Similau

I just posted such a long message that I feel I should “shut up” for now, but I can’t help myself. Having caught your message, there are many interesting points in it that have sent my imagination running yet again. Supposing that Sylvia is truly the murderer, as both you and I suspect, and supposing that I’m not wrong in my speculation that Jonathan is the father of Sylvia’s daughter ... then your comments above are making me wonder if Franklin (Donald) has known forever that Jonathan is the father of Sylvia’s child, and have been helping to support that child all along. Perhaps Jonathan made a confession and (money) plea to him back when Sylvia was pregnant, and Franklin agreed to keep things secret just so that his daughter could remain blissfully unaware (and perhaps also out of his own sense of guilty, for having been such a cheater to his now dead wife). What his comment to Grace would truly mean is that, had he The sobbing: at one point I interpreted that scene as an indication of “like father in-law, like son-in-law”: both cheaters, somewhat sociopathic and dangerous, eager to charm and please everybody about them by pretending that they are regretful or contrite. But I don’t know. (In acting terms, the connection is that on their respective sobbing scenes, both Franklin and Jonathan come across as fake -- as if they were bad actors over-trying to show remorse and grief) But that all being said, I find Franklin sympathetic (even empathetic), with some very wise and prudent things to say (not at the principal’s office, though!), and hence the idea of his being another sociopath is just another theory that crossed my mind for a moment and got dismissed. Another interesting angle that you raise is how art seems to play its own role in the background of this story. Because Elena was an artist and Franklin seems so into art, one could imagine some connection (and backdrop story) based on that. Now I’ll really stop for good!

At last. One day left ... before we finally find out who the murderer is. Since episode two, my main suspect has been Sylvia (Lily Rabe). Here’s my speculative scenario. (I might go on about it for long, since i’m so excited to find out tomorrow; feel free to just browse!) None of what has happened between episodes #2 and #5 has dissuaded me from calling Sylvia the likeliest culprit, by far. I was already suspicious by the time of her confession to Grace. (She confessed that Jonathan had sought her advice on how to deal with the lawsuit brought against him at work, following the affair with Elena.) The fact that Sylvia was withholding such momentous information pretty much clinched it for me. Why keep something like that from her best friend? Granted, she came up with a series of convincing reasons (lawyerly ethics, uncertainly about whether Grace already knew, etc.) ... which only led me to reason that she must be pretty good at being a lawyer. So ... is Sylvia (a) a caring friend to Grace or (b) a sly manipulator and information gatherer? I'll take b, thank you very much. This is a friend who offers and withholds information in a manner that does not entirely convince me of her sincerity. The casual way in which she probes Grace with certain questions is just too slick for its own good. My thinking is that Sylvia went into a murderous rage, arising from the way in which Elena infiltrated and threatened the stability of Sylvia's own life ... a life that includes Sylvia's daughter. It is not merely that Sylvia was the so-called “only other woman” with whom, according to Jonathan, he ever had sex extramaritally, once long ago (yeah right). It's more that that: Sylvia is also the mother of a 3rd Jonathan child. Have you paid heed to the several scenes on which she (while multi-tasking) keeps on harshly pushing her daughter toward the goal of being the very best, etc.? The way she treats her daughter may serve as a good indicator of what her real, truest personality is . Sylvia may very well be all about being in control (controlling) and fighting her way to the top. But, sorry, Sylvia: in steps Elena, bringing chaos all around, with yet one more Jonathan child to add to the equation, not to say anything of an agenda to make herself be the center of attention everywhere in Sylvia’s world. It’s likely that most of Elena’s seemingly passive-aggressive behavior was aimed at antagonizing Sylvia -- not Grace. Jonathan’s lover-lawyer would have been the one whom Elena perceived as her real enemy, dating back to whatever transpired between the three of them before Jonathan was fired. Perhaps Elena and Jonathan had come to an arrangement, legally prepared by Sylvia, in which support for Elena's children was contingent on keeping quiet, yet lately Elena was showing more and more signs of not caring to honor the deal? ... Perhaps Jonathan has also been providing financial support for Sylvia's daughter, thereby making the whole situation all the more incestuous (and infuriating to Sylvia)? Anyway ... When Sylvia saw Elena once more, this time at the school fundraiser, flaunting herself yet again, and overtly staring at her and Jonathan, she must have just about had it. Remember that, during this fundraiser, Grace comes across a crying Elena in the ladies’ room? We could think of many plausible reasons for Elena’s tears, but I’m inclined to think that someone had just been verbally aggressive or threatening to her. Since the likeliest place where the threat would have happened is right there, in that ladies' room, the aggressor would have to be female. So, guess who. Also: why would Elena display such ambivalent attitude (more empathetic than antagonistic) toward Grace, if not because she ultimately felt sorry about the fact that, of all of the women being manipulated by Jonathan and/or Sylvia, Grace was the one most heavily deceived, and hence a co-victim ? (Elena might have been testing Grace at their first two meetings, under the assumption that Grace was just like Sylvia. But