S01.E03: Hit Me

[secnarf]

Quote

Hawk and Tim go on a road trip that turns sour when Tim realizes Hawk is using the trip to dig up dirt on Senator Smith’s enemies. Marcus and Frankie’s encounter with a racist bouncer nearly tears them apart. Roy is desperate to keep David from being drafted and Jean Kerr questions McCarthy’s masculinity. In 1980s San Francisco, Tim withholds forgiveness until a medical emergency gives Hawk a chance to prove he’s worthy of it.

 

[AngieBee1]

Marcus and Hawk would be so much better than Tim and Frankie. But I can see why Marcus and Hawk never went the distance because they are mirror images of each other.  I feel for Tim and Frankie but those two have to realize that expecting more from people who have already told you their rules of engagement is just going to lead to frustration and heartbreak. 

 

[Snazzy Daisy]

Wow, sexy Marcus! Damn. 😍

Am glad we get to see more Marcus and Frankie in this episode.

Poor Daniel, he suffers enough. Looking forward to the McCarthy takedown.

That restaurant scene is hard to watch. Tim being so excited at first, then comes the hard conversation.

Quote

TIM: “And what are you looking for?”

HAWK: “Complete personal freedom.”

TIM: “You mean not giving yourself to something or somebody.”

HAWK: “If you want to see it that way.”

TIM: “How does Lucy Smith see it?”

His painful realization is on full display. He can never have the love & relationship that he wants with straight-passing Hawk. It’s heartbreaking. 💔

This man is totally in love. It’s all in his eyes! 

 

Edited November 10, 2023 by Snazzy Daisy

[Bill1978]

And Christian Grey returns this episode haha.

It's a shame that Hawk isn't prepared to really let himself be true to himself, even the 80s he has an element of denial over who he is. Whereas Tim is comfortable with who he is, even in the 1950s (and with his religious convictions).

So, I was beginning to formulate a theory last episode that Tim wasn't dying of AIDS but something else (and for some reason didn't want Hawk to know the truth). But this episode proved me wrong by showing Tim with Kaposi Sarcoma.

This show is doing a really good job of weaving historical fact with its historical fiction and giving the supporting characters their own plot outside of propelling the Hawk/Tim plot forward. There is a lot of parallel between Hawk and Marcus not being the confident gay man they pretend to be, but at the moment it looks like Marcus is prepared to work on himself for the sake of his love interest.

I have a feeling that photo of McCarthy is going to draw Hawk into McCarthy's investigation.

[ahpny]

I've never before heard that McCarthy was gay, or at least had some gay sex. I'm not sure that's been historically demonstrated, and maybe that's more like current theories (which rest on too few facts for my taste) that Lincoln was gay. It is historically accurate that McCarthy was a crude and abusive drunk, and for most of his life, single, until he suddenly married his secretary. Cohn and Shine, that needs no further comment.

[Bill1978]

2 hours ago, ahpny said:

I've never before heard that McCarthy was gay, or at least had some gay sex. I'm not sure that's been historically demonstrated,

From McCarthy's Wikipedia page:

In 1950, McCarthy assaulted journalist Drew Pearson in the cloakroom at the Sulgrave Club, reportedly kneeing him in the groin. McCarthy, who admitted the assault, claimed he merely "slapped" Pearson.[49] In 1952, using rumors collected by Pearson as well as other sources, Nevada publisher Hank Greenspun wrote that McCarthy was a frequent patron at the White Horse Inn, a Milwaukee gay bar, and cited his involvement with young men. Greenspun named some of McCarthy's alleged lovers, including Charles E. Davis, an ex-Communist and "confessed homosexual" who claimed that he had been hired by McCarthy to spy on U.S. diplomats in Switzerland.[50][51]

McCarthy's FBI file also contains numerous allegations, including a 1952 letter from an Army lieutenant who said, "When I was in Washington some time ago, [McCarthy] picked me up at the bar in the Wardman [Hotel] and took me home, and while I was half-drunk he committed sodomy on me." J. Edgar Hoover conducted a perfunctory investigation of the Senator's alleged sexual assault; Hoover's approach was that "homosexuals are very bitter against Senator McCarthy for his attack upon those who are supposed to be in the Government."[52][53]

Although some notable McCarthy biographers have rejected these rumors,[54] others have suggested that he may have been blackmailed. During the early 1950s, McCarthy launched a series of attacks on the CIA, claiming it had been infiltrated by communist agents. Allen Dulles, who suspected McCarthy was using information supplied by Hoover, refused to cooperate. According to the historian David Talbot, Dulles also compiled a "scandalous" intimate dossier on the Senator's personal life and used the homosexual stories to take him down.[55]

In any event, McCarthy did not sue Greenspun for libel. (He was told that if the case went ahead he would be compelled to take the witness stand and to refute the charges made in the affidavit of the young man, which was the basis for Greenspun's story.) In 1953, he married Jean Fraser Kerr, a researcher in his office. In January 1957, McCarthy and his wife adopted an infant with the help of Roy Cohn's close friend Cardinal Spellman. They named the baby girl Tierney Elizabeth McCarthy.[56]'

 

The author of the book appears to have done his research and is using historical information that exists that implies that McCarthy may have had moments with other men. Whether he did or not is up for debate but it's not like the book/show has made this aspect of McCarthy's life up by themselves.

