#mick analysis

i headcanon that rio & mick are bffs, but i do think mick shooting beth was probably intended to at the very least complicate that. it's actually something that bums me out about the cancellation - i think the aftermath of rio/mick/beth would've been really fascinating to parse out because we know that mick prioritized himself in choosing to shoot beth (either in pursuit of money/benefits from nick or in avoiding a threat from him) and that he didn't didn't value his friendship with rio enough to even tip him off. on the flip side, it seems that rio valued mick enough to spare him, not to mention that rio trusted mick with the most sensitive information. beth was basically rio's achilles heel, and he tried to protect that information from nick, but not mick. i mean, think of all the things mick knows that nick doesn't! and nick was his partner!! ugh i think it's all so fascinating. but regardless, i do think rio and mick are friends enough that mick probably knows rio's family and marcus probably thinks of him as "uncle mick."

re: beth and mick, i think mick fully canNOT understand rio's obsession with her, and he doesn't personally like her much for an entire slew of reasons (the last of which is that they simply don't vibe, but i also believe he absolutely hasn't forgiven her for shooting rio) but i also think mick has some begrudging respect for her too (both as rio's "girl" and her potential). like, i think he had fun working with her when they went to go intimidate denise, for instance, and he can't quite tell her no (likely because of rio, but it's fascinating when you consider that he couldn't tell nick no for the same reason??)

Sort of, yeah!

This is Annie and Mick's conversation:

MICK: But he was like a grandpa.

ANNIE: That's sweet.

MICK: The kind of guy you want to do things for. Like that sister of yours. [At first, this seems like Mick could be referencing Annie choosing to put her fingerprints on the gun for Beth.]

ANNIE: It's not the same thing. [Annie doesn't think Mick protecting The Janitor is the same as her protecting her sister.]

MICK, doubtfully: Mm... [beat] How can one bitch have a hold on so many people? ["To have a hold on" someone is to "have a controlling influence over" someone. While Mick is primarily talking about Rio in this instance, Annie and even himself would be included considering he has done several favors for Beth without repayment—because of Rio. The statement goes beyond that, however, for the audience, even if not for Mick and Annie. Stan thinks Beth has a hold on Ruby; Beth has had and thinks she currently still has a hold over Dean, but it's slipping from her grasp; Nick is playing into the idea that she has influence over him.]

ANNIE: She's not all that. [Annie balks at the insult, but also doesn't see the ways this would be true. It's hard to see Beth as having influence over Rio when, from their perspective, he's often making their lives hell]

MICK: Then why are we both here? [This statement reframes things for Annie. Mick's here on his day off, and while Annie has no power and control in the situation and she's scared, nothing happens to her. At this point, she even realizes that she's safe. Rio also told her explicitly that people wondering/worrying where she was is "kinda the point." It's an acknowledgment that if they were different people, they wouldn't be in this situation. Beth would be handled, and Annie wouldn't be used as a pawn to control her. Mick is suggesting that Rio won't harm Beth because of the "hold" Beth has over him. Annie recognizes that Beth has no real power over Rio, so it must be about his feelings for her.]

ANNIE stares at him, realization dawning.

It's less about Rio doing things for Beth and more about what Rio won't do to Beth because he loves her. In the exchange, Annie seems to recognize the weight of this information. Rio will do anything to them, but he won't hurt them. It defangs him in a pretty significant way, but it's also a loaded truth because that love is still dangerous. While he won't lay a hand on them, he will destabilize their lives, threaten them, control them, and make their families worry about them. It's not the type of romance you would wish for someone you care about—particularly because Rio and Nick's scene establishes that Rio didn't really have to do this. It was an action borne out of him feeling out of control and jealous.

When Beth then confesses to Annie that she wishes he had taken her, Annie says, "He never will," which is Annie telling Beth that Rio doesn't have the capacity to hurt her.

he’s hard to read haha

Ooh, this is a really interesting question!

I think he’s definitely exasperated by her and feels that she’s audacious and he recognizes how much Rio lets her get away with. In particular, I’m thinking about how reminds her that she still hasn’t paid him back for his favor of holding Rio at bay in 3.05, but he agrees to help her find Lucy’s body and move the hot tubs anyway. On top of that, I’m thinking of how he is a bit sarcastic when Beth asks him where he is and Mick answers, “Art class.” It’s a subtle but I think clear reminder that she’s overstepping. 

Mick seems to recognize what danger she poses to Rio at the same time that he also seems to take his #2 role seriously—above all, he seems to fall in line, regardless of however he feels about it. Think of how imposing he is in 3.11 at the picnic table scene when Rio is announcing “synergy,” or how much he leans into Rio’s energy in 3.09 when he gives Beth the package with the gun—but how pliable he is when she asks for a ride to the bar in the middle of the night in 3.04, or when he passively reminds her that her kids are safe from him in 3.03. 

Basically, I think Mick works hard to keep his opinions to himself, mostly choosing how he behaves with her in relation to how he expects Rio wants him to—he aids Beth in a way that Rio won’t, but which is beneficial to Rio, and then will draw harsher lines when he’s backing Rio up. 

