S01.E09: Denmark

[AnimeMania]

Season Finale
Harris finally finds the anonymous eyewitness. Lee decides not to return to New York. Billy is returned to the general prison population to face the consequences of his actions. The D.A. may be forced to drop the case. 
Original Air Date: Nov 7, 2021

[LoveLeigh]

Really? One more episode? And then what? I am surprised I stuck with this. There is no part of this that even remotely makes any sense. I like Isaac though. Maybe it is David Alvarez I like. 

[T Summer]

If Isaac doesn't rush in and confess to murdering Pete Novik and they don't set Billy Poe free  before he gets in any more trouble  in prison, I'll never watch this tripe again.

Matter of fact, I don't think I'll watch another minute of American Rust (possible future seasons...imagine that?) even if that DOES happen!

 

 

 

If you see like a dozen of this post, the forum is spazzing out! I'm sure a mod will fix it later. Happened on the Project Runway board, too.

[T Summer]

😱  😠  😕

 

I'm so over this dumpster fire 🔥 of a series. I'm going to tell myself Billy got better  👨‍🦼and was released 🧑‍⚖️ and get on with my life.

 

American Rust: you're dead to me!   ☠️   ⚰️

[Badlands]

The season was the totality of the book, so I don't know if they ever intended to do more than one season.  I enjoyed the show well enough, but I hope they don't try to continue. I wasn't crazy about all the loose ends, but... (book spoiler ahead)

Spoiler

the novel ended in almost the exact same way.

• Billy was likely going to live, but be paralyzed
• Del's role in the killings was likely to come out
• Henry killed himself with pills to let his family move on
• Isaac attempted to turn himself in, but Del wouldn't let him

 

[T Summer]

1 minute ago, Badlands said:

The season was the totality of the book, so I don't know if they ever intended to do more than one season.  I enjoyed the show well enough, but I hope they don't try to continue. I wasn't crazy about all the loose ends, but... (book spoiler ahead)

  Hide contents

the novel ended in almost the exact same way.

• Billy was likely going to live, but be paralyzed
• Del's role in the killings was likely to come out
• Henry killed himself with pills to let his family move on
• Isaac attempted to turn himself in, but Del wouldn't let him

 

I never read the book but that's how I saw it, hence the wheelchair emoji in my post above.

Do you think Lee English will spend her life in Buele taking care of a paralyzed Billy? (I'm guessing not). Not much else to add except for hey, look who figured out how to get on a bus!

Will Dell and Grace stay together or will Virgil's "warning" have the desired effect and leave Sheriff Dell feeling  like he was played? I'm guessing they'll stay together unless Dell goes to jail for his crimes.

[The Wild Sow]

Thanks, Badlands! I’m actually thinking of reading the book now.  

I actually watched a lot for the geography- looking for familiar places (the opening shot with the bridges is very familiar.) And I can tell you one thing.  There is no “PA 40” highway. And if there were, it wouldn’t run north-south, since even numbered routes are east-west. Fayette County is home US 40 (running east-west), which crosses the state line into Maryland, not West Virginia.

[The Wild Sow]

1 hour ago, T Summer said:

Do you think Lee English will spend her life in Buele taking care of a paralyzed Billy? (I'm guessing not).

Probably not - but Isaac will!

[T Summer]

1 minute ago, The Wild Sow said:

Probably not - but Isaac will!

Oh jeez, that would be horrid for Billy! an eternity with the person responsible for him  being in jail and getting maimed. Except not really... because Billy's dumbass could have aided in his own defense and answered questions without saying Isaac did it! and he could have volunteered to take a polygraph. 🗣️  ⌨️   🔌

[MBayGal]

WTF.!!!!  That was the ending?  Are they hoping for a second season? I won't be watching it!!!  Why would the chief not want issac to pay for ruining billy's life??

[Glade]

Wow, I didn't realize this was the last episode; I thought next week would wrap everything up...  The show was reasonably interesting, and I cared about Isaac and Billy, hoped they would make it through this.   The showrunner says in this interview that they want to do a second season and have ideas:  https://triblive.com/aande/movies-tv/tv-talk-american-rust-ends-first-season-on-multiple-cliffhangers/  .  But that seems unlikely.

[T Summer]

1 hour ago, Glade said:

Wow, I didn't realize this was the last episode; I thought next week would wrap everything up...  The show was reasonably interesting, and I cared about Isaac and Billy, hoped they would make it through this.   The showrunner says in this interview that they want to do a second season and have ideas:  https://triblive.com/aande/movies-tv/tv-talk-american-rust-ends-first-season-on-multiple-cliffhangers/  .  But that seems unlikely.

