#hitman plot

Did you get to it yet??? That’s such a hard scene. Definitely needs mental gymnastics to make ok.

I personally didn’t hate the whole hitman premise. I didn’t love all of the execution, but Beth hiring a hitman makes sense. Fitz ended up being her conscience (you really have to see the final episode to fully understand this.) I hated the romantic overtone to his interest in her. Why can’t for once a man be interested in a woman simply because she’s fascinating or worthy of interest and admiration? Why does it always have to come down to sexual interest or possession? But setting all that aside, this whole unpopular storyline was Beth grappling with herself and her wants versus her responsibilities.

You have to remember, we’re still coming off all the betrayal and confusion she’s felt about Rio setting her up as his fall guy after she believed she was someone he actually cared about, Rio bullying his way into a business she made, Rio killing someone and threatening to frame her for it. She wants to believe in him. But he’s made it so difficult for her to do that. She doesn’t see the subtleties of his own hurt and need for her to validate him. All she sees is someone who’s fixated on hurting her. There is a lot of shame for Beth in still wanting him, despite her belief that he not only doesn’t want her back, but actively wants to hurt her and those she loves. Beth also feels an enormous responsibility to her entire family and friend group. Everyone is depending on her. So for her, there is no other way. Choosing Rio would be choosing herself, and Beth has never chosen herself.

The way Beth goes about making the hit decision is extremely conflicted. You can see it to the bitter end.

She doesn’t want to choose this. Fitz, her conscience, forces her to choose. She has to weigh being who she wants to be against who she has to be for everyone else.

And in this moment, Beth chooses everyone else. It’s presented to us with a musical overlay, speaking to Beth’s loneliness, her inability to choose herself, her sacrifice for those she loves.

“And I love you most

I love you most

When I first found love in my soul

And I'll give to you

Give it up to you

When I first find it in my self”

Hi anon! I have all my thoughts on this compiled under my 'hitman plot' tag if you want to do some deeper reading, but I figured I'd still do a bullet point version, mostly because I'm just in the mood to talk about Good Girls, haha.

Overall

The hitman plot was an interesting concept with mostly mediocre execution

It had more lows than highs, however the highs that it did were so excellent that I think they did overall make me like the inclusion of the plotline more than I like the idea of it being left out entirely

What didn't work for me

Pacing: It felt like it stretched too many episodes for a show that usually bounces from plot to plot within just a few episodes. Good Girls otherwise has an extremely quick pace (sometimes to its own detriment) and so the fact that the hitman plot felt so slow felt particularly painful, I think.

Beth's feelings: Overall, Season 4 did a better job at communicating how Beth was feeling to the audience than Season 3 did, and I think it exacerbated the audience's frustration with the plot. I don't think the show demonstrated how Beth was feeling in the moment well, but I think they did explore how Beth was feeling prior to it, i.e. we know that Beth felt both guilty and a deep numbness when she believed Rio was dead, but it didn't feel like that was grappled with while she was planning to kill him again. The complexity of those feelings and Beth's refusal to engage with them would've been in-character and really interesting, but it became a missed opportunity.

Annie & Ruby's feelings: I agree with you that this was another miss, and the effect of it was probably GG's most egregious error. Annie and Ruby's lack of trying to investigate how Beth was feeling in the aftermath of all this trauma and extreme behavior simply made them look like bad friends, which is NOT what I gathered the show was trying to say or explore. It was a major disconnect.

Rio seeing Beth dance: Look, I just don't buy that Rio—who has been Actively Avoiding Beth's house ALL season—randomly shows up at Beth's place at the exact moment the hit was supposed to happen to confront her about where all her money goes... only to not know what was going on at that point. I think it was a lame fakeout.

Resolution: I actually disagree with you, though, that Rio didn't know. I believe he discovered it when he took out who he thought to be "Dave," and that was why he pointed out to Beth that her "kahuna" wasn't trying to "put [him] away," but to "put [him] down." At that point, I think Rio had enough information—and Beth's reaction was obvious enough—that he could piece it all together. While did I love season 3, I am glad this moment didn't throw us back into the pit of angst, though. While I do kind of like the light touch there was in his reaction, I did think his reaction wasn't as juicy as it could've been. Basically, I think it could've been a sort of dark, fun flirtatious moment—Rio holding over her head that he's caught onto the fact that she doesn't want to get rid of him. \

What I would change

Beth's feelings: Literally the number one thing I wanted was Beth openly refusing to be the one behind the gun again. She had easy access to him! It would be free! It should've at least been considered! And of course her refusal would be padded with an excuse, but we would know, and I would love it.

