S02.E09: The Unguarded Moment

[Kiddvideo]

Three weeks have passed and Alma, now very comfortable with her position in the Garden Club, decides to run for the vacated presidency. With Isabel's demise, Rita is freed from jail and Bertram grows more guilt-ridden and depressed, while Vern pursues the truth.

[Kiddvideo]

Yikes! I'd figured Bertram as dead man walking a while ago, but I didn't see that happening.

Vern is there to warn Alma thinking Bert was to cause for the deaths, I'd guess. I have no idea where he'll land in his morality play, but I hope he picks Dee. (He was wearing a colorful burgundy and gold, tie. Does this mean he has a little bad in him? The detective he met with at the diner was wearing a blue and silver tie.) 

I wish they'd introduced the nephew earlier -- having him come in the last moment to be a threat (the ultimate threat?) is convenient. I wonder if Grace's exit was symbolic of decent people abandoning Alma or if she'll be drawn into the muck and is off to plot revenge?

Laughed at the Drunk Bert and Maisie. She was funny (and I'd bet Bert's subconscious allaying his guilt. In life she was elderly and sick. In death he brought her youth and joy.)

Not Scooter!

[Chaos Theory]

The goodbye scene between Rita and Scooter reminded me alot of the similar scene between Simone and a Tommy last season.  A pairing that has no business working but was sweet anyway.  

And damn never saw it being Catherine’s hatred of Rita that costs not just one but two lives.  
 

I see Alma’s story ending one of two ways.  The first is her ending up in jail but that is kinda boring.  The second is her getting everything she has wanted but still miserable because she has no one to share it with.  
 

I actually did kind of feel sorry for Bertram.  Yes he was a serial killer but he loved his daughter.  Alma threw him under the bus really fast.   I don’t think she will care at all that he is dead.

Edited July 22, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[shapeshifter]

Such a work of art this season is! Bravo! 
Just one more episode, right?

A few bits of sublime acting, writing, filming, etc. worthy of applause:

• The way Vern's face twitched as he absorbs the information at the pharmacy that it was Bert who purchased the poison ingredients
• In the bar, the deliciously humorous banter between Ghost Chanteuse Maisie Moran (played by Rachel Bay Jones) and Bert
  • Note: I guess I'm alone in still not seeing Bert's mercy killings as anything much more than that --despite his backstory-- and that he really cared for his patients (most would say "victims"). I hope Bert and Maisie are singing and dancing together in the the ether (double entendre) world.
• The outdoor scenes with Rita out in the cold dark night were really filmed in the cold, because we can see her breath
  --a nice cinematic touch, even if not planned in advance --good artists take advantage of serendipity

 

1 hour ago, Kiddvideo said:

Yikes! I'd figured Bertram as dead man walking a while ago, but I didn't see that happening.

Totally took me by surprise -- but it shouldn't have!
Excellent writing!

OTOH, Scooter seemed to be heading towards a bad ending due to his not-too-bright choices -- even though it was shockingly abrupt too.

 

After last episode, I speculated that Rita and Alma would wind up as cellmates
--perhaps Catharine and Alma will be cellmates?

Edited July 22, 2021 by shapeshifter

[CRT]

This episode is titled after the 1956 film noir starring Esther Williams, George Nader, and Edward Andrews.  It's about a high school teacher who suspects the star football player is a killer.

But the film noir this episode brought to mind is the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard.  That movie's male lead is a failed screenwriter who becomes a gigolo for a rich older woman who lives in an L.A. mansion with a devoted Austrian butler. When the rich older woman realizes her gigolo's leaving her (he's fallen for another woman and is also writing a movie for Paramount), she pulls out a gun and kills him. I was going to question if Scooter and Catherine were heading in that movie's direction, and then the end of the episode answered that question for me!

Dee and Vern are married!  (Keeping secrets from each other is no way to start a marriage, though hey're still the most functional couple on the show, because neither of them is even thinking about killing someone.)  But Carlo and Rita were never legally married, so Rita inherits nothing!

Alma feels like she's in a bubble of her own.  Her daughter avoided her for weeks and her husband's a drunken mess, but Alma's only concerned with her damn garden club.  And Grace has been so kind to Alma, but Alma didn't even stop to think about her before she used Grace's affair for her own purposes.  

