S01.E06: Whiter Shade Of Pale

[Guest]

Charlie recovers; Charmain finds a case; Hodiak seeks the man who's been harassing Shafe's family; Shafe helps Hodiak get a message to his son.

 

[Primetimer]

And more not-quite-burning questions about S01E06 of Aquarius!

Read the story

[swimmyfish]

If only someone had given me that advice about learning to type sooner.

[sinkwriter]

From the recap/review:

 

 

But seeing her least favourite character on the show -- maybe all of TV -- gingerly treating what seems to be two dislocated testicles has to have been a series-high moment for my esteemed colleague. That it's followed by Manson's non-genital wounds getting bandaged up with maxi-pads is an additional indignity for the little shit that's extra-satisfying.

 

Oh, yeah. After my eyes popped back into my head when I noticed that part of the scene, where that ice pack rested, I laughed and laughed at the implications. And then I said "Damn, Hodiak, just how hard did you kick him there?" Still... totally deserved, and then some.

[thuganomics85]

Yeah, that was cracking up.  Don't remember actually seeing Hodiak kicking him in the junk, but I kind of love him for it. Couldn't happen to a nicer person.  Of course, now Charlie's got a gun and seems to be enjoying shooting up painted-up watermelons, so I'm sure Crazy Evil Charlie will be raising his head again.

 

Already solved Shafe's little problem.  Of course, it wasn't a simple racist issue, but the home guy was just using racism to actually scare off mixed couples/black families, and then usually it to get extra cash somehow.  Ah, corrupt businessmen.  They never go out of style!

 

Charmain is back!  And... it's stuck handling an abused girlfriend case, that goes south and their is nothing she can do about it.  Between this and last week, this show has no issues letting the case of the weeks end badly for the leads. Respectful, but kind of depressing.

 

Hodiak gets drunk enough to fall back into bed with the ex-wife.  Brilliant move, Drunk Hodiak.

 

I give up: both Ken and Grace suck in their own different ways.  What a toxic couple.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

"You don't want to blow a stranger? Learn to type!" I'm-a stitch that on a pillow.

[shapeshifter]

And more not-quite-burning questions about S01E06 of Aquarius!

http://previously.tv/aquarius/maybe-instead-of-joining-a-cult-these-girls-could-start-an-etsy-store/

...I don't even fill my ice trays and I'm a responsible adult. Hodiak's got his shit sufficiently together that he can look ahead to his future cool beverage needs? Because he doesn't have bookshelves....

Do I have to explain everything to all you young grasshopper recappers? Air conditioning in those days was something they had in a large department store or maybe a new grocery store, but we all slept upstairs with a fan blowing. So, yes, ice was a bigger necessity than furniture. At least he has a fridge!

It was a tight script with a clear narrative, but I was disappointed not to hear any strains of "Whiter Shade of Pale." Did I miss it? I get that the title was more of a reference to interracial stuff in the 60s, but that song always greeted me at the college town bars that featured nightly live music in the early 70s. Just checked. It was released in May of 1967, so, yeah, disappointed to only hear Sinatra from 47 and "Shadow of Your Smile" from 65 since the episode was set in 67.

Shafe really is the hero, huh? Does that mean he'll

be crucified?

Don't answer that. I'll get there.

[TattleTeeny]

Do I have to explain everything to all you young grasshopper recappers? Air conditioning in those days was something they had in a large department store or maybe a new grocery store, but we all slept upstairs with a fan blowing. So, yes, ice was a bigger necessity than furniture. At least he has a fridge!

 

Did you ever do the trick of putting the bowl of ice (perhaps cracked out of one of those trays like Hodiak had) in front of the fan? I never have but I think I've seen it on TV (I was born the year after the murders), and always thought, "how the hell could that work; the ice would be melted in minutes!" Apropos of nothing, I love mid-century stuff and I have one of those dangerous table fans of the era -- a super-heavy metal cage-looking thing, with openings large enough to be unsafe for hands (and yikes, I know that from experience, unfortunately).

 

Also, did I detect a reference to Lucille Ball when the cops were at the studio?

Edited June 6, 2015 by TattleTeeny

[Milburn Stone]

I heard the Lucille Ball reference also, TattleTeeny. Makes sense, because in 1967, she sold Desilu Productions to Paramount, and Paramount absorbed the Desilu lot (which had been adjacent to it). This show is getting a lot of its history right.

