S01.E08: Make it Easy

[secnarf]

Quote

In 1957, Hawk and Tim reunite at Senator McCarthy's funeral and try, one last time, to find a way to be together, but the pressures of impending fatherhood may force Hawk to commit an act of betrayal. In San Francisco, in 1986, Hawk seeks redemption, seeing Tim through a medical crisis and facing Lucy, who arrives with an ultimatum. Marcus and Frankie are stunned by news concerning their adopted son, Jerome. Tim makes a wrenching decision that will change Hawk's life forever.

Series finale.

[fastiller]

So, the coming attractions ad at the end of last night's episode called this the SEASON finale.  Which surprised me; I'd've thought this would be a mini/limited one-and-done series.  I do wonder how they make a second season.

[secnarf]

10 hours ago, fastiller said:

So, the coming attractions ad at the end of last night's episode called this the SEASON finale.  Which surprised me; I'd've thought this would be a mini/limited one-and-done series.  I do wonder how they make a second season.

I put "series finale" as that is what TVDB called it - could be wrong or things could change. It wouldn't be the first time a show expanded beyond the initial book (e.g. The Handmaid's Tale), but I don't know if that is the plan for this series, given that Tim is terminally ill.

[Irlandesa]

It's strange that they call it a season finale but maybe they want to leave open the opportunity to tell other stories under the brand of Fellow Travelers sort of like Fargo.

Or maybe more directly comparable would be the series Dirty John and Doctor Death.  Both of the first seasons of each series was based on the original podcast bearing its name.  The second season was based on a different true crime story sharing a similar theme. 

I doubt they'd tell another story with these characters but perhaps they'd follow some other LGBTQ+ characters against the backdrop of a different relevant political movement.

 

[Snazzy Daisy]

Bravo Lucy! Walking away is the best decision you can make for your own happiness. 👏🏻

The “you’re innocent” moment between Marcus and Jerome is so deep & moving. 😭

Between the 2 couples, Tim and Frankie are the emotionally strong ones while Hawk and Marcus are the masculine, self-reliant type.

The birth of Jackson has helped Tim to realize that love is beyond measure.

Hawk cowardly hides behind his conservative/bulletproof persona all this time. Kissing Tim in public for the first time is his way of slowly shattering that persona. Is it too late? Maybe.

The father/daughter scene at the end is overwhelmingly heartbreaking. 😢💔😭

Quote

“He wasn’t my friend. He was the man I loved.”

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by Snazzy Daisy

[secnarf]

I almost made it through without crying, until the very last scene with the AIDS memorial quilt. As soon as they showed that, before we even saw Hawk, I was a mess. It was so misty in here I could barely read the names on the quilt.

The Roy Cohn tile is on the real quilt, exactly as it was shown. I wonder who made it. And who (fictionally) made Tim's quilt tile - was it Hawk? Marcus and/or Frankie?

I really did enjoy Fellow Travelers, but uplifting it was not. It does give a good perspective that I didn't have before, given that I was born after all of the events in this series. I had heard about the Red scare, Lavender scare, AIDS in the 1980s, Harvey Milk's assassination, etc, but I hadn't really looked at it in the context of a person's lifetime, and that the young adults in the 1950s become the older adults of the 1980s.

I haven't read the book, but I have been considering reading it just for more context on the characters - understanding you can't put all of the details into a TV series, and I feel like I want to know more about what happens to them. I did wonder if Hawk was telling the truth that he was negative.

[Bill1978]

I was doing so well until we got to Tim's quilt and then the dam wall burst. 

I'm happy that Lucy had the strength to leave Hawk. She does deserve to be desired, and she deserves to be able to live a life knowing she isn't the backup choice.

Happy that Hawk was able to tell his daughter about Tim and be confident enough to be himself in public. Especially after he threw Tim under the bus to the M-Unit to prevent Tim getting too familiar with Hawk at work and exposing Hawk for who he is. 

Happy that Tim went out fighting. Both politically and personally.

