#gg409

excuse me who gave you the riGHT??????????????

rio: unraveling a little bit under the scrutiny of his relationship with beth from one of the people who knows him best in the world

dean: having some realizations about how irrevocably destroyed his life is and how he can never get it back

ruby: failing to navigate the delicate space between her husband and her best friend until getting to the point that she has to admit to herself and to her husband a difficult truth

beth: being confronted with the harsh reality of how her selfish actions hurt other people (both with stan and with phoebe), even when her intentions are “good”

stan: struggling to reconcile his personal feelings about his wife’s best friend with the reality of his life situation/circumstances

annie: trying to do the right/best thing for her kid while hitting a wall made up of not her past mistakes but of past wrongs done to her

yeah i really love 4x09 but it’s only hammered home how much i hate 4x08 and how non-sensical it was. emotionally, you could take out 4x08 completely and it wouldn’t matter. there are a few plot things that happen (getting gene out of the picture, the secret service having the money in their possession, etc) that are important for 4x09 to make sense but that’s it.

everything between beth and rio (and nick) makes more sense if you remove 4x08 completely. 

with 4x08:

rio asks beth to choose

beth chooses him

rio asks beth to do something that threatens her family’s livelihood while giving her no incentive to do so

beth refuses

rio threatens her family/children

beth tries to comply with rio out of fear

nick goes to beth to warn her about rio????

secret service threatens beth’s family

beth turns on rio/helps get him arrested to protect her family

rio is pissed/betrayed and asks nick what they’re going to do about beth

nick tells him this is a good thing and now they can use her (despite trying to warn her away???)

rio shows up at beth’s house and tells her he’s not mad (he’s totally mad!!!) because now they can do whatever they want

rio asks beth to get the money back 

nick goes to rio with concerns about his relationship with beth

rio is defensive 

nick punishes rio

beth betrays phoebe/gets the money back

rio gives beth a “gift” in the form of a continued business venture together

but if you remove 4x08:

rio asks beth to choose

beth chooses him

rio asks beth to get the money back (which could easily just be changed to rio asks beth to print without threatening her children this time because she already chose him so just tell her WHY you want the money jesus christ)

nick goes to rio with concerns about his relationship with beth

rio is defensive

nick “punishes” rio

beth betrays phoebe/gets the money back (or, prints it)

rio gives beth a “gift” in the form of a continued business venture together

not only does eliminating 4x08 not change the emotional destination, it flat-out makes more sense. it doesn’t have rio all over the place, swinging from resigned but still hurt over the fact that they’re not a team yet to threatening her kids to betrayed and pissed enough that he actually wants to do something about it to defensive and protective of their relationship to back to business as usual.