S01.E04: Chapter Four

[shapeshifter]

On 7/13/2020 at 9:56 AM, paigow said:

Hopefully, the house will explode, accidental death declared and any insurance settlement will be paid to Della so the case can be funded.

Perhaps Perry and his sidekick will help the explosion along for EB's reputation after they find EB's body.
[Edited because I don't see who would benefit from EB's insurance money even if they covered up a suicide.]
But I'm still not sure he will die. Perry or Della may get there in time.
Hmmm...perhaps Perry gets there in time and convinces EB to let him fake an explosion and fake EB's death,
--or Perry gets there in time but EB is comatose and Perry fakes the explosion and EB wakes up in hiding in Perry's basement.

Edited July 15, 2020 by shapeshifter

[Dminches]

8 hours ago, edhopper said:

Life insurance won't pay out for suicide.

That is only true in the first 2 years.  There is a standard clause in life insurance contracts that exclude deaths by suicide but that time period is limited.

 

[paigow]

45 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Hmmm...perhaps Perry gets there in time and convinces EB to let him fake an explosion and fake EB's death,
--or Perry gets there in time but EB is comatose and Perry fakes the explosion and EB wakes up in hiding in Perry's basement.

E.B. is already an embezzler, insurance fraud...why not?

[Chicago Redshirt]

20 hours ago, scrb said:

How would it help Emily's defense when he wasn't taking any money from her, in fact tried to get a loan to continue to pay the bills and his employees working on the case?

He can't be sure another lawyer would take it up, without billing her or that Perry and Della would be able to continue the defense.

Emily would be eligible for court-appointed defense but maybe not Perry and Della?  Which would be bad for Emily since they've been working on a case and a new lawyer and his or her team would be starting from scratch.

 

 

I don't buy the notion that EB was thinking about helping Emily at all in his suicide, but presumably there would have to be a delay to allow Emily to find new counsel, and to allow that counsel to become familiar with the case.

I don't pretend to know what would have happened in 1930s L.A. if someone was unable to pay for counsel in their murder case.  But the general right to court-appointed, free counsel  in a felony case wasn't firmly established until the 1960s.

[Netfoot]

Didn't see that coming! Not until the final scene itself, anyway. Della will be devastated. She chucks a wobbler and walks out... and EB kills himself.

By the way, Della and her girlfriend are both portrayed by straight women! Don't TPTB know that's now against the law?

 

On 7/12/2020 at 11:09 PM, scrb said:

Did we ever see him in court?

One time when he was a witness in court, he seemed to be coaching the lawyer as to what to say and do, so the implication is that he's no stranger to court proceedings.

On 7/13/2020 at 8:43 AM, TexasGal said:

For me the way the scene was a series of fakeouts was interesting.  He's going to poison himself!  Oh no it's the bird feeder.  Is that a razor blade?  No, it's a pin for his collar.  All the way to the end when I thought the chair was for a hanging.

Yes, that was cleverly done, and it had me with each little trick.

 

[BrownBear2012]

On 7/12/2020 at 10:50 PM, Broderbits said:

Yeah, I feel like I'm supposed to love it but no, that's not happening. Even with the terrific performances, it's boring me with the plodding way the story is unfolding. 

Agree...very slow moving story...plodding is the perfect word to describe this series.

[ShellsandCheese]

On 7/13/2020 at 7:50 PM, DakotaLavender said:

Della Street just became so much more interesting. I just love everything about her. She has so much charisma. Juliet Rylance is doing an amazing job. 

I cannot understand why they are throwing in this unusual "resurrection" plot line. Sister is not going to resurrect that baby unless the show does a 360 and it gets all sci fi. Are they going to bring in another baby and claim a fake Charlie was killed? I have to say the baby they showed with those eyes sewn open did not even look real. 

But I keep thinking that resurrection stuff was shoe horned in for a reason. I think it has to do with the crime. 

Yep and I keep thinking back to what Lupe said about the dead knowing things they shouldn’t and then Perry says like who murdered them. Hmm. 

Not really a spoiler, speculation but spoiler tagged to be safe:

 

I have a feeling a supposed resurrection of Charlie will somehow lead to a confession or confessions from the killer(s).

Edited July 18, 2020 by ShellsandCheese

[topanga]

On 7/13/2020 at 8:50 PM, DakotaLavender said:

I cannot understand why they are throwing in this unusual "resurrection" plot line. Sister is not going to resurrect that baby unless the show does a 360 and it gets all sci fi. Are they going to bring in another baby and claim a fake Charlie was killed? I have to say the baby they showed with those eyes sewn open did not even look real. 

But I keep thinking that resurrection stuff was shoe horned in for a reason. I think it has to do with the crime. 

Hmm...interesting. There was a scene in an earlier episode when Sister woke up from a nap, and there was a brief sound of a crying baby. Had she been dreaming about Charlie? Or was she somehow involved with the kidnapping plot, and her subconscious mind was replaying the incident? 