And I really liked that scene between Marcus and Jerome. I think it was important to show that contracting HIV didn't mean you deserve it or did something wrong, like so many people were saying in the 80s/90s and even still today.

This would have to be among my top tv shows of the year, possibly the best. And I hope that they don't continue it, even as an anthology series.

[ofmd]

I already had to fight tears when Marcus and Jerome talked. "I am innocent."

Then the end, with the quilt, and the Capitol in the background... oh dear.

It was a very good show and I, too, hope they don't continue it, but if successful, they probably will.

I remember that the Armistead Maupin books Tales of the City did a very good job of telling this story of a whole generation nof gay young men being wiped out (while generally being lighthearted and at times hilarious), too.

"Roy Cohn. Bully, coward, victim."

I suspected that Hawk had done another mean thing to Tim, and oh yeah, he did. Nice to see Mary again, though. I wish she could have met Frankie's former duet partner...

No, uplifting this show was not. These stories are so worthy and important to be told. What bugs me, and is very telling about our culture still, is that it is only the tragic stories that get told in the big productions.It's not that equally dramatic queer stories don't get pitched, but they don't get funded.

I hear a gay movie got nominated for an Oscar, and I immediately ask: "Who's dying?" I hear that show so-and-so had a gay character, and I ask the same thing. It's even worse with queer women characters. Well, tbf, they sometimes just turn out to be evil. /rant over.

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by ofmd

[PurpleTentacle]

This ending was hard. I didn't cry but was certainly on the verge of tears.

I get why it was important for Hawk to tell his daughter his truth at the quilt. But I would have liked to have seen Marcus and Frankie again. Maybe they could have walked up, when the camera was panning away.

I hope Jerome makes it. I can't quite remember when this storyline took place, but I found an article that said 1986. The first HIV drugs came out in 1987 and the really effective ones around 91, if I remember corretly. He's young and even untreated HIV can have an incubation time of a decade or more. So he cartainly has a good chance.

Sometimes I'm glad how far we've come. Then I remember that Matt Bomer has basically only been able to play gay roles since coming out, while his twin brother from another mother, Henry Cavill, reamains in the closet and gets all of them juicy straight action hero roles, alongside countless other Hollywood actors. Which then reminds me that we still have a long way to go.

[maddie965]

One of my favorite TV shows ever. I've learned so much and reflected about so many things I hadn't payed attention before. So refreshing and wonderful to see a love story between two gay men being told in an adult, thoughtful way. On the shallow side, it was so hot!!! And Matt Bommer is still the most beautiful man on Earth.

I'm going to miss those two...

 

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by maddie965

[marceline]

So much going on in this episode.

I have to admit that I shared Marcus' reaction to the news that Hawk tested negative. Hawk has spent his entire life engaging in risky behavior yet Tim is the one dying from AIDS.

The quilt scene really got to me. It was a reminder of how there was life and activism before social media.

[EtheltoTillie]

I’m just an old cis het woman but I loved this show. Such a sad story, ultimately it was all about secrets. But also a good history lesson. Skippy was such a great character. 

[PurpleTentacle]

4 hours ago, marceline said:

I have to admit that I shared Marcus' reaction to the news that Hawk tested negative. Hawk has spent his entire life engaging in risky behavior yet Tim is the one dying from AIDS.

Well Hawk did dial his random encounters back a lot once he got married and that was before the AIDS epidemic. That is of course if we believe him, but I don't see much of a reason not to. If he wanted to lie he would have just denied it outright.

Also he usually doesn't seem to be the bottom. At the HIV test questionnaire he even said "never". So maybe Tim was the only exception to that rule. It's unfair but true that you have a much, much higher chance of contracting HIV when you are the bottom rather than the top.

[fastiller]

Too many great comments above to quote them all.  I also think this s/b a 'one & done' series.  No need for another, even if they anthologize it.

