#3.08 analysis

[foxmagpie]

gonna be controversial and say i hope rio never sees beth in the dress she wore on her date with fitz. that dress was so distinctly different from anything we've ever seen beth in and she was uncomfortable on that date from start to finish. the dress was a mask and a bad one; she was playing up her desirability and couldn't even playact basic pleasantries. she was miserable that whole dinner—fitz was infantilizing, pushy, and rude, and he trampled over beth's boundaries by removing her plate from in front of her and engaging in violence she never asked for supposedly on her behalf.

in contrast, we've seen beth dress up for rio twice. both times, beth chose pieces that she felt good in, not what she thought rio might want to see her in.

the first time, she wore a floral blouse and her blazer and fluffed her hair:

the second time, she wore polka dots, playing off the first outfit she wore when they were intimate. she also perfumed her hair, calling back to the way rio had his face buried in her hair during the act:

she's manipulating rio when she wears the polka dot dress, yes, but it's far less false than she was with fitz. one, she's calling back to a genuinely good memory that they shared. two, there are real, buried feelings underneath the surface for both of them. three, rio is immediately aware that she's scheming and how she's scheming, and he responds in kind, calling her on her pseudo-seduction by challenging her with his "anything, huh?" line, forcing beth to immediately walk it back. they're engaging in their usual push/pull, and both win and lose in the interaction. beth can put on a performance here for rio, but she can only do so because she knows him, and it ultimately doesn't matter because he can see through it because he knows her as well.

in contrast, if fitz is aware that beth has no romantic interest in him, he seems indifferent at best to this fact. he may see her enough to call out her moral slips, but he doesn't care to read her blatant disinterest in him, let alone have any idea (or real concern for) what her limits are. there is no push/pull between them—there is only push. to wear the dress, to eat the radish, to move the line.

beth felt like she had to perform for fitz in the same way that she has to perform for dean. with rio, she doesn't feel like she has to. he's attracted to her, period. beth equates looking good for rio with feeling good for herself, and if that isn't sexy, i don't know what is.

[foxmagpie]

Why has Beth never asked about her stuffs that Rio has stolen ? She’s much less materialistic than season 1 but after Boomer she could have negotiated at least for some, no ? Could it be guilt ? Or she’s just numb to everything and it’s a symptom of her depression ?

I'm actually not sure I would describe Beth as materialistic in the traditional sense. In season 1, she has a nice home and clothing and puts care into her appearance, but I've never gotten the sense that she cares to flaunt her wealth or is driven by having the best or nicest things.

I say this because I think Beth's drive to save her house isn't informed by the material aspects of it (it's size or neighborhood, it's acting as a symbol of her class) but by it's connotations of safety, security, and comfort. On top of that, it's not a definitive resistance to downsizing that has her fighting so hard to maintain it: it's that Dean has taken out three mortgages, meaning that even if they sold the house, they'd walk away with nothing. The house is one of the few things they have left with the position Dean has put them in.

In addition to that, they've shown that she's even somewhat economical. She'd scrimped on "pampering" herself (as indicated in the gap in her bikini waxes), defends Dean getting her coupons as a gift, regularly shops at a grocery store called Fine & Frugal, and we have seen her spoil herself only a few times—the first being when she bought herself a relatively understated necklace and the second when she, Ruby, and Annie went out on the town in a View from the Top. Even in that monologue, Beth's plan was for them to get into manageable financial situations and to have a honey pot for stability, not luxury.

However, I think there's a few reasons Beth has not asked Rio about her things. Beth asks Rio for favors that she intends to pay back or that she genuinely thinks are fair, but her responses to Rio's punishments are typically to get even/fight back or accept the consequences in some way, shape, or form.

She gets even or fights back when:

She gets Rio arrested after he sets her up with a test and fires her and she believes he's going to kill her

She steals the pills to wrestle 50% of the business from him

She breaks into his home to try and steal back the body, which she eventually finds

She draws a line in the sand and refuses to let Rio and Mick handle Max

She steals money from Rio in order to pay her bills after Rio murders Lucy and she realizes what they have is not a life

She tries to organize a hit on Rio when she believes that she's trapped in this cycle with him forever and doubles down on it when he gets her fingerprints on the gun

She presents his fingerprints on the money to him as retaliation for her fingerprints on the gun

She works with the Secret Service after he refuses to loan her money to get Dean out on bail for taking the fall for her

She turns him over to the Secret Service after he threatens to murder her family

She accepts the consequences when:

She gives Rio her own name in lieu of Mary Pat's after money goes missing

Rio shoots Dean to punish her for getting him arrested

She accepts the assignment to murder Boomer and learns to shoot after he catches her in the lie and says she's responsible for Boomer talking to the police

Rio charges her $200K to get rid of a body that he made her handle

Rio tries to run her ragged in 2.07, figuring out a way to do it all

Rio ropes her back into crime for Annie and Ruby's mistakes

She turns herself into the police when Rio refuses to help her deal with the Boomer problem

She settles for working for free in exchange for her life after the shooting

She figures out a way to get back up and running when Lucy's murder makes it harder for her to access the press after Rio kills Lucy to punish Beth

She delivers Boomer in order to get back on payroll

She does everything in her power to get Boland Bubbles in her possession when Rio refuses to pay her because he wants to know where her money is going

She may ask Rio for help often, but it is not something she enjoys doing. He really is her last resort and I think it makes her feel weak to have to go to him, doubly so when he ultimately refuses to help.

