and their husband. in 2.08, beth had no agency at the hands of ruby—whether or not she goes to jail depends on ruby's decision—but in 4.10, ruby has no agency at the hands of stan, who forces that choice when again, ruby wasn't originally actively part of that choice.

this is why it's important that stan balks when beth easily agrees, and beth admits that the circumstance has only arisen because she's already planning to run. in this scenario—the only scenario in which beth would agree—beth theoretically saves everyone. dean doesn't go to prison, her kids get to keep their father, and stan and ruby (and their marriage) is safe because, presumably, they also get to exit crime without beth being the supposed driving force between ruby's involvement with it.

at the end of the day, ruby does choose beth. she doesn't turn in the calendar and she calls beth and confesses. and beth chooses ruby back when she turns herself in for a murder she doesn't commit.

this is why i think the emphasis in 4.11 was on ruby's pain at stan's betrayal, not beth's. beth was willing to go down for ruby in lieu of stan in 2.13, and ruby let her go—she was the only one that knew in advance what beth was going to do. similarly, i think ruby could be willing to let beth go in these circumstances, even if it was painful.

but the betrayal is in stan asking beth to leave ruby behind, and in stan not communicating any of it to ruby. and like beth feeling the consequences when the shoe is on the other foot, now ruby is experiencing it. in season 1, she lied to stan and kept him in the dark to protect her family. now he thinks he's doing the same thing.

most painfully, the circle is complete.

[foxmagpie]

Is it canon that beth and annie's mom was depressive that their dad left and they had no money growing up ? I don't remember hearing about it on the show but read it on your fics. How much do we know about their childhood and when did we learn it ? Thank you :)

It’s not canonically confirmed, no! It’s just an inference—or a logical conclusion compiled from evidence. 

I use the 2.08 flashbacks as the main source of my inferences:

The other flashback scene we get is Beth and Ruby sitting on a bench outside of Ruby’s father’s funeral. Beth asks Ruby if she wants to go in, Ruby says no because it’s “going to be weird,” and Beth says, “He was your dad,” before she rests her head on Ruby’s shoulder to comfort her. 

Taking all of that into consider, I infer:

Because Beth is driving too young and doing something reckless, I assume she feels that the errand is necessary

Because Beth is buying groceries, I assume Beth has taken over her mother’s responsibilities in feeding and raising Annie

Because Annie claims her mother “likes” to spend a lot of time in bed, (showing that she doesn’t have a clear reason to do so that would make sense to a child, such as a physical illness or injury), I assume it is probably a mental illness or emotional breakdown of some sort.

Because there is no reference to their father—either an excuse or reasonable justification for why he couldn’t buy the groceries in Beth’s place—I assume he is not around

Because they show us a funeral scene with Ruby’s father and because Beth doesn’t personally relate to it by sharing her own experience, I assume Beth’s father is not dead

In 2.10, Ruby and Annie fight:

ANNIE: Just because I didn’t choose some safe-ass, boring-ass life like my sister—

RUBY: You know why she did that? Because she had to. She didn’t have anyone to clean up after her like you do. 

ANNIE: That’s not true.

RUBY: She has been mopping up your messes since the day I met you.

This confirms the inference that Beth has been mothering Annie since Beth was a teenager, and suggests that this was not a type of mothering she herself received since nobody was “clean[ing] up after her.” In that vein, the fact that Ruby says she “had” to choose a “safe” and “boring” life suggests that Beth’s own upbringing was somewhat unstable. Though its still wide open for interpretation in terms of severity, it does help us understand why she stayed—and why she stays—with Dean, who really does represent safety and security across the series despite the fact that the show starts with this illusion being shattered. This is why her reaction to Dean’s reckless handling of their finances—and its consequences plunging them into utter instability—is so extreme.

From there, I’ve just played around with details of Beth’s backstory in my fics to flesh out the world from the inferences I’ve made!