#4.08 analysis

Thanks so much!

I'm assuming from this ask that you might be referring to Rio's specific expectations in 4.08 when he thinks that Beth chose him only for her to betray him at the last second to turn him into the Secret Service.

I haven't rewatched the episode or scene in a minute, but I think it boils down to a few things:

I think Rio means it when he says something to her along the lines of asking her to admit that she has more fun with him just before the cops roll up. There's a part of him that hates the game that they play—most particularly when she double crosses him and he's losing or vulnerable—but there's another part of him that enjoys it even in spite of himself when he's losing. He enjoys being surprised by her, watching her getting her hands dirty, and most of all, coming up with the counterattack. In contrast, I don't think Beth had the same relationship to losing in their game (she had spent so much of her life losing already, and Rio always had the true upper hand in their relationship), but I think Rio projected onto her and thought she did. In that sense, I think he predicted that she wanted to be in this cycle with him as much as he wanted to be in it with her, but as we saw in the back end of season 4, what Beth really wanted was to break the cycle and build something real—but it was a step she felt he had to make first.

Underneath that, too, is the fact that in Rio's mind, he's chosen Beth many times over—from sparing her in 1.02 and directing his gun at Dean instead in 1.10, to giving her the money in 2.04 and allowing her to strong arm him in 2.06, and picking Lucy over her in 3.05. I think he expected her to do the same for him, and honestly, I think she would've—if the choice hadn't been between him and Annie & Ruby.

Add to the mix the recent milestones they've gone through, too, and Rio's logic isn't that baseless. Beth's moral descent in 4.04 and "If I bake another cookie, I'll die" speech has enough truth and realness in it that Rio believes that Beth not only wants but can handle the life that he lives. Their reignited intimacy in 4.06 also tells him that Beth still harbors some attraction and feelings for him that he's had for her as well. And their confrontation in 4.07 was significant—he finally called her out, and she acted like she picked him. And like I said: I do think she would've if it had been possible to do so without sacrificing the very people she would sacrifice herself for.

once phoebe walked in and told beth that they were rounding up her, annie, and ruby tomorrow, there was really no other option for beth—not with the police on standby and rio set to meet her in the next few minutes. she was always going to choose her and hers over rio.

but then they followed that up with her angry "what do you think?" i can only imagine that was in response to the hanging out to dry, family-threatening, but i don't understand rio's motives, especially after he's been pulling her closer and closer and letting her peek behind the curtain and see beyond the façade.

i know some people are theorizing that he intentionally threatened the family to get her to turn him in so that he could utilize her the way nick utilized him—but why would that plan have to be a secret? why wouldn't he loop beth in so she was part of it? beyond that, when rio got into nick's car, rio was the one that asked, "what do we do about her?" so I'm not confident at all that this was a grand scheme.

i really just think that they spent an entire episode showing us beth making a choice to have her reverse that decision in the last 30 seconds. if they wanted to have her betray him, i honestly would've rather had her commit and do it at the bank. that still could've paired with the exact same backstory and imo would've worked better with rio knowing about the wire all along and knowing that she was set to do it and exactly how to react and what the fallout was going to be.

haha, well, my first somewhat controversial thought is that i think s4 was manny's weakest season performance-wise overall. i don't think that's a sweeping statement by any means—i just think he had a few weak scenes that stood out because he didn't have any comparable ones in seasons 1-3, where he was extremely consistent, even if what the season required of him was less nuanced overall. however, oddly, i think the scenes that mm didn't nail in s4 were smaller scenes that required less of him (almost like he checked out?), but he nailed the ones that were really meaty and complex.

anyway!

i do absolutely agree with you about those two scenes, and while i hated nick as a person operating in the characters' world, i loved him as a character for the way he affects others to respond to him and highlight different aspects of the brio dynamic. he was probably the freshest, most revitalizing aspect of the show for a long time, and he was utilized perfectly imo *chef's kiss*

one thing that i loved as a shipper but which i loved less when i took my shipping goggles off was how frequently rio's scenes were just opposite beth across seasons 2 and 3. scenes where he was with marcus or rhea or service workers or turner or mick or gil really shaded him in, but they were infrequent, and some of those people saw the same side of rio that beth did. seeing rio with nick—or responding to nick—did, as you say, allow us to see another side of himself that he wasn't willing to share with beth. with her, he relied so much on power dynamics that she couldn't see him vulnerable or weak, scared or nervous. he was always calm, cool, and collected (even if he really wasn't), and while a lot of people didn't like what nick brought out in rio, i agree that it made him more complete and imo more human.

