Hello! Love the blog! I wanted to ask for your views on Rio’s decision to introduce Beth to Nick and the rest of his family. I keep wondering why, why did he do that? It doesn’t seem like Nick asked to meet her since Nick didn’t know about Beth, what she did with Rio (in terms of business) and the extent of their involvement. It seems like Rio really kept Nick in the dark about Beth’s existence (Nick randomly showing up at her house to ask what was going on between her and Rio because he truly didn’t know- also did anyone else wonder how he got her address and why didn’t Beth question him on this……….)
So why did he bring her around Nick if he didn’t want Nick to know about her and seemed annoyed that Nick was using Beth to try to tell Rio that he was the boss snd Rio worked for him. It seems like if he didn’t bring her to dinner then Nick would have never known and he could continue to keep him in the dark…
My interpretation is that Rio was reacting to discovering in 4.04 that Beth had both hired and had Rio take care of the hitman meant to eliminate him, and that indicated that she was still working with the Secret Service to take him down. Introducing her to his family, while having the negative consequences of putting her in the path of Nick, had the benefit of reminding her that he has a lot at stake—people who love him and depend on him just like she does.
It's a move we've seen him utilize before when he revealed Marcus's existence to her, and a move which is much more highly effective with Beth than the cycle of threats (and he was certainly running out of ones he could feasibly use).
More than that, it seems that Beth's speech in 4.04 really did affect Rio and put him in a position of wanting her to choose him rather than forcing her hand. I think this is both why we saw him finally cave and openly confront her just one episode later, and one of the reasons why we didn't see him threaten the fingerprinted gun when he knew it could be effective.
Ultimately, the move worked. Beth was already having guilt dreams about betraying him and in the middle of the party, she panicked and got rid of the wire. She also didn't take a single opportunity the entire time she was there to pry for more information while wired, which is a detail I love.
As for the Nick of it all, I think Rio gets tunnel vision with Beth and generally thinks he's in control and can manage people to secure the outcomes he desires, even when he's wrong (as he often is with both Nick and Beth, but not most others). I think he knew it was a bit of a calculated risk, but I also think Rio didn't anticipate how loud and possessive he would be about Beth, either.
Re: Nick showing up to Beth's house, I think she'd just learned to roll with it after dealing with Rio for so long, haha.
Hi! I have a theory, can I run it by you? If Rio really didn’t know about Fitz and thought “Dave” was law enforcement trying to take him out, and if he found her suspicious when she played dumb and thought that meant she knew what they were trying to do, then from his pov, Beth sending him after the guy was Beth saving his life. Aren’t the implications of that kind of huge post shooting?? Did that shift his feelings heading into 306? Or is this too much of a stretch? What do you think?
I half-agree, anon! While I don't think Rio kept buying into the lie that Dave was law enforcement and read the scene as Rio realizing Beth hired a hitman and then manipulated Rio into handling him, I do think Rio felt the significance of Beth backing out of a plan to kill him. For him, I think it was doubly weighted. First, I don't think Rio realized that Beth was feeling so trapped and desperate that she would even initiate a plan like that (he had once again understimated her). Second, I believe he was aware across season 3 that he was in love with her despite the fact that he didn't want to be, and that with that, his anger and fury at her had thawed considerably by 3.11. While I think he saw Beth's backtracking as a part of her own thawing, the more important takeaway that he had was that Beth was still working with Secret Service based on the true parts of her confession to him in 4.04. With that information, he attempted to capitalize on her shifting feelings for him by inviting her deeper into his life to meet his family in 4.06, reminding her of the parts of himself that she was always the most drawn to as well as reminding her what was at stake for him, similarly to how he introduced her to Marcus in 2.01.
What's so great about it all is that Beth was already coming around on her own prior to Rio executing his plan—her guilt dream occurred before she met his entire extended family. And I do think the implications were supposed to be huge! After all, those steps directly led to them becoming intimate again, and there was always an element of truthfulness and honesty and vulnerability whenever they allowed themselves to succumb to their feelings in that way, even if they were both being somewhat duplicitous as well.
