#2.08 analysis

I do think he’s in love with Beth, yes. I don’t think he wants to be, but I think he knows it and it irritates him. I read Rio as someone who is in tune with his emotions and that acts with an awareness of what they are, someone who is generally honest but that masks that with ambiguity, limited information, and behavior that’s intended to hurt and punish.

i think it's very realistic that what beth thinks is an easy choice turns out to be much more difficult when she's actually the one making the decision. she asks ruby to pick her over stan because as she says, "i would always choose you every time." but when reality sets in, when she's thinking about how it would affect her children, when she's responding to the fact that dean took the fall for her in the same way stan took the fall for ruby, suddenly the choice isn't so simple.

this season is playing around with beth facing consequences in so many ways I'm really loving, not only with the confrontations with fitzpatrick and stan and phoebe and dean, but with beth's own words coming back to haunt her in both this instance and her flippant wish in 3.09 that "just once" rio would show up at annie or ruby's house so they would understand what it's like to be her. she'll absolutely be eating those words in 4.12 when annie goes missing because, at the end of the day, beth will always choose to go down for annie and ruby. as much as she resents being the one that faces the most difficult choices, the truth is she'd rather it was her than them.

in that vein then, although the choices seem similar on a surface level, they really aren't. in 2.08, ruby makes an active choice to betray beth in order to save stan, but ultimately fails to commit. in 4.10, beth's initial choice to run has nothing to do with ruby, but ruby becomes an unintended casualty of beth's decision. that decision then becomes intentional when beth agrees to stan's terms.

beth and stan also put ruby into very different positions, and while both hurt ruby, they do so in distinct ways.

beth asks ruby to make an impossible decision without real understanding or empathy about the weight of that decision. it's selfish and self-centered, but the onus of responsibility lies with ruby—and regardless of beth's feelings, it always did. ruby had to make a choice and she had to live with it, regardless of who she ultimately chose. ruby's choosing stan makes sense, but so does beth's pain in reaction to it.

in contrast, stan doesn't ask ruby to make a choice—he asks beth. ruby has no agency in this dilemma. her choice is made for her, behind her back.

that means beth and ruby's roles aren't just neatly flipped in this scenario, despite the fact that they're both placed in the dilemma of choosing between their best friend and their husband. in 2.08, beth had no agency at the hands of ruby—whether or not she goes to jail depends on ruby's decision—but in 4.10, ruby has no agency at the hands of stan, who forces that choice when again, ruby wasn't originally actively part of that choice.

this is why it's important that stan balks when beth easily agrees, and beth admits that the circumstance has only arisen because she's already planning to run. in this scenario—the only scenario in which beth would agree—beth theoretically saves everyone. dean doesn't go to prison, her kids get to keep their father, and stan and ruby (and their marriage) is safe because, presumably, they also get to exit crime without beth being the supposed driving force between ruby's involvement with it.

at the end of the day, ruby does choose beth. she doesn't turn in the calendar and she calls beth and confesses. and beth chooses ruby back when she turns herself in for a murder she doesn't commit.

this is why i think the emphasis in 4.11 was on ruby's pain at stan's betrayal, not beth's. beth was willing to go down for ruby in lieu of stan in 2.13, and ruby let her go—she was the only one that knew in advance what beth was going to do. similarly, i think ruby could be willing to let beth go in these circumstances, even if it was painful.

but the betrayal is in stan asking beth to leave ruby behind, and in stan not communicating any of it to ruby. and like beth feeling the consequences when the shoe is on the other foot, now ruby is experiencing it. in season 1, she lied to stan and kept him in the dark to protect her family. now he thinks he's doing the same thing.

It’s not canonically confirmed, no! It’s just an inference—or a logical conclusion compiled from evidence. 

I use the 2.08 flashbacks as the main source of my inferences:

The other flashback scene we get is Beth and Ruby sitting on a bench outside of Ruby’s father’s funeral. Beth asks Ruby if she wants to go in, Ruby says no because it’s “going to be weird,” and Beth says, “He was your dad,” before she rests her head on Ruby’s shoulder to comfort her. 

Taking all of that into consider, I infer:

Because Beth is driving too young and doing something reckless, I assume she feels that the errand is necessary

Because Beth is buying groceries, I assume Beth has taken over her mother’s responsibilities in feeding and raising Annie

Because Annie claims her mother “likes” to spend a lot of time in bed, (showing that she doesn’t have a clear reason to do so that would make sense to a child, such as a physical illness or injury), I assume it is probably a mental illness or emotional breakdown of some sort.

Because there is no reference to their father—either an excuse or reasonable justification for why he couldn’t buy the groceries in Beth’s place—I assume he is not around

Because they show us a funeral scene with Ruby’s father and because Beth doesn’t personally relate to it by sharing her own experience, I assume Beth’s father is not dead

In 2.10, Ruby and Annie fight:

ANNIE: Just because I didn’t choose some safe-ass, boring-ass life like my sister—

RUBY: You know why she did that? Because she had to. She didn’t have anyone to clean up after her like you do. 

ANNIE: That’s not true.

RUBY: She has been mopping up your messes since the day I met you.

This confirms the inference that Beth has been mothering Annie since Beth was a teenager, and suggests that this was not a type of mothering she herself received since nobody was “clean[ing] up after her.” In that vein, the fact that Ruby says she “had” to choose a “safe” and “boring” life suggests that Beth’s own upbringing was somewhat unstable. Though its still wide open for interpretation in terms of severity, it does help us understand why she stayed—and why she stays—with Dean, who really does represent safety and security across the series despite the fact that the show starts with this illusion being shattered. This is why her reaction to Dean’s reckless handling of their finances—and its consequences plunging them into utter instability—is so extreme.