S01.E02: The Last Nice Guy in New York

[formerlyfreedom]

Beck and Joe have a real date; Joe does everything he can to win Beck over, but she's stuck on her ex, Benji, who isn't good for her.

 

[formerlyfreedom]

This is the topic to discuss the episode; please take discussion of the book (including comparing the two) to the Book Talk topic. Posts that discuss the book may be deleted, and repeated offenses may result in warnings. Thank you.

[LittleIggy]

Hiding Benji’s phone in the ceiling was not a good idea. Wonder what Joe did with his ex’s body? ?

[LilaFowler]

1 hour ago, LittleIggy said:

Hiding Benji’s phone in the ceiling was not a good idea. Wonder what Joe did with his ex’s body? ?

I'm fully expecting it to ring at the worst possible time.

I was totally fooled for most of the show -- I thought Joe was going to let Benji go. I also don't know what to make of Beck anymore.

I'm enjoying the ambiguity of the characters. No one is totally likeable.

[TattleTeeny]

I really love "Benjy's" social media posts, misspellings and all, haha!

Edited September 17, 2018 by TattleTeeny

[dubbel zout]

It cracked me up that of course Benji couldn't identify his own artisanal soda, and of course they were all his.

I also enjoyed the "Joseph/Peaches" sniping.

[BooBear]

Oh wow... I was ready to say Benji deserved it last week, but now they gave me a bigger reason... didn't really like that as it made things more black and white. 

So are they saying Joe killed Candice? Did Joe just keep Benji alive to get his password? Honestly there was no way he could let him go. Ever. 

[Anela]

Benji was a giant douche, but he didn't deserve that. 

[TattleTeeny]

Is it Candice in the promo still up top? Looks nothing like Beck.

[tennisgurl]

Benji was a total dickhead, but he still didnt deserve such a nasty death, while Joe just coldly stares at him seizing on the ground. I do think they made me a totally jerk to make Joe killing him look a little less bad, but just to slow us into a false sense of security. I shudder to think of what he would have done to poor little Paco if he had found Benji, or what he probably did to his ex. I fully assume she tried to break up with him (or she just didnt like up to his expectations) and he killed her. 

The Peach/Joe snark was fun, and I continue to enjoy Peach, and its fun seeing Emily from PLL in a role like this. She might be a pretentious party girl, but I think she does seem to care about Beck, and I think she might be the one who will catch on to Joe, and might end up in his cross-hairs. She already seemed to be skeptical of him. 

So it seems like Joe`s mentor was an abusive nutcase, which might have affected Joe and made him the guy he is now. Its just so confusing, Joe is so likable and interesting, and Penn is so charismatic, its easy to fall into him as a nice, book loving kind of guy...then you remember that he is also a creepy as hell stalker who has murdered at least one person, and has probably killed before. 

[Xantia]

Twisty turn-y, dark and fun. 

I really did not see Benji's death coming - I thought that Joe would have kept him in the basement for much longer, because Benji was someone that Joe could talk with and confide in.

I'm also finding it interesting that Beck isn't a complete Mary Sue, that she is actually a bit self absorbed and the ambiguity about whether she is a gold digger (look how quickly she was having a flirty chat with Benji v.2 at Peach's party). 

I'm enjoying seeing Emily from PLL and Dan from Gossip Girl face off with each other - it's like an alterno universe cross over.

[chick binewski]

This show is nuts and my brand-new favorite. I haven't read the book and for some reason thought it was going to be an anthology series, a kind of stalker of the week (I have no clue how I got that idea).

Although Benji was the worst I was wishing we'd see more of Lou Taylor Pucci. My hope is he appears in flashbacks. Maybe to show Beck is not at all what Joe sees. A character who is involved with the professor, Benji and Joe but names her IG account after the bechdel test raises some concerns. 

Edited September 17, 2018 by chick binewski

[TattleTeeny]

Quote

A character who is involved with the professor, Benji and Joe but names her IG account after the bechdel test raises some concerns. 

I feel like she's a person torn between wanting to be a deep and intellectual artist and a standard popular girl/socialite type. I suppose one could be both, but exteriors and optics often cause the two to compete. I'm dating myself but it reminds me of when the sorority chicks in college decided they wanted to be grunge, haha!