I haven't minded the slow pace of the episodes, mostly because of Matthew Rhys's great performance. Sometimes he follows the anti-hero tropes too closely: drinks too much, not a great dad, takes unnecessary risks that affect other people, and he uses sex as a stress-reliever. But I'm still here for all of it . 

The one performance that is not impressing me is Tatiana Maslany's. Which is surprising because she was so groundbreaking and amazing in Orphan Black. But I've found her portrayal of Sister to be underwhelming. She just isn't selling me on the charismatic cult-like creepiness that I'm used to seeing in evangelists, even from the '30s. Is it possibly because she's Canadian and not American and din't grow up watching tele-evangelists?  

 

[shapeshifter]

18 minutes ago, topanga said:

On 7/13/2020 at 7:50 PM, DakotaLavender said:

But I keep thinking that resurrection stuff was shoe horned in for a reason. I think it has to do with the crime. 

Hmm...interesting. There was a scene in an earlier episode when Sister woke up from a nap, and there was a brief sound of a crying baby.

I missed the crying baby sound. Maybe Sister Allison had an "illegitimate" baby that she and her mother have been keeping literally under wraps? 

[AnimeMania]

There was a scene where Sister Alice McKeegan was talking to Birdy McKeegan (Alice's mother) and she called her sister and Birdy immediately told her to call her mother. I was thinking that maybe Birdy was her mother and her sister which might suggest that Birdy's father raped her and Birdy got pregnant. This might also tie in with the scene where Sister Alice says a mother is supposed to protect her child from bad men and why the McKeegans left Canada for California.

[sistermagpie]

17 hours ago, topanga said:

The one performance that is not impressing me is Tatiana Maslany's. Which is surprising because she was so groundbreaking and amazing in Orphan Black. But I've found her portrayal of Sister to be underwhelming. She just isn't selling me on the charismatic cult-like creepiness that I'm used to seeing in evangelists, even from the '30s. Is it possibly because she's Canadian and not American and din't grow up watching tele-evangelists?  

I was talking about exactly this with somebody. She had recently read a book about Amy Semple McPherson and she felt TM was just miscast. McPherson had a really big personality, very show-biz, always dreamed of being in the theater so this was how she did it. With her character it seems like she's just stuck into this theatrical numbers because somebody else made them up, not like she's really into it at all herself. She's just not big enough or intense enough. She gets swallowed up by people around her.

I think she's quite good in the one on one scenes, when she's interacting with Emily or Perry, for instance. But I don't buy her as a super successful evangelist like this.

[shapeshifter]

21 hours ago, topanga said:

The one performance that is not impressing me is Tatiana Maslany's. Which is surprising because she was so groundbreaking and amazing in Orphan Black. But I've found her portrayal of Sister to be underwhelming. She just isn't selling me on the charismatic cult-like creepiness that I'm used to seeing in evangelists, even from the '30s.

I think Tatiana Maslany is doing a great job of portraying a non-creepy, sincere, charismatic evangelist who has herself been led to believe that she hears the voice of God. I guess it remains to be seen if that is the case with Sister Alice or not.
Sister Alice hasn't as of yet had any dialog or looks that would definitely indicate that she is a shyster, has she? 
I have been watching late when I'm sleepy, so I may have missed something.

Edited July 19, 2020 by shapeshifter
typos

[Arcey]

I'm not really buying the Alice character either. I don't connect with how the character is being played at all. She seems very unlikely to me.

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, Arcey said:

I'm not really buying the Alice character either. I don't connect with how the character is being played at all. She seems very unlikely to me.

You are not alone in that opinion. If you don't mind answering, have you ever attended overtly Pentecostal worship services? I mean with Talking in Tongues and being Slain in the Spirit? 
I'm just curious if anyone who thinks Sister Alice knows she is a fraud has seen those kinds of religious services. 
I think IRL most are fooling themselves, which makes it difficult to conclude if they are sincere or not. 

[Arcey]

No, I've never been to any Pentecostal service, so I'm not talking from personal experience. It's more of a sense that this Alice just seems anachronistic, and not that charismatic.

[cleo]

I'm really enjoying this show. The cast, the way it's filmed, the pace. I agree the side characters could be fleshed out more- the pilot. Della and her partner.

I'm reqlly enjoying Alice's story. 

Could definitely have done without the suicide. Not sure that seems in character. He could have just resigned.

Edited July 7 by cleo

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, cleo said:

I'm really enjoying this show. The cast, the way it's filmed, the pace. I agree the side characters could be fleshed out more- the pilot. Della and her partner.

I'm reqlly enjoying Alice's story. 

Could definitely have done without the suicide. Not sure that seems in character. He could have just resigned.

It was a show of excellent quality in all ways, but it was also very psychologically dark series. I wonder if the pandemic had not been going on at the same time, if it would have had more than 2 seasons.