S01.E04: Poor Sisyphus

[FemmyV]

2 hours ago, Chicken Fingers said:

I'm still wondering if maybe Mare did not plant the drugs, because she should have known to switch them to bags her chief wouldn't immediately identify. Maybe her mom, who had been shown to be meddling and looking into the details of how Carrie could get custody, found the drugs as she was gathering laundry or cleaning up, and had the bright idea to plant them. And Mare suspects, but rather than say anything outright, she deadpans the story of why she's been suspended, watching for reactions. 

I'm enjoying the show, but I do keep wondering why everyone's not a little pudgier, when they go to great pains to show people eating so much junk food. Even the extras are slim.

 

 

 

Mare admitted, in the family meeting, she planted the drugs.

 

Good point about peoples' weight, although most of the men are laborers so they'll be leaner. Frank? The priests? Richard? You might expect all of them to have more pudge. Richard doesn't strike me as the kind of dude who goes running every morning, but he sure looks it.

Then again, half the town also has a nicotine habit so maybe that helps.

 

[EtheltoTillie]

3 hours ago, Penman61 said:

 

I acknowledge that at this moment, the LGBTQ+ representational pendulum may have swung a bit too far in the other direction...but that pendulum was WAY on the dark other side of that arc for DECADES...for ever, really. So let us have a little over-representation, please. What's the harm? Sioban's very typical teenager story is a good thing for viewers to see, even now.

 

I am very impressed that Siobhan is out to her mother and grandmother and they are very accepting/nonchalant about it.  They just felt bad that she broke up with her girlfriend.  The show was keeping us guessing all along that maybe Siobhan was hiding it and that her family would not be accepting. 

[One Imaginary Girl]

Dang.  Missy went to my high school, and neither time it was mentioned was Kate Winslet the one to say its name.  Still, a claim to fame.

[Mrs Shibbles]

4 hours ago, BingeyKohan said:

Ha! It will be at a pub in England during Christmas and he's been describing the entire plot ad nauseam to Cameron Diaz who is so bored she wishes she could trade places with Mare.

Funny, I made that connection today when Mr. Brightside came up on one of my playlists.  Isn’t that the song Cameron Diaz danced around to while staying at Kate Winslet’s cottage?    (It was playing at the bar last week when Zabel was drunk)

[hoodooznoodooz]

1 hour ago, GussieK said:

I am very impressed that Siobhan is out to her mother and grandmother and they are very accepting/nonchalant about it.  They just felt bad that she broke up with her girlfriend.  The show was keeping us guessing all along that maybe Siobhan was hiding it and that her family would not be accepting. 

I appreciate this, too. They showed Siobhan and Becca lying in bed together once, I think. I’m not sure how I would feel about my high school daughter having sex with her significant other in my house... I would prefer that to them having sex in a car...  I know that I would be relieved that she would not be at risk for an unplanned pregnancy, that’s for sure.

[paigow]

3 hours ago, FemmyV said:

Then again, half the town also has a nicotine habit so maybe that helps.

The other half is hooked on the crack/ meth/ heroin that never was confiscated....

[FemmyV]

6 hours ago, Penman61 said:

So...America?

I acknowledge that at this moment, the LGBTQ+ representational pendulum may have swung a bit too far in the other direction...but that pendulum was WAY on the dark other side of that arc for DECADES...for ever, really. So let us have a little over-representation, please. What's the harm? Sioban's very typical teenager story is a good thing for viewers to see, even now.

Anyone who wants LBGT stories to go away is bound for disappointment. For the relationship end of the storytelling entertainment world, it's like getting to dig in a gold mine shaft that has only recently become safe from cave-ins. 

[Broderbits]

22 hours ago, SnarkEnthusiast said:

As much as I adore the concept of making a beer guzzling, no BS 45+ year old woman an object of desire for multiple men, I feel like the amount of time and sparse emotional intimacy she's giving them would not sustain that intense dueling infatuation in real life lol.

Some men like a project........

[heatherchandler]

On 5/10/2021 at 11:17 AM, Melina22 said:

True. Still, in my experience, while I've seen kind, loving parents raise kids who messed up, got addicted, etc., I've never known such parents to raise children with no empathy at all. And I'm old, so I've seen a lot. My experience has been that in these cases there's almost always stuff going on behind the scenes that most people aren't seeing. 