rio being tough 100% of the time is a mask he has to put on for his work; i'm just as intrigued seeing behind that curtain and seeing what rio's bad at because it's real. when he's nervous in the boba scene, i could feel how significant this betrayal was to him. he was willing to do it, certainly. but it wasn't easy for him—and i didn't want it to be! it would cheapen the complexity of that relationship if it was, and i think not only make rio a more callous person, but give the opposite impression that i wrote about here. basically, i think if rio was indifferent to betraying a person he'd come up with and worked with for 15+ years, someone that was family, it would suggest that he was miserable in that relationship for a lot longer, that there wasn't warmth and benefits for him as much as there was coldness and drawbacks. by extension, it would make rio look weaker because he put up with it for as long as he did.

the boxing scene is one where i think mm truly shines. the agitation and twitchiness that he tries to hide but can't when nick's questioning him? the seamless switch from playful fighting to defensive knockout? the smooth, smug confidence when he announces he's slept with beth because he can't help himself—even if the announcement is to his own detriment? and then the switch to confusion—even more quickly—dread, as he realizes what's about to happen? and then it's followed up with this weighted, depressing acknowledgment that he got his bruises the same way beth got her money—being himself. being cocky and too confident. not seeing danger. and putting up with nick!

Keep in mind I’ve only watched the episode once, but this is what I remember.

FIRST FLASHBACK: Establishes Nick and Rio are both being raised by Rosa. Baby Rio colors a picture of himself as a boxing champion holding up a belt. Nick refers to him as a “brother”; Rio corrects him to “cousin,” but it seems playful. Rio tries a cookie Rosa made fresh from the faulty, dysfunctional oven and declares that it tastes bad. Rosa realizes that she used a rotten egg in the dough and she shows Rio and Nick how to test for quality—if it sinks, it’s a good egg. If it rises, it’s a bad egg. Rio’s egg sinks, but Nick’s rises, foreshadowing their true natures. 

SECOND FLASHBACK: Rio practices boxing at a gym while Nick is working at a country club, cheating by moving his client’s golf ball closer to the hole. At the gym, Rio gets called over to a phone because his cousin is on the line and he doesn’t sound happy. Rio puts on a robe which is embroidered with a bright-colored phoenix, foreshadowing his tattoo. When Rio shows up at the club in his caddy’s uniform, Nick is frustrated with him for blowing off work to box. The golfer generously tips Nick for helping him out with his game.

THIRD FLASHBACK: A country club patron (possibly the same golfer, but I wasn’t paying close enough attention) is in the locker room and he tucks his wallet away into his locker. When he leaves, Rio opens the locker and steals money from out of it. Once he closes the locker, Nick is visible, clearly having seen the whole thing. Nick says nothing, however, only makes a suggestion about Rio getting back to work. Then we cut to a scene with Rio and Rosa, where he’s purchased a new oven for her and they warmly tease each other. She’s appreciative and Rio seems pleased to have done this for her.

FOURTH FLASHBACK: Rio arrives at work at the country club. The locker room is swarming with cops. When they shuffle, Nick is revealed sitting on a bench. He says, “That’s him,” implying he’s identifying Rio as the thief that stole money from the locker. Rio tries to run. The cops chase after him.

FIFTH FLASHBACK: Rio cuts into a “Welcome Home!” cake. He now has his tattoo. He is home from jail where he served a six-month stint. Nick enters the scene and now he’s got a jacket over his caddy’s uniform. Rio asks if he got a promotion. Nick says something (I forget) about it either being a promotion or a set of perks. Rio’s frustrated by the betrayal and seemingly that Nick rose up while he was locked away. Nick then starts pulling out wads of cash from his pants and jacket pockets, revealing that he stole them from various sections of the club (I believe he says he sold a set of stolen golf clubs, pilfered some of it from a cash register, etc.). Rio is confused. Nick tells Rio they trust him now—essentially, by turning in his own cousin, he has proven his loyalty to the company and he can get away with anything. He’s able to do what Rio couldn’t under the radar because he snitched. This allows Nick to go on an upward trajectory while Rio sinks further into crime. Nick says “they won’t see us coming,” implying this is a long-term plan he has. Basically, Rio will draw the negative attention while Nick makes moves under the radar. 

Ultimately, this ties into Beth. After Rio comes out of the police station and enters Nick’s car, Nick says Rio owes him. Rio says to “add it to my tab” because clearly, Nick has bailed him out many times before, using his pull as a councilman. Rio asks, “What are we going to do about her?” implying Beth. Nick says they won’t be doing what Rio wants to do (implying he wants to kill her). Nick seems to want to utilize Beth as a pawn in his chess game.

I'm going to answer your question in reverse order if that's okay!

WAS NICK ALWAYS THE BRAINS BEHIND EVERYTHING?

4.08 established that Nick was clearly the one who came up with the initial plan whereby he got ahead legitimately by taking advantage of throwing Rio under the bus and having him perform the "dirty work" or criminal aspects of their schemes.

He was also the older of the two and had a clear power advantage of Rio while they were younger, so I do think this factored into their dynamic because it was their established roles from the beginning. However...

