ok so i just rewatched the scene where the girls and rio are at "carolyn's" house and noticed that there is a butterfly at the wall behind beth and it's quite interesting bc it's like the third time there we see a butterfly (at the wall in granny's room and at beths dress) so i looked up the symbolism of butterflies and it says that it's "a representation of resurrection, change, renewal, hope, endurance, and courage to embrace the transformation to make life better" so do you think it might be about beth choosing crime?
Ah, what a great catch, anon!
I think we definitely are seeing Beth change and flip her allegiance. And I do think she chose Rio at the end of the episode—but not in a way that’s definitive and absolute. I just think the needle moved and we’re going to see that transformation process happen over the rest of the season.
I think of it like this:
3.07-3.09
Coming off of Lucy’s murder, Beth is 100% committed to the hitman plot because she feels its the only viable solution. She tells Max they can’t go to the cops because, as Ruby says, “we’ll all end up in that van.” These episodes are the height of Beth struggling in her relationship with Rio. She tells Max she feels “nothing” and Annie explicitly says that “it’s not a life” if all they do is work for Rio without pay, agency, or choice. She feels utterly trapped and sees this as the only way out. After Rio gets her fingerprints on the gun, she’s distraught, but once she has Fitzpatrick lined up, she’s proud of herself and feels incentivized because it ultimately means she will be free from him.
3.10
Beth passes Fitzpatrick’s test, but she’s resistant to making the call and the needle nudges because she’s unable to watch it happen. She celebrates Rio’s death, but has a brief moment of reflection looking out over the picnic table, remembering that there were better times between them. She insists no one was jilted, but corrects the girls when they say it was a “one and done.” She chooses to let go of the door handle when she’s in the car with Rio, ultimately taking the chance that he won’t hurt her and she’s proven right. Her inability to lie to him returns when she can’t come with a plausible excuse for where her money is going—a marked difference from her cocky assertion that she “can’t control the world market” or the way she tries to play him when she dresses up in the polka dot dress. She’s proud of her hot tub scheme and she gets frustrated, throwing a temper tantrum, when Rio doesn’t give her his full attention and stamp of approval.Â
3.11
Beth’s ire gets reignited when Rio “consolidates,” forcing Beth to print and wash while he takes a large cut of the profits. She’s frustrated by his control over her, but she can’t help but feel flattered when he tells her that he “loves” Boland Bubbles, asking him, “Really?” Rio flirts and while Beth doesn’t flirt back, she is somewhat playful. She asks when it “gets to be mine” because she “made all of this happen.” She wants credit, but the fact that she asks also means things might be different if he were ever willing to let her have anything to herself. Rio essentially tells her that will never happen until she kills him. The moment is loaded, but when Rio leaves, Beth doesn’t look victorious—despite the fact that she has an active hit on him.
4.01
When Lucy’s body is found and Rio reminds Beth that he can and will use her fingerprints against her. While Annie and Ruby are fixated on contacting the hit hitman, Beth instead focuses on how she can offer him something he “really needs” in order to try and get the gun back. After successfully bribing the inspector to look the other way, Beth goes to the bar and meet Rio to celebrate, trying to capitalize on the shared success (“I’m making you bank”) by asking for the gun back because it “doesn’t make sense” to hold it over her anymore. When Rio agrees and tells her that she’s right, Beth doubtfully asks, “I am?” like she wants to believe him. However, when Rio doubles down and suggests that he might turn it over to the cops, Beth feels that she’s at the end of the line. Instead of scrambling to find another solution to her Rio problem, she instead prepares to be arrested, writing Dean the letter, telling the girls that she won’t run, and that she “may as well have” killed Lucy herself. She’s still committed to the hitman, but its with less fervor than before. Instead, she’s more actively playing the cat and mouse game. Even when Fitzpatrick visits her at the end of the episode and she asks him to move her up on his schedule, it lacks intensity. She emphasizes how much money she’s paid him, not how badly she needs Rio gone.