That said, I have an open mind. Anything is possible and there's no accounting for the effects of genetics, drugs, etc. And possibly, in this case, bad writing. "I'm sorry, Your Honor. My son isn't evil. He's just badly written." 😁

I think Dylan (?) is just kind of your average cranky, angsty teenage boy.  The actor is laying it on a little thick but don’t all teenage boys go through an asshole stage?  I have 2 boys,  I’m expecting it.

Kevin screaming at Mare in a drug-withdrawal fueled rage, however- that actually made me tear up.  I feel nothing but empathy for parents of drug addicts.  What do you do when drugs turn your child into a monster?

When I saw that you wrote “Your Honor” it reminded me of that show called “Your Honor” and how bad it was and how much I appreciate how REALLY good this show is!

[paigow]

24 minutes ago, heatherchandler said:

I think Dylan (?) is just kind of your average cranky, angsty teenage boy.

Maybe the creek can be named after him...

[Pop Tart]

On third re-watch I am here to report that the ice cream was not left to melt in the breadbox. Helen stashed it there when Becca knocked at the door. But after letting Becca go down to the basement to wait for Siobhan, Helen went back to her ice cream. By the time Becca screams because she sees Siobhan making out, Helen is seated at the kitchen table eating her ice cream (with M&M’s and whipped cream on top from what I can tell).

Still doesn’t excuse the half popped bag of popcorn. 😉

[MBayGal]

Two things I really liked in this episode:

Mare telling the therapist not to get discouraged if there is no big breakthrough!

And the relationship between Dawn and Bethy. I don't think I've seen another show that showed a close, easy friendship between two women of different races. 

[paigow]

2 minutes ago, MBayGal said:

And the relationship between Dawn and Bethy. I don't think I've seen another show that showed a close, easy friendship between two women of different races. 

Winning a championship together helps... Even Mare is far less prickly with Bethy than anyone else

[ElectricBoogaloo]

14 hours ago, Laurie4H said:

I feel like they have to add that interaction just to keep it PC.  Generally speaking, you can’t have a show these days without a gay character, a bad cop, illegal immigrants, and/or racists.  Add in the bad priest to criticize religion (I’m not remotely religious but it always feels heavy handed). I wouldn’t care about any of this if it didn’t feel like an agenda. 

Adding these types of characters just means that tv is finally beginning to reflect what America looks like. If aliens landed and watched most of American television history, they would have the incorrect idea that most people in this country are straight, white, and in their 20s-30s. There have ALWAYS been gay people, immigrants, bad cops, bad priests, and racists (take a look at the news and you'll see that they've been here all along). They just usually weren't portrayed on tv regularly or accurately. The only agenda I see is portraying American communities as something other than all white and all straight with people in positions of authority as the noble knights who never do anything to abuse the trust people place in them aka the agenda is to show a realistic view of this country.

12 hours ago, Penman61 said:

So...America?

I acknowledge that at this moment, the LGBTQ+ representational pendulum may have swung a bit too far in the other direction...but that pendulum was WAY on the dark other side of that arc for DECADES...for ever, really. So let us have a little over-representation, please. What's the harm? Sioban's very typical teenager story is a good thing for viewers to see, even now.

ITA - the only minor thing I have to nitpick is that I don't think showing two high school girls and one college girl who are LGBTQ+ is over-representation. I'm pretty sure if you go to any small town or suburb, there will be more than two LGBTQ+ high school students.

5 hours ago, FemmyV said:

Anyone who wants LBGT stories to go away is bound for disappointment. For the relationship end of the storytelling entertainment world, it's like getting to dig in a gold mine shaft that has only recently become safe from cave-ins. 

It's about time that we get shows with characters who happen to be LGBTQ+ rather than a guest star on A Very Special Episode only to never be seen again, or the lipstick lesbian couple making out because that's the safe kind of gay relationship that titillates male viewers. Siobhan is a regular character who just happens to be LGBTQ+. To her, her family, and her friends, it's like saying she has blonde hair or a mother. It's no big deal, just who she is.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

13 hours ago, hoodooznoodooz said:

They showed Siobhan and Becca lying in bed together once, I think. I’m not sure how I would feel about my high school daughter having sex with her significant other in my house... I would prefer that to them having sex in a car...  I know that I would be relieved that she would not be at risk for an unplanned pregnancy, that’s for sure.

