S03.E08: Swing and a Miss

[Door County Cherry]

Airs 10/15

Quote

Joe selfishly tries to coerce Love into a lifestyle change, but things go south quickly. Theo discovers just how deep Matthew's obsession goes.

 

Edited October 15, 2021 by dubbel zout
added episode description

[eXiled]

The thing I concentrated on most during this episode was this:

During their last therapy session, Joe claimed Love's business is doing great. Yet, other than the guy who darted out of the bakery in the episode's last minute, I don't think we've ever seen anyone in there that Love and Joe didn't know personally -- correct?

They even had time to use the bakery for a leisurely chat to discuss their swingers' contract. Hmm. Maybe Love closed it down for lunch.

It still bugs that Joe Goldberg's real ID is known. Unless I missed something during my last (and very recent) rewatch, he was still going by Will to the general public even though the Quinns knew he was into something shady. I've decided that the Quinn money must have smoothed that over for him somehow.

[dubbel zout]

Knowing Sherry and Cary swing makes them even more of a cliché to me. They think it makes them look cool and daring.

I'm legit surprised Marienne's husband isn't already dead. 

Wow, Chekov's bow-and-arrow shows up! I don't know if I'm relieved Sherry and Cary are alive. They are kind of insufferable, even if they're also kind of hilarious.

[Chaos Theory]

When a sexy swinging night turns into fight club.   And yeah of course it is a real turn on for Joe and Love because their love language is violence.

I get being obsessed enough to investigate your wife’s murder and Theo is technically only his step son but kicking him out of the house was cold.  
 

So is Joe going after the judge now?

Was actually kinda surprised Sherry and her super alpha husband were still alive but that does leave time for some super interesting and awkward conversations.  Those are always fun.

Also for the record I will be more disappointed if Love dies then if Joe dies.  

Edited October 18, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[Giuseppe]

Y'all, I cracked UP when Sherry was on top of Joe, Love shouted the safe word and Sherry keeled over like her battery had died. And her grimacing "are you fucking kidding me??" while she toppled sideways had me on the floor!

Edited October 18, 2021 by Giuseppe

[Spartan Girl]

“Disney should sue these people.” LMAO that line was perfect. Runner up goes to “Cary is Cary-sexual.”

Ryan is a piece of shit but Joe is still the worst. Doesn’t he try to control and isolate each object of his obsession so that they’ll need him more. Not to mention he crosses boundaries to “fix” their lives, assuming that he always knows what they want. And he was messing with Love’s head, gaslighting her and trying to manipulate her into the swinging all to get his way and end their marriage without looking like the bad guy. Oh, but he’s totally different than Ryan because his intentions are “noble.” Spare me.

Love might be crazy but a broken clock is right twice a day, and everything she claims about Joe is 200 percent true.

Their Mr and Mrs Smith sex scene after putting Sherry and Cary in the cage shows that maybe they could have worked if Joe wasn’t so delusional about himself. If he owned up to his dark side and stopped chasing his damsel fantasies, I’d despise him slightly less.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Spartan Girl

[DearEvette]

So all Joe and Love need to get their sexual engines revved is to violently hurt people and put their cage.  That works.  Totally on brand for this couple.

I was cracking up the whole time (until I wasn't).  I will say that of all the shows that I have seen lately that want to try and dabble in open marriage or polyamory (Good Trouble and New Amsterdam for example), this one was the only one that felt like it at least tries to get it right.  The others seem like they just want to use it as a jumping off point for characters to be able to cheat comfortably.  But this really feels like Sherry and Carey have real rules.  They are asking the right questions, being reassuring,  and emphasizing consent and comfort.  Also immediate respect of the safe word and constantly making sure you are working with your own partner.  I know a lot of it was played for comedy so that Joe could spike it with his inner monologue.  But frankly I found the early scene with Love and Sherry pretty hot.   And I have to say, damn, you can bounce a quarter off Carey's ass!

And here goes Love yelling about killing Natalie while they have people in their house.  I swear it is tv plot armor that allows these idiots to still be walking free.  

I don't care how annoying and insufferable Sherry and Carey are they are fun to watch and I don't want them to die. I will be so bummed if they end up buried in the woods somewhere. 

Marienne's plot with Ryan is rather enraging.  He is a textbook abuser.  The oh so charming guy who gets everyone on his side while isolating the woman and gaslighting her.  Even though they are divorced he is using her daughter to abuse her.  Now this is a guy who needs to die. 

