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Upon learning the details of his Sicilian grandfather's arrival in the early 1900s to Three Rivers, Dominick becomes convinced his family is cursed; a startling update on Thomas from an unlikely source prompts Dominick to take drastic action.

Original air date: 6/7/20

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
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Wow. He thinks his family has a curse. What about poor Ignazia. Married off to a horrible man who she hates and rapes her constantly. Then, after all that misery, dies in childbirth.

And incidentally this is the same guy that gets his brother killed then murders the pet he swore to his dying brother he would take care of.m Just when you think this can't get darker...

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Crazy Juliette Lewis warned him that he might not want to read that translation.  She told no lies.   Homey really thought that house made him the end-all-be-all.

They just need to give Mark Ruffalo every Emmy, Golden Globe and any other award that's out there for this project.  He's so heartbreakingly pitiful as Thomas and then so amazingly the complete opposite as Domenico.  Really, really great acting.

 

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Thanks to the book readers for warning me last week about how terrible grandpa's manuscript was. All I learned was that grandpa was a real shitbag. Juliette Lewis was not kidding when she advised him not to read it. Not only was he an abusive promise breaking, monkey killing rapist but he was willing to let some rando grope his wife to supposedly determine if the baby was a boy or a girl.

One thing I noticed is that grandpa Domenico and his brother were from near Mt. Etna but neither of them had Sicilian accents.

Dominick has some major anger issues. Smashing your phone and answering machine is not a normal response to someone leaving a terrible message. It really annoys me that Dominick equates "I'm not giving up on my brother" with "I'm going to be an abusive asshole to everyone until I get what I want." You can advocate for someone without being a dick to people who are just doing their jobs.

When his ex asked, "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" I thought it's about time someone asked him that question.

I agree with the social worker - Dominick has no idea what he's getting himself into by taking Thomas home instead of to a professional facility. He doesn't have the patience or anger management skills to deal with Thomas 24/7. And what's he going to do when he has to work? Bring Thomas with him? Leave him at home alone? Leave him with Ray who is 80+ years old?

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8 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

One thing I noticed is that grandpa Domenico and his brother were from near Mt. Etna but neither of them had Sicilian accents.

What is a Sicilian accent?

My paternal grandparents were immigrants from Sicily who both passed when I was very young, although I do have some recollections of them. I know my grandfather was the ruler of the household and was very demanding. As far as accents go, to me they either spoke Italian or very bad "broken English."

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I was looking forward to this flashback, and I was a bit disappointed that so much of Domenico’s story was omitted, but I suppose it was inevitable. It didn’t explain why Domenico and Ignacia weren’t buried side by side though.

Not a good sign that Thomas’s first request after leaving Hatch is to go to the falls.

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15 minutes ago, GreekGeek said:

I was a bit disappointed that so much of Domenico’s story was omitted

I'm glad we didn't have to endure the entire manuscript.

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11 hours ago, preeya said:

What is a Sicilian accent?

My paternal grandparents were immigrants from Sicily who both passed when I was very young, although I do have some recollections of them. I know my grandfather was the ruler of the household and was very demanding. As far as accents go, to me they either spoke Italian or very bad "broken English."

When speaking Italian, Sicilians tend to soften some of the harsher sounds. For example, a "ch" sound in standard Italian is pronounced closer to a "sh" sound by Sicilians so "ci sono" sounds more like "she sono."

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(edited)

I have  a visceral reaction to Dominick, who is clearly disturbed. He’s obviously a rage-a-holic.  It’s disturbing to watch this character on such a ill advised mission. It’s also really annoying that he’s so self indulgent. To me, he is quite similar to his grandfather. Not that he’s cursed, but that  he’s very selfish and impetuous.  I like the rest of the characters though. 

What is Dominick's means of support? He hasn’t really worked in months and has no plans to....so what about rent, utilities, etc.? Seems odd. 

The performances are impressive.  I’ve liked Roffaloe and O’Donnell for years.

Edited by SunnyBeBe
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7 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

I have  a visceral reaction to Thomas, who is clearly disturbed. He’s obviously a rage-a-holic.  It’s disturbing to watch this character on such a ill advised mission. It’s also really annoying that he’s so self indulgent. To me, he is quite similar to his grandfather. Not that he’s cursed, but that  he’s very selfish and impetuous.  I like the rest of the characters though. 

What is Thomas’s means of support? He hasn’t really worked in months and has no plans to....so what about rent, utilities, etc.? Seems odd. 

The performances are impressive.  I’ve liked Roffaloe and O’Donnell for years.

I think you mean Dominick, not Thomas. He’s definitely meant to be seen as similar to his grandfather. Both see themselves as heroes, even as we realize they’re being foolish. 

As for Dominick’s financial situation, I guess before Thomas’s hospitalization and his own accidents, he made enough to be able to go without income for awhile. Joy probably helped also.

