#argestes

ken agrees with marcia that shiv went too far, and logan nods, just slightly. so that gives us the impression that this anger is solely for shiv. shiv starts to argue back, and we feel like, “stop, he’ll explode on you any second-“ and then roman makes one joke, one joke in favor of logan’s side- and then out of nowhere logan backhands him.

and the composition of the scene is so stomach-churning. the way logan continues to shout at roman after he’s hit him, like this wasn’t just a split-second accident. the way roman fucking recoils, the force of the hit making him stumble a few steps back and then him falling to his knees, clutching his mouth, completely unable to put on his usual persona of going-with-the-flow, because that fucking hurt and his brain needs a second to fucking process what the fuck just happened. the THEME MUSIC kicking in, eerie and unsettling, like it’s mocking the “family images” we see at the beginning of every episode, as if saying “THIS is how it really looks, THIS is the real family.”

and the fallout just makes it worse. ken comes forward and yells at logan, physically gets between him and roman and tells him not to fucking touch him. marcia puts a gentle hand on Logan’s shoulder to guide him away, but when ken gets up in his face, she holds him off, valuing logan’s emotions more than roman’s safety. gerri jumps in the only way she knows how, by placating logan, appealing to his business side- “it played well!” logan leaves with the two women silently, not even staying to see if rome is okay, not even apologizing, not even doing a million other things a father should do in this scenario. tom looks on in horror- we know his parents are, like, the sweetest people alive, so to see his wife’s father just smack his own son and walk away like that, it stuns him.

and then the three siblings. shiv fluttering around them like an anxious butterfly, asking “ro” if he’s okay, knowing it’s sorta-kinda-maybe her fault? and ken holding roman’s shoulders, trying to get a good look at his face, assess the damage. meanwhile roman is trying to get up from the ground in the least humiliating way possible, deciding the best option is to act like it didn’t actually hurt. but when he stands up, with a calculatedly casual look on his face, suddenly he realizes something’s wrong with his tooth. so then the next best option is to just get his siblings off his fucking back, walking away quickly and laughing it off in a voice that sounds more like holding back tears.

and then the scene just fucking ends. and all we hear about roman for the rest of the episode is that he’s not coming to the comedy roast with the rest of the family.