I don't know if you answered this before this is so random but I was wondering what your thoughts were on season 4 when Rio was threatening Beth kids. I remember when the episode hit there was a lot of discourse happening on the timeline . people thought it was OOC. A lot of people felt like it was a drastic change from what we've seen from Rio and compared the scene to season 2 when Beth defended Rio against Dean etc what were your thoughts?
i kinda talked about it here and here, but i have mixed feelings about it?
i don't think it's a drastic change in the sense that rio has threatened violence against beth and enacted it against her husband, so threatening her family isn't incredibly far-fetched in that sense. her children being casualties of that—or utilized to increase beth's fear of rio—isn't exactly out of his realm, either. he talks to kenny in the pilot (about guns!) in order to make beth feel powerless and vulnerable, he deposits a bleeding-out member of his gang in her six-year-old daughter's bed, and he robs every last item out of her children's homes, including all of their items, making them feel really violated and unstable.
is that the exact same as threatening violence against them? no, not at all. but he's used the children to motivate beth in all sorts of ways—including showing up at their dance recitals, carpool lane, and swimming practices, so there is a world where i could theoretically understand him making the threat even if i would never believe that he would follow through with it.
but you're right that beth defending rio in 2.07 and legitimately worrying he's in her home to hurt them in 4.08 is a drastic change—but that isn't really where i quibble either. after all, their relationship has drastically changed from 2.07 and beth has valid reasons not to have the same faith or trust in rio, most significantly his call for mick to murder lucy in 4.05—just a few weeks beforehand.
what i thought was OOC and generally terrible about the threat was that:
the audience had zero reason to buy it as a legitimate threat so beth buying it as one did not generate audience empathy and understanding but alienation and frustration
its placement in the narrative was right after beth (through necessity) chose him so his response and test was at best disproportionate and at worst absolutely nonsensical
it was not necessary to motivate beth to turn him in bc she literally ended up only doing it to save annie and ruby
rio was escalating to the most extreme end of the scale of threats when the situation didn't require it AND when HE knew he'd never deliver on it, ultimately knowing that he'd be showing his hand and weakness for her, AND knowing he could never utilize it again.
it's the last point that to me felt the most OOC. i can believe that rio would issue that threat to motivate beth in the exact right desperate circumstances, but he would know it was empty and therefore only deploy it if absolutely necessary. this was not that situation, and rio is not that sloppy, dumb, or ineffectual.
ultimately it failed to establish real stakes or tension, it was not necessary to execute the impending betrayal at the end of the episode, and they failed to explain rio's motivation for escalating to that point in the first place.
it was bad.