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3 hours ago, GreekGeek said:

I think you mean Dominick, not Thomas. He’s definitely meant to be seen as similar to his grandfather. Both see themselves as heroes, even as we realize they’re being foolish. 

As for Dominick’s financial situation, I guess before Thomas’s hospitalization and his own accidents, he made enough to be able to go without income for awhile. Joy probably helped also.

Right, Dominick, not Thomas.  I corrected it.  His painting business didn't seem to be that lucrative or even existent on what they portrayed, to me.  Glaring things like that distract me. 

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Purely my take on all this, but I see Thomas and Dominic as both mentally ill. Thomas's illness has manifested in this paranoia/bi-polar stuff that leaves him in such a state that he is a danger to himself (though I don't sense he'd ever purposely hurt another) and is better off institutionalized because caring for him would literally be a full time job. I don't know a lot about mental illness, so I'm spitballing here, but Thomas's situation seems to be the type of illness you're kind of "born with" - you know, brain chemistry, etc, and it feels like living with an aggressive, judgmental asshole like Ray exacerbated his illness.

Dominic, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have the paranoia issues that Thomas has, but he grew up walking on eggshells around his abusive step-father and at a young age, took on a lot of responsibility for his clearly unwell brother. I don't know what the DSM would say about acquired/learned rage issues in regards to mental illness, but Dominic never learned about how to manage anger, grief, disappointment. It was either duck and cover or fight back - he doesn't understand nuance when things get bad. So when Dr. Patel told Dominic that she sees two boys in the woods and only one stands a chance of making it out, she sees potential that Dominic can work on his issues and become mentally and emotionally healthy;Thomas is a lost cause. I think that the twins are the same in that neither of them would intentionally hurt anyone else; Thomas self-harms and Dominic is verbally abusive and takes his rage out on objects, ultimately to his own detriment.

If Dominic can overcome the damage of his prior life - the abusive upbringing, taking responsibility for his ill brother, the death of his daughter and the fallout from that - I think he'll actually turn out to be a decent person. The way he handled Ralph Drinkwater's revelation that Thomas had been abused in the facility surprised me, but it also impressed me a little. He was single minded in getting his brother out of there, so I can't disagree with him taking Thomas on (I mean, if it was my family member, you bet your ass he'd be coming home with me rather than leave him in there one moment longer than necessary). Consider that he walked out of the attorney's office when the lawyer started talking about a class action lawsuit - Dominic would have no financial problems in that scenario, and it would have been an easy win. I think a lot of people would have gone down that road. I figure Dominic knows that living with Thomas indefinitely isn't feasible, but all he knew was his brother was being abused and he needed to fix it; I understand that.

I hope that when the dust settles, that Dominic informs Rosie O'Donnell of why he did what he did. He's in a tough situation; Ralph Drinkwater did him a favor and he owes Ralph for that, including protecting his identity as a whistleblower. But there is he fact that other patients are going to be vulnerable to the same situation.

Finally, Domenico - yikes. As ugly as Thomas and Dominic's stories have been, Domenico's was even darker. I don't think I'd have gotten very far in that story if it had been my ancestor, but Dr. Patel was right - Dominic is learning a lot about himself and his family via that story.

Every week I'm impressed by this show. I have to put myself in the right mindset to watch it, and we have something much lighter queued up to watch afterwords as a palate cleanser, but it's really been excellent on just about every level.

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(edited)

They are interesting points about the story.  I suppose it was important to get Thomas to safety.  It's just that with his condition, every situation that he encountered was potentially, risky, due to his state of mind.  

 I have to keep reminding myself that the setting is years ago and there have been some advancement in the treatment of mental illness. I've actually watched a fair amount of documentaries and news stories on children who suffer with schizophrenia.  It can be exhausting for the families.  I was in a relationship once with a man who's brother had schizophrenia and it was very stressful for them, but, the parents took responsibility and the siblings were not asked to provide any care or oversight for him. The siblings were all in teens and twenties at the time.  I socialized with the brother occasionally and he was polite, conversational and friendly.  With proper medication he seemed fine. but, there were plenty of times that he was very ill.   He was never able to hold a job.  I think he tried one for a couple of weeks, but, it didn't work out. 

Even though Thomas wasn't particularly violent towards others, he did strike the social worker.  Dominick was even surprised about that.  

Do you think the story inferred that there was something wrong with Dominick's grandmother too? When they first introduced her character, it seemed like they portrayed her as a feral person.  Her brothers, if that's who those men really were, seemed to brag that she was out of control, wild child, etc.  She seemed unstable, even upon her initial appearance, before she was abused by her husband.  

