S01.E03: F**k

[formerlyfreedom]

Ruby and Billy decide to spend a day in Chicago before making any rash decisions about their next moves. As the two anxiously await check-in at a lavish hotel, Ruby meets an exciting woman at a department store, while Billy tries to handle a relentless Fiona. Later, Billy comes clean about what drove him to run.

Airing Sunday, April 26, 2020.

[MrWhyt]

Archie Panjabi! This show really is running on the chemistry between the leads.

[Irlandesa]

And it's funny because I thought the leads had chemistry in the first episode but the longer it goes on, the less chemistry I think they have.

[CarpeFelis]

So what do we know now?

Fiona really is Billy’s PA, not his girlfriend. And she is incredibly sneaky and doesn’t give up easily. Not only did she track Billy down via his phone, but also found his hotel room and recorded him and Ruby having sex (seriously WTF territory—which of them is she going to blackmail?).

When Ruby met “Alice” in the fitting room I wondered if she’d turn out to be Fiona, and then thought, nah... but yeah, the show went there. Was it just coincidence, or did she somehow know who Ruby was and contrive that meeting? Did she plant a tracker on Ruby and thus find the hotel room, or does “find my phone” really have a fine enough level of granularity to pinpoint a room? Is she planning to use the shoplifting to get Ruby thrown in jail and therefore out of the way? Her resourcefulness even makes me wonder if she might have had a hand in getting Ruby’s cards canceled.

Ruby texted Run to Billy on her wedding day. So already she wasn’t super thrilled about her relationship with Laurence. In light of her later admission, I wonder if she’d already been fired at that point and was marrying Laurence for financial security. That would also explain why she didn’t seem so thrilled to receive the “fancy architect pen”.

So Laurence may not be completely terrible, but I still think he’s controlling. There’s that business about expecting her to sit perfectly still and keep quiet while watching a movie, when Billy confirmed that’s not what she’s like at all. And the fact that they never argue is not a good thing, either. That’s also obviously not who she is.

Edited April 27, 2020 by CarpeFelis
typo

[scrb]

The line that stood out for me was that she didn’t argue with Laurence but always imagined arguing with him in her head.

So Ruby’s qualms about marrying Laurence were borne out.

And then she brought up the damn speakers she had to arrange delivery on, from the pilot.  I thought it was an odd bit of detail, probably no WAF involved there.  He really wanted to drown her out when they were watching movies.

But then there is Fiona, the future bunny boiler.  Billy is not getting away from her that easily and now she’s trying to get her claws into Ruby too.

Meanwhile Billy is trying to leave behind a life of scamming while Ruby has no career, no independent income — but she likes $1200 hotel rooms.

OK, so do the writers think people with satisfying, well-paying jobs are less likely to run away?  Maybe their jobs will figure more into this story or they’re not really significant factors.

But their respective money situations will figure into whether this is just a story about them or other people like Fiona and Laurence becoming a big part of the show.

On the surface it appeared to be about just the two of them.  Seemed tantalizing, that a pact made when they were still in college would flip a switch in both of them as they approached middle age.  Maybe that will turn out to be still largely the case.

Or do these actions have to be justified by the domestic or other interpersonal environments they were looking to escape from?

 

[iMonrey]

I think it was a mistake to market this show as a comedy, because it's really not one. But I can see where HBO didn't know how else to market it, and with Phoebe Waller-Bridge listed as executive producer people probably expect it to be comedy. I'm one of the few that didn't find Fleabag all that funny actually - especially the first season. Regardless, TV has a hard time with shows they don't know how to pigeon-hole. 

The show is pure character study and really lives and dies on the performance of the leads. I'm just intrigued enough to keep following but that primarily based on how much I like Merritt Weaver. She's one of those actresses that is just eminently watchable in everything she does. 

Adding Fiona to the action might prove costly to the story IMO. She's already intrusive in a way that doesn't feel realistic. Meeting Ruby "by chance" then turning out to be the woman Billy has been texting and calling all along is one of those tropes that doesn't wear well.

 

[MrWhyt]

35 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I think it was a mistake to market this show as a comedy, because it's really not one.

 

It's the old "if it's a half hour long it's a comedy, if it's an hour long it's a drama" thinking

[scrb]

57 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I think it was a mistake to market this show as a comedy, because it's really not one.

 

21 minutes ago, MrWhyt said:

It's the old "if it's a half hour long it's a comedy, if it's an hour long it's a drama" thinking

Well there were comic elements, like the antics with trying out clothes.

Or on the train, where she tried to make him jealous and talking about NY 7 vs. Amtrak 10.

Or the crazy way she hurriedly grabbed lipstick and hairspray at the airport.

There aren't punchlines or physical comedy, at least not yet.

I'm guessing PWB will bring some comic or absurd scenes.

[whiporee]

This one was better. I guess Laurence feels his point has been made, but joint funds are joint funds. 

