#gg 2.06

[michelleelizabethtanner]

Of the three brio intimate scenes we got I think the season 4 one at grandmas house is my fav. It’s so tender but so angsty with Beth not allowing herself to fully lean on Rio and Rio getting his face as close to Beth as possible without looking at her and keeping his eyes shut. It’s almost like by not touching each other or looking at each other they could pretend it was just about the pleasure and not the other person

It did feel slightly random to me because they had been so distant for so long and then Beth just suddenly reached for his belt and he went with it. What do you think Rio’s thoughts/motivations were here? Do you think he knew she was trying to distract him? Why did he get her off if he knew she was doing something shady? Did he just want to and followed those feelings? I think he knew she was up to something and was trying to change course by coming on to him. And I think he flipped the script and didn’t let her undo his pants because he didn’t want to lose control in that moment. But I don’t know why he chose to get her off instead of stopping it all completely. What do you think?

Also what intimate scene hits the best for you?

Ah, Grishamgate. My true love. 🥰 Anon, I love your view on it. So painful and so tender. Hurt me so good.

I love this topic because it’s almost like my opinion of it changes with my mood. Because yeah, Rio could have easily kept his composure and gently turned her down while still achieving his purpose of trying to endear himself to her. He wanted to show her that he’s human, so he brought her to see his family. But the whole Grandma’s Den moment didn’t have to be what it was. I thank my good fortune every day that it was, though. 😁

It was this layered scene of him seeking her out in the first place. Because she’d just gone to the bathroom. He didn’t have to follow her at all. And I keep spinning in my mind why he did. He must have suspected something, or wanted to see her alone. Or both. And then the WAY he interrupted her… He’s never approached her like that before. He’s surprised her a million times. Almost always with his smirky little face and his swagger. But he didn’t have a ton of swagger here. He was so painfully open with her. His gentle, “What are you doing?”

So unlike him!

And the way he examined his own life with her. This moment was so important because I think this is him hoping she’ll see it through his eyes.

Yeah, I think he knew she was up to something. He had to have known. He suspected her even before. But the way he chose to approach her about it speaks to how mindfully he was switching up his approach to her throughout season 4. How he was asking to be chosen all along.

And I do think there was something to that moment for them both. We felt it watching it, so the assumption is that the characters would have felt it living it. That familiar spark. That electricity between them that never quite went away. And intimate moment was all that was needed for them to feel it again.

We have to ask ourselves why Beth chose to “distract him” in that specific way. Wouldn’t a better distraction have been to get him away from the bookshelf? Not closer to it by offering him sexual gratification right in front of it.

I think they both wanted to feel it again. It was a perfect opportunity to make an excuse of necessity and to allow themselves the moment. He wanted her to see his humanity. But also wanted to keep an eye on her. She wanted to protect her family. But she also wanted to be near him and feel the power of their connection. So they did it.

Look at them. They can’t say no in the moment. He held on to some semblance of control by not allowing himself to receive. But he couldn’t say no outright. Giving pleasure is still a pleasurable act. It’s intimate and sexual for him, too.

And ugh, I can’t pick just one intimate act! They’re all so special. All three of them. 🤡 Right now, I pick this one. For all the reasons you named. The softness of it after their storm is just something so special. I wanted them to have a million more moments like this. 🥹

[pynkhues]

OTP meme: Brio, 10

Thank yooouuu!

10. Who gets jealous the most?

I think they're both terribly jealous people when it comes to each other, haha, and it probably does stem from their relationship having so much uncertainty and ambiguity to it. Neither of them every truly feel secure in what they have, at least before 4.16, and I do think it's telling that their clearest moments of jealousy and possessiveness came out of their murky boundaries.

Like, I do tend to think that Beth's moment of clear jealousy in 2.06 when Rio hugged Dylan wasn't just because he was with another woman, but was with another woman in a work context, making Beth feel insecure on two levels - professionally and romantically. Similarly, Rio's moments of tangible jealousy, namely with Dean in 2.06 and with Nick in 4.06 stemmed from moments were their relationship was especially ill-defined. After all, I do tend to think Rio smashing the corvette in 2.04 was partially in response to realising Beth was not leaving Dean, and we saw how much of a mess he was over what Nick could actually offer Beth.