Annie and Ruby: The number one thing I would change is how Annie and Ruby were utilized in it. I think Ruby's resistance to the idea could've been an easy entry point to exploring Beth's feelings and motivations. One of the things I really like about Beth's tangled feelings for Rio is that she straddles this line of genuine fear of what Rio is capable of at the same time that she's drawn to and attracted to that same aspect while she hangs onto this sort of implicit trust in him even when he demonstrates that she shouldn't. The push/pull of the logical side of her that knows he's dangerous warring with the emotional side that doesn't even think twice about the risk of visiting him at 3 am in his bar to confess that there is no baby when said baby is the only reason she doesn't have a bullet in her brain is fascinating, and Beth's hypocrisy, excuses, and lies are what makes her such a complex character. They had moments that shined with this, but I think they simply didn't fulfill the potential here. Adding onto the Annie-and-Ruby of it, though, I think after a few failed attempts of getting Beth to explore her feelings, we should've seen Annie and Ruby talking amongst themselves about what was going on with Beth.

Pacing: I'd do two key things. I'd nix Troy as a stepping stone in the plot, condensing the introduction of Fitzpatrick. I'd also change up the excuses for why progress wasn't being made. The paintball fakeout didn't entirely payoff for me, because I wanted more out of Beth's reaction to making the call, and I honestly just felt the "he's out of town" excuse was extremely lame.

Rio in Beth's house: I think the simple fix would've been showing him robbing her house so the reappearance of him inside of it didn't seem like as big of a deal as it was. But also... I just think he should've had a bigger clue. I think it's weird that when he decided not to murder her that he didn't even consider tracking her.

Resolution: I wouldn't actually change much, but I think I'd have Rio's reaction include some more kind of dark, flirtatious taunting. It's so close to 4.06 that I think it would've really worked in 4.04, and I think Rio kinda throwing back to Beth that he knows she had a hit on him and knows that she canceled it and has an inkling as to why she might've changed her mind, both as a nod to him knowing that she's still got a thing for him and as a nod to him being clued into her working with the Secret Service, would've been really fun.

What I loved

Ending on a positive note! There were some things I really enjoyed!

Beth's conversation with Max: The 3.07 scene where Beth confesses to Max that killing Rio wouldn't make him feel better, only that it would make him feel "nothing" is one of the best scenes of season 3, and one of the best scenes-about-Brio-not-featuring-Brio that there is in the whole series. I really, really love it.

Beth in the polka dot dress during her first meeting with Fitzpatrick: Literally obsessed with the fact that they put her in the same outfit that she wore when she was being her Utmost Self by wearing that modest dress to seduce Rio, acknowledging that she knows he likes her for her, in the same scene where she moves forward with the hitman plot but hesitates with the (teased) quick timeline. The fact that she was wearing it because her husband insisted upon it because he was jealous how she dressed up for Rio? And that she prioritized her drama with Rio over a celebration with her husband in the same moment? *Chef's kiss*

Beth's date with Fitzpatrick: Love love LOVE the contrast of Beth dressing differently than we've EVER seen her dress up for a man, emphasizing the contrast in how she views Fitzpatrick's versus Rio's attraction to her. I also love that it's a callback to 2.04 with the same color scheme and similar pattern, and that in both scenes Beth's pretending that "normal" is something she wants or is capable of being. Basically, I love seeing Beth lie to herself.

Well, technically, we’re not sure that Rio shot to kill—only that there was a gunshot and then a fade to black. It’s possible that Rio did question Fitzpatrick beyond the point that we saw, but I am hopeful that Fitzpatrick is really dead.

I also don’t know that there is much that Rio needs to question exactly. I think he could put the pieces together fairly easily on his own—this person is not Secret Service, not Dave, and he's attempting to snipe Rio when Beth led him straight to the sniper, and the sniper clearly knew Beth because of how he was talking about her. Rio also knows Beth was doing something suspicious with her money (hence why he took it away in 3.10) and he caught on that something was up when she was very pleased with herself and told him she was "incentivized" (3.09). Plus, Rio knows Beth wants to be out from underneath his thumb ("When does it get to be mine?" / "Next time, empty the clip", 3.11) and that she's angry at him ("This is your fault!", 3.05) and that she's scared of him (which was his intent when he took her to the car wash and refused to tell her what they were doing). In that sense, I don't think Fitzpatrick had any answers that Rio didn't already know. He can even piece together that Beth wanted to call off the hit since she wanted Rio to take care of him, and he can figure out why because she admitted to him that the Secret Service was offering her Witness Protection for turning on Rio.

