S03.E10: Tarrare

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

Yo Tarrare was a real person. Wild. They gotta stop biting these better shows tho. 

Original air date 2022.05.19 

[AngieBee1]

Very fitting title for an episode. Like Tarrare, Van had an insatiable appetite for anything to fill her hunger for something substantive; to just feel anything. I'm glad they brought back Candice from "Champagne Papi" to be there for her instead of having Earn be the person to feel her out.

Zazie was excellent in this episode. I felt as cornered as Van felt when Candice called out to her in the shoppe. The minute look of panic then trying to lie her way out of it before she had to roll with it.

I'm glad that the thought of Lottie brought Van out of her haze, but giving up crime-ing and sex with Alexander Skarsgård? Van has to figure out a way to have both of those worlds coexist. Holiday in France for the summer because nothing counts on vacation.

Even as wild as Van's new life was I was expecting more of an "Eyes Wide Shut" scenario than cannibalism using hands in place of ortolans.

-Glad the mystery is solved. Van didn't sleep with Darius or was spurned to leave a carefree life because she saw Tupac killed - she was "Amélie" inspired. It was so funny how she was embraced all the French stereotypes from the striped shirt to the ever present baguette sticking out of the bag.

-Nice seeing Lakeith's partner Xosha Roquemore guest star.

-We had Willie and Lester in "The Big Payback" that could have been nod to Willie Tyler and Lester. I wonder if Carlos and Emilio was a nod to Carlos Estevez (Charlie Sheen) and Emilio Estevez.

- Completely on board with Caucasian Earn popping up like some spectre walking through these tales, but the end tag scene showing that Earn Marks is a real guy with a family and great taste in music (I'd keep that Deftones shirt, too)? A bridge too far for me.

[possibilities]

2 hours ago, AngieBee1 said:

Alexander Skarsgård

He was one hell of a sport to take this role. 

 

[possibilities]

I did not know about this before:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrare

[heatherchandler]

10 hours ago, AngieBee1 said:

Even as wild as Van's new life was I was expecting more of an "Eyes Wide Shut" scenario than cannibalism using hands in place of ortolans.

Was there some symbolism to eating hands?  That really threw me.

I did laugh out loud when Skarsgård came into the party looking to eat the little hands!

[aghst]

Van at the end talked about the timeline.  She was in Atlanta 2 weeks ago.

So within two weeks, she hung out with Earn for awhile and then assumed this whole life?

Hell the baguette was suppose to be 6 months old!

Even two weeks between Amsterdam and Paris can get expensive, unless she took a couple of peeing gigs herself.

It still had a surreal air, like some of the anthology episodes.

Completely blasé about Skarsgard but she wanted to collect hands for the dinner?

Not that convinced that the mention of Lottie would snap her out of her funk.  After all, she left the kid back home to come on this adventure.  And IIRC, Earn asked her about Lottie earlier in the season.

Whatever malaise she felt -- whatever caused her to come to Europe on a whim --  it was while she was taking care of her daughter.  I can't recall how she came across as a mother in previous seasons, it's been so long.  But it seemed she had other diversions than her child, like the time she thought she was going through one of Drake's homes.

They must have quite a budget.  That place where she bludgeoned Emilio with the baguette looked like the Louvre.  Then that apartment at the end with the panoramic views of the Eiffel Tower would be prime real estate.  Or filming at that bench with the view of the tower, probably a very busy venue.

They probably didn't have to pay for the big celebrity cameos.  The stars are probably fans or buddies with Glover so he's kind of like a younger Woody Allen, the director everyone wants to work with.  Let's see if there are more celebrity cameos in any future seasons.

Edited May 20, 2022 by aghst

[Cthulhudrew]

4 hours ago, aghst said:

Hell the baguette was suppose to be 6 months old!

Didn't she buy it from the Boulangerie Candice found her at? Maybe she bought a really old one from the store.

That said, I did find this episode too surreal for my tastes. The stories with the main characters have been leaning more and more in this direction this season, but this was overdone to me. Particularly with Van, who I always thought was one of the more grounded characters. 

[JenE4]

That was…something. I think I’m actually speechless. Just when you think Van is carrying around this baguette for affectation. Yikes! When the mention of Lottie snapped her out of it, I thought maybe she was under some type of Stockholm Syndrome. But she chose this out of some crisis of self? I’ve heard of people escaping life to “find themselves” but they usually try to write the next great American novel or something. Black market action supervillain doesn’t quite come to mind.

[cmfran]

19 hours ago, aghst said:

Van at the end talked about the timeline.  She was in Atlanta 2 weeks ago.

So within two weeks, she hung out with Earn for awhile and then assumed this whole life?

Hell the baguette was suppose to be 6 months old!

Even two weeks between Amsterdam and Paris can get expensive, unless she took a couple of peeing gigs herself.

It still had a surreal air, like some of the anthology episodes.

Completely blasé about Skarsgard but she wanted to collect hands for the dinner?

Not that convinced that the mention of Lottie would snap her out of her funk.  After all, she left the kid back home to come on this adventure.  And IIRC, Earn asked her about Lottie earlier in the season.