So I think in some ways, it's a matter of pride. She accepts the consequences as she's often done when she sees no other alternative, which really does show that despite all the ways that Beth has betrayed him, she feels that he has power over her. Really, the only power Beth has over Rio most of the time is the power he's given her because he is unable to pull the trigger because of his feelings for her.

On top of that, I'm not sure Beth believes that Rio still has her furniture because that would mean that she believes he saved it because he always intended to give it back.

As for trying to negotiate for it in the Boomer exchange, her main priority was getting back on payroll so she could fulfill the payment for the hit. Her top priority was getting control over her life back, and I think she felt that she could suffer without furniture for longer than she could suffer under the cycles of Rio's control.

[foxmagpie]

I hate how Beth asked Rio for what’s fair. Really Beth. After shooting Rio 3 times, trying to get max to kill Rio and still actively trying to get a hitman, plus getting away with the baby lie Beth’s asking for fair. I just hate how it makes Beth come off to me.

I mean, Beth is definitely not a good person, and I think that we’re supposed to judge Beth a little bit for some of her actions this season? Including, like… all of the ones you mention, haha.

I also think that we’re supposed to see that this is absolutely a game of back-and-forth, and understand why Beth is making the decisions she’s making.

Like, they are both complicit in engaging in a constant game of revenge and one-upmanship. 

I made a chart:

I actively avoided things that, although harsh, I deemed as fair—such as Rio yelling at Beth in the alley and reminding her that she was a drug dealer, or Rio shutting down the business in 3.07 when he suspected Beth was stealing from him.

Yes, Beth comes out ahead in terms of terms of number of times she has done something against Rio, and I think actually physically harming Rio by shooting him is arguably worse than Rio’s repeated threats (but not culminated) actions of violence.

But I think that we can see that this is a pretty consistent pattern on both of their parts, and that they both experience times where they ramp up their behavior and times where they lull.

I agree that Beth asking Rio for “what’s fair” seems inconsistent with the unbalanced harm she has caused to him—but I actually think that they are more even than it seems, and I do think it’s fairly reasonable to ask to be paid for a business she created? I mean, she accepts Rio’s terms: a difficult job and a 12% cut, i.e. severely underpaid for the amount of work she is doing in comparison to the fact that he established in 1.04 that he “usually pays thirty [percent]” just for the people that wash the cash, and now Beth is actively creating the cash.

I absolutely still think Beth owes Rio because she has not addressed 2.13 with him—or any of the other betrayals that came afterward—but… Rio owes her one, too? Because he did have a role in what happened, both by kidnapping her and scaring her and seemingly pinning things on her.

Basically what I am saying is that they are both absolutely awful to each other, and I think it’s hard to blame one or the other of them for continuing to be awful to each other because absolutely nothing has ever healed between them. 

(And I think it’s genuinely bizarre when either Beth stans or Rio stans try to pretend that these two aren’t both absolute nightmares, because they absolutely are)

[foxmagpie]

I don't know if you answered this before this is so random but I was wondering what your thoughts were on season 4 when Rio was threatening Beth kids. I remember when the episode hit there was a lot of discourse happening on the timeline . people thought it was OOC. A lot of people felt like it was a drastic change from what we've seen from Rio and compared the scene to season 2 when Beth defended Rio against Dean etc what were your thoughts?

i kinda talked about it here and here, but i have mixed feelings about it?

i don't think it's a drastic change in the sense that rio has threatened violence against beth and enacted it against her husband, so threatening her family isn't incredibly far-fetched in that sense. her children being casualties of that—or utilized to increase beth's fear of rio—isn't exactly out of his realm, either. he talks to kenny in the pilot (about guns!) in order to make beth feel powerless and vulnerable, he deposits a bleeding-out member of his gang in her six-year-old daughter's bed, and he robs every last item out of her children's homes, including all of their items, making them feel really violated and unstable.

is that the exact same as threatening violence against them? no, not at all. but he's used the children to motivate beth in all sorts of ways—including showing up at their dance recitals, carpool lane, and swimming practices, so there is a world where i could theoretically understand him making the threat even if i would never believe that he would follow through with it.

but you're right that beth defending rio in 2.07 and legitimately worrying he's in her home to hurt them in 4.08 is a drastic change—but that isn't really where i quibble either. after all, their relationship has drastically changed from 2.07 and beth has valid reasons not to have the same faith or trust in rio, most significantly his call for mick to murder lucy in 4.05—just a few weeks beforehand.

what i thought was OOC and generally terrible about the threat was that:

the audience had zero reason to buy it as a legitimate threat so beth buying it as one did not generate audience empathy and understanding but alienation and frustration

its placement in the narrative was right after beth (through necessity) chose him so his response and test was at best disproportionate and at worst absolutely nonsensical

it was not necessary to motivate beth to turn him in bc she literally ended up only doing it to save annie and ruby

rio was escalating to the most extreme end of the scale of threats when the situation didn't require it AND when HE knew he'd never deliver on it, ultimately knowing that he'd be showing his hand and weakness for her, AND knowing he could never utilize it again.

it's the last point that to me felt the most OOC. i can believe that rio would issue that threat to motivate beth in the exact right desperate circumstances, but he would know it was empty and therefore only deploy it if absolutely necessary. this was not that situation, and rio is not that sloppy, dumb, or ineffectual.

ultimately it failed to establish real stakes or tension, it was not necessary to execute the impending betrayal at the end of the episode, and they failed to explain rio's motivation for escalating to that point in the first place.

it was bad.