ok so i just rewatched the scene where the girls and rio are at "carolyn's" house and noticed that there is a butterfly at the wall behind beth and it's quite interesting bc it's like the third time there we see a butterfly (at the wall in granny's room and at beths dress) so i looked up the symbolism of butterflies and it says that it's "a representation of resurrection, change, renewal, hope, endurance, and courage to embrace the transformation to make life better" so do you think it might be about beth choosing crime?
Ah, what a great catch, anon!
I think we definitely are seeing Beth change and flip her allegiance. And I do think she chose Rio at the end of the episode—but not in a way that’s definitive and absolute. I just think the needle moved and we’re going to see that transformation process happen over the rest of the season.
I think of it like this:
3.07-3.09
Coming off of Lucy’s murder, Beth is 100% committed to the hitman plot because she feels its the only viable solution. She tells Max they can’t go to the cops because, as Ruby says, “we’ll all end up in that van.” These episodes are the height of Beth struggling in her relationship with Rio. She tells Max she feels “nothing” and Annie explicitly says that “it’s not a life” if all they do is work for Rio without pay, agency, or choice. She feels utterly trapped and sees this as the only way out. After Rio gets her fingerprints on the gun, she’s distraught, but once she has Fitzpatrick lined up, she’s proud of herself and feels incentivized because it ultimately means she will be free from him.
3.10
Beth passes Fitzpatrick’s test, but she’s resistant to making the call and the needle nudges because she’s unable to watch it happen. She celebrates Rio’s death, but has a brief moment of reflection looking out over the picnic table, remembering that there were better times between them. She insists no one was jilted, but corrects the girls when they say it was a “one and done.” She chooses to let go of the door handle when she’s in the car with Rio, ultimately taking the chance that he won’t hurt her and she’s proven right. Her inability to lie to him returns when she can’t come with a plausible excuse for where her money is going—a marked difference from her cocky assertion that she “can’t control the world market” or the way she tries to play him when she dresses up in the polka dot dress. She’s proud of her hot tub scheme and she gets frustrated, throwing a temper tantrum, when Rio doesn’t give her his full attention and stamp of approval.
3.11
Beth’s ire gets reignited when Rio “consolidates,” forcing Beth to print and wash while he takes a large cut of the profits. She’s frustrated by his control over her, but she can’t help but feel flattered when he tells her that he “loves” Boland Bubbles, asking him, “Really?” Rio flirts and while Beth doesn’t flirt back, she is somewhat playful. She asks when it “gets to be mine” because she “made all of this happen.” She wants credit, but the fact that she asks also means things might be different if he were ever willing to let her have anything to herself. Rio essentially tells her that will never happen until she kills him. The moment is loaded, but when Rio leaves, Beth doesn’t look victorious—despite the fact that she has an active hit on him.
4.01
When Lucy’s body is found and Rio reminds Beth that he can and will use her fingerprints against her. While Annie and Ruby are fixated on contacting the hit hitman, Beth instead focuses on how she can offer him something he “really needs” in order to try and get the gun back. After successfully bribing the inspector to look the other way, Beth goes to the bar and meet Rio to celebrate, trying to capitalize on the shared success (“I’m making you bank”) by asking for the gun back because it “doesn’t make sense” to hold it over her anymore. When Rio agrees and tells her that she’s right, Beth doubtfully asks, “I am?” like she wants to believe him. However, when Rio doubles down and suggests that he might turn it over to the cops, Beth feels that she’s at the end of the line. Instead of scrambling to find another solution to her Rio problem, she instead prepares to be arrested, writing Dean the letter, telling the girls that she won’t run, and that she “may as well have” killed Lucy herself. She’s still committed to the hitman, but its with less fervor than before. Instead, she’s more actively playing the cat and mouse game. Even when Fitzpatrick visits her at the end of the episode and she asks him to move her up on his schedule, it lacks intensity. She emphasizes how much money she’s paid him, not how badly she needs Rio gone.
