S03.E03: Missing White Woman Syndrome

[Door County Cherry]

Airs 10/15

Quote

Love grows apprehensive as media scrutiny intensifies next door. An acute sickness in the family drudges up old memories—and worse—for Joe.

 

Edited October 15, 2021 by dubbel zout
added episode description

[Spartan Girl]

The writers of this show just gave the finger to anti-vaxxers in a big way. I LOVE IT!

Yeah, I think if my baby had been rushed to the ER because anti-vaxxers had exposed him to their sick kids and their “apology” had included the “we’d rather they get sick than put ‘toxic’ substances in their bodies” bullshit, I’d want to attack them too, so I can’t hold that against Love.

[eXiled]

Whoa. Love is crazier than Joe.

[Lady Calypso]

On 10/15/2021 at 8:53 AM, eXiled said:

Whoa. Love is crazier than Joe.

I think both are crazy in their own way. Love has shown herself to be more impulsive, more emotionally driven. That leaves her reckless and more dangerous in the moment, BUT Joe has proven to be much more dangerous in the long run. He's more methodical and is devoid of any real emotion that isn't about him. He's even shown in these episodes that his love for Henry has more to do about him not wanting his own son to turn out like him, because if he does, then that shows Joe that he hasn't actually changed (which we know he hasn't, not with how easily he slips into old behaviour). 

I did like the scene where Marienne kind of puts Joe in his place and a rare time he's left speechless and almost powerless when she's explaining why white women going missing gets more coverage than anyone else. 

Matthew is very lucky that Joe wasn't only sick but trying to be a half-decent human being, or else he would have most definitely been framed for murder.

Although I'm surprised Joe and Love burned the scarf. I thought maybe they'd plant it on Sherry next.

[dubbel zout]

12 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

Although I'm surprised Joe and Love burned the scarf. I thought maybe they'd plant it on Sherry next.

They could have planted it on a number of people. The scarf could have been a decent smoking gun, as it were.

[DearEvette]

Joe telling Love his plan for them to act normal is Joe at his peak creepy psycho.  Meanwhile, the start of this episode was the most I’ve liked Love.  And I was actually feeling a little good about them for their moment of conscience toward not framing Matthew.  And then came Gil.  Yes.  I was hating on him and thought … cool , a person they could use to pin on Natalie’s disappearance.  And then Love has go and be Love. Sigh.  

Sherry’ complete over the topness over Natalie being missing and making this all about her is so repulsive.  And yet… again… there is something so hilarious about how she is being portrayed that I just can’t hate.  

Scott Speedman is looking like a snack. I like how he is playing a person who refuses to perform pain for the cameras.  He isn’t built that way and doing so would come across an inauthentic.  It is a nice contrast to how Sherry is being so performative and is so clearly inauthentic and yet her brand of public grieving is somehow “right” and his is somehow “wrong.”

Forgot to mention last episode, I really like Love’s punny name for her bakery.  Very clever on a lot of fronts.

The show was obviously written and in the can before all the Gabrielle Petito stuff and Missing White Woman syndrome is  really a thing. But it is interesting the timing and synergy with the the most recent real world example of it.  Marianne can be a little bitchy and off-putting but I did like her schooling Joe.  Anytime he gets taken down a peg is great.

Also again a nice contrast between Marianne and Sherry and how two WOC view Natalie's disappearance. Sherry is a 1-percenter so there a bit of a remove there.  While Marianne is -- as Joe puts it -- normal.  And she is more attuned to the inequities because she does not have that cushion of wealth.

[Spartan Girl]

Joe has zero self-awareness saying that the library is a zone free of pretentious people. He’s the biggest pretentious person of all; he spent the whole episode comparing himself to Atticus Finch! 

[scowl]

17 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

Matthew is very lucky that Joe wasn't only sick but trying to be a half-decent human being, or else he would have most definitely been framed for murder.

For me that was the only big surprise of the season. Yes, it surprised me when someone didn't do something because everyone seemed to be doing whatever they wanted to even if the situation delayed them.