Agreed that it's good that Lucy left him.  It took the entirety of the series for me to like her (it happened when she turned her cheek to Hawk when he tried to kiss her after rushing home to her; though I didn't love her 'it's the woman's job to worry' comment, notwithstanding societal norms at the time).

During the basketball scene I for whatever reason thought Jerome was mid-teens, then I recalled he was in college, so likely late-teens, early 20s. 
I'm a little younger than he would be; during the later 80s and into the early 90s I volunteered with a few NYC/Long Island area HIV/AIDS non-profits.  I feel like Jerome would've been one of the clients I'd've connected with.  Most of the guys in the show remind me of various clients, but Jerome just sticks out (probably b/c of closeness of ages).  Tim's comment about his hospital being the only one that treated patients the way his did also stuck out: I recall people thinking they needed hazmat suits, even into the later 80s (this is well portrayed in The Normal Heart, where Bomer gives another stellar performance).  I also recall hearing at the time that Roy Cohn got a square on the quilt and the very varied responses of my friends and fellow-volunteers/clients at that news.

I hope Kimberly gets therapy. 

Sen. McCarthy & Roy Cohn: good riddance, you two can f*ck right off!!!!

Glad to have met you Tim, Hawk, Marcus, Frankie, Mary, Jerome, Kimberly, Jackson... and yes, even Lucy (and Sen. Smith & Leo too).

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by fastiller

[EtheltoTillie]

The hard part is remembering people who were lost.  I used to work in publishing.  We'd lose so many people in the creative fields.  One very good friend of mine who is 60 seems to have PTSD from remembering the 80s. 

[lovett1979]

On 12/16/2023 at 1:44 AM, Bill1978 said:

This would have to be among my top tv shows of the year, possibly the best. And I hope that they don't continue it, even as an anthology series.

I wish more Hollywood executives understood this sentiment.

[lovett1979]

I really enjoyed this show, I think there was a lot of wonderful things about it, but now I'm going to complain a bit. The show tried to do too much, and in in trying failed at most of it. My understanding is the book is really just focused on their story in the 50s and the Lavender Scare (please correct me if I'm wrong). The show expands Hawk/Tim's story to cover 30 years, creates the Marcus/Frankie story to explore how black and more fem gays experienced the same eras, delves into the twisted world of McCarthy/Cohn/Shine, and also tries to teach gay history over 30 years in the US. With only 8 hours to do this all, this was impossible. I think it's Tim's story that really suffers because of this. He seems to go through the most change of all the characters, but that change often comes without reason and seem to swing back and forth. I'm going to attempt to put (what we see of) his story in chronological order:

1952 - Idealistic, anti-communist, devoutly Catholic Tim meets and falls for Hawk.

1953 - Their relationship continues, but Tim is bothered by Hawk's distance and conflicted with his own Catholic guilt. He also starts to turn against McCarthy after his pivot to target gay people in government.

1954 - After a disturbing encounter with Cohn and realizing Hawk will never be the man he wants him to be, Tim leaves his job and enlists in the Army.

? - Tim leaves a note under Hawk's apartment door saying he loves him but needs to find some other purpose.

1957 - Tim (out of the Army now, I guess) sends Hawk a telegram about helping refugees which leads to them meeting up, Hawk getting Tim a job at State, and them rekindling their relationship. Tim seems to not have any Catholic guilt over loving a man or issues over Hawk's relationship limitations. The affair ends when Hawk torpedoes the job (and any future government employment for Tim) though Tim chooses not to explode Hawk's life when he sees his newborn child.

1968 - Tim is now in seminary and is an anti-Vietnam war activist. (WHERE DID ANY OF THAT COME FROM???) He's back to feeling guilty about his sexual desires but also so committed to the anti-war movement that he's willing to go to prison for many years.

1979 - Tim is now a fully-comfortable, self-actualized gay man living in San Francisco and working in a health center. (AGAIN, WHERE DID ANY OF THAT COME FROM???) He's seeing someone but gets drawn back into Hawk's world until Hawk disappoints him.

