Completely random question. Do you think there’s any symbolism in the fact that Rio‘s S3 gun is a total basic bitch piece, in comparison to his notorious gold gun? He upgraded his car, got his nose pierced, but his gun is significantly less flashy. First I wondered if it’s because it’s smaller and has less kickback, seeing as he was shot in his right shoulder. But maybe it’s a case of bruised ego, bc his gold one always struck me as a bit of a status symbol and then he was shot with it🤷🏽♀️
Okay, SO, this question completely stumped me and I had to mull it over with @mego42 and she’s responsible for, like, 95% of these ideas.
THE GOLDEN GUN
The gold gun was a flashy, attention-drawing status symbol that was used as a sort of shorthand in Rio’s introduction. Combined with how he surprised Beth by showing up at her house and delighted in making a show of it, the gun represents the part of Rio that’s flashy, dramatic, and likes luxury. Gold is symbolic of wealth, success, and status, i.e. Rio in a nutshell. It’s also strongly associated with royalty, which is apt since Rio is “the King.”
The golden gun is fairly prevalent throughout season 1. It’s sitting beside him, untouched, when Beth enters the house in the pilot. He casually uses it to gesture around like it's an extension of him. It sits beside him as a reminder of his threat in 1.02 at Ruby’s diner (but interestingly, it never makes an appearance in the scene where they’re actually set to kill the girls—instead, it’s Mick’s gun). He flashes it to remind Beth of its presence at Kenny’s birthday, puts it to her head in 1.07, and, of course, slides it across the table and dares Beth to shoot him in 1.10. Essentially, in season 1, the gun has power over Beth, despite the fact that we never actually see it used.
In season 2, things begin to shift (and we begin to see the gun less—seeing it only at the beginning, the midpoint, and at the end). In 2.01, Rio takes the gun back from Beth when she fails, unable to use it—and then he re-establishes his power at his weakest point (after the arrest) by using it to shoot Dean.
Theoretically, the gun is present in a lot more scenes that we don’t have access to—it likely had a role in Rio teaching Beth how to shoot (though she likely learned to shoot on the pearl-handled gun that Rio loaned her to take care of Boomer), it may have featured in both the sex scenes in 2.04 and 2.09 (since it’s implied Rio usually has it on him), and it was likely utilized in the drug den when he retrieved the dubby in 2.07. But mostly, we don’t see it—at least until 2.06, when Beth steals the pills and Rio shows up in her backyard and it hangs, impotent, between his legs.
He quickly proves Beth right—that he won’t hurt her—when he strides halfway across the lawn and the gun hangs loosely by his side while his other, free hand twitches in agitation. It’s only when he’s unable to get Beth to budge and answer his question that he finally tries to use it to remind her of his power—but it doesn’t matter; Beth had already established prior to this scene in her conversation with Annie and Ruby that she wasn’t afraid of the gun (and by extension, of Rio). Rio can’t even maintain the facade within the scene; when Beth challenges him and reiterates his need for her, Rio seems to subconsciously lower the gun even while he’s glaring at her, jaw working, and telling her that she isn’t special:
He then hides the gun as soon as Dean and Emma come out, and Beth handwaves away its use against her, excusing its use as Rio being “upset.” Later, in their negotiation scene, Rio doesn’t use the gun at all, and Beth strongarms 50% of Rio’s profits. I think from this point on, Rio knows he can’t use it against Beth and so he doesn’t even try—to do so would only be to underscore its ineffectiveness.
We next see it in 2.13 when Rio hands Beth his own gun, as @elixir448 points out—pointing towards himself—and tells her to shoot Turner. It’s interesting that Rio gives Beth his own gun in this moment, particularly as the whole seems to have been planned in advance and he likely had time to procure another gun for her to use. I’m not entirely sure of his motive here on a character-level as opposed to a show-level (where it becomes important that he’s betrayed by his own gun).
@mego42 pointed out that there’s a “layer of artifice” between Beth and Rio throughout season 2, and that the gold gun has a role in that. It’s a flashy distraction piece and its bark is bigger than its bite, as shown in 2.06. Perhaps Rio wanted to remind Beth of the gun’s power (and his power over her) by forcing her to make this move before she was ready with his own piece. Either way, the artifice falls away and the gun does become powerful again—only its when Beth recognizes the ways that Rio has manipulated her throughout the season and instead turns it on him instead of Turner, effectively upending their power dynamic wherein Rio is the one in control all of the time.
The scene ends, of course, with Rio bleeding out on the floor and Turner telling Beth “gimme the gun,” leaving Turner with all the power.
That leads us to the silver gun.