What do you think Rio knew or thought about the hitman? I feel like he had to have realized it wasn't secret service since they wouldn't have been attempting to kill him that way. It always felt weird to me that he never pressed her for more information on what all that was. I get the feeling he was proud of her for making the decision to finally kill someone in that way and clean up but I feel like it was left so open ended for Rio.Would he really not want to know more about what she was up to?
IMO he absolutely figured it out, but didn't feel the need to press for more information because it was fairly self-explanatory from his end. He understood she had hired a hitman, but that she'd also called it off, and that the reason for that was because she'd decided it was better for her self-interest to work with the Secret Service to turn him in.
That's why he didn't show up to the next drop and why he searched for the wire and why he set her up as the Banker and invited her to the barbeque and let his guard just far enough down to let her know he was still attracted to her.
I think he'd worked out that she'd wanted him dead because he'd wanted her dead after the shooting, but he also realized she'd changed her mind, and that it meant something, even if she was still trying to make moves against him. He was able to see that there was some level of softening in her decision to give up on killing him, and he figured he could finagle things so that she gave up on turning him in, too. He pulled her closer—both by bringing her further into his operation, just like he did by becoming partners with her in 2.04, and by letting her really see him, just like he did by introducing her to Marcus in 2.01.
I agree with you that there was an element of pride for him. I think he realized he was still underestimating her, and that she still had the capacity to surprise him, and that she was still a worthy adversary—something I really do think he has enjoyed in their dynamic, even if he did shift over the course of season 4 to wanting a different one once Nick tried to come in and interfere.
To me, there's not a lot of information that Fitzpatrick could really have given him that he couldn't figure out himself—and while I think Rio may have considered confronting Beth more directly, I also think he was trying to get her to break and switch sides and choose him without that, which is why he played along through 4.07 until the last possible second when he finally dropped the game and actually laid it all bare.
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 im actually obsessed with this. after rio leaves and orders her the bottle and gives her the shoulder squeeze, we get a lingering shot of beth alone at the bar, fingers twitching across the glass, face impassive. this is not a face of victory or pleasure in getting one over on him. they've shown us that face over and over again with "how you feeling champ?" / "incentivized" and also "even tigers." this is different. maybe not remorse—not yet—and maybe not hesitation. but beth doesn't feel like she's won here. she says it herself: "only way this goes away." this is her last resort.
Do you think Beth would have been able to kill Boomer in Season 4 if he was still around? It always bothered me that boomers character was around for so long I really wish Mary Pat actually killed him or Beth didn't ask Rio to spare him in s3. what do you think?
In retrospect, with Beth's entire trajectory in front of me, I really like that Beth asked Rio to spare Boomer in that moment, but that she still ultimately delivered him anyway, knowing exactly what she was doing. After all, her appeal to Rio barely made sense when applied to Boomer at all.
I think it was really important that Beth's moral deterioration didn't happen in one fell swoop, and I felt that it was well illustrated by the conversation she and Fitzpatrick had about the line constantly moving.
In early season 1, Beth drew it at the thought of robbing Marion to save her own life—but by the time we got to season 4, she used violence (and her detachment to being a witness to it) to intimidate Denise just so that she could win a political campaign.
I felt that the steps along that moral descent and desensitization to violence were developed fairly well.
We start in season 1 with Beth able to enact violence against Boomer in a moment where he's directly harming Annie (1.01) but she's not able to pull the trigger on Rio when she's uncertain how big of a threat he is to her (1.10/2.01). When she's commanded to kill Boomer, she thinks she can do it—she preps! she plans! she insists!—but ultimately she fails. In that moment, she doesn't have the adrenaline provoked by fear and desperation; Boomer doesn't pose an active threat to her, and it's different to harm someone in the heat of the moment than it is in an act of cold blood—which we see, of course, in the culmination of 2.13, where she shoots Rio after he's kidnapped her, tripped her adrenaline, and then yells at and advances toward her.