I read it and within the article they gave an email and phone number to reach out to the writer. It would be interesting to send him a link to this board so he could see that many here expressed  resentment about the  slow pacing; especially in the beginning. For him an artistic choice he believes in today, but it seems to have lost him some viewers or set them into hatewatching mode. There are atypically small numbers of us here still checking in  and commenting

I think with less gloominess  and time wasted on things that don't affect the central story line unfolding this could have made a decent movie, a 2 part-er at most. I probably would have written the story where Sheriff Dell is really conflicted about whether to risk his career by interceding on Grace's son' s behalf and then he finally decides to and is seen killing the witness... that news coming to light  when Isaac gets to the police station and confesses to another officer   clearing Billy.

I thought of the news coming too late all the way around and Billy being either killed by the inmates he angered  or  killing someone in self defense condemning  him to a life sentence, but that would be just too depressing. So I'd leave it at Sheriff Dell's career being the only casualty.

[T Summer]

2 hours ago, MBayGal said:

WTF.!!!!  That was the ending?  Are they hoping for a second season? I won't be watching it!!!  Why would the chief not want issac to pay for ruining billy's life??

To attempt to answer your last question... All I can think of is Sheriff Dell not wanting another young  person in the town to go on trial for killing the ex-cop when he's already gone as far as killing the drug dealer who was going to testify against Billy. That's another young man that would likely be going to that notoriously violent out of control prison while he awaits  his trial.

I really hope this doesn't come back.

[One Imaginary Girl]

13 hours ago, Badlands said:

The season was the totality of the book, so I don't know if they ever intended to do more than one season.  I enjoyed the show well enough, but I hope they don't try to continue. I wasn't crazy about all the loose ends, but... (book spoiler ahead)

  Reveal spoiler

the novel ended in almost the exact same way.

• Billy was likely going to live, but be paralyzed
• Del's role in the killings was likely to come out
• Henry killed himself with pills to let his family move on
• Isaac attempted to turn himself in, but Del wouldn't let him

 

I didn't read it but wonder about some things, based on things found on the Internet:

Wasn't Lee's husband a New England WASP, not from Spain?  If so, why change him?  And it sounds like he never does actually come to Buell, so did Grace ever rat Lee out in the book?  

Didn't Isaac give Berkeley a try before he returned home?

There are some things I'm just not buying about this show.  (1) Harris can't remember the well-known line about something being rotten in Denmark because those rubes in the Rust Belt sure wouldn't know anything about Hamlet.  (2)  But even if they were intelligent, like Lee and Isaac, the gravity of one's hometown, no matter how grim, would pull them back, even after they'd gone to Yale.  Yeah, right.  (3) Would anyone allow a person to wait unattended inside another person's office?

Also, that super-clunky explanation by Grace about Harris's phone at the bar was so ham-handed.  

Edited November 8, 2021 by One Imaginary Girl

[chediavolo]

Can’t believe that bitch Lee didn’t get her due. I don’t understand the whole angle of graces using Dell. Wasn’t he willing to do this for her and she pretty much told him what was going on. I don’t know why she had to bring her house down just to move into his and blame it on the union problems?

[T Summer]

6 hours ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

I didn't read it but wonder about some things, based on things found on the Internet:

Wasn't Lee's husband a New England WASP, not from Spain?  If so, why change him?  And it sounds like he never does actually come to Buell, so did Grace ever rat Lee out in the book?  

Didn't Isaac give Berkeley a try before he returned home?

There are some things I'm just not buying about this show.  (1) Harris can't remember the well-known line about something being rotten in Denmark because those rubes in the Rust Belt sure wouldn't know anything about Hamlet.  (2)  But even if they were intelligent, like Lee and Isaac, the gravity of one's hometown, no matter how grim, would pull them back, even after they'd gone to Yale.  Yeah, right.  (3) Would anyone allow a person to wait unattended inside another person's office?

Also, that super-clunky explanation by Grace about Harris's phone at the bar was so ham-handed.  

1. Everyone who's been alive maybe 15 years  and was born in the USA  knows what comes after something's rotten in   Denmark 🙄

2. I'm not sure what this means (no doubt because I have brain  fog from hardly sleeping last night), do you mean you can't see Lee returning to her hometown?