[SoWindsor]

3 hours ago, DearEvette said:

The show was obviously written and in the can before all the Gabrielle Petito stuff and Missing White Woman syndrome is  really a thing. But it is interesting the timing and synergy with the the most recent real world example of it.

I was going to say the same thing. Very timely. I do think with Gabby though people are so interested because of the police cam footage and all of their social media. Her case is more vouyeristic than other missing persons cases. It’s like watching true crime in real time. 

[Door County Cherry]

7 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

They could have planted it on a number of people. The scarf could have been a decent smoking gun, as it were.

Yeah. I was surprised they didn't keep it just in case they were in a jam and needed to frame someone to keep suspicion off. 

[TrininisaScorp]

The moment nerdy dude explained they were the anti-vaxx ppl and the source of little 40 Henry's sickness, I was on edge.  When she hit him, I gasped and started laughing.  This tells me I needed a break from the show for a moment.  LOL

Marianne is interesting.  This actress was excellent on Sabrina, so I'm not surprised to see 1) her in Joe's sphere more as we volunteers at the library and 2) him intrigued by her mentally challenging him.

Man, Shalita Grant is eating this up!  I have loved her in other things, but she really makes you want to go all Joe/Love on Sherry's sanctimonious ass. The best/worst Peach vibes without any of Peach's genuine care for anyone. 

I always like the flashbacks to little Joe to see moments that formed him.  Of course his mom didn't bother/care enough to vaccinate him, and of course he lied about it to make sure it couldn't be held against her.

Scott Speedman has been a snack and dinner mint for decades now.  I wonder how that relationship between Matthew and Joe will develop, especially with the added awkwardness of this son inappropriately being drawn to Love. That young actor is doing a nice job of being too much, but you can see why Love would be flattered and in her state of insecurity, even welcoming. 

I too was surprised they burned the scarf.  I would have expected one of them to keep at least 1 piece or something since they both seem to like to have an out "just in case".

[TattleTeeny]

OK, how fast did Love get that bakery set up, anyway? When she says that Natalie has been gone for "a few days," the store is ready to open.

[peachmangosteen]

8 hours ago, TrininisaScorp said:

That young actor is doing a nice job of being too much, but you can see why Love would be flattered and in her state of insecurity, even welcoming. 

The actor is 27 and actually older than Victoria Pedretti, which cracks me up lol.

[Spartan Girl]

It’s kind of telling that Margaret’s reaction to finding out Henry got measles because of them was not to come clean right away** but to whisk the kids out of town and let Gill do damage control with that limp apology. “She was too upset to tell you before…” Sure. But not upset enough for you guys to rethink your anti-vaxx stance, or maybe try to warm other parents whose kids might have been exposed, right Gil?

**Sure Love would have still been pissed, but better to be screamed at over the phone than risk getting physically attacked in person. Even parents that aren’t mentally stable would be tempted to violence if they found out anti-vaxxers got their infant hospitalized then later had the nerve to congratulate themselves for giving them “natural immunity.” 

[dubbel zout]

4 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

It’s kind of telling that Margaret’s reaction to finding out Henry got measles because of them was not to come clean right away** but to whisk the kids out of town

I didn't get why Margaret took the kids out of town. To prevent her kids from giving measles to other kids? If she's an anti-vaxxer (and  it seemed clear she wasn't the only one in town), wouldn't she want other kids to get them for the "natural immunity" or whatever the bullshit is? 

Henry got measles from those kids, so they had already been exposed and if they weren't already sick, they'd develop the measles soon enough.

[Spartan Girl]

13 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

I didn't get why Margaret took the kids out of town. To prevent her kids from giving measles to other kids? If she's an anti-vaxxer (and  it seemed clear she wasn't the only one in town), wouldn't she want other kids to get them for the "natural immunity" or whatever the bullshit is? 

The excuse was they went to her mother’s so that they could care for them “properly” but that kind of feels like bullshit in hindsight. More like she was afraid of the backlash that might fall on their family if Henry got sicker or even died. 