Whatever malaise she felt -- whatever caused her to come to Europe on a whim --  it was while she was taking care of her daughter.  I can't recall how she came across as a mother in previous seasons, it's been so long.  But it seemed she had other diversions than her child, like the time she thought she was going through one of Drake's homes.

They must have quite a budget.  That place where she bludgeoned Emilio with the baguette looked like the Louvre.  Then that apartment at the end with the panoramic views of the Eiffel Tower would be prime real estate.  Or filming at that bench with the view of the tower, probably a very busy venue.

They probably didn't have to pay for the big celebrity cameos.  The stars are probably fans or buddies with Glover so he's kind of like a younger Woody Allen, the director everyone wants to work with.  Let's see if there are more celebrity cameos in any future seasons.

Time seems to have no meaning on this show. I've learned that you can't apply the normal rules of the universe while watching.

My feelings on this season are mixed, but love it or hate it, there's nothing else like it on TV.

[tennisgurl]

I called Van living out an Amélie fantasy as soon as I saw her hair and her striped shirt, although I don't remember the scene in the movie where Amélie beat the crap out of a guy with a stale baguette. That was another wild episode, but at least it starred an actual main character, albeit one who spends the episode basically pretending to be someone else. She certainly did have an eventful few weeks in Europe, although I have learned not to apply the normal rules of reality to this show, especially this season, almost every episode feels like a dream sequence. 

Nice that they brought Van's friend Candice from all the way back in Champaign Papi back to give her a cold dose of reality. Glad that she mentioned Lottie which brought Van back, she was really far down the rabbit hole even by this shows insane standards. I was absolutely expecting the dinner to get weird, but certainly not for everyone to start eating human hands. This show is getting just a tiny bit strange...

Is Donald Glover just tired of being on screen? I feel like he was on camera for about twenty minutes tops all season long. I guess that's how it is when almost half of your episodes are one off episodes, its possible he is just more engaged with the behind the scenes work these days. I get that he has a lot to say creatively, but could he give it a rest with these sarcastic episode descriptions? 

Alexander Skarsgård certainly was a good sport here, the biggest laugh of the episode for me was him just popping into the dinner all hungry for hands. 

I have mixed feelings about this season overall, but its certainly one of the most unique and thought provoking things on television. Whenever I see an episode, I know I'm going to keep thinking about it for awhile. 

[One Imaginary Girl]

Maybe this is too basic an interpretation, but I've been wondering if a theme of this season is a refutation of white supremacy, because there have been a whole lot of weird white people, mostly Europeans, in it.

[UnknownK]

I think they just wanted to show white people act like white people everywhere you go.

If I had to guess the people on the show got super well known after the first two seasons and were making some money doing movies and probably didn't want to come back for more. So we get a season 3 in Europe , basically a free vacation for the cast considering the amount of screen time they got, and some interesting one off episodes. The last season is back in Atlanta so I guess the cast will be more involved.

[xaxat]

22 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Is Donald Glover just tired of being on screen? I feel like he was on camera for about twenty minutes tops all season long

It's especially frustrating since Earn (setting aside whatever happened to Van) has grown more that the other characters since we saw them last. Darius is still Darius, Alfred is richer and more famous than before, but he's pretty much Alfred. Earn? He's always been about the hustle, but in previous seasons his hustle has been about keeping a roof over his head and getting Paper Boi enough work so Alfred doesn't fire his ass.

Now Earn is a legit success as a manager. Paper Boi has blown up internationally, Earn is super competent (Cancer Attack) and has even ensured that Alfred owns his music.

As for Van, I have no idea WTF they are doing with her. Whatever it is, I don't like it. She has deep psychological issues. Not just depression, not just suicidal thoughts, she actually believed that she was a person based on a fictional character. Except Van is her evil twin who beats the hell out of a guy with a baguette and traffics in severed human hands.

[UnknownK]

Earn just got lucky paperboy made it big otherwise he would be doing the same low end hustle with somebody else. 

Pretty much all the characters are the same people they used to be just higher in societies pecking order (for the moment).

Not sure where Van got her plane ticket money from but she was part of the paperboy crew until they left town and forgot her and she resorted to theft and made new crazy friends from the looks of it. 

[Marley]

This show is complete trash. Trying so hard to seem like it’s edgy and different. I’m done with it. I gave it so many chances this season

[JenE4]

15 hours ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

Maybe this is too basic an interpretation, but I've been wondering if a theme of this season is a refutation of white supremacy, because there have been a whole lot of weird white people, mostly Europeans, in it.

I posted an article in the media thread. The writers do have a theme that they work within. Like last season was “Robbin’ Season,” this one was “The Curse of Whiteness.” 

[Eureka]

I cracked up when I realized Zazie was dans le metro. Yeah, I’m a geek who was a French major in college (many years ago). Lol. 

[Bluesky]

On 5/24/2022 at 3:46 PM, One Imaginary Girl said:

Maybe this is too basic an interpretation, but I've been wondering if a theme of this season is a refutation of white supremacy, because there have been a whole lot of weird white people, mostly Europeans, in it.

He stereotypes Black people as equally as he stereotypes White people. A lot of scenes are predictable.