4.02
Annie insists that if they “pop [Rio], all of this goes away” while Beth waffles over whether or not to go to dinner with Fitzpatrick in order to speed up the timeline. She’s pushed to make this move, however, when Rio forces her hand to hold some of his money while she’s feeling “heat” about her books as it reminds her how “the last time [she] did that”—that being held something for him—”[she] got tied to a murder.” On the date with Fitzpatrick, Beth struggles to play her part despite the stakes. Despite being a canonically good liar, she’s really putting in bare minimum effort, diverting the conversation back to the job by saying she just “needs [it] done.” When Fitzpatrick asks her what the hurry is, she says, “He’s making my life hell”—which is a very different motivation than we saw across 3.07-3.09. At this point, Beth is focused more on how Rio is making life challenging for her and how much money she’s sunk into hiring Fitzpatrick, but she’s no longer feeling the same dread, fear, and hopelessness, all emphasized by how she asks Rio for things (like when the business gets to be hers or to get the gun back). She thinks she has leverage with him she didn’t before, and while she’s still moving forward with her plan, their dynamic is shifting and her resolve is weakening. It weakens further when Fitzpatrick asks her what life will be like when Rio’s gone and Fitzpatrick challenges Beth when she says it will be “normal.”
4.03
Beth goes to Rio for help after Dean is arrested, believing him at his word when he says he’ll cover the loan if she sinks the eight ball. Despite herself, she still trusts him, and she feels burned when she realizes the catch. When Beth complains about Fitzpatrick to the girls while bemoaning her predicament with Fitzpatrick, she says, “I wish he’d put a bullet in me.” Again, she’s less focused on him completing the job and more focused on her present problem. She only hits a breaking point when Fitzpatrick shows up and tries to get her to come to Fiji with him. Even at the exact moment she’s pushing him to complete the job, she says she wants “to be nothing like [him]” which he points out is ironic considering she hired him. When he promises to fulfill the contract when he gets back, we get a lingering shot of Beth breathing heavily before she shakes herself off and finishes unloading groceries. She’s still going through with her plan, but she’s pausing more and seems to be feeling doubt—not necessarily because of how she feels about Rio, but because it’s becoming real and she seems uncertain if this is the kind of person she wants to be.
4.04
Dave and Phoebe approach Beth, offering Dean’s freedom in exchange for Beth becoming an informant. Beth insists that Rio will kill her and that she “can’t do this.” The Secret Service threatens that if she doesn’t do this, she, Annie, and Ruby will all get rounded up and arrested for their crimes. In order to avoid this, she goes to call off the hit—but Fitzpatrick is mysteriously gone. She clues Dean into the Nevada plan, but gives him no indication of how it could be possible, potentially signifying a lack of commitment. When she tracks down Fitzpatrick, her reactions have shifted. She doesn’t correct him when he calls them jilted lovers. She pauses before answering when he says she just can’t live without him and when he tells her she’s not the only side dish. Realizing that Beth’s cut a deal, Fitzpatrick calls her on it, and she insists that “it’s complicated.” In order to wrap up the hitman plot, Beth cons Rio into taking care of Fitzpatrick for her—only she gives Rio an honest monologue about how she can’t go back to her normal life in order to accomplish it. She says she wants normalcy, a fresh start, a blank slate—but she wants crime. When she succeeds in duping Rio, she’s not celebratory or pleased. Instead, she’s weighed down, feeling like this was her last resort. Again, she’s unable to lie to Rio. When he signals that he doesn’t buy that the person he killed was Secret Service, Beth can barely hold it together, further emphasizing that she can only lie to him when she threads that lie with a truth and when she has extensive time to practice. She says it herself: her commitment to the Secret Service plan and her manipulating Rio into doing her dirty work is because it’s the “only way this goes away.”
4.05
When Beth waits for Rio at the sting drop, she nervously checks her phone, but never attempts to contact or call him. She insists he “knows” and the Secret Service refuses to do anything to protect her, making her upset. Beth defiantly strips to prove to Rio that she’s not wearing a wire, then agonizes whether or not he knows. Beth then enjoys being The Banker and imitates Rio while creatively coming up with her own way of handling Penny, telling her to “watch [her] back.” She’s having fun again, riding the hide of being successful, and regardless of the reason or the truthfulness of Mick’s statement, she’s rattled when he tells her that Rio trusts her. Beth alludes to the idea that “someone is still watching” directly to Rio’s face in order to try to weasel out of remaining the Banker and Beth realizes she’s Rio’s fall guy as much as he’s hers. She then tells the Secret Service that Rio has a boss, AKA someone that’s an even bigger fish to catch than Rio himself.