That was at Frank's house which seems a lot more lax. From what we've seen Mare is the one with rules while Frank is the one who lets Siobhan do whatever she wants. Like you said, he's probably just glad that his daughter isn't going to get pregnant (although look at how much we've seen him interact/take care of Drew in four episodes).

[Melina22]

On 5/10/2021 at 8:29 PM, JeanJean said:

And I think the only other time we've seen frozen veggies on the show is when Mare used a bag of them to ice her ankle.

I hope Mare wasn't unwittingly icing her ankle with Helen's ice cream veggies. 

[Melina22]

22 hours ago, Chicken Fingers said:

I'm enjoying the show, but I do keep wondering why everyone's not a little pudgier, when they go to great pains to show people eating so much junk food. Even the extras are slim

Cigarettes? 

[Haleth]

On 5/10/2021 at 7:46 PM, Penman61 said:

After that flashback of Carrie and Kevin terrorizing and robbing Mare, I have ZERO empathy for Carrie, and I'm not altogether upset that Kevin is out of the picture, either.

It reminded me of Dylan's girlfriend beating up Erin while Dylan watched.  Lovely people in this town.

On 5/10/2021 at 7:36 PM, preeya said:

She said:

"I... I... I don't know what the hell to say. Oh, wait. It just came to me. That was stupid! 
Goddamn idiotic!  You're a complete smacked-ass for doing that."
 

I laughed out loud.  Between that and the whole wanting to get back to her ice cream thing, Jean Smart was the MVP of the episode.

On 5/11/2021 at 1:00 AM, marybennet said:

He's made itchy by her pride in a case-solving that he doesn't feel entirely or only proud about. 

Yeah, something is up with Colin.  Something is going to come out about the case he "solved."

So Katie had a baby too?  

Did it seem to you all that Missy did or did not know the guy in the van when she was talking to him?  I got the impression that she did not, which would probably rule out any of the local guys.  Would she (or Katie or Erin) plan "dates" with men who knew them?

[Dminches]

36 minutes ago, Haleth said:

Did it seem to you all that Missy did or did not know the guy in the van when she was talking to him?  I got the impression that she did not, which would probably rule out any of the local guys.  Would she (or Katie or Erin) plan "dates" with men who knew them?

She seemed very comfortable with him, chit chatting before they stopped.  That doesn’t mean she knew him but she seemed at ease.  She also questioned him as to whether this was his first time which I took as some sign of familiarity.

 

[FemmyV]

The more I think about it, the less comfortable I am about Zabel hitting on Mare a second time.

[Pop Tart]

The more I think about it... the more I'm thinking Dylan's dad may be the baby daddy for Erin's baby - and perhaps her killer (though I'd been leaning towards it being a woman). Came to it as I was thinking about Mare's question for Jess (? Erin's best friend) about why Erin said Dylan was the dad. The friend she said it was Dylan because his parents were nice and she wanted DJ to have that. But maybe it's because Dylan's dad is the dad? 

Not sure he's also the kidnapper, who may be Dan or the deacon, but my new suspect for Erin's death.

[paigow]

35 minutes ago, Pop Tart said:

But maybe it's because Dylan's dad is the dad? 

Unlikely. The DNA from Dylan would trigger a partial match alert.

[12catcrazy]

1 hour ago, FemmyV said:

The more I think about it, the less comfortable I am about Zabel hitting on Mare a second time.

I'm not sure where they are going with Zabel.  I agree that there is going to be something hinky about the case he "solved".   On one hand, they show him as this sort of fresh young almost "gee whiz" guy and then there is the backstory about being left at the altar and now his hitting on this older woman who was his boss for a few minutes.   It kind of seems innocent (but how would we feel if the tables were turned and SHE were hitting on him), but maybe not.   And the devout Catholic mother - is Zabel going to turn out to be some twisted by The Church freakazoid, or is his digging so much into the priest a sign that maybe he was abused by a priest when he was a child? 

[Bcharmer]

One thing is confusing me (well, there's more than one). How would Freddie know enough details about Katie, such as the tattoo, to convince Dawn that he really had her? And it did not sound like Freddie in those calls, but it could have been. Whoever put Freddie up to it, considering he probably did not have the means to get himself out to that remote location, would have to know about Katie's tattoo. But who would know that, aside from the kidnapper?  I must have missed what happened to Katie's father.