4.02
Annie insists that if they “pop [Rio], all of this goes away” while Beth waffles over whether or not to go to dinner with Fitzpatrick in order to speed up the timeline. She’s pushed to make this move, however, when Rio forces her hand to hold some of his money while she’s feeling “heat” about her books as it reminds her how “the last time [she] did that”—that being held something for him—”[she] got tied to a murder.” On the date with Fitzpatrick, Beth struggles to play her part despite the stakes. Despite being a canonically good liar, she’s really putting in bare minimum effort, diverting the conversation back to the job by saying she just “needs [it] done.” When Fitzpatrick asks her what the hurry is, she says, “He’s making my life hell”—which is a very different motivation than we saw across 3.07-3.09. At this point, Beth is focused more on how Rio is making life challenging for her and how much money she’s sunk into hiring Fitzpatrick, but she’s no longer feeling the same dread, fear, and hopelessness, all emphasized by how she asks Rio for things (like when the business gets to be hers or to get the gun back). She thinks she has leverage with him she didn’t before, and while she’s still moving forward with her plan, their dynamic is shifting and her resolve is weakening. It weakens further when Fitzpatrick asks her what life will be like when Rio’s gone and Fitzpatrick challenges Beth when she says it will be “normal.”Â
4.03
Beth goes to Rio for help after Dean is arrested, believing him at his word when he says he’ll cover the loan if she sinks the eight ball. Despite herself, she still trusts him, and she feels burned when she realizes the catch. When Beth complains about Fitzpatrick to the girls while bemoaning her predicament with Fitzpatrick, she says, “I wish he’d put a bullet in me.” Again, she’s less focused on him completing the job and more focused on her present problem. She only hits a breaking point when Fitzpatrick shows up and tries to get her to come to Fiji with him. Even at the exact moment she’s pushing him to complete the job, she says she wants “to be nothing like [him]” which he points out is ironic considering she hired him. When he promises to fulfill the contract when he gets back, we get a lingering shot of Beth breathing heavily before she shakes herself off and finishes unloading groceries. She’s still going through with her plan, but she’s pausing more and seems to be feeling doubt—not necessarily because of how she feels about Rio, but because it’s becoming real and she seems uncertain if this is the kind of person she wants to be.
4.04Â
Dave and Phoebe approach Beth, offering Dean’s freedom in exchange for Beth becoming an informant. Beth insists that Rio will kill her and that she “can’t do this.” The Secret Service threatens that if she doesn’t do this, she, Annie, and Ruby will all get rounded up and arrested for their crimes. In order to avoid this, she goes to call off the hit—but Fitzpatrick is mysteriously gone. She clues Dean into the Nevada plan, but gives him no indication of how it could be possible, potentially signifying a lack of commitment. When she tracks down Fitzpatrick, her reactions have shifted. She doesn’t correct him when he calls them jilted lovers. She pauses before answering when he says she just can’t live without him and when he tells her she’s not the only side dish. Realizing that Beth’s cut a deal, Fitzpatrick calls her on it, and she insists that “it’s complicated.” In order to wrap up the hitman plot, Beth cons Rio into taking care of Fitzpatrick for her—only she gives Rio an honest monologue about how she can’t go back to her normal life in order to accomplish it. She says she wants normalcy, a fresh start, a blank slate—but she wants crime. When she succeeds in duping Rio, she’s not celebratory or pleased. Instead, she’s weighed down, feeling like this was her last resort. Again, she’s unable to lie to Rio. When he signals that he doesn’t buy that the person he killed was Secret Service, Beth can barely hold it together, further emphasizing that she can only lie to him when she threads that lie with a truth and when she has extensive time to practice. She says it herself: her commitment to the Secret Service plan and her manipulating Rio into doing her dirty work is because it’s the “only way this goes away.”Â
4.05
When Beth waits for Rio at the sting drop, she nervously checks her phone, but never attempts to contact or call him. She insists he “knows” and the Secret Service refuses to do anything to protect her, making her upset. Beth defiantly strips to prove to Rio that she’s not wearing a wire, then agonizes whether or not he knows. Beth then enjoys being The Banker and imitates Rio while creatively coming up with her own way of handling Penny, telling her to “watch [her] back.” She’s having fun again, riding the hide of being successful, and regardless of the reason or the truthfulness of Mick’s statement, she’s rattled when he tells her that Rio trusts her. Beth alludes to the idea that “someone is still watching” directly to Rio’s face in order to try to weasel out of remaining the Banker and Beth realizes she’s Rio’s fall guy as much as he’s hers. She then tells the Secret Service that Rio has a boss, AKA someone that’s an even bigger fish to catch than Rio himself.
