I love your insight! I seen a lot of fans interpret the flashbacks as an attempt to redeem Dean, however I think that the flashbacks have served to lay the groundwork to explain Dean’s decision to except responsibility for the money laundering. It was right after Phoebe describes a high school popular girl who is so not Beth and Beth experience that I think it reminded Dean what Beth what Beth went through. To me it served to Reinforce That Beth is a survivor and that she is a compartmentalizer.
Thank you!
And I agree! Beth’s past has always fascinated me and I was really pleased that they further sketched it out since it mostly aligned with what I had already inferred from the pieces they’d given us in 2.08 and 2.10.
The biggest thing that I think was different was their money situation. In the 4.03 flashbacks, it appears that Beth and Annie live in a nice neighborhood and Annie is playing with a Gameboy, a relatively new technology in 1990 that cost nearly $100.
I think I saw @jade-marie talking about these cues which signify that Beth didn’t settle down with Dean for financial security (and she mentioned that early on, we know that Beth and Dean didn’t have the same type of financial situation that they had later since they talk about an early, small apartment that they once shared in 2.13). I agree with this interpretation.
Coupled with the season 1 reference to Beth begging for a piano and taking lessons for six years, I suspect that Beth’s father was around during her young childhood and that while he left the family behind emotionally, he may have provided for them financially—enough for them to feel secure in their home and with some toys and hobbies, but not enough to compensate for the tumult and stress of their mother’s illness which forced Beth to grow up fast and take on the responsibility of being Annie’s primary caretaker (something that they imply was a struggle not only with Annie’s attitude, but also with her propensity to get hurt—in the 2.08 flashback she has a cast on her arm when Beth and Ruby first meet, and in the 4.03 flashback she has a cast on her leg).
I think Dean represented a much different type of security and safety to Beth than a financial one, as the flashback to Beth in the hospital showed. He was someone that showed up and someone that stuck around, someone that saw her and didn’t judge her when she felt incredibly alone. Over time, of course, he came to take her for granted, but I think they were happy early on in their relationship and their marriage, but that Dean’s selfishness and immaturity (represented in the first flashback, where he and his buddies made a mess and Dean came back to “help” but really just to take the opportunity to flirt and goof off) were things that he never really grew out of, which probably wasn’t helped by the fact that he was handed things—such as a family business—and didn’t have to work for them.
I also don’t think that the flashbacks redeemed Dean. I don’t think learning about someone’s past redeems their mistakes of the present, even if it helps us understand them better. I think the flashbacks simply fleshed Dean’s character and Beth and Dean’s relationship out more, and yes—functioned to help us understand Dean’s current decisions.
Dean’s role in Beth’s life has been to take care of her and we see that there are benefits to that (he was a bright spot during a difficult adolescence when she lacked care from others and she settled into a comfortable if ultimately unfulfilling life with him) and drawbacks (they eventually fall into a dynamic where she’s patronized, diminished, and invisible to him).
I even though the flashbacks showed that even when their romance was blooming, it was quite superficial and Dean was still, well, Dean. Beth and Dean connected because he was goofy and charming and she was pretty and a cheerleader; he was someone she had fun with, and when she didn’t have time for him, he showed up unannounced after she’d ignored his phone calls and then dropped that he’d been planning to ask her to prom as a way to rehook her attention and interest in him. Showing up to the hospital was the most significant scene, but we didn’t see them connect over common interests or a deep and meaningful conversation. They were infatuated teenagers and he was caring, but it definitely didn’t reveal some previously unknown compatibility that makes us understand why they’re right for each other.
In some way, Dean taking the fall for Beth might be considered the beginning of a redemption since it was his financial mistakes and betrayal that caused Beth to enter crime in the first place. I don’t think that kind of redemption necessarily means that this will fix their relationship or make them fall in love with each other again, but it is Dean taking care of Beth in a way that he is able to right now—which is interesting, as Beth explicitly tells Fitzpatrick in the scene prior that she doesn’t need a man to do that.
I’m curious if we’ll get more insight into Dean’s decision next episode. I’d really like it!