I agree that Nancy was very hard on Annie for an easy mistake that anyone could’ve done, but I do think that treatment was in character? I think in that scene Nancy stands in as a proxy for how Annie feels that everyone views her—an incompetent fuckup that can’t do anything right. And Nancy herself is exhibiting new mother stress combined with leftover resentment for Annie, both in her being generally irresponsible, but also because Annie and Nancy have never really made up from Annie’s transgression of sleeping with Greg. She can’t view this moment with Annie in isolation the same way she might’ve with someone like Beth because of their history. And Annie telling her that she really wished she’d get it right this time was, to me, not just Annie wanting to prove herself as capable generally, but wanting to attempt to mend things with Nancy specifically.

What didn’t work for me in that scene was that I didn’t think there was a lot of logic to Nancy carrying around a cream that she knew caused Dakota to break out in a rash as an “emergency” for if the first cream ran out. Especially for someone as finicky and financially secure as Nancy, I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t toss the second cream and buy an emergency reserve of the first cream. And if it was that important to Nancy, I didn’t know why she wouldn’t have provided Annie with a list of instructions or double-checked with one of the many text messages she sent along to Annie throughout the day. It felt like a weak plot contrivance.

I actually sort of wished that the problem that arose was that Annie accidentally left Dakota’s lovey in Rio’s G-Wagen. The blanket was mentioned by Mick at Paper Porcupine and it would’ve entangled Annie in explaining what she had been doing with Dakota all day and allowed her to provide a solution (getting it back) but not one that Nancy would’ve accepted on her timeline (Dakota would be fussy and irritable without it, and Annie couldn’t deliver it immediately). I’d have also liked it for a few reasons—one, it’d re-emphasize and explore the ways Rio doesn’t accommodate Annie in the same way that he does Beth and how little negotiation Annie has to get him to do what she wants on the convenience of her schedule. Two, it’d parallel the dubby (and there’d be the potential of Rio delivering it to Beth at the diner). And three, it’s also a really easy mistake to make, but still one Nancy couldn’t be rational about until she’d had time and space to calm down. We might've even been able to get another Annie and Nancy scene of them making up directly.

Generally, I didn’t care for how much Annie was undermined as a competent mom in this episode, from Ben dismissing how involved she was with him as a baby to Annie seemingly having no intuitive knowledge about how to take care of a young child. I think it makes sense for Annie to be out of practice and habit, but it certainly felt like A Choice to make Mick, who is a by-choice absent father, a baby whisperer and to include moments where each of the girls “fumbled” at properly taking care of the baby (Annie not recognizing Dakota was hungry, Beth suggesting that Mick installing the seat where it was more convenient but less safe, Ruby complaining about the heat while Mick corrected her that it was helping Dakota sleep). 

I think it’s a bit easier for Mick to be nicer than Rio. As the boss, Rio has to maintain a certain image and he can’t look too soft or accommodating (although he often is much softer and more accommodating with the girls than he would be with anyone else). He can’t look weak, and I think he’s very aware of this. He stops bringing his boys around in season 2 to instead deal with the girls privately, which benefits him when they fuck up the pill-run and he lets them get away with it in order to rope Beth back into the game (2.10) and also allows him to keep it private that Beth strong-arms him into a 50/50 deal (2.06). 

But Rio’s boys returned in season 3 after the shooting, and I think this was very deliberate, particularly in 3.05 where I believe they act as witnesses to keep Rio from deviating from his plan to teach the girls a lesson by killing Lucy. 

Mick has a little more freedom; he acts in conjunction with Rio and ultimately seems loyal to Rio, but he also doesn’t have the same pressure Rio does. I’ve found it very interesting how Mick has repeatedly helped Beth (and likely now Annie too) without Beth delivering on her end of the deal, seemingly with Rio’s approval. At the same time, though, Mick doesn’t have a personal relationship with the girls, and in that way, he’s also more of a threat (I don’t think he’d let his attachment to them stop him from following orders, for instance). 

There is a personality difference too, of course! I talked a bit about how Mick opened up to Annie’s direct question about having kids in a way that Rio typically doesn’t, and Mick is obviously a little more comfortable sitting with someone who is going through a rough time (compare him giving Annie the dumpling—basically an invitation to stay in the car—with Rio smoke bombing out of the conversation with Beth when she tells him Dean took her kids. Rio is still fairly gentle with her in that scene and even thoughtful to set her up on his tab, but it seems that the conversation makes him more uncomfortable than Mick feels in his conversation with Annie, even though they don’t know each other as well).

I don’t think Mick’s emotionless! I think we’ve seen him exasperated when Beth kept asking for favors without delivering, regretful when he told Annie about his daughter in Cincinnatti, and excited when he got his hot tub. I think Mick’s just quieter and more muted, a bit on the stoic side, and he seemingly takes his job of following orders seriously. But I also think that Mick is not shocked by much; the way that he understood Rio perfectly and didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on Lucy while knowing instinctively to only cut Gil out of the banana shows how often Mick has been in these situations. Those moments are part of the normal fabric of his life, and I think that influences how blasé he can be when talking about Lucy’s body not being in one piece or when reminding Beth that he has no intention of murdering her children.