[Pop Tart]

50 minutes ago, paigow said:

Unlikely. The DNA from Dylan would trigger a partial match alert.

Oh darn. You're right. Ah well, felt like a revelation for a moment. 🙃

 

[12catcrazy]

1 hour ago, Bcharmer said:

One thing is confusing me (well, there's more than one). How would Freddie know enough details about Katie, such as the tattoo, to convince Dawn that he really had her? And it did not sound like Freddie in those calls, but it could have been. Whoever put Freddie up to it, considering he probably did not have the means to get himself out to that remote location, would have to know about Katie's tattoo. But who would know that, aside from the kidnapper?  I must have missed what happened to Katie's father.

Katie's mother is friends with Freddie's sister, so he probably saw around enough that he'd see the tattoo, or, they were both drug addicts and wasn't she supposed to be hooking to pay for her habit?   And if she were hooking, maybe any number of men could have seen her tattoo.  

[Dminches]

The biggest problem with shows like this is that too much attention is paid to "who did it" while the other aspects of the show, including the characters, are really more interesting and sometimes get overshadowed.  The people here are unique and I like the small town feel.  It is refreshing compared to shows that take place in big cities.

 

[FemmyV]

Forgive me if this isn't the place for it, but Jean Smart watchers need to know HBO is debuting a short (2 episodes?) run called Hacks. I'm watching right now.

[Domestic Assassin]

2 hours ago, FemmyV said:

Forgive me if this isn't the place for it, but Jean Smart watchers need to know HBO is debuting a short (2 episodes?) run called Hacks. I'm watching right now.

10 episodes, the first two debuting tonight. 

[For Cereals]

On 5/10/2021 at 9:08 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

 

 

Sometimes perfectly nice, normal parents end up with an asshole kid. I've seen it happen in real life (it's even more of an anomaly when said asshole also has nice siblings). Not every murderer/rapist/violent criminal had abusive parents. Some of them came from regular families (not that I'm saying Dylan is definitely a murderer).

 

Yup on Evil Lives Here on ID.  Sometimes the parents are also a little off, but in some cases, they try to get help and are told there’s really nothing that can be done or that the child will grow out of it.

[Lunula]

On 5/10/2021 at 9:52 PM, Black Knight said:

I wonder why Mare didn't want Colin to know about Erin's journals. There was no in-show reason I could see for Mare to make up the fiction about having left her phone behind. If she thought that Jess would balk for some reason at giving up that information in Colin's presence (which is a stretch in itself given what Jess had already said and showed them), she could have just told Colin that. 

IMO it was because she clearly wanted to (and did) break in to get the journal. She was on suspension and wouldn’t have been part of any search, even though she told Zabel to get a warrant. She wanted to find the evidence herself and read it before the search warrant was executed. Maybe even showing Zabel after the fact so he could claim it was found during the legal search, knowing that he would go along with it. 

On a side note, maybe she just doesn’t trust Zabel - or other police - and wanted to maintain control over what could’ve been a key piece of evidence?

[SomeTameGazelle]

On 5/13/2021 at 10:55 AM, paigow said:

Unlikely. The DNA from Dylan would trigger a partial match alert.

And presumably Frank's DNA would have revealed a relationship to Kevin if Kevin were the father.

[DrSparkles]

On 5/13/2021 at 12:45 PM, 12catcrazy said:

Katie's mother is friends with Freddie's sister, so he probably saw around enough that he'd see the tattoo, or, they were both drug addicts and wasn't she supposed to be hooking to pay for her habit?   And if she were hooking, maybe any number of men could have seen her tattoo.  

It was probably in the missing person flier?

[Kel Varnsen]

On 5/13/2021 at 6:41 PM, FemmyV said:

Forgive me if this isn't the place for it, but Jean Smart watchers need to know HBO is debuting a short (2 episodes?) run called Hacks. I'm watching right now.

For the last 3 months my cable company gave me basically the Canadian equivalent of HBO for really cheap. I watched Watchmen, Hacks and this show a in that time and it is crazy the kind of range that Jean Smart has.

On 10/16/2021 at 5:36 PM, DrSparkles said:

It was probably in the missing person flier?

I figured that the calls had to be a scam since the reward for information about Katie was $15,000 but the caller was only asking her mom for $5,000.

[Roxie]

Maybe I missed it, but do we know the significance of the date on the necklace?