3. Who was allowed to wait in whose office?

 

and finally the article linked above states the series is supposed to have  been set in 2014/2015. The first time I ever heard someone suggest sending one's cell phone on a different itinerary/route  than one's person would be necessary to evade arrest if one plans on committing a crime was in this year, 2021.

Were people thinking this 6-7 years ago? The article mentioned flip phones in the series... long gone by 2014/2015 as far as I know, but lets go with that: If it's the era of flip phones, what are the chances they are smartphones with GPS tracking?

 

 

[T Summer]

1 hour ago, chediavolo said:

Can’t believe that bitch Lee didn’t get her due. I don’t understand the whole angle of graces using Dell. Wasn’t he willing to do this for her and she pretty much told him what was going on. I don’t know why she had to bring her house down just to move into his and blame it on the union problems?

Right? Lee didn't even seem upset when she entered her father's house after getting the news about Billy!

IDK? Maybe Grace thought she'd have more influence on Sheriff Dell if she  a. appeared to be  a victim i.e. a damsel in distress he could rescue b. was right there in his bed... as opposed to them just seeing each other a few times a week????  She in her  anguished state is right there in his midst; he can't go home and leave off saying I'll look into it, I'll see what I can do while she stays by the phone in her trailer frantically awaiting answers.

Can't really think of any other reason for her to have burned it down. I think a mum would be inclined to keep her son's room and childhood home as it was hoping for his  safe return.

[One Imaginary Girl]

It might seem snobby, but I don't see someone who went to an Ivy being happy in a town like that. 

As for the waiting in the office, Officer Park let Virgil in Del's or at least told him he was in there, but surely a police chief's office could contain confidential material.

Edit: It was another, less memorable policeman who notified Del that Virgil was in his office.  Officer Park was just in the room at the time.

Edited November 9, 2021 by One Imaginary Girl

[Bluesky]

18 hours ago, MBayGal said:

WTF.!!!!  That was the ending?  Are they hoping for a second season? I won't be watching it!!!  Why would the chief not want issac to pay for ruining billy's life??

Billy ruined his own life.  Just off parole for fighting he goes and starts a fight with the cop who arrested him.  Issac told him not to.   Poor issac had to go and rescue Billy by hitting Billy’s attacker and ended up killing him.  
 

With the eye witness dead they had to drop charges against Billy so why open up new charges. Billy would still be charged, just not for murder.  

20 minutes ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

It might seem snobby, but I don't see someone who went to an Ivy being happy in a town like that. 

As for the waiting in the office, Officer Park let Virgil in Del's or at least told him he was in there, but surely a police chief's office could contain confidential material.

I can’t see her still attracted to her loser boyfriend from high school. Some people are most comfortable where they grew up though. She could be a public defender.   

[T Summer]

6 minutes ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

It might seem snobby, but I don't see someone who went to an Ivy being happy in a town like that. 

As for the waiting in the office, Officer Park let Virgil in Del's or at least told him he was in there, but surely a police chief's office could contain confidential material.

Oh, I forgot Virgil was in Dell's office. Thanks.  They have a strange relationship, don't they? Being good ol' boys aligned in the effort to deter the real estate auctioneer from Grace's property,  then Virgil shows up with food and drink  and expects to sit down to dinner with Grace and  Dell?  Now he's looking out for Dell's well being and wants to make sure he's not being manipulated By Grace? Surely with your son in a dangerous prison you'd have more pressing concerns than Dell's innocence... and you probably wouldn't care why the Sheriff in town would be inclined to help your ex wife when you know the only thing in this world she cares about is  your son, Billy!

Strange time for Virgil to have engaged in  that thinly veiled act of gloating, if you ask me.

[T Summer]

In the scene where Sheriff Dell  is at the house where Bobby Jesus and Jackson are, why does Sheriff Dell shoot Bobby Jesus now lying on the floor bleeding from the gunshot he'd just inflicted into his upper chest / neck area while Bobby was trying to strangle him from behind,  while he's standing  over him reaching down? He appears to shoot  Bobby  in the same part of the body from less than a foot away?  Given that Sheriff Dell shot Jackson when he saw him across the room and then appeared to use the gun he took out of Jackson's hand to shoot Bobby Jesus', and then he put the  gun he brought into Bobby's hand, it appears  he was   trying to make it look like they shot each other. Aren't the investigating police officers going to be able to tell Bobby Jesus'  gunshot wounds weren't inflicted from across a room, but  actually  at close range?

Also why did he remove his gloves and then use the phone in that house to dial 911 and set the receiver down before exiting?