I thought Billy's story was good. I don't think he's scamming people -- those guys are usually giving people who need it some sort of hope that they can change their lives. An old job sent us to Tony Robbins for a week, and while I didn't care for it, I didn't think he was scamming. Just trying to offer hope to people who were looking for it. So if thats what Billy was doing -- and it seems as though it was -- I can see why he'd think it was bullshit and want to run, but I don't think it makes him a scammer or even sleazy. 

I've liked the show so far, but i fear Fiona is going to ruin what i like about it. I don't like the crazy woman troupe, I don't like the omnipresent scammer, i don't like the detailed worming into his life like Danny Ocean. I thought they had a nice character study building between two people who saw the opportunity to change their lives -- even for a few days -- and took it. I now think we're getting something else, and that's disappointing. But maybe I'll be wrong.  

[DrSpaceman73]

I knew for sure as soon as she appeared that Fiona was going to be the one meeting Billy. 

Billy's story is more interesting and original than Ruby, IMO

1 hour ago, whiporee said:

I've liked the show so far, but i fear Fiona is going to ruin what i like about it. I don't like the crazy woman troupe,

I thought exactly the opposite.  This show can't survive, at least for me, on just these two lead characters and it needs something more.  Maybe she will provide that

Also I thought more about the back story.  So how do they keep in touch enough to STILL know each others phone numbers 15 years later, but not enough that they know NOTHING at all about the other one's history since college?

Also I thought it was weird Ruby looked no younger at all 12 years "earlier" before the wedding as she does now.  I know, they can't truly de-age an actress for that type of scene, but do something.  Its not unprecedented for a show.  Living with myself did it. 

Agree it should not have been presented as a comedy.  Very little comedy in it.  But then I also find very little drama in it as well.....so not sure what you'd call it, other than bland and not very interesting so far. 

[scrb]

Didn't they say they deliberately didn't Google each other?

Yeah not realistic.

Ruby should have some inkling of what he's been doing.  She hints at his fame in the pilot.

So she shouldn't be surprised he has all this money.  Maybe that's why she wanted that $1200 hotel room.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The premise of the show was interesting enough to get me to start watching it but this is the episode where the show moved past expecting us to just accept everything and started giving us information. I understand why Ruby and Billy initially had their no question moratorium but the story got much more interesting once they started being honest about their lives.

Even though Billy already knew she was married from seeing her phone, that isn't the whole story. Hearing her describe Laurence and her marriage showed him how deeply unsatisfied she was and how much she's been suppressing who she really is around her own husband.

And it seems that despite his success, Billy isn't very happy either. Both of them starting to be honest about what's happened in the past 15 years is a new beginning for them. Until now, this has been a fantasy rooted in their memories of each other (and probably idealizing each other as the one who got away). Now they're finally starting to see each other's realities and figuring out if this can be anything real.

Heh, it amused me that Archie Panjabi's character was showing shades of Kalinda - sneaky! But what kind of fancy hotel has doors with such big gaps at the bottom that you could slide a whole phone underneath?

On 4/27/2020 at 7:55 PM, DrSpaceman73 said:

So how do they keep in touch enough to STILL know each others phone numbers 15 years later, but not enough that they know NOTHING at all about the other one's history since college?

*raises hand* I still have phone numbers of old coworkers and people I knew in college in my phone despite the fact that I haven't spoken to some of them in over a decade. Porting your number became super easy about 20 years ago so most people I know have had the same phone number since 2000, despite multiple jobs and moving across the country. I never deleted these people in my contacts because if they ever call or text me, I want to know who it is!

[arc]

I think it's a huge contrivance that Billy got a daypack full of money rather than just move the money into a different account. Fiona might be able to answer all his security questions but she won't know the new account number. And then he wouldn't be walking around with a big bag of money.

[humbleopinion]

Needed to take a big dose of I'm Just Gonna  Go Along with It before I sat down to watch...I won't forget before the next episode.

My enthusiasm is still with the leads but with a slow leak.....

 

[ZoqFotPik]

On 4/26/2020 at 10:13 PM, CarpeFelis said:

Is she planning to use the shoplifting to get Ruby thrown in jail and therefore out of the way?

I'm guessing it was all a setup. Fiona paid for both dresses ahead of time and convinced the shop to let them pretend to shoplift. 

On 4/27/2020 at 7:55 PM, DrSpaceman73 said:

  So how do they keep in touch enough to STILL know each others phone numbers 15 years later,

I got a cell phone in 1995. I still have the same number. There are people in my contacts list that I can't remember who they are.

On 4/30/2020 at 1:23 AM, arc said:

And then he wouldn't be walking around with a big bag of money.

But then Fiona won't be able to steal it in later episode. 

"Has he texted today?" so Ruby's Mom knows about the pact.

Edited May 2, 2020 by ZoqFotPik

[CarpeFelis]

On 5/2/2020 at 1:31 AM, ZoqFotPik said:

"Has he texted today?" so Ruby's Mom knows about the pact.

 

I thought she was referring to Laurence, but I like your interpretation better!