#2.11 analysis

haha, i actually wrote something like this once upon a time, but it also hinged on her finding her pearls when she was searching his apartment and while she didn't take the last question, she did haughtily tease him and then well. they made use of the fact that they were literally standing in his bedroom when the whole game went down, haha.

if the finding of the pearls is removed but beth still takes the opportunity for the last question, hmmm. my first instinct was that she might ask something like "why me?" but i think rio essentially covered that in chiding her for asking to be a part of it and now emphasizing that this is what that means. i do think beth has a curiosity to ask him or suss out whether or not she's special, but rio basically refuses to admit to her that she is (while constantly acting in ways that prove it, haha) and i think the question is a bit too vulnerable for beth to ask (particularly when rio's not really answering her anyway).

in that sense, i think the only way beth really would take the last question is if she felt she had some leverage in the situation, which is likely why i had her stumble upon the pearls because it means she has the upper hand in terms of knowing something about rio he didn't particularly want or expect her to find out. instead, of course, rio leveraged the fact that he knew beth was still interested in him and wanted him to kiss her by teasing it and then promptly pulling the rug out from underneath her.

considering all of that, i'm not sure there is a question that beth could ask rio that would rebalance the power dynamic in the scene or produce a significantly different result. rio appeared unrattled by beth stalking him and then breaking into his apartment, let alone asking after rhea and first-naming him (and while i suspect he was rattled by his choice to quickly disappear and move, i also think he was highly amused and charmed by her pulling a copycat and being insane, as well). so I'm not sure what question could've really shaken him up to flip that switch.

imo, her best move would've been to deflate the tension by asking him something totally innocuous, like where he got his mixing bowls or something, haha, or something even more meticulous than that. something that showed how thorough she was, how much she was paying attention, something that made him feel a little invaded but which was impersonal enough that it couldn't be used against her as evidence of her feelings for him. something that made it so she had the last question, not him, so that she left without his kicking her out, so that he felt like he didn't win the upper hand.

however, i don't think it would've majorly changed the trajectory of anything, mostly because beth still found the body and rio would've still fucked off to legoland.

I think the line is intentionally ambiguous! I think he literally means “do you want [the last question]” but I think he purposefully phrases it in such a way (with the slow closing of the gap and gravelly voice to match) that it forces Beth to ask herself the question of whether she wants him—mostly so she has to face that truth right before he rejects her and kicks her out like she did to him.

He’s still stung from her dumping him, but he has the power in the scene in multiple ways: he’s caught her red-handed, he’s blackmailing her with a dead body, and he’s forced her back into crime. He also knows what he’s about to do (tell her to leave when he’s built an expectation of tenderness) while she’s in ignorance, so it really is about flipping the script on 2.09.

The only other time Rio’s been so forward in initiating sex was when he didn’t have power—when Beth was strong arming him in the 50/50 deal.

I’ve always read the innuendo in the 20 questions scene, but thought it was more Rio forcing Beth to reckon with her feelings as a form of tit-for-tat punishment than it was about making a serious offer. He knows she still has feelings for him (her curiosity and jealousy over Rhea taking precedence at the top of the game establishes that), but since he only realized the true extent of his feelings after she closed the gap in her bedroom, now he tries to recreate that same wound in her when he closes the gap in his bedroom and sets up the same kind of false expectation.

[x]

I actually disagree that the writers didn't give much care to his name, or that it was thoughtless. I think the absence of his name in later seasons was extremely deliberate—and while it's a decision I am largely okay with, I do think there were a couple of missteps and missed opportunities.

I think across the board, the writers were very intentional and very specific with using names—not only in how they named the characters (say, the soft, traditional "Beth" contrasted against the younger, more playful "Annie;" or the way "Rhea" and "Rio" visually look similar) but in how the characters use names with each other (from the special significance of Rio being the only one to call her "Elizabeth," while Ruby affectionately calls her "B" and Dean uses the infantilizing "Bethie" to Turner trying to establish trust and familiarity by inviting people to call him "Jimmy").

Beyond that, though, the prominence of names was associated with the dual nature of legitimacy and risk. As Beth says, "It's my name on the door." The Boland family name was stamped on the dealership. That gave their operation credibility—it was a long-established company with a familiar brand, but it was this same association and history with getting raided made Dean a prime target for Dave to come back and arrest him when he replanted it on Boland Bubbles. Nick uses his name to signify his power and connections when he calls the police chief, and Beth and Rio use the public nature of his role—name and face—to take him down, tracing the misuse of Rosa's name to Nick's crimes.