1986 - Tim is dying of AIDS, passionate about queer and AIDS-related politics, and Hawk comes to see him. They finally make peace and Tim dies.

The show spent 5 of its episodes on those first 3 years alone! And then tried to speed through the remaining 30 years in just 3 episodes. They should have either stayed in the 50s entirely, or eliminated all the McCarthy/Cohn/Shine stuff and focused more on Tim, Hawk, and their full lives.

In Episode 2, Tim's sister tells Hawk that he ruined Tim from loving any other man. That may be true, but we never get to see any evidence of that. I guess maybe the fact that Tim said he was seeing someone but than had a threeway with Hawk on Fire Island? But my interpretation of the sister's statement was that Tim loved Hawk so deeply he could never love anyone else. Considering we get to spend 30 years with these characters, it might have been nice to be shown that, rather than told. 

One character who I wish we had a little more time with was Leonard Smith. We never see or hear of him after Hawk takes him to the conversion therapy institute. Did he just stay there the rest of his life? He was Lucy's brother! I know she was bothered by what he did she just cut him out of her life and never think of him again. When ECT as part of conversion treatments was mentioned in the Fire Island episode, I expected at least a guilty look from Hawk thinking about what he did, but no, nothing. I would have loved to see Lucy's attitude about gays evolve to where she loved her brother again, though still felt betrayed and abandoned by her husband.

Again, I really enjoyed this show but I'm disappointed that it was maybe too ambitious given its limitations. Feel free to argue with me, and please correct my timeline if I missed something.

[EtheltoTillie]

These are all valid points, but as you suggested, you enjoyed the show anyway, as did I.  I guess they needed a continuity editor.

[ahpny]

I found the relationship, such that it was, between Lucy and Tim to be one of the more interesting parts of this series, but I didn't quite get why Lucy's hospital visit steeled her enough to confront Hawk after 30 years and leave. Her explanation didn't make all that much sense to me. Maybe she had already subconciously made up her mind and just needed the reality of the situation - medical crisis and all - to make her voice her decision. I also don't get why we heard nothing futher about her brother. Wouldn't you expect he'd be a good source of information for Lucy to ask oh so many questions?

[PurpleTentacle]

11 hours ago, lovett1979 said:

I think it's Tim's story that really suffers because of this. He seems to go through the most change of all the characters, but that change often comes without reason and seem to swing back and forth.

I think it's not that uncommon with people losing their faith to flip-flop back and forth. It took Tim an awfully long time to go through that, it seems, but I can buy it and don't necessarily have to see it on screen.

11 hours ago, lovett1979 said:

The show spent 5 of its episodes on those first 3 years alone! And then tried to speed through the remaining 30 years in just 3 episodes. They should have either stayed in the 50s entirely, or eliminated all the McCarthy/Cohn/Shine stuff and focused more on Tim, Hawk, and their full lives.

Here I agree. This was very uneven and they either should have had more episodes or cut some of the 50s stuff.

I guess it's always easier to just rewrite a book into a screenplay than coming up with your own stuff. So the writers took the easy way out.

11 hours ago, lovett1979 said:

In Episode 2, Tim's sister tells Hawk that he ruined Tim from loving any other man. That may be true, but we never get to see any evidence of that. I guess maybe the fact that Tim said he was seeing someone but than had a threeway with Hawk on Fire Island? But my interpretation of the sister's statement was that Tim loved Hawk so deeply he could never love anyone else. Considering we get to spend 30 years with these characters, it might have been nice to be shown that, rather than told. 

I guess the conceit of the show is that we only ever see Tim through Hawk's eyes. We rarely if ever see him alone. We see Hawk alone more often, but also only ever at times when he is getting (back) together with Tim. So this is a story about their relationship and nothing else. I agree, it would have been nice to get a bit more background, but I guess you have to draw the line somewhere.

11 hours ago, lovett1979 said:

One character who I wish we had a little more time with was Leonard Smith. We never see or hear of him after Hawk takes him to the conversion therapy institute. Did he just stay there the rest of his life? He was Lucy's brother!