After that, she feels that Rio poses an active threat to her life, and she does make plans to kill him, but they're all through a proxy: three different hitmen. Despite the fact that she thinks she's actively in danger, she refuses to be the one committing that violence. However, she both allows Lucy to get in the van (then refuses culpability, telling Rio it's "his fault") and knowingly delivers Boomer to his death (half-heartedly arguing for him to be spared in a speech that really doesn't apply to Boomer at all). She was grappling with and resisting who she was becoming and trying to cling to the idea that she was still mostly a good person—that while she was willing to do X, she wasn't willing to do Y.
She was still toeing the line when she asked Mick to handle getting the books back from Dave, but she balked at the last minute, unable to handle responsibility for harming what she thought was an innocent stranger.
However, the line moved dramatically when she manipulated Rio into handling "Dave"—a very significant step in this trajectory because Fitzpatrick didn't pose an active threat to her life. His elimination merely opened up a possibility for her to start over in witness protection. And there was no excuse this time, no denying culpability. She knew what she was doing, and she chose it with her eyes wide open.
It continued with her actively threatening the possibility of violence in her role as The Banker—also by proxy—and of course, culminates in her using Mick to scare Denise, though notably this time she's present for the act.
I do think they definitely showed that Beth got more comfortable with the idea of utilizing violence as a means to an end, and understanding that sometimes it may even be necessary—something she was resistant to when she was dealing with Gil in season 3. For instance, though, her intentions were to protect the girl when she was acting as The Banker, even if she was blackmailing her in the same breath.
In that vein, no, I don't think she would've been capable of handling Boomer in season 4 because I think she needed to go through the steps of Dave, Fitzpatrick, and Denise for that to even be a possibility (unless Boomer was posing an active threat in the scene, in which case, I think she'd be just as capable as she was in pulling the trigger against Rio).
However, in a theoretical season 5, I'm still not sure we would've seen Beth go down this path. I felt like the series ended in a spot where Rio gave up his desire to see Beth get her hands dirty (when he hands her the files on Nick, he tells her "to keep your hands clean") and that he was more willing for them to work in complementary roles—not unlike him telling her in 2.08 "not your department." I also think the show underscored that this distinction was where Beth and Rio at their best in their partnership; as much as Beth wanted to be Rio sometimes, she couldn't quite emulate him unless she put her own flair into it (illustrated by both her scene with Penny and Denise). And as much as Rio wanted Beth to be more like him, the best schemes they pulled off together were the ones where she put her creative spin on it that came from her natural skills and assets.
I feel like she would've been able to do it if she felt she had to in the end, but that she was always going to be best in the business in other roles with other responsibilities, which she ultimately got.
Why do you think Rio killed the hitman personally and didn’t send Mick or someone else to do it?
Because the stakes were so high. He believed that the hitman was the "big kahuna" from the Secret Service on his trail—and trying to work with Beth against him—so I think he wanted to have a degree of control over it since he was feeling so vulnerable and powerless (which comes through when sadly states, "Figured one of 'em was coming.")
I expect he would've handled Turner himself, too, if he hadn't been trying to teach Beth a harsh lesson in 2.13 or if he wasn't trying to keep his hands clean in 3.01. It seems that the more personal it is—or the more threatening—the more Rio seems inclined to want to be the one pulling the trigger.
For me, Rio seems more in tune with his romantic feelings for Beth, whereas she doesn't seem as in tune with her own feelings for Rio. At this point I don't think she even acknowledges that she cares about him, while he seems to acknowledge that he cares about her and knows that killing her isn't really an option because of all these feelings. I'm wondering if the thing that softens her view of him will be what forces her to confront her feelings more; maybe they'll be more on the same page.