Edited by SunnyBeBe
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2 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

 

Do you think the story inferred that there was something wrong with Dominick's grandmother too? When they first introduced her character, it seemed like they portrayed her as a feral person.  Her brothers, if that's who those men really were, seemed to brag that she was out of control, wild child, etc.  She seemed unstable, even upon her initial appearance, before she was abused by her husband.  

It's really hard to tell. She was put in a terrible situation. 

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I agree that Dominick seems to have serious problems, too. I didn't read the book, but I wonder if its point is that just as Thomas and Dominick are twins but born in different years, one is on one side of a line with regard to mental health, and the other is narrowly on the other side of what is considered to be acceptable.

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So did that murdered monkey Doms grandpa killed put a curse on their family, or did he or his dad or someone down the line piss someone off in the old country, because this family clearly has some serious ass problems going back several generations. Professor Juliette Lewis might be wacked out, but she wasn't wrong about that transcript being horrible and that Dom shouldn't give it to his mom. What a massive asshole that guy was, and what a mess of a family. Everyone is angry and screwed up and miserable and awful, no matter the time period. 

Dom is just so frustrating, its clear he wants to be an advocate for his brother and take care of him, no matter how much he resents how much he has to spend so much time on him, even from way back when they were kids before Thomas's mental problems really started, but he has so many of his own issues, he really sucks at it. Screaming at people and breaking things and going on the defensive all of the time, even towards people trying to help him, doesn't do he or Thomas any favors. He also has a real proficiency towards violence, which makes sense considering the house he grew up in and his clear anger issues, which is very concerning. He really needs a ton of therapy before he can really commit to the full time task of helping his brother. 

Mark Ruffalo is so good.

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On 6/10/2020 at 1:28 PM, Maysie said:

Purely my take on all this, but I see Thomas and Dominic as both mentally ill. Thomas's illness has manifested in this paranoia/bi-polar stuff that leaves him in such a state that he is a danger to himself (though I don't sense he'd ever purposely hurt another) and is better off institutionalized because caring for him would literally be a full time job. I don't know a lot about mental illness, so I'm spitballing here, but Thomas's situation seems to be the type of illness you're kind of "born with" - you know, brain chemistry, etc, and it feels like living with an aggressive, judgmental asshole like Ray exacerbated his illness.

Dominic, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have the paranoia issues that Thomas has, but he grew up walking on eggshells around his abusive step-father and at a young age, took on a lot of responsibility for his clearly unwell brother. I don't know what the DSM would say about acquired/learned rage issues in regards to mental illness, but Dominic never learned about how to manage anger, grief, disappointment. It was either duck and cover or fight back - he doesn't understand nuance when things get bad. So when Dr. Patel told Dominic that she sees two boys in the woods and only one stands a chance of making it out, she sees potential that Dominic can work on his issues and become mentally and emotionally healthy;Thomas is a lost cause. I think that the twins are the same in that neither of them would intentionally hurt anyone else; Thomas self-harms and Dominic is verbally abusive and takes his rage out on objects, ultimately to his own detriment.

If Dominic can overcome the damage of his prior life - the abusive upbringing, taking responsibility for his ill brother, the death of his daughter and the fallout from that - I think he'll actually turn out to be a decent person. The way he handled Ralph Drinkwater's revelation that Thomas had been abused in the facility surprised me, but it also impressed me a little. He was single minded in getting his brother out of there, so I can't disagree with him taking Thomas on (I mean, if it was my family member, you bet your ass he'd be coming home with me rather than leave him in there one moment longer than necessary). Consider that he walked out of the attorney's office when the lawyer started talking about a class action lawsuit - Dominic would have no financial problems in that scenario, and it would have been an easy win. I think a lot of people would have gone down that road. I figure Dominic knows that living with Thomas indefinitely isn't feasible, but all he knew was his brother was being abused and he needed to fix it; I understand that.

I hope that when the dust settles, that Dominic informs Rosie O'Donnell of why he did what he did. He's in a tough situation; Ralph Drinkwater did him a favor and he owes Ralph for that, including protecting his identity as a whistleblower. But there is he fact that other patients are going to be vulnerable to the same situation.

Finally, Domenico - yikes. As ugly as Thomas and Dominic's stories have been, Domenico's was even darker. I don't think I'd have gotten very far in that story if it had been my ancestor, but Dr. Patel was right - Dominic is learning a lot about himself and his family via that story.

Every week I'm impressed by this show. I have to put myself in the right mindset to watch it, and we have something much lighter queued up to watch afterwords as a palate cleanser, but it's really been excellent on just about every level.

I think it's been established that Thomas is a paranoid schizophrenic...not bipolar.

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8 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

its clear he wants to be an advocate for his brother and take care of him, no matter how much he resents how much he has to spend so much time on him

That alone puts him far ahead of his asshole namesake grandfather who felt no such obligation to his brother (or his brother's monkey)!

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