Edited September 17, 2018 by TattleTeeny

[dubbel zout]

1 hour ago, Xantia said:

whether she is a gold digger

I don't think Beck is. I think Benjy said that as a dig at Joe—Benjy knows Joe can't whisk her away somewhere, for instance, the way he could. And now that the seed is planted, Joe looks at Beck's relationships with wealthy people in a slightly different light. If Beck were a gold digger, she likely wouldn't have so much angst at taking the check from Peach. (I don't see why who gives her the money would make that much difference.)

[Ms Blue Jay]

Come on, he seriously didn't lock the basement?  Or I think his coworker said something about a key?  He doesn't have the only key?  He seems extremely reckless. 

I am addicted though.  I'm a big Penn fan.

Edited September 17, 2018 by Ms Blue Jay

[KaveDweller]

1 hour ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Come on, he seriously didn't lock the basement?  Or I think his coworker said something about a key?  He doesn't have the only key?  He seems extremely reckless. 

I am addicted though.  I'm a big Penn fan.

The coworker said the kid took the key from his pocket. Or maybe he said drawer/hook since it's hard to believe Joe wouldn't notice the kid taking it off his person. But it also seems hard to believe he didn't lock it at all.

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

The sooner Joe got rid of Benji the better. Keeping Benji around any longer was a big problem waiting to blow up in Joe's face. 

[TattleTeeny]

2 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

The coworker said the kid took the key from his pocket. Or maybe he said drawer/hook since it's hard to believe Joe wouldn't notice the kid taking it off his person. But it also seems hard to believe he didn't lock it at all.

Especially considering it wouldn't look at all suspicious to keep the door locked anyway!

[Xantia]

10 hours ago, TattleTeeny said:

Especially considering it wouldn't look at all suspicious to keep the door locked anyway!

Or explain away the books that Benji destroyed, and the clean up job Joe is going to have to do in order to try and make the basement CSI proof.

I wonder how he gets rid of the body (bodies? - old bookshop guy and ex girlf could have been warm ups for this murder). Looking forward to next week. 

[MaggieG]

On 9/17/2018 at 9:13 AM, TattleTeeny said:

I really love "Benjy's" social media posts, misspellings and all, haha!

#crackiswhack

[Ms Blue Jay]

You guys are too funny.  I will have to watch again.  I missed those social media posts from Benjy.

[TattleTeeny]

Oh, I forgot--loved the little shoutout to Stephen King on the show! I'm thinking maybe it was a thank-you for him touting the book on his social media a while back! 

[Palomar]

You KNOW the "kid" is going to discover what is going on.  Especially since Joe has already told him about hiding things in the ceiling.  Joe is about the only positive in his life.  Will he become his apprentice or lie for him? Or, will Beck end up being an even worse person that Joe? Have not read the book yet so have no idea the direction this is going.  It is already hard to watch at times.

[kj4ever]

1 hour ago, Palomar said:

You KNOW the "kid" is going to discover what is going on.  Especially since Joe has already told him about hiding things in the ceiling.  Joe is about the only positive in his life.  Will he become his apprentice or lie for him? Or, will Beck end up being an even worse person that Joe? Have not read the book yet so have no idea the direction this is going.  It is already hard to watch at times.

Dear God every time he was with the kid was so suspenseful, even without the Benji in the basement.

Am I the only one that kind of thinks Benji might have been telling the truth about Beck being a bit of a gold digger?  Why else would she pursue a relationship with someone like him and be friends with Peach(es)?

[teapot]

Penn's so charming!

Sometimes I feel like I'm watching an AU version of Gossip Girl, and drunk Beck reminded me of Thanksgiving Serena, & their cab ride reminded me of the "wave."

Is it wrong that I like Joe a little more than I like Beck?  I don't think she's a bad person, but she kind of goes with the wind...just like Serena, I guess!

How about him waking up realizing he forgot about Benji?  I was totally wondering why he was suddenly concerned about his hostage.  Nice of him to clean up after, though

[Lady Calypso]

It's nice to not know exactly where this show is heading. I have no idea how Beck will find out about Joe's dark side and what she'll do about it. 

