What's your favorite scene in this ep?
Probably Beth having the meltdown with the cookies.
I kind of see it as an inverse parallel to the ‘vette scene in 2.04. There, right after they’ve slept together for the first time, Rio yanks the string between them tighter and unleashes all the pent up energy in this delightful, gleeful performance with a tire iron. And part of what makes it so delicious to watch is that it is a performance—one to intimidate Dean and which ends up having the effect of turning Beth on, and one I read as being rooted in Rio wanting all of Beth, but having to settle for 60%. But still, at least he wins, and he wins with witnesses, the people he’s exploiting for his own gain by infiltrating their business.
The scene with the cookies is the exact opposite. Immediately following her break up with Rio, where she’s severed all contact with him to the point that she’s blocked his number because she can’t even be tempted, Beth’s putting on a performance. But this performance isn’t a demonstration of her power; it’s a demonstration of her subservience. It’s one of quiet domesticity. Of compliance. She packs herself neatly back into a box labeled ‘housewife’ and tries to pretend for everyone else—for Dean, for the kids, for Lauren and Asmita, even for Annie and Ruby. But it’s blatantly clear to everyone how well she’s holding up. Dean sees that she misses it; he just doesn’t care. Annie and Ruby know, but they only talk about it with each other, not with Beth. Lauren and Asmita recognize a rebelliousness in her (and we recognize how she’s using the PTA as a substitute for crime) and they goad her on but are too cowardly at the end to follow through or say anything to Beth’s face.
She’s made something better, and they pack it away and replace it—replace her—with something generic. Just like Dean with Amber, with Patty, with any of the warm bodies that were anyone but her. Just like Dean with the dealership, swooping back in and ousting her and destroying everything she created and then inviting her to come take a look. Over and over, she’s rendered invisible.
So Beth has this moment with the cookies. And it’s not a performance, but something deeply private. Falling apart alone because she doesn’t have anyone to fall apart with. Nobody to pick up the pieces. Nobody, as Ruby says, to clean up her mess.
But the scene has the same mesmerizing quality as the scene with Rio and the ‘vette. You can’t look away. But there’s no glee in this scene, only devastation. And it’s about the cookies, something that doesn’t really matter at all, except it’s not about the cookies and it does matter. Because what we’re witnessing is a woman who believed she had to give up any part of herself that wasn’t palatable to her husband, a woman who was willing to make that sacrifice for her children, and a woman who is realizing that she can’t. Not anymore. Not after tasting freedom, power, joy—things that are quite present in Rio’s scene, but which are utterly absent in Beth’s. Because while Rio won with witnesses, Beth lost, completely alone, unseen.
Except that she’s not, because there’s still Rio.
I think Beth does worry Rio is going to forget her just as easily as everyone else has, but the prospect is too awful so she instead convinces herself he can’t run his empire without her. Has to imagine he’s not even going to be able to function. “How is he going to do it?” she asks. But what she’s really asking is how is she going to do it, do this, be this. She has to overinflate her importance to him because she’s been cut down in every other aspect of her life.
And Rio? Well. He has Annie and Ruby’s number, has an open line of communication, but he shows up at the park. “They suck your soul out yet, or what?” He sees her. He names exactly what’s happened to her and he wasn’t even there to witness it. But he knows! And he’s not indifferent to her like Dean, or scared for her like Annie and Ruby. He sees her and he likes her. Not only that, he wants her. And not just anyone. Her.
And then the despair of the cookie scene is followed by the triumph of the dealership scene. Beth gets trapped in a corner, and Dean stands uselessly by, but she finds her way out all by herself. Hello, James. She wins—with witnesses. In the end, Rio gives her the gift of a thrill as much as he gives her a trap to pull her back.