Grace passed both tests with flying colors.) Elena could have been threatening to tell everything to Grace. If so, the sight of Grace, leaving with Elena on the elevator, may have heightened Sylvia’s alarm to the nth degree. Perhaps by herself, perhaps in cahoots with Jonathan, Sylvia could have gone to Elena’s art studio to “reason” with her -- or to threaten her some more. Things would have escalated from there, especially if Sylvia got whiff that Jonathan and Elena had had sex right there on that night. (Or Sylvia could have found them doing it.) Through not guilty of the murder itself, Jonathan would have felt obligated to cover for Sylvia, if only because she has a lot of incriminating knowledge about his lying self. Maybe she told him that, if he were to be accused of the crime, she would find the way to get him off. I am picturing her orchestrating some kind of legal ruse behind the scenes -- what with her ridiculous “hey girl hey” greeting of the prosecutor, in court. The thing that I can’t figure out is whether she is doing the ruse in conjunction with Jonathan (to help him out) or whether she is doing it on her own, with the intent of getting him convicted (out of either spite or self-preservation). Could be both (i.e., double-timing). As for the question that keeps being asked in the episode threads -- Jonathan’s true whereabouts, at that time when he was supposedly at the conference in Cleveland. Easy, at least in my mind: he was with Sylvia (or, at least, Sylvia helped him find a hiding place). The hammer: it doesn’t worry me much. If it is the murder weapon, sociopathic Jonathan probably left it at his son’s room on the night of his “trip", when he came to say goodbye. Knowing how Henry idolizes him, Jonathan wouldn’t even need to tell his son to cover for him; the sociopath would have rightfully calculated that Henry would desperately do his best to help his father hide any incriminating evidence. I won’t deny, though, that this finding of the hammer at Franklin’s apartment made me momentarily wonder if grandpa could be the murderer, after all. (That, and also the mystery about this character which I will mention shortly.) But only momentarily. I remain on the Sylvia train. Any thoughts that Henry himself is the murderer strike me as implausible. Same with the ongoing suspicions about Grace as the killer. Granted, I wouldn’t totally mind, because I have grown to like her less and less with each episode, and I’m hoping for her to undergo some kind of wake-up call of a punishment. Also to take into account is the bloody curtain in the opening credits, seemingly serving as a clue that something went terribly bad in her life as a child --unless that redhead child is not her, after all, but Jonathan's baby sister. But, no ... The prospect of finding out that Grace did the crime while on an altered estate of mind stretches the realm of credulity to a degree than this particular series could not withstand ... or so I’d like to think! Finally, here are two other miscellaneous tidbits that have kept me intrigued for a long while. I’m preparing myself to be disappointed tomorrow, because I suspect that nothing will come out of either: 1. Have you noticed how every time that Franklin (Donald Sutherland) is at the art museum, he is invariably facing (or staring at) one particular piece of art? The series’ director and cinematographer have heightened my curiosity by keeping the camera very far away from that painting. Finally, during Franklin's last visit to date, we were allowed to take a closer look. It’s a drawing of a harbor filled with sailboats. On the ground and on the water, yellow is the painting's most overpowering color. The somewhat hazy sky has some pale blue, but more of a cloudy, white/yellow tint to it. I’ve been wondering what are we supposed to make out of these staring scenes. Does the painting gives a clue as to the characters character, or even the crime? I suppose that the combination of the hazy sky with all that yellow (conveying for me gold and riches on the one hand, rustiness and slow decay on the other) could be taken to symbolize the kind of life within which characters such as this one have wrapped themselves up. By the way, have we even been told what the job of this (presumedly retired) man was? Or are we to assume that he never had to work? 2. As I already said, Sylvia has been my #1 suspect all along. For two or three episodes, I kept a second suspect in my back pocket, though. By now, however, I have basically given up on her, because she showed up for only one scene in an earlier episode (#2, I think). The scene was at the schoolyard. A mom, whom we had not seen before, asks Grace for advice on how to help her child cope with the news about the crime. Grace’s circle of uppity moms clearly look down on this other mom, literally dismissing and ignoring her. The scene is partially played for laughs, and partially as a display of the environment that surrounds Grace. So, that's all what could be to it. Nevertheless, it raised my “suspicion radar” because the actress playing the mom is Annaleigh Ashford. Why cast an already well-known, rising actress on such a small, seemingly inconsequential role?? ... Back then (episode #2), I presumed that Jonathan was having sex with a lot of school moms, and that perhaps this mom, jealous and enraged had been responsible for the murder ... I abandoned all these ideas once I got tired of waiting for Annaleigh to show up again. But, if the murder were to be a random person, or a near-random one, I'd have to propose her as the best candidate (well, certainly a better candidate than the school principal, or the maid at Franklin’s home)! Forgot to add another scenario that came to mind, very momentarily: a secret lesbian affair between Elena and Sylvia. But I think it would be ridiculous if the show were going to go with something as "out there" at that. I'm mentioning it only because it’s yet another idea that popped in my mind.