4.06
The Secret Service refuses to pay the girls to make up the difference in what they are no longer making working for Rio so they rob the jewelry store and leverage the meeting with the boss in order to con the Secret Service into paying up, causing trouble for them and definitely not acting compliant or loyal. Beth has a dream that explicitly explores that she feels guilty that she’s letting Rio down and betraying his trust while feeling pressured to deliver for the Secret Service. Before going to meet the boss, Beth tells Dean that she’s “stuck for life” in crime. Phoebe and Dave do nothing to prepare or reassure Beth when she’s nervous about wearing the wire. Beth starts off the scene asking Rio if he wants to frisk her. Despite the fact that it doesn’t benefit her to announce this over the wire—or that she looks at her plate like she’s waiting for the correction from Rio—she announces that they’re partners at dinner. She becomes protective over the name “Elizabeth,” showing that she’ll only allow Rio to call her that. An intimate hand on her back causes Beth to become frantic and panic, furiously removing the wire and desperate to find somewhere to stash it. As you point out, costuming puts her in a butterfly dress. There are more butterflies on the wall in Rosa’s house. A romantic song about softening and forgiveness plays. After tucking the wire away, Beth studies the photos of Rio growing up—until she’s interrupted, at which point she can barely form the words “I don’t know” in answer to what she’s doing. The entire conversation works on two levels to be about the immediate moment and the larger operation to betray him, with Beth signaling that she might not be good enough for him or his business. Rio is telling her about the overlap between business and family in private, yet Beth takes no opportunity to try and ask him anything that might gather evidence for the case. Then, under the guise of trying to distract him from finding the wire—despite the fact that she had better means to do so—Beth initiates intimacy with him after meeting his family.Â
4.07
Beth insists that she only hooked up with Rio to distract him from finding the wire, but her behavior in the episode doesn’t correspond with this. She refuses to wear a wire again. Although Dean knows that she’s working against Rio to cut a deal with the Secret Service, she lies to him about going to see Rio, dressing up, fluffing her hair, and putting on perfume. At the bar, she flirts with him. She tries to say that she didn’t want to hook up with Rio again, but Ruby—her best friend in the world who knows her better than anyone—doesn’t believe her. She goes along with the plan the entire way, but it’s painfully obvious that Rio doesn’t buy it and Beth is just sticking her head in the sand because what else can she do? When Rio asks if Beth is “really gonna do this,” she offers that they can back out of the deal with “Carolyn” to use someone else instead, like she’s entirely willing to cancel this operation at the last second, instead of even attempting to convince him that it’s fine. Again, subtextual clues are consistent and clear: costuming, blocking, and music all underscore that Beth aligns with Rio. She admits she felt like she didn’t have a choice, and when he gives her one, she’s able to go home to Dean, indicating that she picked Rio and crime. She’s glassy-eyed and, in contrast to her scene in 4.05 with Rio, she’s unable to strip bare for him, getting into the hot tub with her own husband in her own home fully dressed.Â
Her reasons for her lack of loyalty shift from actively fearing for her life to feeling like her life is meaningless under his control to feeling like he makes her life hell to working against him to save herself to feeling like she has no other option. It’s a gradual shift, and we’ve only just crossed the line.