DID NICK MAKE ALL THE DECISIONS FROM THE START?

While Nick made all of the decisions at the beginning of their partnership, I think there's more evidence to suggest that while Nick still felt like he made all the decisions (or at least had final say), Rio had a considerable amount of independent power, knowledge, and skills that Nick didn't interfere with—at least until he decided he needed to.

First of all, Nick does not have the same skill or experiences in the lifestyle that Rio does. We see this when Beth asks if she should expect a gun to her head and Nick outlines that that's not who he is. We never once see Nick with a gun, and I have little reason to believe that he would be able to survive doing the work that Rio does. Therefore, he couldn't reasonably make many of the decisions Rio has to make in a moment-by-moment basis doing what he does, nor would it make sense for Nick to have the final say in a lot of those decisions. He simply wouldn't have the insight or knowledge to know how things operate.

Since Rio has lived a very different day-to-day life than Nick, I think it's more than likely that Rio made a lot of decisions based on his experiences and therefore operated within his own domain while Nick operated in his, and they met in the middle for the schemes that overlapped. I think that's clear, too, with how little Nick knew about Beth's involvement in Rio's business, the shooting, and Lucy—not to mention Rio's "be the king, kill the king" speech—that Rio only shared what he felt was necessary to their joint operations.

I assume that when he was young, Rio worked for someone else and rose through the ranks, utilizing Nick's privileges and power as an asset until he eventually ousted the boss and took over. From that point forward, I do think Rio was the boss of the criminal side while Nick was the boss of the forward-facing side.

So then...

HOW MUCH CONTROL DID NICK HAVE OVER RIO BEFORE SEASON 4?

I'm inclined to say: not much. At least not to the point that Rio felt constrained by or under the thumb of Nick in meaningful ways, and not in a way that was real.

I think that largely, Nick imagined and assumed he had power over Rio, believed himself to be the puppet master, and when he felt that perceived control slipping because of Beth's influence over Rio, he panicked and snapped.

I've written before that I think the violence Nick enacted against Rio was—while not necessarily a first—was most likely rare because Rio seemed confused before he seemed terrified.

While the showrunners referred to Nick as Rio's "boss" prior to seson 4 airing, I don't think they actually designed Nick as his boss. They certainly wanted us to believe he was at first—hence Rio telling Beth he wanted her to meet his people and explaining that he had debts to them—but everything that came after suggested more that Rio and Nick were partners with dual roles and a symbiotic relationship, and that mostly what Nick did was guilt Rio for the favors he pulled for him.

Once Nick felt that Rio was endangering their operations, though, and more specifically, endangering Nick's job with the undisclosed murder of Lucy, things shifted radically. At first, Nick tried to swoop in and control how Beth was being used, but the more he understood the ways that Beth had a hold on Rio, the more he felt threatened by her presence. At that point, Nick felt the need both hurt Rio physically and to try and destroy what Beth and Rio had as a display of power. His error was in misunderstanding both the significance of their bond and the lengths to which Rio would go to protect it.

While I think Rio and Nick had a strained relationship for a long time—and how could they not, with the way Nick betrayed him when they were merely teenagers, setting Rio's life on a trajectory out of his control?—I also think they got along. They grew up together. They're seen spending a lot of time together, eating together, laughing together, and although it's nebulous, they spend a considerable chunk of time seeing each other as brothers—brothers that loved and hated and fought against each other and triumphed with each other.

i knooooow! i love how her voice kind of breaks on "in" and her eyes are a little glassy. it really feels like a moment of her taking that step towards taking responsibility for her actions, and there's regret in it, but there's also acknowledgment that she knows exactly what her actions mean in the context of their relationship. it plays well off of her saying earlier in the season that she "may as well have" killed lucy.

i do think the emphasis on her feeling like she didn't have a choice is a combination of her not being able to fully commit to taking absolute responsibility at the same time that it's the truth for her. it reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from clarice lispector: "to think is an act, to feel is a fact." beth legitimately felt like she had no choice, so regardless of the fact that she did technically have one, that truth was irrelevant and meaningless.

i think everyone has their own lines and that’s really up to each individual.

fwiw, imo it was an empty threat and rio knew it. if he’s unwilling to harm her, i don’t see a world in which he would harm her children, particularly because i don’t actually think he actually “needs” her. sure, her knowledge and skill to make the money and her access to the printing press are beneficial to him, but not at the expense of what’s at stake with how she’s crossed him. it would still be in his best interest to cut his losses than keep her on, which to me says his primary motivation has to do with his feelings for her. in that case, i don’t think he’d be capable of harming her children. 

no. i don’t think beth was empowered in the choice she made nor do i think she felt that way judging by how she reacted to it privately. i don’t really think it was a moment of celebration at all.