That's exactly what came to mind, even before the episode aired! Yes, that's right: even before. I'm referring to the end of the previous episode, when a clip from the Rio/Sandra scene was shown. As I saw that preview, I said to myself, "Aha! The editors are trying to trick us. Rio is not really mad at anybody. Rio is just telling the other girls about Rupaul's show, and recreating the scene in which Aja went at Valentina." Well, I was totally wrong. (I was also led astray by certain other scenes, shown in the first episode of the season. But, since I understand that it's forbidden to talk about previews from upcoming episodes, I have nothing else to add to this topic.) I can also see a strong similarity with that other scene mentioned -- the one from the MTV Challenge episode. However, I'd like to think that Rio's thoughts in regard to her sister were heartfelt, no matter how misguided or jealous her reaction/attitude toward Sandra and her win might have been. On the other side f the coin, nothing that Bananas does strikes me as heartfelt or convincingly noble. In thinking about Rio's regrettably jealous behavior, I also bear in mind that she was bringing into the equation some sort of magic/faith-based belief: the stars were aligned and there could be no doubt that the universe had decreed this win would be hers, as a tribute to her sister. we are talking about someone who probably went through a hugely traumatic experience, having to deal with a major, life-threatening tumor. To cope with uncertainty, she mightt have had to rely on not only faith and family but also other mechanisms as well -- including, perhaps, superstitious beliefs, and/or "magic realism." When such types of beliefs are at play, the believer often needs to conjure up a powerful evil or antagonistic force, in order to explain any instances of failure. (No, I'm not saying that any of this applies to Rio. All I'm saying is that, as I watch this episode's story unfold, I thought about all of this.) But I will say that the talking under her breath, caught on audio as she was leaving the living room, is a bit worrisome. There were other reasons why I was not truly surprised at Rio's reaction. I like to rewind scenes, to try to form a better impression of the girl's personalities, beyond what gets overly shown. In Rio's case, I caught two or three fleeting group scenes that led me to think of her as possibly being loud, raucous, and with something of an attitude. Before this episode aired, I was already thinking of her as someone whose public persona, as seen on the taking heads (measured, reasonable, smart, etc.) is not quite the same as her private one. I still like her, and think of her as deserving of going to the finals. The makeover really enhanced what was already an appealing look. Khrystyana is the one who has intrigued me the most, though, ever the first challenge. in her talking heads an interactions, she looks so plain, even homely (and endearing and loopy). Yet, again and again, she turns out to look great, once made up to look like a model. Her body type might not scream "model," but when we take into account that this season's main theme seems to be "unconventional beauty," she currently has a strong chance to win. And isn't it often said that, in everyday life, models oftentimes look nothing like the do in pictures? Jeana still seems to be the one to beat, though, despite her height (or her less-than-stellar placement this week). I like her, too. Then there's Kyla, who is coming off as more of a dark horse. So far, we've getting very little from her. But there IS a storyline in place, pertaining to her being biracial. And the judges has already openly acknowledged that she has the most modelesque boy of the bunch. Age is also in her favor. I'm not expecting her to win, but I'm expecting her character to get more developed in upcoming episodes, maybe leading to a finish within the top 4. Now watch Jeana, Khrystyana, Rio, and Kyla leave in the next four episodes, ha!