The monologue at the bar in 4.04—reiterated in 4.06 just before the start—set us up to know that Beth is committed to (or “stuck in”) crime for life. Her dynamic with Rio is shifting, but only just. They’re trying out real, straightforward communication and honesty for the first time… ever. So far, it’s more effective than anything else they’ve tried. But there is still a lot of holding Beth back, including the fight with Ruby, Dean’s reliance on the plan, and her inability to take accountability for her actions.
While I think that needle nudged over the line to choosing Rio, I don’t think we should yet expect that she’s going to be clearly and completely on his side just yet. It’s still jumbled and complicated, but we’ve already seen her admit to him that she’s working with the Secret Service only to duplicitously try to continue to do so in secret. I think we’ll see a progression from that, even though I’m not 100% sure in which way we’ll see it yet.
But I do think she’s now more loyal to him now than she is to the Secret Service and that they’re only going to get closer, she’s only going to soften more towards him, and we’ll see a lot of development from this point forward with the needle moving more and more towards Beth proving her loyalty to Rio.Â
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I read the final scene with Beth telling Dean something that we couldn't hear to mean that we don't actually know for sure what Beth told him. Maybe she has changed her plan to not screw Rio over but still somehow save all of their families from the SS. Isn't this a possibility?? I really can't take Beth continuing to betray Rio, I'm going to be sick if that's the case after they hooked up again!
I don’t think she’s changed her plans quite yet, but I have slightly different thoughts on the matter.
Beth’s feelings for Rio shifted dramatically in the last episode as she got emotionally and physically closer to him and began feeling guilt about the idea of betraying him (a seed planted, I think, in the 4.04 scene where she confessed her dissatisfaction with her cookie-cutter life and played him to take down Fitzpatrick), but she still needs time to process them and to weigh them against her own needs and the needs of her family, Annie, and Ruby.Â
Right now, the Secret Service is literally offering her the most ideal solution: physical safety (in the form of anonymity and relocation), financial stability (in the sense that she would no longer be drowning under 3 mortgages and would be set up with a payment and new house and job), and a way out of crime (the latter of which is particularly important to Ruby, which we’ve seen emphasized by the way she’s willing to give up her mother’s home—the one she wants to be buried in—to start over with Stan, who keeps hitting that point by asking her when it “ends” with “her guy,” but also Annie, who has struggled with poverty her entire life and who could benefit from starting over).
Of course, Beth doesn’t actually want out, but it does seem to be an important part of saving her deteriorating marriage which, of course, benefits her children.
On top of that, Rio is not exactly protecting Beth right now either. She’s using him as her fall guy for the Secret Service (something he literally told her she needed to do in 4.03, although he didn’t mean for her to use him) and he’s using her for his as he lies low and forces her to be the Banker, a job he knows she’ll struggle with and which leaves her on the hook for his crimes with little benefit to herself. It’s not a betrayal rooted in deceit, but it’s not loyalty either, nor does it inspire it.
This power play by Rio tightens the cord between them but also makes Beth’s move very complicated. Yes, she’s softening towards him and yes, she will be confronted with the question of whether she actually wants to give him up (to the Secret Service and as a meaningful relationship in her life) but it also directly links to a betrayal that cut Beth deeply in 2.13 when she discovered that Rio was also setting everything up in her name so that he would be safe and she would take the fall for him. That’s not a moment she’s unpacked and it’s very close to the surface in their current dynamic, and significantly, Beth has no real reason to believe that Rio won’t make her life hell again, particularly if he discovers the way that she’s betraying him right in this very moment. After all, that pattern has been cyclically repeating over and over, and why should it change?Â
Of course, I don’t actually want Beth to succeed in betraying Rio (or vice versa) but I understand her motivations, her hesitation to switch course, her confusion about her feelings, and the fact that one unplanned, unforeseen moment of intimacy in the midst of all that won’t make her immediately drop the plan she’s been pursuing and which benefits and protects her—just like I understand Rio’s decision to put her in the position of taking the fall as the Banker as punishment for her suspected deceit with Fitzpatrick and the wire.Â
It’s absolutely a selfish move—but with the stakes as high as they are, with the possibility of consequences being as likely as they are, both from Rio and the Secret Service—I think it’s a very rational choice for Beth in this moment, though I expect her resolve will crumble as she deals with the aftermath of her choices and with Phoebe and Dave’s increasingly obvious indifference in regards to what happens to her.