The lack of Rio's name is then, for the most part, used to keep him hidden and therefore safe. He uses a fake name at the hotel and when busting Boomer out of jail. Actually, he never even introduces himself to the girls, and we see on Turner's wall of clues that the FBI only seem to know him as "Rio" at that point.

The most significant moment with Rio's name, I would argue, is when Beth calls him Christopher in 2.11. She's infiltrated his domestic sphere and now has access to a piece of himself he never gave to her willingly; but his name also complements hers—a traditional, multi-syllable, almost regal name. He seems fondly amused of her attempt to use it against him in the way he's used hers.

His name was used sparsely across season 1, but also rather in fairly insignificant ways. There was then the loaded moment in 2.11, and after that, I would say that the lack of his name became really prominent and purposeful—specifically after the shooting. I do think this was a way of Beth dehumanizing him as a coping mechanism—not because of writers' thoughtlessness or because the writers didn't see him as human—I think there were many entry points to empathize with and see Rio's feelings in the aftermath—but because Beth was distancing herself from having killed him and then making active plans to kill him.

Using his name reminds her that he's a real person, and that wasn't something she wanted to be reminded of at that time—not to mention that I don't think he particularly felt like a real person to her then. At that point in time, he was a specter, an imposing figure of control and punishment, but not someone she was able to connect with. She couldn't reconcile who he once was to her with who he was now. I think we saw this disconnection and dehumanization in a few ways, including the way she stopped considering what the impact of her decisions would be on Marcus.

I really do wish we would've seen Beth use his name to his face in canon, but I don't think that possibility really bloomed until the end of 4.15 when they realigned and 4.16 when she chose him.

And that leads me to missed opportunities. Rio's name did actually appear in season 4—baby Rio writes it on his drawing in the 4.08 flashback scene, showing us its a childhood nickname, and we see it on his nametag at the country club—but I do think it should've been used verbally in the scene with his family. More specifically, I think we should've heard Rosa using it to contrast with the condescending and derogatory way that Nick uses it in 4.09. I think that scene was about pulling Beth closer and letting her see another side of him, and I think the intimacy of seeing people who love him use his name would've worked well narratively with Beth's mounting guilt about betraying him. Especially since it's paired with Beth and Rio reestablishing physical intimacy, I also think it would've added a layer of emotional intimacy between them as well.

I think the writers sacrificed that moment for thematic consistency of names being risky, and I do believe that was a mistake. Beth and the audience already knew his name, and the lack of it at the BBQ didn't add anything new or deepen that theme, but the presence of his name could've added significance IMO.

Another spot that I think it could've worked well (although I think it's less important than in the family BBQ scene) is at the end when Beth tells Annie and Ruby that she's staying in Detroit; aligning herself with Rio at that moment by using his name would've been a marker of her seeing him for who he was again.

Oooh, interesting question. My first impression was that it wasn’t one critical piece of information, but just through that process of getting to know him better, both things sort of become revealed over time? I think seeing him with his family—that he’s not just her boss, or someone that’s got a hold over her life—but a father, son, brother, uncle—is going to force her to see him in a way that she’s been refusing to see him since he reappeared in 3.02.

In season 1, Rio was, for her, a very mysterious figure and she had no context for his past or even really who he was as a person. His world was so different from hers and she only knew him in that context that I think she never really thought of him beyond what was in front of her. 

Season 2 broke down that door with the reveal of Marcus. Beth’s face in 2.01 is pure shock. She’d never even considered that Rio might have a son, and she didn’t seem to really consider what the circumstances of his life even were beyond that. We never see her wonder if he has a wife, or if he’s seeing someone, or how he’s able to maintain being a criminal kingpin at the same time that he’s raising his child. She’s still fascinated by seeing him in that role in 2.03 when Rio brings Marcus to the park with him; the information really hasn’t settled, and I’d argue that it doesn’t even start to settle until 2.11 when she breaks into his loft. When she does this, she gets to see Rio at his most normal. This is his space, his domain, decorated to reflect his style and tastes, full of items that are simultaneously mundane and fascinating (like different colored shirts and a turtle keychain). It’s fairly useless information, but it forces Beth to consider that he’s more than she ever gave him credit for; it forces her to realize that she has reduced him to only what she sees in front of her, and I think she breaks her habits for a second when she slips up and asks, “Is that your ex-wife?” Suddenly she has enough context to want to know more, to pry about his history, to try and discover—only it’s not long before he kidnaps her and puts a gun in her hand and the rug is ripped out from underneath her and she feels like what she thought they had, what she thought she might know of him, means nothing. He goes back to being an imposing, threatening figure, and their history seems to mean very little in that moment.