4.06
The Secret Service refuses to pay the girls to make up the difference in what they are no longer making working for Rio so they rob the jewelry store and leverage the meeting with the boss in order to con the Secret Service into paying up, causing trouble for them and definitely not acting compliant or loyal. Beth has a dream that explicitly explores that she feels guilty that she’s letting Rio down and betraying his trust while feeling pressured to deliver for the Secret Service. Before going to meet the boss, Beth tells Dean that she’s “stuck for life” in crime. Phoebe and Dave do nothing to prepare or reassure Beth when she’s nervous about wearing the wire. Beth starts off the scene asking Rio if he wants to frisk her. Despite the fact that it doesn’t benefit her to announce this over the wire—or that she looks at her plate like she’s waiting for the correction from Rio—she announces that they’re partners at dinner. She becomes protective over the name “Elizabeth,” showing that she’ll only allow Rio to call her that. An intimate hand on her back causes Beth to become frantic and panic, furiously removing the wire and desperate to find somewhere to stash it. As you point out, costuming puts her in a butterfly dress. There are more butterflies on the wall in Rosa’s house. A romantic song about softening and forgiveness plays. After tucking the wire away, Beth studies the photos of Rio growing up—until she’s interrupted, at which point she can barely form the words “I don’t know” in answer to what she’s doing. The entire conversation works on two levels to be about the immediate moment and the larger operation to betray him, with Beth signaling that she might not be good enough for him or his business. Rio is telling her about the overlap between business and family in private, yet Beth takes no opportunity to try and ask him anything that might gather evidence for the case. Then, under the guise of trying to distract him from finding the wire—despite the fact that she had better means to do so—Beth initiates intimacy with him after meeting his family.
4.07
Beth insists that she only hooked up with Rio to distract him from finding the wire, but her behavior in the episode doesn’t correspond with this. She refuses to wear a wire again. Although Dean knows that she’s working against Rio to cut a deal with the Secret Service, she lies to him about going to see Rio, dressing up, fluffing her hair, and putting on perfume. At the bar, she flirts with him. She tries to say that she didn’t want to hook up with Rio again, but Ruby—her best friend in the world who knows her better than anyone—doesn’t believe her. She goes along with the plan the entire way, but it’s painfully obvious that Rio doesn’t buy it and Beth is just sticking her head in the sand because what else can she do? When Rio asks if Beth is “really gonna do this,” she offers that they can back out of the deal with “Carolyn” to use someone else instead, like she’s entirely willing to cancel this operation at the last second, instead of even attempting to convince him that it’s fine. Again, subtextual clues are consistent and clear: costuming, blocking, and music all underscore that Beth aligns with Rio. She admits she felt like she didn’t have a choice, and when he gives her one, she’s able to go home to Dean, indicating that she picked Rio and crime. She’s glassy-eyed and, in contrast to her scene in 4.05 with Rio, she’s unable to strip bare for him, getting into the hot tub with her own husband in her own home fully dressed.
Her reasons for her lack of loyalty shift from actively fearing for her life to feeling like her life is meaningless under his control to feeling like he makes her life hell to working against him to save herself to feeling like she has no other option. It’s a gradual shift, and we’ve only just crossed the line.
The monologue at the bar in 4.04—reiterated in 4.06 just before the start—set us up to know that Beth is committed to (or “stuck in”) crime for life. Her dynamic with Rio is shifting, but only just. They’re trying out real, straightforward communication and honesty for the first time… ever. So far, it’s more effective than anything else they’ve tried. But there is still a lot of holding Beth back, including the fight with Ruby, Dean’s reliance on the plan, and her inability to take accountability for her actions.
While I think that needle nudged over the line to choosing Rio, I don’t think we should yet expect that she’s going to be clearly and completely on his side just yet. It’s still jumbled and complicated, but we’ve already seen her admit to him that she’s working with the Secret Service only to duplicitously try to continue to do so in secret. I think we’ll see a progression from that, even though I’m not 100% sure in which way we’ll see it yet.
But I do think she’s now more loyal to him now than she is to the Secret Service and that they’re only going to get closer, she’s only going to soften more towards him, and we’ll see a lot of development from this point forward with the needle moving more and more towards Beth proving her loyalty to Rio.
Okay so when Beth goes to Fitzpatrick's to confront him about all of his "extra charges" and he explains that those charges were for following Rio to find opportunities to shoot him in his schedule are we to believe that all the charges in the invoice are based on Rio's schedule. Like does Rio go to OT for manual dexterity? Does he get spray tan sessions? I love the little clues they have given us towards Rio's character.
Okay so I know this may be a really stupid question but I was rewatching season 3 and it came up lol SO when the girls were going over Fitz's "incidentals" the OT, Omakase and the spray tan sessions etc etc I was just wondering what you thought of these? Like obviously they're research on Rio (I assume) bc I can't see Fitz including things that were for himself... but like?? I mean, Rio and spray tans? That just doesn't add up. Also like, the OT does hurt my heart a little if it is Rio :(
Not sure if this was the same anon or if two people were curious about the matter around the same time, but! I’ve finally rewatched the scene (which I didn’t pay too close attention to the first time I watched) and I want to say, yeah! I think that all these things are based on Rio’s schedule.