I wholeheartedly agree with this one. I was wondering the same.

Lucy didn't seem like somebody who would never speak to her brother again, just because he was gay. When she told Hawk about it, she only expressed sorrow about her brother having to live in fear all his life, nothing else.

I can only assume that he died. Either due to the "therapy" or due to suicide, but then we should have gotten at least a mention.

That was really weird, how they just cut that storyline off.

3 minutes ago, ahpny said:

I found the relationship, such that it was, between Lucy and Tim to be one of the more interesting parts of this series, but I didn't quite get why Lucy's hospital visit steeled her enough to confront Hawk after 30 years and leave. Her explanation didn't make all that much sense to me. Maybe she had already subconciously made up her mind and just needed the reality of the situation - medical crisis and all - to make her voice her decision. I also don't get why we heard nothing futher about her brother. Wouldn't you expect he'd be a good source of information for Lucy to ask oh so many questions?

I think when she saw that Hawk had been sleeping there every night to be with Tim, while remembering how he was never there when she was pregnent or ill, made it clear to her who he really loved.

[chaifan]

On 12/19/2023 at 10:55 PM, ahpny said:

I didn't quite get why Lucy's hospital visit steeled her enough to confront Hawk after 30 years and leave.

I think it had a lot to do with a convergence of circumstances.  They were getting ready to move for Hawk's foreign post, and this would have meant being separated from all of her family and friends, including her grandchild, to be with a husband that was more like a roommate.  She no longer had to keep up appearances for society, her father or her children.  Lucy no longer had to pretend her marriage was perfect.  And Tim's death, and the time Hawk spent with him in those final days/weeks (how long was he in SF?), I think cemented the fact that yep, Lucy was married to a man that couldn't love her the way she wanted to be loved. 

If they weren't moving abroad, would she have left in that moment?  I don't know.  But there was a plot reason they were packing up to move, and I feel this was it. 

Overall, I liked the series.  I liked the McCarthy era part, and being shown the innerworkings of what was happening.  Most coverage of that time concentrates on the rooting out of supposed communists, but glosses over what happened to anyone suspected of being gay.  I also loved the scenes in the gay black nightclub.   I would think they would have had a better advance warning system for raids, though.

[lianau]

On 12/19/2023 at 5:40 PM, lovett1979 said:

1968 - Tim is now in seminary and is an anti-Vietnam war activist. (WHERE DID ANY OF THAT COME FROM???) He's back to feeling guilty about his sexual desires but also so committed to the anti-war movement that he's willing to go to prison for many years.

1979 - Tim is now a fully-comfortable, self-actualized gay man living in San Francisco and working in a health center. (AGAIN, WHERE DID ANY OF THAT COME FROM???) He's seeing someone but gets drawn back into Hawk's world until Hawk disappoints him.

 

For me it made perfect sense , not the anti Vietnam stuff itself but that Tim went all in. He has that need to believe in something 100% . Religion , then  McCarthy , followed by  his relationship with Hawk and back to religion when that finally fell apart after Jackson's birth and he was told to place the love for someone he can't have onto God . I was happy that he didn't end up in a cult because he has that cult follower personality .

[Scarlett45]

On 12/15/2023 at 9:27 PM, secnarf said:

And who (fictionally) made Tim's quilt tile - was it Hawk? Marcus and/or Frankie?

I assumed Frankie made the quilt- although I don’t doubt Marcus and Jerome helped him.  

 

On 12/19/2023 at 10:03 PM, PurpleTentacle said:

I think it's not that uncommon with people losing their faith to flip-flop back and forth. It took Tim an awfully long time to go through that, it seems, but I can buy it and don't necessarily have to see it on screen.

Here I agree. This was very uneven and they either should have had more episodes or cut some of the 50s stuff.

I guess it's always easier to just rewrite a book into a screenplay than coming up with your own stuff. So the writers took the easy way out.