[ahpny]

1 hour ago, Bill1978 said:

The author of the book appears to have done his research and is using historical information that exists that implies that McCarthy may have had moments with other men. Whether he did or not is up for debate but it's not like the book/show has made this aspect of McCarthy's life up by themselves.

No one suggested this just got conjured up from the ether, just that there's no definitive proof. But short of a sex tape (that wouldn't exist for several decades), I'm not sure what would count as "definitive" proof anyway (and what was in that envelope that Hawk paid for?). Nevertheless, much could be marshalled to make the point, as in recounted in the Wiki entry. I just didn't know any of this, and I thought I knew the history of McCarthyism fairly well. Guess not as well as I thought.

Edited November 13, 2023 by ahpny

[Bill1978]

6 hours ago, ahpny said:

and what was in that envelope that Hawk paid for?)

A photo of the soldier being hugged (from memory) by McCarthy. Perhaps at a private party. Not too sure, it was a pretty quick shot of the photo and I haven't rewatched it.

If I was Hawk, I wouldn't launch an investigation based solely on the photo BUT it does offer a chance of scandal for McCarthy if it got out. Especially since him, Cohen and David are apparently referred to as Bonnie & Bonnie & Clyde.

I'm predicting that Hawk is going to overplay his hand, give the photo to his senator who will then go after McCarthy. Resulting in McCarthy going after Hawk as revenge.

[xander874]

I came into this mainly for Matt Bomer (and a bit Jonathan Bailey) as I am big fan. But Hawk can be such an ass. I guess this is a testament to MB's portrayal that I love and hate him simultaneously.

And I want to root for these 2 guys but I've realized while this is a love story, it is also a toxic relationship and as we know how it more-or-less ends, there is no happy ending here. It sucks for Tim because he never got to experience true happiness and it also sucks for Hawk because of the same (just in a different way). 

I will say that at first, Tim's sister annoyed me but as I've pondered, I realize she is totally justified and I hope she comes back and continues to give Hawk the death glare.

[Harvey]

Hawk is such a bad person and seems to have everything. The theme bad things so happen to good people, no matter how good they truly are is very present.

[Sarah 103]

On 11/13/2023 at 3:44 PM, ahpny said:

No one suggested this just got conjured up from the ether, just that there's no definitive proof. But short of a sex tape (that wouldn't exist for several decades), I'm not sure what would count as "definitive" proof anyway

I think with the right recording equipment, it's on the absolute verge of plausible. It would be audio only. The FBI had wiretaps (not sure what you call it when the hotel room is bugged/people are listening from the room next door) of MLK's extramarital affairs in the sixties. This series is a decade away from that, but I would not rule it out completely as a possibility. 

[PaulE]

On 11/14/2023 at 8:17 AM, xander874 said:

I came into this mainly for Matt Bomer (and a bit Jonathan Bailey) as I am big fan. But Hawk can be such an ass. I guess this is a testament to MB's portrayal that I love and hate him simultaneously.

And I want to root for these 2 guys but I've realized while this is a love story, it is also a toxic relationship and as we know how it more-or-less ends, there is no happy ending here. It sucks for Tim because he never got to experience true happiness and it also sucks for Hawk because of the same (just in a different way). 

I will say that at first, Tim's sister annoyed me but as I've pondered, I realize she is totally justified and I hope she comes back and continues to give Hawk the death glare.

Hawk essentially has sold his soul to the devil, and he uses cynicism and superficiality as protection (for understandable reasons).  Tim, although he's become disillusioned with his Catholic faith, hasn't given up on the intangibles which he knows are the only things that make life worth living.  The only way he knows how to love is unselfishly, and he's willing to make sacrifices for his beloved, such as helping to frame poor Caroline and submitting to painful rough sex.  But he's still idealistic enough not to accept Hawk's world view as the correct one.  In fact, I think his disillusionment with Hawk, no matter how much he still loves him, began with the letter to Mary.  He hated doing it and I think he's retained enough of a Christian conscience never to forgive himself entirely for giving in to Hawk's request.  Tim breaks my heart.  As Hawk himself has finally understood, Tim is a good person.  I think Hawk knows he doesn't deserve him.

You're right about Tim's sister.  She loves her brother unconditionally and doesn't judge him--that wasn't universally true of family members during the AIDS crisis--and she's going to be hostile to anyone who's hurt him.  I think she saw through Hawk immediately, so there's not a lot of respect there.  Also, given the paranoia and misconceptions surrounding AIDS at that time, she's very brave to live with Time and take care of him, especially because they both know his condition will only worsen and life will become very, very hard for her as well as for him.

 

[Scarlett45]

I know I’m watching behind everyone (I appreciate being able to read your comments); but this episode showed me that one of the reasons (perhaps the biggest reason) Hawk marries Lucy (of course she is attractive and well connected, and he likes her), is because he deeply wanted to be Senator Smith’s son. As much he proclaims he doesn’t care, he wants to be loved and accepted for who he is. He feels so indebted to Smith this is a way to be “his” officially. 
 

We know his Mom is probably the only person who he’s 100% himself with. However she’s his Mom, he expects that (most people are loved unconditionally by their mothers I think).