I think Rio absolutely has a better grasp of his feelings than Beth does, and part of that is because of personality differences and part of it is because Rio is generally less repressed emotionally and part of it is that Rio knows who he is and what he wants in a way that Beth doesn’t and part of it is that Rio has more experience and understanding of romantic relationships, even if he hasn’t been in one quite like the one he has with Beth.
I do think Beth tried to shut off that part of herself in 2.09 when she knew she had to give up Rio in exchange for her kids, but that wasn’t a facade she was able to upkeep. She had to block his number to stop herself from reaching out (or from responding to a reach out). She was miserable without crime and grieving him. She latched onto the idea that he wanted her back (2.11) and clearly thought and hoped that something would happen between them in his apartment. She was curious about his background, intrigued to see another side of him, and in 2.12, appalled that Rio was trying to dismiss what they were as just “work” when she knew they were more than that (and I will always find it fascinating how she’s only pushed to the point of trying to name what’s between them when Rio is trying to claim it doesn’t exist). Then she shoots him, and from there, I think she buries everything she’s ever felt for him.
I will say, though, that while Beth has been protesting or refusing to acknowledge her feelings for Rio or what they have all throughout season 3 and 4, we have seen some shifts.
3.01: When Ruby says that Beth’s friendship with Rhea and Marcus won’t bring him back, Beth insists, “I don’t want to bring him back.”
3.05: When Dean tells Beth that Rio’s in love with her, she says, “It’s not me, though ... It’s money.”
3:08: When Annie reminds everyone that Beth boned Rio, she says, “What does that have to do with anything?”
3.09: When Annie calls Rio Beth’s boy, she corrects her that “he’s not my boy.”
3.10: When Fitzpatrick says he doesn’t do jilted lovers, Beth insists “no one was jilted” but she also corrects Annie that it wasn’t just a “one and done” when she didn’t have to. Then, when Fitzpatrick asks Beth what a woman like her is doing with a “guy like that,” Beth pauses for approximately 7 seconds before she can come up with the lie of “I was just bored.” She then protests having to be the one to make the call and closes her eyes during the fakeout hit.
4.01: When Beth says she needs to give Rio something he “really needs” in order to get the gun, both Annie and Ruby thinks she’s referring to sex, asking if she’s going to “hit baloneytown again.” Beth does correct them with “not that,” clarifying that’s not what she means, but she's not as defensive or even as appalled as she is at the suggestion of sleeping with Fitz (“Ew”) or Troy (“Okay, let me just stop you right there”).
4.04: When Annie calls Rio Beth’s boy, she doesn’t correct her. When Fitzpatrick says she just can’t live without him, she doesn’t deny it. When he refers to them as jilted lovers, she only says, “What do you care?”
Basically, while she hasn’t started admitting anything about what they were or what she feels for him, she’s stopped aggressively denying or protesting against it.
Her feelings about getting one over on him and handling him have shifted, too, even as she’s pressed forward with the plan.
Look how she looks when she across 3.07, when she first starts stealing from him again and feels like she’s going to get away with it:
How she starts feeling herself:
How she looks smug when she tells Rio she can’t control the World Market:
And how she looks when she’s first organized the hit:
And how she looks when she presents him with the fingerprints so that the gun becomes effectively useless:
Now look at her when she’s successfully conned Rio into taking care of Fitzpatrick so that she can move forward with the Secret Service to put him away and get off scot-free to start a new life:
Before, she’s smug, pleased, and proud of her moves (even when they ultimately fail). Here, she’s successful and things are looking up for her. She can get her husband out of jail, avoid jail herself, save her girls, and give everyone a fresh start—and all she needs to do is get Rio locked up. She doesn’t look celebratory, though—or even scared or nervous. She looks burdened. She looks like it’s a last resort (which she basically tells him when she says that it’s the “only way this goes away.”)
She doesn’t derive the same pleasure from beating him in this regard that she does in their usual games. While she hasn’t shifted enough to drop her vengeance against him or to give up sacrificing him to save herself, I’d argue she already is softening toward him.