I haven't talked about Dante very much, but what a great character.  I love his friendship with Marienne.  This season has really been good and a lot of it is because the supporting characters have added so much.  I can't remember liking anyone that much in Seasons 1 or 2 as much as I am liking the cast of characters this season. Even Matthew and Theo in all their dysfunction.  I need Theo to have his blinders about Love removed. Hopefully without being killed for it.

Only two eps left...

[tennisgurl]

Of course Love and Joe's love language is violence, they don't need swinging to get back on track, they need to hurt people. This seems like the inevitable end of most double dates with Joe and Love. 

As ridiculous as Sherry and Carey are, they do actually seem to practice polyamory in a really responsible way. A lot of shows that try to portray polyamory or being in an open marriage tend to get it all really mangled, it usually ends up just being an excuse for one of the two people in the couple to cheat, but they do seem really genuine about this being something they get a lot out of as a couple, with safe words, open communication, a focus on consent and mutual respect, and a lot of rules. Its just their bad luck that they decided to try it with our favorite serial killers next door and that Love is still really bad at keeping secrets. If anything, I'm surprised that Carey and Sherry are "just" locked in the cage and not already dead. 

Chekov's crossbow! 

Edited October 31, 2021 by tennisgurl

[Anela]

I thought the sex before the murders was creepy (and funny), but their getting turned on by violence - of course. And we all know that Marienne would only have to screw up once or twice, before Joe is brought down to earth, realizes that she isn't perfect, and he would want to off her next. 

I feel bad for Love, but not enough to not want her and Joe to get caught for all of the murders.

I thought they would be going in the direction of the neighbour's husband being an abusive control freak - hence the cameras everywhere. and the wife saying he would want to know why the cameras were off for a while.

I know the cage wasn't supposed to be used much, if at all, but you'd think they would be worried about the inhabitants searching all of those things in there, for a key, or a weapon of some sort.

[bettername2come]

I was not expecting Joe to say that he and Sherrie would be a "no" when he brought up the point of Love killing his girlfriends. Considering he'd rather fuck a cactus, I thought he'd be cool with Love potentially killing her. 

"Fucking creepshow." Well, when you're right, Theo, you're right.

I was cheering for Cary and Sherrie (the rhyming names just clicked for me) when they started fighting back. Like, huh, they really are partners. They showed such a united front and clearly made plans before the psycho jealous murderers they almost fucked came back. Good for them. I hope they make it out of this and write some kind of survival blog about it. I really don't want Joe to keep leaving children without their guardians. 

I appreciate that the thing that spurred Joe on was the idea Henry growing up in the system. I mean, his parents are murderers and kidnappers, but so far they've been reasonably good parents. 

[MichaelaRae]

So I finally started this series and I am full-on binging. But stopped long enough at the end of this episode to say that EVERYTHING about Merienne, her storyline, and Joe’s obsession with her bores me and she can just nope out of here any old time. At least his other obsessions were…interesting.

[SunnyBeBe]

Yeah, Joe’s spiel has gotten old.  Talk about a malcontent.  He’s only interested in the chase.  What he captures, then bores him.  
 

What I did laugh at was Joe’s comment before the swinging was suppose to start, he says, I really want this to be over, but I don’t really know how to get it started. Lol Then after the action gets started, he says, I’m embarrassed for us! Lol   
 

So Love has to shout about her murders….what a moronic move.  I wish Joe and Love would be taken out….permanently.

Edited August 21, 2022 by SunnyBeBe

[Scarlett45]

On 10/15/2021 at 5:10 PM, eXiled said:

It still bugs that Joe Goldberg's real ID is known. Unless I missed something during my last (and very recent) rewatch, he was still going by Will to the general public even though the Quinns knew he was into something shady. I've decided that the Quinn money must have smoothed that over for him somehow.

Joe has been going by Joe during this season. The Will persona was because he was hiding from Candace, once she was dead there was no need to use that persona. He married Love under his real name and they moved to Madre Linda. 
 

I have to say I did like how they made the show down between Joe and Cary realistic. Cary is bigger than Joe and he works out, Joe won the fight 1. Because it was his house (the kitchen scene reminded me of “A Perfect Murder”) and 2. He got lucky with the bow and arrow. I imagine Love was able to overpower Sherry because she had a weapon. 
 

Also Love’s outburst was realistic, because she is IMPULSIVE to the core. You’re going to YELL about how you murdered someone with two guests in the house?? Damn Love. 
 

I do feel badly for Theo, being put out had to hurt but Matthew is hurting so badly on Natalie’s death he wasn’t listening to reason -yes he’s right that Love did murder her, but the obsessive way he’s going about finding the killer is hurting him, not eating, sleeping etc.