I guess the conceit of the show is that we only ever see Tim through Hawk's eyes. We rarely if ever see him alone. We see Hawk alone more often, but also only ever at times when he is getting (back) together with Tim. So this is a story about their relationship and nothing else. I agree, it would have been nice to get a bit more background, but I guess you have to draw the line somewhere.

I wholeheartedly agree with this one. I was wondering the same.

Lucy didn't seem like somebody who would never speak to her brother again, just because he was gay. When she told Hawk about it, she only expressed sorrow about her brother having to live in fear all his life, nothing else.

I can only assume that he died. Either due to the "therapy" or due to suicide, but then we should have gotten at least a mention.

That was really weird, how they just cut that storyline off.

I think when she saw that Hawk had been sleeping there every night to be with Tim, while remembering how he was never there when she was pregnent or ill, made it clear to her who he really loved.

 

On 12/26/2023 at 10:32 AM, chaifan said:

I think it had a lot to do with a convergence of circumstances.  They were getting ready to move for Hawk's foreign post, and this would have meant being separated from all of her family and friends, including her grandchild, to be with a husband that was more like a roommate.  She no longer had to keep up appearances for society, her father or her children.  Lucy no longer had to pretend her marriage was perfect.  And Tim's death, and the time Hawk spent with him in those final days/weeks (how long was he in SF?), I think cemented the fact that yep, Lucy was married to a man that couldn't love her the way she wanted to be loved. 

If they weren't moving abroad, would she have left in that moment?  I don't know.  But there was a plot reason they were packing up to move, and I feel this was it. 

Overall, I liked the series.  I liked the McCarthy era part, and being shown the innerworkings of what was happening.  Most coverage of that time concentrates on the rooting out of supposed communists, but glosses over what happened to anyone suspected of being gay.  I also loved the scenes in the gay black nightclub.   I would think they would have had a better advance warning system for raids, though.

Yes. I also wondered what happens to Lucy’s brother. I think Hawk did love Lucy, and he certainly didn’t want her to be sick or unwell. I don’t doubt if Lucy had been in the hospital he would’ve visited her and taken good care of her (we saw when she went into labor he was there all night and just went home to change which was NOT common in that era- fathers weren’t allowed in the delivery room); but he would’ve done it out of duty and friendship, NOT because he was “in love” with her. He felt guilty (rightly so!) when she was trying to reach him at work and he was off fucking Tim. But because he’s a selfish ass, he ruins Tim’s career chances rather than you know, having some self control! Tim is a PERSON not a toy for you to play with. 
 

I am glad we got more of Mary. I would’ve liked to have seen her in the 80s. What job did she get with the senator whose seat she eventually ran for? Because she said she no longer worked for the federal gov, so maybe a chief of staff or PA position. 
 

At this point Lucy is in her late 50s/ early  60s (although the fashion was on point they didn’t age the characters enough with makeup)- leaving behind her daughter, friends, extended family, grandchildren, to go to Milan to keep Hawk company? For WHAT? I don’t think she hates Hawk, she knows he cared for her and he is the father of their children, and they share the love for their grandchild(ren) but why should she uproot her entire life and give up everything for him NOW?!!

 

I don’t hate Hawk, but I hated when 1. He sent Leonard conversion therapy, 2. He outed Tim and ruined a career for him in the federal government because Hawk didn’t want to be tempted by his presence. Selfish asshole. Hawk has so much internalized homophobia, and because he’s had to spend so much time hiding he is always playing defense.
 

He’s not an evil guy- it’s clear he was a good father, his daughter loves him very much and I’m so glad she showed up to support him. But parent/child love is inherently unselfish. I say all that to say, I’m not surprised out of anyone the person he loved best was his child.  
 

It was amazing many series. I loved Frankie, Marcus and their chosen family with Jerome. Jerome was a college student in 1979, so maybe he was born in 1960, he was 26 in 1986. My Mom said it’s likely he made it to 1996 but it’s not likely he’s alive in 2024. 

Edited March 25 by Scarlett45