First, we get this scene:
[The girls review a stack of papers Fitzpatrick left for them at the mailbox center]
ANNIE: What the hell is this?
BETH: He said it was like hiring a lawyer; they charge by the hour.
RUBY: And then do nothing?
BETH [emphatic]: Yes. Like a lawyer.
RUBY: Eleven thousand in incidentals.
ANNIE: I’m sorry, why does he need the omakase to not kill Gangfriend?
RUBY: What is OT?
BETH: Occupational therapy for manual dexterity.
ANNIE: What, like his trigger finger is sore or something?
RUBY: How is that on us?!
BETH [noticing something out the window]: You guys. That’s him.
RUBY: That’s him? Well, I’m telling his clown ass that we’re not paying for his—[looks at sheet]—spray tan sessions.
Later, we get Beth confronting him:
BETH: I just have a few questions. What does omakase have to do with it?
FITZPATRICK: It means entrusting yourself to the chef. Typically off-menu, locally-driven, sushi-grade—
BETH: I mean, how does it help?
FITZPATRICK: [Stares as if not understanding the question]
BETH: —with killing a man?
FITZPATRICK: Your lover enjoys a two-hour omakase lunch every Friday, never misses. After, he goes out into the parking lot and has a chat with the chef. It’s an opportunity. He then does various business with people who would make my work... difficult. Not an opportunity. On Tuesdays, he plays tennis at a very posh country club. You’ll see the charge for the valet in there [gestures towards the stack of papers] He does shower, after, in an unattended locker room. It’s another opportunity. You see where I’m headed with this? I didn’t put in all the details because then I would have to charge you for the time it took to explain.
By this logic—Fitzpatrick attributing the omakase and the valet charges in the incidental report to tasks he engaged in for the purposes of tracking Rio and finding opportunities—I would say yes, all of these things are part of Rio’s regular routine and schedule, including spray tans. It’s a bit surprising but doesn’t throw me entirely off guard since Rio has really established himself as a person who is pretty high maintenance and who enjoys maintaining a certain aesthetic and looking good—and with the country club, it definitely seems like he’s a bit bougie.
As for the OT for manual dexterity, I think this is a natural consequence of the shooting. Rio was shot in the shoulder which probably had some sort of nerve damage to his arm/hands. Therapy would help him restore that.
I’ve said before that I think Rio moves really differently in season 3 than he does in seasons 1 and 2, where he’s both graceful and imposing and uses his body to manipulate a situation in his favor. That’s not something we really see after the shooting. His movements are more limited, he’s very still or sitting down in many scenes, and he looks more tired. I’d say this is how they show us that although it seems like he’s healed and recovered from the shooting physically, he really hasn’t. He may be up and about, but I’d imagine he spends a lot of time resting too!
Also, if you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend @riosnecktattoo’s fic Do No Harm, which has Beth witness Rio at physical therapy.
What do you make of Rio's smile when he sneacks in to Beth's kitchen as she's dancing around (thinking he's dead). He looks fondly at her, doesn't he? (S3E10) Or is he just amused he caught her dancing?
I feel it in my bones that I will be absolutely wrong on this one but that I should be right, dammit, and I think he knows about the hit. I think he knows exactly what she’s dancing over and I think he’s both fondly amused to see her in this euphoric moment where she’s a bit silly and loose and her mask isn’t on, and I think that he’s a bit gleeful that she’s celebrating a win that he gets to snatch away from her, and I think that amusement is doubled not just because he gets to pull the rug out from under her (which he loves to do), but because she doesn’t even know that he knows.
What are the chances that Fitzpatrick is in fact under Rio’s payroll? Has this been discussed yet? :)
Also...Thank you for your service in the over-analysis department, really really appreciate it, as we all know how subtle the show is by now 👏
Thank you! I know some people think things aren’t that deep, haha, but I love untangling meaning or drawing conclusions. I do think most things are intentional, but even some small inconsequential things still convey meaning, and I still think it’s fun to read into that!