I'm not sure if Rio felt like it was worth dragging out the interaction with Fitzpatrick (dangerous, as Fitzpatrick had already tried reaching for his own gun) to get confirmation on what was already a pretty solid theory that he can follow up with Beth about.

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?*

Okay, it’s not that I don’t get them—I actually like them, at least in fic—but I can’t come around to wanting Annie and Nancy to become canon. I think it’s messy as hell, haha, and think it would just be part of a pattern of Annie’s love life being a destructive tornado razing a path through any stability in Annie’s life! Sure, maybe eventually the dust would settle, but I don’t think I could handle the angst it could cause Ben for Annie to somehow be involved in the potential breakup of his father’s marriage... twice. 

What I love about Annie and Nancy in fic is that in all instances of it I’ve seen, we’ve jumped past the turmoil of it and are just at the happy, smiley place.

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

The hitman. I think they fumbled and didn’t get into Beth’s head enough about why she was unwilling to do it herself and whether she recognized if that meant anything. I also think it dragged and relied on too-obvious contrived reasons for it to remain unresolved. On top of that, I think they toyed with Beth having hesitation and regret (closing her eyes during the test, reminiscing over the picnic table) but those moments were way too brief and subtle especially contrasted with the weight of the rest of the scene (where she ultimately said yes, do it and was dancing on his grave). It’s extra disappointing because I think it could’ve been an arc that really teased out and defined Beth’s limits, regrets, and feelings about what she did to Rio. It could’ve been an arc where I understood and sympathized with Beth’s fear or with her feeling incredibly powerless. Instead, I felt mostly alienated from her—and I’m not sure that was their intention.

22. Popular character you hate?

I’m going to be completely boring on this one, but I don’t hate any of the characters. I think characterization is one of the show’s strong suits and I think all of the characters are pretty dynamic and interesting—except...

Okay, I do not hate this character by any means, but if I was going to say that there’s one character that doesn’t resonate with me the way she does with the rest of the fandom?

I’d go with Rhea. 

I feel like I learned essentially nothing about her and I was extremely disappointed by how much Beth and Rhea’s friendship was teased and how little we got to see of it and, by extension, Rhea as a person with either Beth or Rio. 

On the flip side, I do see how it’s fun to play with her in fic because she’s basically a blank slate.

I think this is in reference to this post, which is actually @pynkhues analysis, and iirc, she’s planning on doing a whole post about Ruby and Stan’s moral (re)alignment in season 3, so I’m going to refrain from talking about that! 

But I will talk about why I think the hitman plot wasn’t well done because it was at the top of my gripe list from season 3. My reasons for not liking the hitman plot were:

Unclear character motivations. 

Overall failure to create tension. 

Pacing.

(Potential) characterization problems.

I do think that!

Originally, it wasn’t even something that was on my radar, but I think it was @pynkhues that wrote about that possibility and I thought it was really interesting?

I must admit I was kind of apprehensive to have the feds return to being on their trail so quickly. I wanted a little bit of breathing room since I’ve always felt that they introduced the feds too early in S1, anyway. So if the person that Beth and Rio unite against is actually Fitzpatrick rather than Phoebe, I’d find that far more interesting? Especially since they hinted about the Phoebe/Beth dynamic being reminiscent of high school cliques, and I’d like that to be teased out for a minute before the girls (/Rio) realize she’s FBI?

While I think Fitzpatrick was talking about having regrets in the sense that they would talk about their guilt and it would lead a trail back to him, I think it works in the sense that Beth might backtrack and want out of their original deal—meaning she has too much information on him in a way that’s probably fairly dangerous for him. 

Personally, my theory is that Rio knows about the hitman and Fitzpatrick specifically. I also have an inkling that he’s flipped Fitzpatrick for his own gain, paying him not to take action against him (I think Fitzpatrick’s disappearance in 3.11 is just a little too convenient, especially after he didn’t fulfill the first hit because he’d discovered their romantic entanglement, and it was never explained how he discovered it, nor did he ever explicitly state that that was a deal breaker). I don’t know how it will happen, but I think Beth will call off the hit and it will make both Beth and Rio somewhat of rotten eggs for him?

I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds either, anon! 

I’m still flip-flopping on whether or not I think Rio knows about the hitman specifically, but I think he definitely knows that she’s up to something, particularly given she’s back on the payroll and is still living in an empty house. 

I think Rio’s logical enough too (well, sometimes, haha) to know she wants him out of the picture again, and the way he told her in 3.11 that the only way that was going to happen would be to empty the clip - - it feels pretty pointed, y’know?