S01.E06: Poirot

[Pop Tart]

Quote

Newfound fame presents challenges for Elizabeth. Mad continues her covert mission. Tensions surrounding the freeway come to a head.

Air date: 11.10.23

[Phebemarie]

Spoiler

I wish there had been a warning about violence in addition to the suicide advisory.  The scene with the police was hard to watch.

I liked that Elizabeth finally stood up to the ridiculous station owner and that Mad has finally had a break through in her search for details about her father.  

The rest of the episode was very hard to watch.

[aghst]

It was ridiculous that the workers on the show blamed only Elizabeth for Schrute suspending the show and employees without pay.

But she does have responsibility for their jobs.  I don't recall seeing her researching the finances of the show but sure call his bluff.  Maybe it's the biggest show on the station.

She's apparently giving lessons in chemistry, as the women in the audience were taking notes and would ask her questions about processes.  Doubtful that so many people would become so enthusiastic about chemistry talk on a TV show.

So why is her show so popular, because she speaks truth to power and she's inspirational to women who've felt overlooked and under appreciated, kind of like a proto-feminist movement before feminism because more popularized in the mid to late '60s?

Flashbacks to her brother's death explains the background for her decision to go to the sit-in and for confronting the station owner but then why didn't she stand up to the station owner from the beginning.  Yes she found out (again, I'm not sure if there was a specific scene) that he would lose a lot by suspending the show indefinitely.

I missed where the black reverend didn't know Mad's father was Calvin Evans.  Certainly Harriet's family would know her father and they know the reverend?  Isn't Mad's last name Evans?

They rushed the depiction of their relationship in Episode 2 so it's surprising that Calvin is supposedly this great influence on Elizabeth, who was pretty set in her ways before they met.

 

[AstridM]

18 minutes ago, aghst said:

It was ridiculous that the workers on the show blamed only Elizabeth for Schrute suspending the show and employees without pay.

But she does have responsibility for their jobs.  I don't recall seeing her researching the finances of the show but sure call his bluff.  Maybe it's the biggest show on the station.

She's apparently giving lessons in chemistry, as the women in the audience were taking notes and would ask her questions about processes.  Doubtful that so many people would become so enthusiastic about chemistry talk on a TV show.

So why is her show so popular, because she speaks truth to power and she's inspirational to women who've felt overlooked and under appreciated, kind of like a proto-feminist movement before feminism because more popularized in the mid to late '60s?

Flashbacks to her brother's death explains the background for her decision to go to the sit-in and for confronting the station owner but then why didn't she stand up to the station owner from the beginning.  Yes she found out (again, I'm not sure if there was a specific scene) that he would lose a lot by suspending the show indefinitely.

I missed where the black reverend didn't know Mad's father was Calvin Evans.  Certainly Harriet's family would know her father and they know the reverend?  Isn't Mad's last name Evans?

They rushed the depiction of their relationship in Episode 2 so it's surprising that Calvin is supposedly this great influence on Elizabeth, who was pretty set in her ways before they met.

 

No, her daughter has her last name. Why wouldn’t she?

[shapeshifter]

8 hours ago, Phebemarie said:

The rest of the episode was very hard to watch.

The warning about the suicide at the beginning did not prepare me for the much closer look at the police beating peaceful protesters. 🫣 😞 😑 🤕 😥

 

++++++++++++

 

5 hours ago, aghst said:

I missed where the black reverend didn't know Mad's father was Calvin Evans.  

4 hours ago, AstridM said:

No, her daughter has her last name. Why wouldn’t she?

Still, the Reverend's line of "Your father is Calvin Evans?" was confusing to some of us in the audience — maybe most of us? 
I'm not sure a line of "O-o-h. So you're father's name is not Calvin Zott; it's Calvin Evans…" would have been too clunky there. Maybe?

Maybe a throwaway line in this episode from the Reverend how he's new to the area and didn't know her father?

Or, probably best: If the Reverend mentioned in an earlier episode that he didn't know Mad's father (did he?), putting it in the previouslies would have been good.

 

++++++++++++

 

5 hours ago, aghst said:

why didn't she stand up to the station owner from the beginning.

I did see Elizabeth stand up to the station manager from the beginning. 

Or do you mean why didn't Elizabeth do the math before she caved to the sponsor for one episode of Supper At Six after the hair stylist pointed out how she was unable to support her own daughter if Elizabeth protested the Crisco Swift & Crisp ad, thereby causing the station owner executive to suspend the show?