And I think the show has so deliberately left it wide open, but I do tend to think that Rio knows about the hitman. I think it’s too coincidental that Rio showed up inside her house (for the first time! all season!) right after the scheduled hit, only to drag Beth away for a private (for the first time since 3.04!) conversation where he confronted her about where she’s spending her money. I also think it’s suspicious that Fitzpatrick cancelled the hit for an ex-lovers breach that we didn’t see Beth deliberately lie about (they love showing Beth lie! it would’ve been such an interesting lie to see!)—that makes me think that particular clause was not explained to her. On top of that, I find it suspicious that Fitzpatrick then organized a fake hit as a “test” before ghosting entirely. Plus, he knew that someone, but not who, slept with Rio. To me, this indicates he didn’t find out via the gynecologist or Dean, and therefore I’d rule out Tobin and PJ (the baby hitmen) as well. That leaves Annie, Ruby, and Rio’s boys who have definitive reasons to believe that they were sleeping together—but we know it was Annie and Ruby. Therefore, if it’s not Rio himself, it’s Rio’s boys, in which case I’d still assume Rio figured it out after the fact.
I also draw a parallel between Beth stalking Rio in 2.11 and getting caught and stalking Fitzpatrick in 3.10 and getting caught. It’s the same episode that we learn that Fitzpatrick is stalking Rio—closely, at multiple locations for multiple days.
It’s possible that Rio just suspects Beth is up to something, but to me, it all seems too deliberate to be a coincidence. It’s possible that Rio merely suspects Beth is up to something, but doesn’t know what, but even Rio bemusedly suggesting that next time Beth (rather than anyone else) empty the clip could be an interpretation that he’s figured it out and is reminding her that this isn’t how it works.
My theory—that I fully expect to be wrong, but which I enjoy—is that Rio discovered the hit and paid Fitzpatrick more money than Beth did to cancel the hit. Fitzpatrick has already been established as being greedy and money-driven and pedantic down to the last dime, so it’s something I’d believe too.
I think it’s also supported by Rio generally being one step ahead of everything, and I think it’d be a pretty delicious explosion if he confronts her about it and catches her off guard!
What do you think would be the endgame for Beth romantically? I’m a total Brio shiper but in the eventuality that they don’t end up together how do you see her? Single, dating someone, would she eventually remarry?Also, do you think Fitzpatrick could become a love interest for Beth?
I feel like in some ways it’s (crossed fingers) too early to know exactly what they have in mind for Beth’s romantic endgame (particularly because I think that they’ve been very fluid with exploring her romantic relationships, and sort of figuring it out with each season, rather than as thing for which they already have a long arc and endpoint planned).
Personally, my prediction (or perhaps just preference) is that Beth will end the series single (with the door open for the possibility of a rekindling of her romance with Rio, or with a very recent but ultimately undefined hookup that hints at the idea that things might shake out alright for them after all).
So much of Beth’s storyline—her background, conflicts and goals—is centered around independence: having it too early, and with it, too much responsibility caring for young Annie; lacking it within a stifling marriage and housewife role; and fighting for it in terms of financial stability. Independence is also very much a key component of how Beth defines success, which is why she asks Rio at the end of 3.11 “When does it get to be mine?” and argues that it all happened “because of me.”
It’s is also an area in which she is still struggling to grow. She desires independence at the same time that it terrifies her, as she has never truly had it, which is part of the reason why I think she’s been reluctant to leave Dean and part of the reason that I think she fluctuates between wanting freedom from Rio’s interference and leaning on him to save her when things get too hard.
Because of all of that, I think it would be very narratively satisfying if we ended on a note where Beth is alone because she can make it work alone—and that there’s a hint but not a confirmation that she might pair up with someone (hopefully Rio!) because she wants to, not because she has to (like she did with Dean).
In terms of other love interests, I do think they left open the possibility of a Beth/Fitzpatrick pairing, yes! I got those vibes from the “I was just bored, too” line from him, plus his general intrigue in her and her connection to Rio, plus that they illustrated that he’s a caring father and has a duality to him beyond the fact that he’s “just” a hitman, like Rio is not “just” a gang leader. However, how the hitman plot shakes out (and whether Rio knows about the hitman generally and Fitzpatrick specifically) I think will shape how that relationship goes—though I think that they could leave it open-ended enough for Fitzpatrick to reappear later in the girls’ lives and crime careers (perhaps they need him to deal with another mark?) where that could be explored.
I do hope that they have Beth try dating post-divorce! But I think it will solidify for Beth that no average person will be the right match for her, not just because of the burden of secrecy and lies, but because I think she’d ultimately be bored, something she has been running away from since 1.03 but that she’s still grappling with somewhat (since she tells Rio in 2.04 that she wants to be “a good person”). I think dating after Dean would be a really fun way to show that Beth doesn’t ever really see herself returning to a normal, safe, crime-free life.