I figured that Benji would have to die since Joe couldn't let him go and trust that he wouldn't say anything, and I wasn't sure how long Joe would keep Benji in the basement as that could only last a couple of more episodes. I mean, Paco was so close in discovering Benji before Joe got to him and freaked out on him. I just thought Benji would last another episode, at least. However, we know that Benji's story isn't over, even now that he's dead. Joe keeping Benji's phone guarantees that someone finds that in his ceiling. It seems like it'll be Paco, but I don't know for sure. I don't know exactly what Paco's fate will be, but I don't think it'll end very happy for him. Joe seems to care for Paco, but I also think he sees a lot of himself in him. So if Paco doesn't take kindly to Joe's other side, I think Joe would be angry enough to do something pretty bad. In the end, Joe is a psychopath.

I think Peach/Joe have a great rivalry. I guarantee that she's the one to discover one of his secrets. I'm more curious to see if her suspicions about Joe leads to her death, or if he only tries to kill her before Beck somehow saves her. I'm suddenly the most intrigued about Peach's fate in the long run. I could see her surviving, but I could also see her being a surprise kill at some point when you least expect it. 

It's nice to see a little more of Beck. I still think she's a little bland. It's not a fault of Elizabeth Lail, who I know is capable of some great acting, but this show is ultimately Joe's, not Beck's. So a lot of it is taking place in his perspective. We've seen a little of Beck without Joe present, but I feel like I need more. We hear Benji's side about Beck being a gold digger and he may not be entirely wrong, and she doesn't seem to think what she does is wrong. I just would love to see more of her to see what type of person she's really like, and not the interpretation from other people. 

It does sound like Joe killed Candice, especially when Benji kept saying that Joe wasn't a killer and then revealing at the end that he intentionally murdered Benji. However, they never state it outright so I wonder what ultimately happened to her. If she did die, did Joe murder her or was it an accident? 

[Jade Foxx]

Enjoying this! Joe gives me millennial Ted Bundy vibes, and Beck is awfully bland (“my face is bland” - the character said it herself!)

So Benji and company hazed someone to death? Yikes. 

This is going to get so messy and sinister,I can’t wait!!!

ETA: Joe totally snuffed his ex girl

Edited September 26, 2018 by Jade Foxx

[rejnel]

Having finished (and loved) the season, I can now say confidently that my favorite piece of dialogue was when Joe offered caged Benji a bagel. 

[headhoncho]

I've read comparisons of this show to Dexter - so I can't have been the only one that noticed that the first line of this episode was "tonight's the night" - which was the first line in the first episode of Dexter

kinda gave me the chills!  LOL

a bit too much narration for my liking, but I've enjoyed the first 2 episodes

[methodwriter85]

On 9/22/2018 at 5:50 PM, Lady Calypso said:

It does sound like Joe killed Candice, especially when Benji kept saying that Joe wasn't a killer and then revealing at the end that he intentionally murdered Benji. However, they never state it outright so I wonder what ultimately happened to her. If she did die, did Joe murder her or was it an accident? 

See, if I'm thinking like Joe, I think he doesn't actually feel like he killed Benji. That's why Joe basically handed Benji his own poison because he can say in the technical sense that he didn't kill him.

Which makes me think that Candice died in some kind of accident/not accident involving Joe, and he covered it up. Maybe she slipped overboard on a boat or something like that?

Anyway, Penn's leap at the beginning of this episode as well as his little Adventures in Babysitting opening dance homage...now THAT was fun.

[bettername2come]

My favorite line was "Who wants to kill people?"

[DearEvette]

I was kinda feeling sorry for Benji.  And then he destroyed those books.  Then I was like "kill his ass."

[Chas411]

He hides Benjis phone in the ceiling? Couldn’t anyone just track His phone?

[Samsnee]

So Benji was down there for almost a week right? Where did he do his business?

 

I like it so far but does feel like it’s a Gossip Girl mixed with Dexter. 

[Jax7917]

Does no one have find my iPhone ? 

[Aliferously]

On 27-1-2019 at 2:13 AM, Jaclyn88 said:

Does no one have find my iPhone ? 

I don't think Benji had an iPhone. Didn't look like it to me anyway.

So does the other book shop guy know that there's a soundproof cage in the basement? 

[Scarlett45]

Yeah Joe murdered Benji. If someone tells you that they have a peanut allergy, and you knowingly give them peanut oil, and watch them asphyxiate to death, you’ve murdered them. Benji was a jerk but he didn’t deserve to die. 
 

Now I wonder what happened with Candace, her friend didn’t seem to have “oh I ran into my ex’s boyfriend” look about her, but that she didn’t believe that Rome story.