It makes for such an interesting area to talk about, because I don't think either Beth or Rio are particularly jealous people generally, they just bring it out of each other because they're absolute disasters when it comes to one another, haha.

Ask me shippy questions!

[gabrielllas]

beth + (not) saying rio’s name (but proving she knows him)

for @foxmagpie

[xstrawmari]

Dean's face is priceless

[gild-and-fire]

2.06 / 3.04

Inspired by @foxmagpie‘s tags

[pynkhues]

In the back porch scene in 206 after Beth are caught by dean why do you think Rio nods and says “yeah”?

I’ve never understood that.

Do you think it’s because dean has moved back in?

It's such a loaded look, isn't it?

I think it can be read in a few different ways, but more than anything, I think it's an acknowledgement of the fact that Beth's maintained her facade.

In a lot of ways, season 2 is about the lines between Beth and Rio's worlds blurring and them starting to see what's behind each other's mask. Beth discovers Rio's a father, she breaks into his apartment, she forces her way into his business, and Rio discovers exactly how ruthless Beth can be, and how fractured her marriage is given she seduces him weeks after he shot her husband, but then stops Rio from telling said husband about it.

They dig themselves into each other's lives and are constantly making the efforts to plant parts of themselves there, and while Rio seems more than willing to acknowledge that, Beth's abject refusal to name or recognise it is something I think Rio finds immensely frustrating.

That scene in 2.06 where Dean appears clutching his and Beth's daughter isn't just a reminder to Rio that his and Beth's intimacy is something she won't acknowledge, I think it's a reminder that he only gets a part of her. It's a reminder that everything that's sharp and intimate and true about Beth and Rio's relationship, professional and personal, is something she hides behind a facade of something soft and distant and untrue. It's a facade she maintains in this enormous part of her life, and while Rio might get the real her, he doesn't get all of her, and I think that beat is really about him feeling that.

[pynkhues]

Do you think Beth n Rio are jealous people like in a relationship? Rio seems possessive, but I don't think he's a jealous person?? N i kinda feel the same way about Beth idk what do you think? Do you have any headcanons?

I do, anon! I've actually talked about this quite a bit in my jealousy tag, but I think Beth and Rio are two people who aren't usually jealous or possessive, but they are when it comes to each other. Their relationship is so, so specific at this point, and as a result of that, it's really insular. Nobody outside of it gets it, or can be a part of it, and I think, despite themselves, that's the way that they like it.

They don't want other people involved, they don't want to share what they have, and I think that grew over the series. In particular, by s4, I think for Rio it had extended beyond not wanting to share what they had to not wanting to share Beth much at all, something we saw starkly with the Nick arc.

I think Beth feels that degree of possessiveness and jealousy less (although she definitely feels it – gosh, 2.06 tells us that pretty explicitly, haha), but I do think by the end of s4 she'd really reconciled with the fact that she wanted not just to keep Rio in her life, but wanted to protect both him and what they had between them.

In a lot of ways, I think they're both holding onto this thing between them as something precious and personal, and the desire to keep it safe and unmarred from not just outsiders, but each other, is this sort of constantly pulsing thing. They want ot swallow it whole so it can live inside them and no one else can touch it. It's protection and it's possession, and it's everything in-between, which sort of sums them up to me, haha.

[pynkhues]

do you think rio texted instead of knocking so he could make sure dean didn't answer?

Ooo, maybe? I actually think Rio has a pretty good sense of their routines and schedules though, and he's not above waiting in sight for Beth when he knows Dean's around like on the picnic table in 2.06 or in the G Wagon in 4.03.

In a lot of ways, I actually think it was a peace offering, especially when you factor in the fact that he'd just returned the furniture and was about to return the money too. There's still a lot of hostility between them of course, but the lines have been blurring again really since 4.06, and that blurring has only made things more personal again between them.

Rio's currently feeling threatened by Nick, and as a part of that, there's a worry that he might lose her. In this episode, he really made a gamble that he knew her by taking the money, and when he came back at the end of the episode, it was with the knowledge that he'd been right, sure, but also I think with a softer tread. The reality is that he does know what Beth responds to, and while she responds to being challenged, she responds to being respected and treated kindly too.

It's the juxtaposition of it all, right? She likes her hair yanked, but she likes it softly brushed away too. Rio knows her well enough at this point to know that.