I’m not sure they’re other many other anti-vax people in that neighborhood; they were all rich enough to get the COVID shot and Sherry was smugly spreading the story Henry getting measles with her fake sympathy when Love was making the “you might have gotten exposed” calls and the fact that nobody else got the measles. If it was that common a sentiment in Madre Linda, it wouldn’t be hot gossip.

[Jax7917]

15 hours ago, SoWindsor said:

I was going to say the same thing. Very timely. I do think with Gabby though people are so interested because of the police cam footage and all of their social media. Her case is more vouyeristic than other missing persons cases. It’s like watching true crime in real time. 

Yeah I get annoyed that people think her case is only covered so much because she's white. There are many, many, many missing white women who are not covered on all the media outlets. It is being covered so much because of the situation itself. Between the video cam footage, the missing boyfriend, the van-life thing, etc, there's a lot of pieces to this case that make it interesting.

[TrininisaScorp]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

The actor is 27 and actually older than Victoria Pedretti, which cracks me up lol.

Holy shit!  That's amazing.  I only know him as the doofy bf from the After series, so I assumed he was young young, and he certainly acts young here.

[faithie]

So nobody in town was suspicious about the claim that stunning, stylish Natalie was having an affair with the dorky professor who wears a Members Only jacket?  hard to believe

[bettername2come]

Love's reaction was rash, but if she had hit him in the head from the front, I might not've had a problem with it. 

Scott Speedman has aged well. 

[tennisgurl]

I have clearly been drinking this shows Kool-Aid because when Love smacked the anti-vaxxer I actually laughed. Then was like "damn it Love, you could have framed him for the murder!" Its hard to tell who is more dangerous, Love has very little impulse control and kills in violent rages, while Joe is an obsessive planner who comes off as much more diabolical and cold in his kills. Looks like Joe and Love are going to need to head back to counseling, Love broke another vase.

Although after listening to that moron ramble on about "natural immunity" after baby Henry was in the hospital I can rather sympathize with Love. I am sure Joe and Love would have really appreciated that natural immunity if their baby had died. Its interesting watching Joe actually trying to push down his worst impulses and really try to be a better person, he and Love even burned the scarf instead of framing the husband, who Joe bonded with a bit, which is especially interesting as Joe had already cast him as a neglectful jerk of a husband when he was stalking Natalie, like he does with a lot of men. 

I liked getting another glimpse of what made Joe the way he is, from what we have seen of his mom I can totally see her not bothering to get Joe vaccines when he was little, and that Joe would lie about it because he still cant deal with the fact that his mom wasn't that great of a parent. He sees her like he sees a lot of the women he obsesses over, an innocent victim of evil men that needs protecting, and while she really was a victim of domestic abuse, it seems pretty clear that she was not some perfect innocent victim and amazing mom. he also sees the "lesson" she taught him when he shot his father as this really great important life lesson and not something that seriously messed up, just like how he sees his old boss/parental figure as a tough but ultimately loving mentor that taught him that you have to sometimes do seemingly horrible things to someone you love for their own good, when its clear that his abuse is what finally pushed Joe over the edge.

The son who Love is engaging in some flirting with reminds me a bit of Forty, which makes the whole thing pretty weird.

I really like Marianne, she actually got Joe to stop and think for a second.

Edited October 19, 2021 by tennisgurl

[mytmo]

As for the missing white woman syndrome it is absolutely a thing.  1000s of indigenous women go missing every year and only 100s are reported.  I can only hope that a case that gets the spotlight (and I am not begrudging that as no one should be a victim) will shine light on other cases as well.  Glad there has been some awareness but real changes have to be made.

[topanga]

On 10/18/2021 at 1:25 AM, TrininisaScorp said:

Man, Shalita Grant is eating this up!  I have loved her in other things, but she really makes you want to go all Joe/Love on Sherry's sanctimonious ass. The best/worst Peach vibes without any of Peach's genuine care for anyone. 

I always like the flashbacks to little Joe to see moments that formed him.  Of course his mom didn't bother/care enough to vaccinate him, and of course he lied about it to make sure it couldn't be held against her.

Scott Speedman has been a snack and dinner mint for decades now.  