With one episode left, I can't help but wonder how the show wraps up next week.  I felt I had a generally good idea as to who would die in the first season finale, because we were promised someone would die in each time period.  But here, I'm less certain, at least in part because we've already seen so many people kick the bucket. Are we done with women killing people or are there more dead bodies to come?  

In the premiere the narrator said that Alma would go from "inconsequential to infamous", so she's presumably going to become infamous for something next week, but there are multiple options as to what that could mean: she could be outed for her crimes; or someone could kill Alma and make Alma an infamous victim; or Alma could put the blame on dead Bertram for their crimes and she'd be infamous as his wife.

[skotnikov]

5 minutes ago, CRT said:

This episode is titled after the 1956 film noir starring Esther Williams, George Nader, and Edward Andrews.  It's about a high school teacher who suspects the star football player is a killer.

But the film noir this episode brought to mind is the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard.  That movie's male lead is a failed screenwriter who becomes a gigolo for a rich older woman who lives in an L.A. mansion with a devoted Austrian butler. When the rich older woman realizes her gigolo's leaving her (he's fallen for another woman and is also writing a movie for Paramount), she pulls out a gun and kills him. I was going to question if Scooter and Catherine were heading in that movie's direction, and then the end of the episode answered that question for me!

And Gloria Swanson's butler was also a German like Catherine's :) 

[allonsyalice]

7 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

The way Vern's face twitched as he absorbs the information at the pharmacy that it was Bert who purchased the poison ingredients

Im finding the guy who plays Vern to be the best actor this season, or at least my favourite! He's very good with subtle things and reactions like this one!

[showme]

I don't know, but I hope Alma gets away with it all, I am rooting for her!

[Kiddvideo]

1 hour ago, showme said:

I don't know, but I hope Alma gets away with it all, I am rooting for her!

Same! She and Rita have both remade their lives, and they had that moment of understanding in the kitchen way back when. I’d like to see Rita get her mojo back, and she and Alma team-up to pillage and plunder.

Not binge watching a show I really like has been hard.

[cardigirl]

Do we know for certain that Scooter is dead?  

[shapeshifter]

45 minutes ago, cardigirl said:

Do we know for certain that Scooter is dead?  

Well, the blood was pooling in the part of his shirt over his heart, and based on reruns of CSI Miami (they have a high body count due to shoot outs) I would say Scooter is a goner. Plus, the character always seemed to be a Red Shirt.

[CarpeFelis]

On 7/22/2021 at 12:11 PM, Kiddvideo said:

I wish they'd introduced the nephew earlier -- having him come in the last moment to be a threat (the ultimate threat?) is convenient.

Did I miss something? What nephew?

[Kiddvideo]

25 minutes ago, CarpeFelis said:

Did I miss something? What nephew?

It was in the the 8th episode. Mrs. Yost’s nephew showed up and was talking to Dee about the things missing from Mrs. Yost’s house (that Dee knew her Mom took) and that the police told him whomever had the stuff probably was responsible for her disappearance. He left, and Dee started sneaking the items back into the house, but then he returned unexpectedly and all but Dee caught red-handed.

There’s a call back in this episode (I’m presuming.) When Dee set her drinking glass on the bar, someone picked it up and ran off. I think it was the nephew getting a sample of Dee’s fingerprints to match against the items she returned to Mrs. Yost’s home, which will put the Dee directly in the crosshairs.

[shapeshifter]

6 minutes ago, Kiddvideo said:

There’s a call back in this episode (I’m presuming.) When Dee set her drinking glass on the bar, someone picked it up and ran off. I think it was the nephew getting a sample of Dee’s fingerprints to match against the items she returned to Mrs. Yost’s home, which will put the Dee directly in the crosshairs.

I missed that! Where abouts in the episode is that scene?

[CarpeFelis]

1 hour ago, Kiddvideo said:

It was in the the 8th episode. Mrs. Yost’s nephew showed up and was talking to Dee about the things missing from Mrs. Yost’s house (that Dee knew her Mom took) and that the police told him whomever had the stuff probably was responsible for her disappearance. He left, and Dee started sneaking the items back into the house, but then he returned unexpectedly and all but Dee caught red-handed.

