The scene on the bench at the end... Was Rio implying it was worth taking a stool to the face for Beth? I thought when she said she got the money back by "being herself" he replied "sometimes it's worth it" and then when she asked him how he got the black eye, he said by "being himself" and immediately left. He tends to exit the convo after he's said something hinting at affection/involvement ("don't put that stuff in your face", "do you want it?", "Picture everybody naked" etc)
I think it can definitely be read that way, anon!
Personally, I think Rio didn't tell Nick for Beth, or take the stool to the face for her, I think he did it for his own ego. That moment in the boxing ring to me read as Nick trying to put Rio in his place, and Rio making a point to show Nick how little he actually knows about the situation. It's an act of insubordination that Nick ultimately treated as such.
I do though think that him telling Beth sometimes it's worth it was Rio being sympathetic to Beth though, and it was a commiseration in line with the beat in 2.09 when he told her it's lonely at the top. The show's constantly drawing parallels between Beth and Rio, and they're parallels that they both seem to feel the weight of at different moments and in different ways. In that moment, Beth's owning a part of herself that she often doesn't.
After all, if Ruby and Stan are good people who do bad things, Beth and Rio are both bad people who do bad things, and they know it, and more and more, Beth's understanding what that means, and I think Rio just - - sees that.