When she thinks she’s killed him, she throws herself into trying to help Marcus and Rhea, which I’d argue is taking what she knows of him as a person—someone that cared deeply about his son—and grieving that part of him. But the moment he pops back up, I think she reverts, latching onto the idea that he’s only a threat to try and protect herself from grappling with what she’s done to him (very pointedly, she stops thinking about Marcus and Rhea and never considers the impact on them when she pursues the hitman plot; I don’t think this is an oversight; I think this is very intentional Beth compartmentalization). In the process of that, though, I believe Beth dehumanizes Rio. She goes out of her way not to say his name (“what would he do?”) and even her jokes about him puts him in the realm of the supernatural (“the man pops up like a genie”). 

Learning what he means to other people and that he has this entirely separate life from her and from crime will make it harder reduce him to what she needs him to be to continue to be distance herself from him and to believe that he’s a bad person while she’s a good person. Seeing that he loves—that he is loved—should soften her, as well as seeing him in a context where he doesn’t have to put on the mask of scary crime boss—hell, likely we will see that he can’t put on that mask in front of her while he’s with his family. He will be exposed.

On the flip side, there’s potential for her to learn what got him to the point that he’s at. That may be through the family, but it may also be through the boss (or maybe there’s overlap there). She might learn what he’s done, what he’s capable of, and why he’s so lonely. From his family, she may even see how unstable and sporadic his appearances and presence are—a continuation of what Rhea says. 

My personal interpretation of Rio’s behavior in 2.10 is that he believes Beth is orchestrating the Annie/Ruby Canada pill scheme. When he approaches Beth at the park, I think he believes that she does miss crime and that she can’t stay away, but that she’s behind-the-scenes. I think that’s why he went ahead with letting Annie and Ruby do that job (and why he didn’t immediately follow up with them when they failed) because he ultimately thought it would rope Beth back in. Instead, he found out that Beth had blocked his number and that she didn’t seem inclined to play the game anymore.

In 2.11, then, I think he ramps up his behavior. The body parts are used to pull Beth back in and while I think it starts as a reminder that she can’t cut her losses that easily (his world is not one people get to come in and out of whenever they feel the whim). I do think it becomes more of a game for him when he realizes that she’s going to resist that hard. The body parts are really interesting to me because he doesn’t utilize them when she tries to steal 50% of his business, but he does use them to get her back in business? And he doesn’t actually do anything besides send them with a greater frequency? The purpose is to get her to break—he doesn’t actually seem all that fussed about actually leveraging the body as evidence for the FBI to pin her; it’s simply to get her back in his orbit when he realizes how much she really is trying to step out (something he recognizes she doesn’t actually want, as evidenced by him asking her in 2.10 “they suck your soul out yet or what?”).

And the reason why I think he was so eager to get her back (as opposed to telling her to fuck off) is because I think he simply likes her—both professionally and personally. After she dumped him, I think he was wounded and hurt, but with a bit of distance and perspective (and especially when he believed that she was back in, just secretly) I think he pieced together a bit that her motives were more complicated than he may have initially believed. When he honey traps her in 2.11 and sees that she is still attracted to and interested in him, I think that he clues in even more. 

I 100% firmly believe Rio had fallen for Beth by the end of S2—that it was a slow progression from curiosity to attraction to genuine interest to genuine feelings, and I think it could best be summed up by the Pride and Prejudice quote where Elizabeth asks Darcy how he could have ever fallen in love with her and he answers, “I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation …  I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”

I think everyone has slightly different moments that they put on the chart for Rio’s deepening feelings for Beth, and they’re all valid.

These are the big ones for me:

1x02 - Beth’s speech that convinces him not to kill her and the girls - This is the moment where she piques Rio’s interest. I think he noticed her beauty in 1x01, but I think he pegged her as one type of way, and suddenly she showed him she was a different type of way. She was bold enough to stand up to him, and she came up with a fair argument on the spot despite the high stakes. She impressed him, period, and I don’t think he’s easily impressed. 