In "The Banker," was Beth meeting Dave & Phoebe at the diner, and was surprised when Rio showed up? It seems if they all knew Rio would be there, Dave & Phoebe would have wired Beth and waited outside in their van. If Beth didn't know Rio was going to be there, then it means he's following her, yes? That diner is not a usual meeting place for Beth & Rio - surely he wondered why she was there? Perhaps he knows Dave & Phoebe are SS, and was aware of their presence at the diner - Rio kept looking down to study the menu, but it was obvious he had no intention of ordering anything. Was he allowing Beth an opportunity to communicate with SS and warn them off from addressing her at the booth?
That was the impression I got—that she’d scheduled a meet with Phoebe and Dave and Rio has shown up unexpectedly. Beth kept glancing at them and was seemingly try to communicate that they shouldn’t come over to her and she seemed visibly relieved when they walked past her.
I do think that Rio knows that Beth is still working with the Secret Service. She told him what she was up to outright and he went to kill Fitzpatrick under the assumption that he was an agent. Rio told her he suspected that wasn’t the case and Beth lied—badly. Rio only pretended not to be bothered by it.
Then, Rio didn’t show up for the drop and had her strip to check for a wire and revealed the tracker. Like Ruby said—at minimum he suspects.Â
Then he made Beth the Banker—something he explicitly said put her on the hook while he remained invisible.Â
There is absolutely no reason for Rio to think that Beth is no longer working for the Secret Service. I think he’s just playing the long game!
Based on the new promo do you think The SS knew about Rio and Beth's relationship and that she shot him? If not I have a feeling they will soon. It's never good to leave these 2 in rooms alone lol. I have a feeling poor Pheobe will be traumatized for life.
I don’t feel like they know, no! Beth attempted to tell Phoebe about the beginning with the grocery store robbery and Phoebe seemed disinterested in more specific details since Dean had “confessed,” so I think they know that Rio’s connected to the counterfeiting operation (possibly because there’s been a case open against him for a while) but I’m not sure they know much beyond that, especially the particulars between Beth and Rio (and Turner only knew a lie anyway). What do you guys think?
How to secret services even know about Rio? Am I missing something?
They’ve never shown us Phoebe’s crew learning explicitly about the money, however Rio has given the impression that he’s made a lot of noise and we know the FBI had a very elaborate investigation into him which linked him to the money with his arrest in 1.10 (the Secret Service has jurisdiction over counterfeit, so they should be looped in from there).
He is then linked to the Bolands via Lucy (who is linked to murders against a rival gang) and Beth’s statement about her and Rio hooking up from 1.05. Rio himself said that he expected either the Feds or the Secret Service to be popping up soon, so I think his crimes are catching up to him.
While Rio acted unphased in 1.05 about getting caught, we know in 1.08 that he shuts down as soon as he feels the heat. I think it’s just getting harder to evade capture since he has a large operation in the city where he lives and he has been under investigation there for over a year. While he’s repeatedly gotten out of it, he’s also visibly been struggling.
They all know who he is and what he does—they just haven’t been able to nab him yet.
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There was a post on IG by a guest star that indicated that Dave and Phoebe were not, in fact, gone for good (she filmed with JS and LL). Thoughts?
I think that makes sense. With Beth being the obvious suspect for who stole the fake cash out of Phoebe’s room, I expected that would extend the role of Phoebe and Dave. Also, the moment where Dave told Phoebe that she “blew it” felt like it was leading up to something more. I could see the show exploring more about Beth using people through Phoebe. It’s interesting, too, because Phoebe told Dean that that’s what Beth does—and Dean insisted Phoebe didn’t know her based on that assumption, yet the show is demonstrating that the opposite is true.
I think the Secret Service storyline overall has been rocky, but for me there’s still plenty of time to course correct so I’m intrigued to see where it goes.