There’s a call back in this episode (I’m presuming.) When Dee set her drinking glass on the bar, someone picked it up and ran off. I think it was the nephew getting a sample of Dee’s fingerprints to match against the items she returned to Mrs. Yost’s home, which will put the Dee directly in the crosshairs.

Oh, of course, Mrs. Yost’s nephew! I’d forgotten about him and didn’t even realize he was in this episode. I thought the guy who picked up Dee’s glass was Vern’s police buddy, but Mrs. Yost’s nephew makes sense since he probably does think it was she who took Mrs. Yost’s things.

[CarpeFelis]

54 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I missed that! Where abouts in the episode is that scene?

It was just after Dee left the bar where she’d confronted Bertram. (Had to LOL at Bertram’s ghost companion, BTW.)

[shapeshifter]

9 hours ago, Kiddvideo said:

There’s a call back in this episode (I’m presuming.) When Dee set her drinking glass on the bar, someone picked it up and ran off. I think it was the nephew getting a sample of Dee’s fingerprints to match against the items she returned to Mrs. Yost’s home, .which will put the Dee directly in the crosshairs.

Okay. I re-watched that bit with the guy taking Dee's drink glass (presumably for finger prints). I agree it has to be someone hired by the nephew. 
That scene comes right after Vern asks his cop buddy for advice about all evidence leading to "his girl's father."
But then Bert went along with Alma's lie to Dee (that Bert pushed Mrs. Yost out the window to save Alma) and now Bert's dead.
So, likely Vern will have to show the evidence against Bert to get Dee out of trouble?
And Alma will, what...? Carry on Bert's habit of killing people (but not the terminally ill)? Or fall out a window? That would be fitting.

 

2 questions:

1. With Catherine obviously headed for jail for murder, will anyone find out the Rita isn't legally Carlos' widow? Maybe Rita will offer Otto a salary increase to keep quiet.
    
2. There was a line a few episodes back implying that Rita wished she had a child like Alma had. When Catherine remarks that Harry Jaworski was "a handsome fellow," it occurred to me that perhaps Rita did have a baby and gave it away. It would be too weird if it turned out to be Scooter, right? Better a young woman shows up on the doorstep at the end?
   But wait. If Scooter was Rita's long lost baby, Dee is pregnant with Rita's grandchild!😳
   But I doubt these excellent writers will go with such a soap opera denouement. 

 

One bit of humorous symbolism: Right before Rita tries to get back in her house, Scooter takes a banana from the fruit bowl, and so has his banana in his hand when he let's Rita in the house. Then, when she's hungry, he gives her his banana. 

[cardigirl]

27 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Okay. I re-watched that bit with the guy taking Dee's drink glass (presumably for finger prints). I agree it has to be someone hired by the nephew. 
That scene comes right after Vern asks his cop buddy for advice about all evidence leading to "his girl's father."
But then Bert went along with Alma's lie to Dee (that Bert pushed Mrs. Yost out the window to save Alma) and now Bert's dead.
So, likely Vern will have to show the evidence against Bert to get Dee out of trouble?
And Alma will, what...? Carry on Bert's habit of killing people (but not the terminally ill)? Or fall out a window? That would be fitting.

 

 

1. There was a line a few episodes back implying that Rita wished she had a child like Alma had. When Catherine remarks that Harry Jaworski was "a handsome fellow," it occurred to me that perhaps Rita did have a baby and gave it away. It would be too weird if it turned out to be Scooter, right? Better a young woman shows up on the doorstep at the end?
   But wait. If Scooter was Rita's long lost baby, Dee is pregnant with Rita's grandchild!😳
   But I doubt these excellent writers will go with such a soap opera denouement. 

 

I dunno, Rita participated in a fair amount of incest with her own son then.  Ewww. 

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, cardigirl said:

I dunno, Rita participated in a fair amount of incest with her own son then.  Ewww. 

Yeah. That doesn't seem right for this show.
Okay.
New theory: Scooter was Rita's cousin's (Isabel's) son? Maybe Isabel got pregnant when Rita's ex raped her?
Equally soapy, but much less icky.
And it could still give the Happily Ever After of Reformed Rita being an Auntie to Dee and Vern's baby.