1x03 - Leaving him the pearls - I think he came to her house expecting a booty call, and was surprised again that he was wrong about her. I’m sure he’d bedded more than a few women that were intrigued and attracted to the dangerous vibe he puts out (even if it was far outside their normal “type”), what with the tattoo and the gun and the swagger, and I think he correctly clocked that Beth was attracted to him, even at this point, but then she wants in? She got a taste of crime and liked it? I think discovering this, combined with the fact that he might have thought he was about to hook up with her, probably made him very interested in it happening somewhere down the line. I think this is the moment that sets up other moments where he lets her off the hook when he shouldn’t—he wants to see it play out. 

1x04 - “We’re not here to try, we’re here to win, bitch” - I think this is where he lets his interest in her be known a little more? I mean, he sneaks in through her bedroom, rifles through her stuff, asks about the husband he clearly knows is her husband, challenges her to admit he’s not good at his job, and then gives her that look when she asks what he wants. Then she surprises him (AGAIN!) by coming up with a legitimately good idea! She’s smart! She might actually be kinda good at this, and she’s actively chasing after it! She’s a bit goofy in the delivery, but she’s trying to show him that she’s in. But he still can’t figure her out, exactly, and he likes that, which is why he asks her point blank what she’s doing with someone like him the very next episode, and puts the idea into her head of fucking him. I think at this point he’s still just curious and attracted and wants to bone her, but he wants it enough that he sort of forgives her panicking and backtracking immediately after asking to be let in? And while he threatens her, he doesn’t harm her when he thinks she’s stolen from him?

1x06 - “Just give me a name.” “Beth Boland.” - I think this is the moment where he moves from being more amused by her to more impressed by her. She’s the leader of her crew. She takes responsibility for her mistakes. He gives her advice. He wants to set her up for success in this world. She ignores it—because she likes doing things her own way. He doesn’t like it, but I think he respects her tenacity—especially when she tells him never to point a gun at her again? Like, the audacity? Did she just forget who he is? He just leans against his car and watches her drive away and just uuuuuuugh. Yep. He’s into her. So he spends a little more time with her and meets her alone in cafés and tells her she’s pretty.

1x09 - “What you and me had is done. Over.” - I mean, the language. He could’ve said “you’re fired,” “you’re out,” “I don’t need you,” “I’m done with you,” but no. What you and me had? Over? There’s an “us” there. There’s an avoidance of naming what, exactly, they had. It’s break-up language—and it’s more than a break-up than we get in 2x09, honestly. And I’m curious whether this really would’ve been the end if Beth hadn’t tried to get him arrested, because I think this is sort of a heat-of-the-moment breakup? The feds have been breathing down his neck, he had to shut down all operations, and he had a kid turn. He just had to kill that kid, one of his own. He’s had a week. He means it when he says he doesn’t need her bitch-ass drama. He thought she was up for it, and she’s cracking here, and I think it frustrates him because he expected more from her? 

2x01/2x02- The touching!!! - I mean. He’s got legitimate feelings by this point, right? Even if he’s not really engaging in them? He would kill her otherwise, I think. He just killed Eddie for talking to the cops—she set him up for the cops. She actually got him arrested! But I think more than anything, this plan just shows him that she’s bold enough and crazy enough to match him. She’s not on his level, but she could be, someday. He touches her face, because he can, and sees that she lets him. Oh, sure, it’s performative. It’s show for Dean, it’s manipulating her, but he’s also escalating in the ways he’s touching her. He knows he’s got her feeling all sorts of ways, too. He reveals to her that he has a kid, and that’s manipulative, too, but he wouldn’t do this with just anyone. I think he knows the effect it will have on her. Then, when she fails to kill Boomer, I don’t think he’s actually that surprised—she couldn’t pull the trigger on him all that long ago, and he’s good at reading people. I sort of headcanon that he showed up at her house in 2x02 to kill her, but couldn’t. He touches her face again. He’s soft for her, and he knows it, even if he wouldn’t admit it out loud. He promises to teach her because he wants to bring her more into his world. 