 

Enjoyed seeing a Star Trek extra hanging about, since that show was also filmed on the Paramount lot.

 

Speaking of which--it must be the case that Aquarius is filmed on the Paramount lot as well. I always love those moments when a "studio lot" scene takes place and a movie or show gets it done just by walking out the doors of its own soundstage (even though we're meant to believe it's across town).

 

Small point, shapeshifter: While the "Time after Time" recording about which Grace and Sam wax nostalgic is Sinatra's 1947 version, the version played on the record changer in the show is Sinatra's 1957 remake of the tune, with the Nelson Riddle arrangement.

Edited June 7, 2015 by Milburn Stone

[helenamonster]

I really liked the ending montage. Though maybe for people who constantly find themselves running out of food, using watermelons as target practice isn't the best idea?

 

I totally lolled at that shot of Manson with the ice over his junk, and his absolute disgust at having to use maxi pads as bandages. I mean, it's not exactly the worst idea anyone's ever had. Also, I found it interesting that he refused to take the pills while the girls were around, but then did so when they left. Very subtly manipulative. He doesn't want them to see him as anything but Christlike.

 

For people complaining that this Manson doesn't have the "crazy eyes," I thought they were on full display this episode. I haven't seen the Railsback version of Helter Skelter so I can't speak as to whether or not these ones lived up to his, but I thought they were pretty intense.

 

Charmain is my heart. Actually, while it is kind of depressing, I find the fact that most of the cops' side cases end up petering out to be more true to life than most cop shows.

 

Did the guy playing Jimmy Too fall off some kind of Sopranos reject truck?

[fastiller]

Did the guy playing Jimmy Too fall off some kind of Sopranos reject truck?

 

He really reminds me of Vincent Piazza's role in Jersey Boys.

[Muffyn]

Did you ever do the trick of putting the bowl of ice (perhaps cracked out of one of those trays like Hodiak had) in front of the fan? I never have but I think I've seen it on TV (I was born the year after the murders), and always thought, "how the hell could that work; the ice would be melted in minutes!" Apropos of nothing, I love mid-century stuff and I have one of those dangerous table fans of the era -- a super-heavy metal cage-looking thing, with openings large enough to be unsafe for hands (and yikes, I know that from experience, unfortunately).

I lived in Chicago in the early 80s.  We would put ice in front of the fan to help cool the house down when we would come home at the end of the day.  It does help.

 

Won't somebody think of the watermelons?!?!?  What did they ever do to Charlie?  

[Melissa56789]

 

Did you ever do the trick of putting the bowl of ice (perhaps cracked out of one of those trays like Hodiak had) in front of the fan?

 

I grew up in southern california in the 1960s and 1970s.  

 

Yes - absolutely we used the bowl of ice in front of the fan during the dry heat of Santa Ana's, etc.

 

We also used to tie a damp cloth to the front of a fan.  (which worked pretty well)

 

Most of the time SoCal has dry heat (most of the time) so adding a little humidity with a bowl of ice or damp cloth does help - when you don't have air conditioning.  :-)

[shapeshifter]

I first watched this episode online a week or two ago and then watched it "live" again last Thursday. I noticed a few things I missed the first time around, including a possible explanation of the age gap between Sam and Grace:

In the scene between Grace and her mother, we see a close up of the needle of the record player dropping onto the first song of the last album in the stack, which is Grace and Sam's song, "Time After Time," which, when it starts playing, visibly (to us and to Grace's mother) effects Grace. Her mother has just asked Grace about the state of her marriage and Grace, under the influence of the song, says, "I love my husband," but we (the audience and Mom) know she really means Sam. Mom then comments on the song and how Grace listened to it over and over the summer between high school and college.

So.

This tells us Sam and Grace were in love after she graduated high school, which means Sam did not have to be a classmate or perhaps even in high school when she was. I can imagine my 18-year-old self meeting, say, a 25-year-old Duchovny/Sam and swooning over the "older" man. He might have even been 28, which would not have been too scandalous at a time when many girls married out of high school, but recent high school grad boys were not able to provide for their non-working, soon to be pregnant wives (if not already pregnant) as well as a more mature man with a G.I. Bill education.

