#rhea analysis

I think Rhea saved Beth because she didn't want to be complicit in her murder. The show suggests that Rhea knows Rio well enough to trust Beth when she shares at soccer practice that she's both not pregnant and that if Rio knows, he will kill her, and the moment that happens, Rhea has two choices: she could either do nothing and allow Beth to get killed, or do the bare minimum and her own conscious could be clean. She chose the latter, and that makes sense to me because I think the show demonstrated that Rhea's world looks a lot more like Beth's former picture of suburbia than it does Beth and Rio's current entanglements in crime, guns, pills, and counterfeit cash. She's not part of that world, nor does it seem she wants to be, and I think she makes it fairly clear in the final scene where Beth chases after her and Marcus that she wants no further involvement—she got Beth spared, and it was up to Beth to figure it out from there. Simply put, I think most normal people walking down the street would have a hard time doing nothing if they knew that it meant that a real person—one that they cared for in any capacity at one point, even if the circumstances of that were revealed to be false—would be murdered as a result of that inaction.

The question of whether or not its a betrayal towards Rio is complicated, but my instinct is that overall, no, it's not.

First, I believe that canon suggests that Rio's intention to kill Beth is very real, but not truly what he wants, and ultimately he would have regretted it had he gone through with his original plan. In just one episode between 3.03 and 3.04 he learns that there's no baby, and he doesn't have the same drive he had upon their initial meeting. The cocktail of feelings and motivations driving his decisions, then, weren't something he could sustain, and I think it would be too 'black-and-white' to label it purely as a betrayal when that reality is factored in. I don't think Rhea necessarily foresaw that, but I do think Rio wouldn't hold onto it or categorize it as a betrayal in the long run if he knew.

Secondly, I simply don't believe Rhea thinks she owes Rio her complicity in his choice to commit violence, even if its in reaction to violence committed against him, which means I don't necessarily think Rhea would consider it a betrayal, either. Once she was dragged into their mess—entirely against her will, in all instances!—her action or inaction had real consequences that she would have to live with. I think ultimately she wishes she didn't have the problem dropped in her lap, but once it was there, I don't think she believed she owed Rio her participation in aiding his plans for murder.

I actually think Rhea's decision would be the same regardless of how much she knew about what happened in the loft. In the end, Rio was alive, and so Rhea and Marcus didn't actually lose him or have their own sense or desire for that type of revenge. I think she lost all respect for Beth and wanted nothing to do with her from that point forward, but I don't think that meant Rhea wanted her blood on her hands.

mmmm i think she thinks of nick as a "normal" person that would choose the "right" thing since that's how he presented himself. it's also not outside of the bounds of believability. when it came down to it, rhea stuck her neck out to save beth from being murdered even though she was on rio's side. marion pushed boomer to turn himself in because it was the right thing to do. beth couldn't rob marion even though it meant saving her own life.

also, her warning was just that nick would care, which doesn't necessarily mean that he would go out of his way to take rio down, but that nick wouldn't put special effort into protecting rio and that it may even fracture their relationship. this isn't really the part of that threat that is effective to rio, but the news of the association is enough to pull the rug out of from under his feet.

I think Rhea knows a lot and that Rio was honest but probably not particularly detailed? For instance, I think Rio told her that Beth shot him and left him to die, but probably didn’t tell about the surrounding circumstances that led to it—that he’d kidnapped her or that he was trying to force her to murder someone. Then I think he also told her about the pregnancy.

I think this because:

Rhea avoids Beth and pulls Marcus from soccer, which makes me think Rhea feels betrayed by Beth attempting to befriend her

Rhea agrees to duplicitously lure Beth to the bar so that Rio can surprise her, which makes me think Rhea agrees Beth has done something bad enough to warrant that bait and switch rather than pushing Rio to confront Beth in a different manner

Rhea seems surprised to learn that the pregnancy is fake, but not that the pregnancy existed, which makes me think that Rio recapped what happened at the bar with her

Rhea believes Beth that Rio will kill her if he finds out the pregnancy isn’t real, which makes me think that Rhea understands her transgression is severe enough that Rio would be willing to do this despite the intimate relationship she knows that Beth and Rio shared

It’s possible that Rio was tight-lipped about what happened and merely summed it up as Beth being the reason that Rio had to disappear again for two months, but Rhea seems to know exactly what Rio does for a living. Because Rhea had a relationship with Beth, I think she would want to know the details, and I think Rio had no real reason to hide his history with Beth from Rhea, so he probably told her.