2x04 - Bar Bathroom - He believes she did it, that she crossed over, that she got her hands dirty, that she can’t leave his world, and he’s excited. Then she initiates sex? While on a date with her husband? In public? I’ve talked about it a lot, but this is a huge shift for him. He gets openly jealous, destructive, and starts escalating in trying to maintain her total focus and attention. He flirts, but it’s more lighthearted than it was before—he’s not trying to get her off-kilter, he’s trying to get her to come closer. He’s still too into “the game” to just outright invite her into bed again, but he tries so very hard. He’s got it bad. 

2x06 - “You know, I think this thing with me and you has run its course, yeah?” and “Oh, you think you’re special, huh?” - Yes? She does? She knows he won’t kill her? He knows he won’t kill her? He knows that it’s true, that she is special, which is exactly why he says it! He wants her to believe that she’s not because she’s got him all messed up. Again, he uses break-up language her. “This thing with me and you”? “Run its course”? What thing, Rio? You think this is how he fires his boys??? No fucking way. Then she bests him in the 50/50 deal and he’s pissed, but fuck is he turned on. I 100% believe she drives him fucking crazy but he could never fall so deeply for anyone that didn’t challenge him on that level.

2x07 - The Dubby - Dude knew it was gonna fuck up some things professionally, did it anyway. This reminds me so much of Darcy paying off Wickham for Lydia. It doesn’t benefit Rio at all. He doesn’t even really want the credit. He was soft with her the very next episode in 2x08, offered to help her—for free—deal with her problems. Laughed with her. Teased her. I still think he was avoiding how genuine his feelings had become (I mean, there’s a reason he avoids giving her the dubby in person) but I think he knew, at this point, that she was different, and he stopped denying the feelings. 

2x09 - The kiss - Now it wasn’t just that he stopped denying it, he had to openly confront it. He stopped holding himself back here, and we saw that just in the kiss. He had to engage with the idea that maybe it was more for her, too. I think that sex was intense, and I 100% think he lets himself sink into the idea that they could have something real, in their own fucked up way. I don’t think he’s felt this way about anyone (ever, or for a very long time) and I think he comes to accept it, even if it’s outside of his comfort zone. He is so relaxed and so comfortable in her bed. And she dumps him by quitting. There’s no “you and me” or “what we had.” It’s “I’m done.” It’s “no more cash, no more pills.” It’s not about them at all, and I think that fucks him up a little (and is tied to his work comment later). 

2x11 - 20 questions - Rio is more impressed and amused that Beth broke into his house and learned his real name than anything else (I’m convinced it is his real name, not another alias). He allows her to follow him all day, which means, in his own way, he allows her in to his life and his privacy—even when they’re separated! I think he knows it’s not over between them, which is why he allows himself to play the game again and rile her up and make her want him—because it’ll be so much sweeter if she comes back to him. He’s willing to play the long game. 

2x12 - “That’s what I am? Work?” - There is so much good analysis of this scene from pynkhues and lunafeather, but this is resignation and frustration and exhaustion at her inability to commit one way or another. He has feelings for her, but he’s mad at her, he’s disappointed in her, and she’s dumped him (or rather, quit) but now is trying to demand that he name this thing between them in a way that she won’t? At this point, he’s made the gestures, done the flirting, and let himself be vulnerable with her in a way that she just has not reciprocated. I think he knows they’re not over, not really, but the only reason he wants to hurt her so badly in this scene is because she has hurt him.

Yes, I think those feelings are still there after 2x13. I think he had allowed himself to feel things for her that he hadn’t allowed himself to feel for anyone else, and I think they’re deep enough that they don’t just disappear, even under the circumstances. I don’t think Rio’s going to be engaging with those feelings or pursuing them, though. At this point, he’s been deeply betrayed by her, and that betrayal stings more because of how much he cares for her. (And at this stage, I do think it’s a deep, genuine care, and not love—I think they’d both have to have their walls down a little more and a little longer than the space that 2x09 allows to have it turn into love—but I think they’re on their way). 

Oh, he’ll fuck with her in S3. He might taunt her and flirt with her if he knows that it will make her off-balance, but I’m sure his walls are going back up and he’s cutting her off emotionally. I’m interested to see how they come up with a justification for him not killing her after this—because if they want me to believe that he’s a big, bad crime boss, that needs to be addressed, and I think based on where I expect Rio to be emotionally at the beginning of S3, I don’t think it’s going to be waved away easily by the suggestion that he still cares for her.