In this episode the Evil station owner did succeed in "putting her in her place" for one episode of Supper At Six, but only because of her compassion for the other employees, not because he intimidated her.
But then Elizabeth did the math and schooled the station owner on it  (which was after Harriet pointed out to Elizabeth that she had a "platform").

Edited November 10, 2023 by shapeshifter

[EtheltoTillie]

I too was baffled when the Reverend didn't know the father's name.  It seemed that because of his association with the neighbors he would have known all the history.

Elizabeth is sometimes tone deaf.  So when she called Harriet who was upset about her family situation, she was all involved in her historic pants wearing breakthrough, and Harriet just looked pained. 

I like that Fran is now her deputy.  They do think alike. 

[KaveDweller]

On 11/10/2023 at 8:21 AM, shapeshifter said:

Still, the Reverend's line of "Your father is Calvin Evans?" was confusing to some of us in the audience — maybe most of us? 
I'm not sure a line of "O-o-h. So you're father's name is not Calvin Zott; it's Calvin Evans…" would have been too clunky there. Maybe?

I think it is supposed to be a cliffhanger. So that we are like, why is that important, does he know Calvin? And more will be explained next week.

It makes sense that someone in the 50s would assume Mad's father had the same last name as her and never thought to ask more details. 

[txhorns79]

What year is it supposed to be?  The picture of MLK they showed on the news that Harriet and her family was from a sit in, in Atlanta in 1960, but the story talked about him being taken to a courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama?  And the daughter brought up Claudette Colvin being her age, even though Claudette Colvin was a figure during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955/56, and would have been in her early 20s by 1960.  I was also kind of thinking that if they are protesting the freeway when it appears the freeway is already significantly built out, they have probably already lost the fight.   

And honestly, how many traumas is this show going to have Elizabeth go through?  Sexual assault in college, love interest dying tragically, and now, her brother's suicide when she was a little girl.  I shudder to think what is next.

[Hedgehog2022]

On 11/12/2023 at 9:51 PM, txhorns79 said:

What year is it supposed to be?  The picture of MLK they showed on the news that Harriet and her family was from a sit in, in Atlanta in 1960, but the story talked about him being taken to a courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama?  And the daughter brought up Claudette Colvin being her age, even though Claudette Colvin was a figure during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955/56, and would have been in her early 20s by 1960.  I was also kind of thinking that if they are protesting the freeway when it appears the freeway is already significantly built out, they have probably already lost the fight.   

And honestly, how many traumas is this show going to have Elizabeth go through?  Sexual assault in college, love interest dying tragically, and now, her brother's suicide when she was a little girl.  I shudder to think what is next.

I was confused about the brother's suicide...we heard a loud bang or bump? Then the bathroom door opened and her brother was on the floor.  It appeared that the father walked out of the bathroom hoisting his suspenders to his shoulders and proclaimed that her brother had "made his choice"...or something to that effect. It made it seem like the father might have killed him? 

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, Hedgehog2022 said:

I was confused about the brother's suicide...we heard a loud bang or bump? Then the bathroom door opened and her brother was on the floor.  It appeared that the father walked out of the bathroom hoisting his suspenders to his shoulders and proclaimed that her brother had "made his choice"...or something to that effect. It made it seem like the father might have killed him? 

At the beginning of the episode there is a disclaimer:

Quote

The following contains a depiction of suicide. Viewer discretion advised.
If you or someone you know needs support, go to Apple.com/heretohelp

So I didn’t question what happened.

However, the father was shown to have driven the son to suicide, which might cause viewers to look for an indication that the father physically murdered his son too, not just mentally. And we saw the father physically abuse the son, so if the son had not either run away or been driven to suicide, the father might have killed him eventually. 

But reviewing the scene starting at 29:34, the closed captioning does have “[gunshot]” for the loud bang.
The room outside the bathroom is dark, but to the left we can see in the dark that the family were all sleeping in that room — possibly in one bed?
After the gun shot, Elizabeth and her parents sit up in bed.
The mother opens the bathroom door first and sees the son on the floor, dead.

The father never enters the bathroom.
You may have understandably looked away for a second when the father closes the bathroom door with the hysterical mother and her dead son inside — perhaps closing the door in part so Elizabeth won’t see?

Then the father turns to Elizabeth when she asks what her brother did, and the father says "He made his choice."
Then he pulls up his suspenders, perhaps to indicate that he has the work to do of likely burying his son by himself in a shallow grave?