Edited November 9, 2021 by T Summer
added clarity

[roughing it]

10 hours ago, T Summer said:

Also why did he remove his gloves and then use the phone in that house to dial 911 and set the receiver down before exiting?

The hand Del used on the phone still had the glove on it.

No happy endings (not that kind LOL) for any of the folk in Buell.  I was under the impression this series was limited, like one and done.  Now it seems we have to wait for another season to see how things play out.  

[T Summer]

18 minutes ago, roughing it said:

The hand Del used on the phone still had the glove on it.

Thank you. I'm going to trust your vision as the scene was dark and I'm watching on a small bedroom  TV (19"). I did rewind it a few times and try to discern whether both gloves came off.

[roughing it]

T Summer - it does appear that Del took both gloves off, but when they show him on the phone, he still has one on.

[T Summer]

23 minutes ago, roughing it said:

T Summer - it does appear that Del took both gloves off, but when they show him on the phone, he still has one on.

Thanks for clarifying. I wonder why he wouldn't have left with both gloves on? He could've used the phone and opened and closed the door of the house he exited through, removed the device from the bottom of Jackson's car he'd put there and then taken the gloves off when he got in the car?

[TV Anonymous]

13 hours ago, T Summer said:

In the scene where Sheriff Dell  is...

You mentioned this a number of time, you meant Chief Del Harris, did you not? The Sheriff is Sheriff Deluca.

[T Summer]

2 hours ago, TV Anonymous said:

You mentioned this a number of time, you meant Chief Del Harris, did you not? The Sheriff is Sheriff Deluca.

Yes, thank you! I meant Chief Dell Harris 🤭

[monakane]

That was disappointing.  The only people I liked in the story were Isaac and his father.  I know, his father was a dick, but at least he had some self awareness.  The rest of them were either stupid (Billy), conniving (Grace and Lee), obsessed (Del), or selfish.  I really didn't care what happened to any of them.  I would add the old lady with the shot gun because she was kind of bad ass.

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by monakane

[LoveLeigh]

On 11/8/2021 at 2:18 AM, MBayGal said:

WTF.!!!!  That was the ending?  Are they hoping for a second season? I won't be watching it!!!  Why would the chief not want issac to pay for ruining billy's life??

I did not know this episode was the final episode of this season and perhaps the series. What kind of stupid cliffhangers did they leave the viewers with? Just awful. 

[MBayGal]

15 minutes ago, LoveLeigh said:

I did not know this episode was the final episode of this season and perhaps the series. What kind of stupid cliffhangers did they leave the viewers with? Just awful. 

Earlier someone said the book ended the same way.  Glad I never wasted my time or money on the book!!!

[Black Knight]

On 11/8/2021 at 11:17 AM, One Imaginary Girl said:

Wasn't Lee's husband a New England WASP, not from Spain?  If so, why change him?  And it sounds like he never does actually come to Buell, so did Grace ever rat Lee out in the book?  

Spoiler

No. The book ends with Lee's marriage fully intact and her husband not knowing she cheated - he's a cheater himself - and Isaac deciding that the best thing for him is to go live with her in Connecticut.

 

[WaltersHair]

Just binge watched it after a recommendation. Terrible writing, pacing and story telling. I did not in any way understand why anyone was doing anything.

[T Summer]

On 12/31/2021 at 2:57 AM, WaltersHair said:

Just binge watched it after a recommendation. Terrible writing, pacing and story telling. I did not in any way understand why anyone was doing anything.

Someone recommended this depressing mess? 😏

[WaltersHair]

6 hours ago, T Summer said:

Someone recommended this depressing mess? 😏

My brother. I'm rethinking his recommendations going forward 🙃

[MamaMax]

Well my husband and I figure Del is done for. The DA made the comment about checking Grandma Badass' shotgun to see if it was fired. It was, so the next question has to be, where are all the pellets? Not in the corpses and not in the walls.  Its coming back to Del. 

Grace is probably out of a job, but she will need to take care of Billy 24/7.  Assuming the insurance pays off and Virgil decides to keep the money and let Grace off the hook for the arson.

While I like the character of Isaac, I had a real problem believing he was supposed to be like 20. He looked 40. 

 

[jabRI]

Also streamed it, but needed to come here to figure some stuff out.  HATE when they shoot almost every scene in near complete darkness.  Drives me batty.

[SunnyBeBe]

I’m watching season 2 and wonder why there aren’t any comments about it around here.  Odd.  Didn’t anyone else watch it?