This still leaves us with a slightly too young-cast Grace, but that also gives her a young, vulnerable vibe not unlike Emma, who, like Mom, is under the spell of an older man--a man whose world view is not all that different from her father's (if in fact Ken is her father and not Sam). I wonder if they will explore the parallels between Grace and Emma in season 2.

[walnutqueen]

Did you ever do the trick of putting the bowl of ice (perhaps cracked out of one of those trays like Hodiak had) in front of the fan? I never have but I think I've seen it on TV (I was born the year after the murders), and always thought, "how the hell could that work; the ice would be melted in minutes!" Apropos of nothing, I love mid-century stuff and I have one of those dangerous table fans of the era -- a super-heavy metal cage-looking thing, with openings large enough to be unsafe for hands (and yikes, I know that from experience, unfortunately).

 

Also, did I detect a reference to Lucille Ball when the cops were at the studio?

 

 

I grew up in southern california in the 1960s and 1970s.  

 

Yes - absolutely we used the bowl of ice in front of the fan during the dry heat of Santa Ana's, etc.

 

We also used to tie a damp cloth to the front of a fan.  (which worked pretty well)

 

Most of the time SoCal has dry heat (most of the time) so adding a little humidity with a bowl of ice or damp cloth does help - when you don't have air conditioning.  :-)

 

Evaporative cooling principle.  We were using "swamp coolers" long before A/C was popular, or even feasible.  I live in SoCal with no A/C; on the few really hot days I still use ice or wet cloths in front of my old box fan. 

 

I have one of those scary old table fans, too - it's a purely decorative dust-catcher.  :-)

[kassygreene]

I first watched this episode online a week or two ago and then watched it "live" again last Thursday. I noticed a few things I missed the first time around, including a possible explanation of the age gap between Sam and Grace:

In the scene between Grace and her mother, we see a close up of the needle of the record player dropping onto the first song of the last album in the stack, which is Grace and Sam's song, "Time After Time," which, when it starts playing, visibly (to us and to Grace's mother) effects Grace. Her mother has just asked Grace about the state of her marriage and Grace, under the influence of the song, says, "I love my husband," but we (the audience and Mom) know she really means Sam. Mom then comments on the song and how Grace listened to it over and over the summer between high school and college.

So.

This tells us Sam and Grace were in love after she graduated high school, which means Sam did not have to be a classmate or perhaps even in high school when she was. I can imagine my 18-year-old self meeting, say, a 25-year-old Duchovny/Sam and swooning over the "older" man. He might have even been 28, which would not have been too scandalous at a time when many girls married out of high school, but recent high school grad boys were not able to provide for their non-working, soon to be pregnant wives (if not already pregnant) as well as a more mature man with a G.I. Bill education.

This still leaves us with a slightly too young-cast Grace, but that also gives her a young, vulnerable vibe not unlike Emma, who, like Mom, is under the spell of an older man--a man whose world view is not all that different from her father's (if in fact Ken is her father and not Sam). I wonder if they will explore the parallels between Grace and Emma in season 2.

The other part of it is that Sam is a war vet, who could easily be ten years older.  He (from the show background on some website) went to college on the GI bill, and was probably ready to marry, given that his son was 18 or 19, the show is in 1967, and Sam & Grace met in 1947, so Sam married very soon after they broke up (or drifted apart).  

 

It's also a time when the men were often older then their wives.

[miles2go]

Is there any relationship in this show that isn't to some degree dysfunctional?  Shafe and his wife seem okay, but I noticed she had evidently told her mother that Shafe was "high yellow".  What happens when Mom finds out the truth?

 

A thumbs up for Charmaine.  Quixotic, perhaps, but her heart's in the right place.

 

And Hodiak isn't even trying to stay away from the booze.  That's not good.

[shapeshifter]

Is there any relationship in this show that isn't to some degree dysfunctional?  Shafe and his wife seem okay, but I noticed she had evidently told her mother that Shafe was "high yellow".  What happens when Mom finds out the truth?...

Shafe's wife's mother just said that their baby got her "high yellow" from her Daddy, meaning the baby has light skin because the father is white. At least that's what I heard.

[miles2go]

Ah, maybe I misunderstood.  Shafe gave his wife such an odd look when she (the mom) said that. I figured maybe Kristin had fibbed to her mom to make the marriage more acceptable.