#beth x fitzpatrick 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]

Hi, love your analysis! I was re-watching the last couple of episodes (so good!) and was interested in your thoughts on Beth's apparently being oblivious to Nick and Fitzpatrick's interest in her until Ruby and Annie point it out (the audience knows Nick has other motives, but their assumption is reasonable) compared to her reaction to Rio. With all of the uncertainty she has in his motives, she's generally seemed pretty confident in his attraction since fairly early on.

Tbh, I think it boils down to something fairly simple, which is that Beth is a compartmentalizer. She doesn't want Fitzpatrick or Nick's attentions, so their interest in her doesn't exist, but she did want Rio's, so she saw it for what it was—when she wanted to see it. Rio has been able to successfully make her doubt how he feels about her, too, particularly during season 3, and she flat out rejected Dean's assertion that Rio loved her. I'd be wildly curious to see how she'd respond to someone putting it in that blunt of terms now.

[foxmagpie]

So if Fitz is Rio's boss (which I don't think he is), but if he is.... he might try to make Rio's life hell since he's so taken with Beth.

At this point I feel like I’m not sure if they’re going to play up Fitz or Rio’s jealousy over each other or their possessiveness over Beth, but I kind of wish they had? They’d established how closely Fitz was following Rio and he knew a bit about Beth and Rio’s history, so I feel like that could’ve been a good opportunity for an outsider to comment on their perception of Beth’s feelings for Rio. Dean has plenty to say about how Rio feels about Beth, and Annie says a little every now and then about Beth and Rio’s dynamic/history, but no one is really pressing Beth about how she feels. Since she’s very emotionally closed off too, I think we could’ve benefitted from some more clarity that her feelings for him were conflicted, particularly as their relationship is improving but she’s not budging from the hit. I understand all of her decisions, but I feel alienated from this as a viewer. The people close to Beth all have reasons to avoid pressing (Dean because he doesn’t want to know, Annie and Ruby because they’re avoiding upsetting her) but Fitz wouldn’t have that same barrier. I’d have liked to see Beth grapple with Fitz pushing her about her personal feelings for him in the same way he pushed her about her belief that she could go back to “normal.”

[foxmagpie]

Do you think Beth will return fitzpatrick's romantic interest?

No, I don’t! Between the previews showing Beth looking startled when he asks her, saying “ew” when Ruby suggests that he wants more than dinner, and interviews from Krebs & Bans, as well as reviews from media outlets, suggests that Beth won’t reciprocate:

Fitzpatrick’s romantic fixation on Beth induces eye-rolling for sure. Yes, Hendricks is an undeniable presence on-screen but does that really mean every criminal she partners up with inevitably wants to sleep with her? The situation does, however, go to show Beth no longer gets lit up by her criminal pursuits. Contrast her reactions to Fitzpatrick’s interests with that of Rio’s and you find someone who is very much done connecting risk and sexual satisfaction. Having a “work” husband to flirt with, and maybe more, just isn’t that much fun anymore. [x]

and

BANS | He asks her to have dinner with him and she realizes there’s this subtextual request for romance in exchange for him to finish the job, which she is rightly horrified by, and so are the other women. [x]

I think it’s possible she’ll pretend out of necessity (I’m thinking of the line in the preview from Annie about “over the pants” action) but I don’t think it’ll be genuine. Tentatively, I think Fitzpatrick’s romantic interest in Beth highlights how Beth is not attracted to the crime and the danger of Rio—she’s just attracted to Rio. There are quite a few similarities between Rio and Fitzpatrick, but I think Fitzpatrick’s detached, pragmatic approach to his work is something that alienates Beth, and she’ll have a better sense of where her lines and limits are through this exploration.

But yeah, I think we’re safe! :) 

[foxmagpie]

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. 

[foxmagpie]

I was thinking about what you said about Fitzpatrick being a potential love interest, and it struck me odd that we see a parallel with Beth (badly) stalking Rio and Fitzpatrick, seeing them interact with their respective kids, and then being caught by whoever she's stalking. Do you think this supports the love interest theory, or it's just a convenient vehicle for the gg writers?

Personally, my theory for that parallel is that it serves to remind us that Rio is highly observant and aware that he’s being watched, even if he doesn’t let on that he does until a moment where it’s convenient for him to reveal it, i.e. a moment where he can use it to wield power over the other person (in 2.11′s case, once he figures out why she was stalking him—which was to break into his apartment). 

When Fitzpatrick catches Beth, we remember Rio catching Beth and remember that he’s always one step ahead, even when it doesn’t look like it. That it coincides with Fitzpatrick having abandoned the job because he found out that one of the girls had a romantic and/or sexual relationship with Rio—which is information so private that not even Annie or Ruby know the full extent of it—is, to me, highly suspect, particularly because it’s followed by a test of Beth’s commitment to the plan, and then a convenient disappearance from Fitzpatrick while he continues to nickel and dime them. 

Add Rio inexplicably breaking pattern and arriving at Beth’s house (alone, without Mick) immediately after his scheduled murder, accepting that she tells him that she “can’t tell him” where her money is going, and then that he cuts Beth off financially, taking away her ability to pay said hitman? I think that’s a lot of coincidences.

(We also know Fitzpatrick is highly motivated by money, and that Rio has the means to pay him, and pay him more than the girls do—so if Rio flips Fitzpatrick, he makes twice as much, at least.)

But I do think the parallel serves double duty, too! I don’t necessarily think that they were planning on exploring anything romantic or physical between Beth and Fitzpatrick this season for a multitude of reasons—including her renewed commitment to her marriage (however much it is a sham), the level of betrayal that it would be for audiences for her to sleep with the man that she’s hired to kill the ex-lover that fans ship her with, Beth’s general numbness and PTSD, as well as the fact that I think Beth would have at this point more trouble connecting with and developing feelings for someone who is so comfortable with murder that he charges for it* (while she herself is unable to pull the trigger on someone she believes will murder her)—but I think the show does love to bring back old characters for surprise experiences, so it keeps the door open for a potential future where, when Beth is in a different point in her life and in a different headspace, it could be something they choose to explore :)

*Rio is comfortable with murder, too, of course, but it’s not the same. As far as we know, Rio does it because he has to (to keep himself, his business, and his people safe from the potential of betrayal, prison, and even death) while Fitzpatrick does it for money (and apparently boredom) alone. Those are wildly different moralities, and I do think it would be a sticking point for Beth.