Edited July 24, 2021 by shapeshifter

[Kiddvideo]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Okay. I re-watched that bit with the guy taking Dee's drink glass (presumably for finger prints). I agree it has to be someone hired by the nephew. 
That scene comes right after Vern asks his cop buddy for advice about all evidence leading to "his girl's father."
But then Bert went along with Alma's lie to Dee (that Bert pushed Mrs. Yost out the window to save Alma) and now Bert's dead.
So, likely Vern will have to show the evidence against Bert to get Dee out of trouble?

2 questions:

1. With Catherine obviously headed for jail for murder, will anyone find out the Rita isn't legally Carlos' widow? Maybe Rita will offer Otto a salary increase to keep quiet.

Thanks for clarifying Vern’s talk with the detective — I didn’t remember that level of detail! They have an easier out for Dee than I remembered.

Otto becomes the new Isabel? I can see that happening! A consigliere.

I haven’t reconciled if Rita and Alma can co-exist. Not long before we find out!

[CarpeFelis]

45 minutes ago, Kiddvideo said:

I haven’t reconciled if Rita and Alma can co-exist. Not long before we find out!

It may not matter much, at least as far as the Garden Club is concerned, because now everyone knows Rita was once a prostitute and they don’t want her in the club.

But if Alma decides Rita is still in her way somehow, it wouldn’t surprise me much if Rita was her next victim.

[cardigirl]

I really don't like the twist the show has done of making Rita the sympathetic fallen woman and Alma the scheming mastermind murderer, but here we are. So that being said, I doubt very much that there is any hope of an ending where Alma and Rita join forces. They have no common enemy except each other. No, my only hope is that Vern, Dee, and the baby survive unscathed at this point. 

Catherine will probably get off scot free and run back to Texas and Otto will help her. 

And I'm waiting to see if Scooter was just shot in the shoulder.  😝

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, cardigirl said:

I really don't like the twist the show has done of making Rita the sympathetic fallen woman and Alma the scheming mastermind murderer, but here we are.

As a firm believer in "a leopard cannot change its spots" and that we never really change but just become more of whom we are, normally I would not like this twist either.
However, the superb writing, acting, and directing on this show (aided by costuming and set decoration!) have managed to convince me that I just didn't really know the true natures of Alma and Rita, and that they are now being revealed. 

And because I relish cooking up theories for the outcome, here's another possibility: 
How about, after Alma is implicated for murder by Vern, Alma and Catherine manage to hit the road together, changing their identities, and basically becoming more mature versions of Rita and Isabel? Perhaps Otto joins them along with a boat load of cash, and Catherine and Otto become wealthy Mr. & Mrs., with Alma as their maid.

But maybe I'd rather have Alma in jail so she can see her grandchild(ren?).

I just do not want to have murderous Grandma Alma loose and possibly influencing her grandchildren; that is too creepy for me., 

[Joimiaroxeu]

You can't make a silk purse out of an Alma,  lol. Man, those garden club ladies broads insult you right to your face. 😼

Wonder why Dee hadn't told Vern about her parents? Was she protecting them or him?

Wow, that turned out to be was quite the magic bullet. Wonder if Catherine did the hit in Dallas in '63?

My favorite comment from reddit:

Quote

Someone should stab Alma a little.

Can't say I disagree. 😏

Edited July 31, 2021 by Joimiaroxeu

[aemom]

On 7/22/2021 at 4:08 PM, Chaos Theory said:

I see Alma’s story ending one of two ways.  The first is her ending up in jail but that is kinda boring.  The second is her getting everything she has wanted but still miserable because she has no one to share it with.  

This would certainly be a fitting end for her.

 

For anyone who has never seen Breaking Bad and plans on watching it, you should stop reading now. :)

 

On 7/26/2021 at 1:20 PM, cardigirl said:

I really don't like the twist the show has done of making Rita the sympathetic fallen woman and Alma the scheming mastermind murderer, but here we are.

This reminds me of Breaking Bad.  At the beginning, Walter was a sympathetic chem teacher, but by the end, he was just an absolute monster, and you were rooting for Jesse.  The tables certainly turned in that series as well.

I do find the twist interesting because you can see how just one single moment (when Rita humiliates Alma at the restaurant) sets off something in Alma's head and there is no going back for her.  She will do absolutely anything she can to win - even if that means that she loses everything in the end and leaves a pile of bodies in her wake.