Eh, Sherry and Peach are like twins separated at birth. Both are rich, backstabbing mean girls. But Shalita Grant chews up every scene she’s in—in a good way, so It keeps me from hating Sherry. Peach was a good judge of character and didn’t trust Joe from the moment she met him. But she was also subtly mean to Beck, her supposed bestie. 

I also like the Joe flashback scenes. The young actor is good. 
 

I first noticed Scott Speedman a few years ago on Animal Kingdom. IMDB tells me I also watched him for three years on Felicity, but I don’t remember him at all. He has definitely gotten hotter with age. 

[dubbel zout]

13 hours ago, topanga said:

IMDB tells me I also watched him for three years on Felicity, but I don’t remember him at all.

LOL, Ben was only the reason Felicity went to NYU. 

[Jack Shaftoe]

I find it very hard to believe that Joe wouldn't know what a Missing White Woman syndrome is or at least wouldn't nod along, pretending to know.

I was confused about the framing plan - wasn't it established that there were gazillion cameras in Matthew's house?

Love killing someone every other episode is getting old.

[Blakeston]

On 10/26/2021 at 10:34 AM, Jack Shaftoe said:

I find it very hard to believe that Joe wouldn't know what a Missing White Woman syndrome is or at least wouldn't nod along, pretending to know.

Yeah, I call total BS on this. As backwards as Joe is, he's actually a very socially conscious person, and he'd be familiar with the phrase. And if he wasn't, he'd be able to figure it out.

[Mabinogia]

17 hours ago, Blakeston said:

Yeah, I call total BS on this. As backwards as Joe is, he's actually a very socially conscious person, and he'd be familiar with the phrase. And if he wasn't, he'd be able to figure it out.

Really. I have never heard that particular phrase before but I wasn't at all confused about what it meant. Anyone who is paying any attention to the world at all would have. No way Joe didn't know what it meant even if he'd never heard it before. 

[Jillybean]

Having only watched the first three episodes of Season 3, I have to wonder if the show has decided to become a black comedy? There were dark humor elements in previous seasons (mostly from Joe's inner monologue) but It seems as though this season is veering toward full camp.

Edited November 4, 2021 by Jillybean

[latincoffee]

On 10/15/2021 at 7:53 AM, eXiled said:

Whoa. Love is crazier than Joe.

I knew this as soon as she entered the picture in Joe's life. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Wow, clout-chasing and lowkey fame-whoring via dead woman. Sherry and her crew are unbelievable. AFAIC Joe or Love should've planted that bloody scarf at Sherry's house.

"Stealth cunt." Ehh, Dottie seems pretty obvious to me. Love has just been trying not to acknowledge it because of the money.

Does measles cause hallucinations or was it the fever that caused Joe's? He better hope he didn't say anything potentially incriminating while he was delirious.

At first it was looking a little like Gone Girl but then things took a turn. Matthew is definitely not going down without a fight. And Theo's behavior toward Love is sus to me too.

Heh, those anti-vaxxers are about to find out measles was the least of their worries. (If Forty had died, would there be a case against them for some degree of manslaughter? Assuming the measles could be traced back to them, of course.)

[Scarlett45]

On 10/18/2021 at 8:48 AM, peachmangosteen said:

The actor is 27 and actually older than Victoria Pedretti, which cracks me up lol.

I was about to say that. He has a baby face but they looked about the same age to me! Dylan is 13months older than Victoria, but for people/actors in that age bracket, styling and makeup can often take you from 15-35. 

 

On 10/24/2021 at 10:57 AM, dubbel zout said:

LOL, Ben was only the reason Felicity went to NYU. 

I didn’t watch Felicity regularly but that’s where I know him from!

 

On 3/18/2022 at 6:32 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

"Stealth cunt." Ehh, Dottie seems pretty obvious to me. Love has just been trying not to acknowledge it because of the money.

I think the money and lifestyle helps, but most kids want love from their parents, even if their parents are heinous. Dottie wasn’t the worst of the worse, selfish and self centered, but she has shown Love interest and affection so I can see why she keeps holding on.