S01.E14: The Night Lila Died / S01.E15: It's All My Fault

[theatremouse]

A lot of posters have been saying that they thought the show was telegraphing that Bonnie killed Lila. I didn't get that at all. The only thing I can think of is the scene with Bonnie telling Lila to leave, which we'd seen before. What other things did you guys notice that made you think it was going to be Bonnie?

There were a number of shots of Bonnie in some of the flashbacks that were flashbacks we'd seen before replayed, that in the replaying of them during the two-parter, focused on Bonnie when the earlier appearances of the same flashback did not focus on Bonnie and/or this time showed Bonnie looking in some way nervous. I'd stop short of calling them "lingering shots" because they weren't quite that emphatic, but there were definite directorial choices that read clearly, to me at least, as "please look at this scenes again and suspect Bonnie now if you did not already." It was very heavy handed to me, so I was sort of glad it was not Bonnie since it seemed so telegraphed. Not that Frank-via-Sam was particularly satisfying to me, but the Bonnie telegraphing in part 1 was a sort of conspicuous misdirect for the ultimate reveal of Frank. They apparently felt the need to last minute red-herring themselves, as if there weren't plenty of reasons to suspect a ton of people anyway.

As I've said before about this show: it strikes me as conspicuously aware of how clever it's trying to be with its own twists. Menolike.

Edited March 9, 2015 by theatremouse

[discoprincess]

 It'd be one thing for him to overdose on the drug he thought he was taking and another to have a laced drug that Rebecca knew could have very dangerous side effects. Him not asking if there was anything else or what the specific drug was doesn't absolve her of blame. 

Recently five students at Weslyan (which interestingly enough is in a town named Middletown) were arrested for dealing drugs after several of their classmates overdosed on molly. (One student reportedly was arrested while he was at the hospital visiting one of the students who was a patient there). This case made me think of what Rebecca did to Rudy. She's lucky the authorities didn't trace Rudy's wigging out back to her; she could have faced charges for that as well.

 

I wonder if Wes was going to sell Rebecca out to the police if she was actually going to sell out the K5 - i.e. had she lived.  

 

ETA: Why is Rudy still in a mental ward? Have any of the healthcare providers noticed that his condition is probably due to a drug overdose? Does Rudy have an underlying history of mental illness? Why were Wes and Laurel allowed to visit with Rudy in his room? I've visited someone in the psych ward in more than one hospital, and not only is security really tight, but visitors were only allowed to meet with patients in common areas, not in patients' rooms.

Edited March 11, 2015 by discoprincess

[truthaboutluv]

Why is Rudy still in a mental ward?

 

 

Because he's still unwell.

 

Have any of the healthcare providers noticed that his condition is probably due to a drug overdose?

 

 

I would imagine tests were done so I'm sure they're aware that he had drugs in his system.

 

Does Rudy have an underlying history of mental illness?

 

According to the flashback of him and Rebecca before she gave him the drug, he suffered from anxiety and was on medication for it.

 

Why were Wes and Laurel allowed to visit with Rudy in his room?

 

 

 

Laurel pretended she was family and had a fake ID to back it up, to be granted visitation. 

[wanderingstar]

Laurel pretended she was family and had a fake ID to back it up, to be granted visitation.

 

I inferred that Wes created that for her since we saw earlier in the season that he was pretty adept at making fake IDs.

[truthaboutluv]

I don't think he did only because he looked momentarily shocked when she oh so casually whipped it out when the woman asked for ID. 

[theatremouse]

I took his look more so as "I hope this works" than "I am surprised she has one".

[aradia22]

I really thought I was out on this show but then there was the end of the last episode. The building revelations (minus Oliver, because, really?) were mildly interesting but it was the final one that clinched it. Not because it was shocking but because the show might actually get to a good place now. We've had a nice run of Wes feeling like an idiot (which he should) and now one of the... no, the most annoying character has been dealt with. I see you, HTGAWM. OK. Let's play.

[HoodlumSheep]

Finally saw the last two episodes! both were excellent. I've loved all the music choices they've made so far.

Fare thee well, Rebecca!

Also, i love shady Sam! He's one of my favorites for some reason. Just so sleazy!

Felt bad for Wes when Annalise chewed him out in front of everyone. Kinda embarrassing.

As to thoughts on Rebecca's murder? Frank was the one who tied her up, so maybe he secretly fake-tied her up in order to escape for reason. As to who actually killed her? I have no idea. I don't know if the show writers would have another murder-by-Wes so soon in the series, but maybe that'll end up being the twist?

I'm not sure if they'll have everyone getting a chance at murdering someone by the end of the show, or if they'll keep any of their hands murder-free.

Glad to know that technically Sam did murder Lila.

[kieyra]

Just saw the whole s1 on Netflix. Can't imagine I'm saying anything new, but I can't stand Wes, it's an unfortunate confluence of hating the character, hating what the actor is doing, and also being driven to distraction by the actor's weird low hairline that makes him look like he's wearing a hat made out of hair. Sorry, shallow, but it drives me nuts.

Um, I guess the ending managed to be "surprising", but only because they'd kept Frank out of all of the flashback sequences for the most part, and then they did a typical Shonda death shocker at the end. The finale structure was also terrible, with people pausing to go to meetings and have lunch while they had a woman duct taped in the basement. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to conclude they're all sociopaths, but it's difficult not to at this point.

The performances are fantastic, Viola Davis earned that Emmy, and who knew Rosie Larson could act? But this is why I swore off Shonda Rhimes shows circa the second season of PP--Overuse of "shock" in place of plot.

(No one saw this steady stream of strangers, including a couple of older men, running in and out of the sorority house all damned night? This is why overly complicated shock-driven whodunnits are troublesome.)

Sepinwall/Feinberg mentioned in their podcasts a few times that they'd prefer this show as a straight up legal procedural where Viola Davis is actually teaching a law class, and I agree, but I guess that's not how Shonda rolls. (And I guess that would require too much screen time for Viola Davis's schedule, according to what they said.)

Edited September 30, 2015 by kieyra