Manhattan 1.10
Oct. 2nd, 2014 06:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which Sid's wife shows up and I love that events from the pilot still have ongoing consequences.
Poor Babbitt. Here he goes above and beyond in the name of friendship and loyalty, and then Frank cheats on him with Charlie. Okay, it's more complicated than that, but for all of Babbitt's voiced objections to the current shenannigans, there was a distinct undertone of he's your new best friend now?!?" . Not that Charlie is, but the meeting of the minds is certainly inspiring to both, and Charlie did look pleased when Frank let it slip that Charlie's infamous thesis was actually good beyond the part he cribbed from someone else. I would say Frank was in in a mellow mood in general except the most disquieting bit about the final scenes between Frank and Liza - the first ones since the pilot, if not ever, in which he behaves tenderly and considerate towards her - is that you can't be sure that he's not gaslighting her. The insidious cleverness of the show is this: both explanations are possible. Since we've established several episodes ago that Liza had a mental illness interlude/hospital treatment interlude in her past, and since she was alone when she used the Geiger counter, it's juuuuust possible that her (well founded) suspicion about what's actually going on at Los Alamos plus whatever illness she had/has made her hallucinate. (I suppose the words on the pills she's taking would be illuminating in this regard but I couldn't decypher them.) Otoh: Frank himself found out the medical security procedures are a laugh some eps ago and decided to let that go for the cause of winning the war. And he did gaslight Liza before, about the bees. And, of course, there is radioactive business going on. (Only I'm not sure how they could have changed the Geiger counter between Liza using it alone and Liza using it in front of Frank.) Anyway, this was the first time I could believe Frank actually has some emotions left for his wife, and it might just be in the scenes where he's betraying her in an even worse manner than the sexual cheating with Paloma.
Meanwhile we get a subplot about Anne, Sid Lao's wife, making it all the way to Los Alamos with questions. Inquisitor!Schiff was at his most disturbing yet with her, though at the end he actually told her what he thinks is the truth.I liked the actress for Anne, who sold me on that mixture of determination, grief and quiet dignity. And I very much like that Private First Class, still haunted by shooting Sid, when finding out about her presence finds a way to help her without making this about himself and his own need for atonment, by alerting one of Sid's friends to her presence. (That young man is also unusual for a male tv character by having the "but what do you feel for me, or is this just a rebellious gesture?" conversation with Callie that usually female characters have with male ones.) He's on the verge of winning for most ethical male in this camp, at least among the younger generation (Babbitt has the edge with the older ones).
What I'm additionally pleased by: the continuing Elodie and Abby subplot. If they'd left it at that one night stand, it would have verged on the trope of "f/f one time encounter for the ratings, and then the regular is confirmed as straight again" (though it wasn't staged or filmed this way). But no. And I appreciate that they're making it about more than Abby being lonely and exploring a side of her sexuality she wasn't consciously aware of before, and instead frame it as part of Abby trying to find out who she is outside of expectations, full stop. (Elodie also seems to have been unaware of her ghastly husband's intentions, phew. Now I can get behind the relationship again.) And it's fitting these identity issues come after her certainties about herself and her views got shaken in several ways, most recently by the realisation of what is happening to Jews in Europe. Gender period touch: Charlie's reaction to Abby reading Baudelaire. (I.e. patronizingly amused because "you read fashion magazines for their photographs", but not curious at all what brought this on.)
It occurs to me that the subplot with Liza, where she could be equally likely be gaslighted or imagining things, is also a period element - at the time, she'd have been played by Ingrid Bergmann and Frank by Charles Boyer (if he's gaslighting her) or Cary Grant (if he's innocent this time), no? Anyway, it is, I repeat myself, the most disturbing thing about the episode, beating out Anne Lao's scene with Inquisitor!Schiff.
I can't believe the season will be over soon!
Poor Babbitt. Here he goes above and beyond in the name of friendship and loyalty, and then Frank cheats on him with Charlie. Okay, it's more complicated than that, but for all of Babbitt's voiced objections to the current shenannigans, there was a distinct undertone of he's your new best friend now?!?" . Not that Charlie is, but the meeting of the minds is certainly inspiring to both, and Charlie did look pleased when Frank let it slip that Charlie's infamous thesis was actually good beyond the part he cribbed from someone else. I would say Frank was in in a mellow mood in general except the most disquieting bit about the final scenes between Frank and Liza - the first ones since the pilot, if not ever, in which he behaves tenderly and considerate towards her - is that you can't be sure that he's not gaslighting her. The insidious cleverness of the show is this: both explanations are possible. Since we've established several episodes ago that Liza had a mental illness interlude/hospital treatment interlude in her past, and since she was alone when she used the Geiger counter, it's juuuuust possible that her (well founded) suspicion about what's actually going on at Los Alamos plus whatever illness she had/has made her hallucinate. (I suppose the words on the pills she's taking would be illuminating in this regard but I couldn't decypher them.) Otoh: Frank himself found out the medical security procedures are a laugh some eps ago and decided to let that go for the cause of winning the war. And he did gaslight Liza before, about the bees. And, of course, there is radioactive business going on. (Only I'm not sure how they could have changed the Geiger counter between Liza using it alone and Liza using it in front of Frank.) Anyway, this was the first time I could believe Frank actually has some emotions left for his wife, and it might just be in the scenes where he's betraying her in an even worse manner than the sexual cheating with Paloma.
Meanwhile we get a subplot about Anne, Sid Lao's wife, making it all the way to Los Alamos with questions. Inquisitor!Schiff was at his most disturbing yet with her, though at the end he actually told her what he thinks is the truth.I liked the actress for Anne, who sold me on that mixture of determination, grief and quiet dignity. And I very much like that Private First Class, still haunted by shooting Sid, when finding out about her presence finds a way to help her without making this about himself and his own need for atonment, by alerting one of Sid's friends to her presence. (That young man is also unusual for a male tv character by having the "but what do you feel for me, or is this just a rebellious gesture?" conversation with Callie that usually female characters have with male ones.) He's on the verge of winning for most ethical male in this camp, at least among the younger generation (Babbitt has the edge with the older ones).
What I'm additionally pleased by: the continuing Elodie and Abby subplot. If they'd left it at that one night stand, it would have verged on the trope of "f/f one time encounter for the ratings, and then the regular is confirmed as straight again" (though it wasn't staged or filmed this way). But no. And I appreciate that they're making it about more than Abby being lonely and exploring a side of her sexuality she wasn't consciously aware of before, and instead frame it as part of Abby trying to find out who she is outside of expectations, full stop. (Elodie also seems to have been unaware of her ghastly husband's intentions, phew. Now I can get behind the relationship again.) And it's fitting these identity issues come after her certainties about herself and her views got shaken in several ways, most recently by the realisation of what is happening to Jews in Europe. Gender period touch: Charlie's reaction to Abby reading Baudelaire. (I.e. patronizingly amused because "you read fashion magazines for their photographs", but not curious at all what brought this on.)
It occurs to me that the subplot with Liza, where she could be equally likely be gaslighted or imagining things, is also a period element - at the time, she'd have been played by Ingrid Bergmann and Frank by Charles Boyer (if he's gaslighting her) or Cary Grant (if he's innocent this time), no? Anyway, it is, I repeat myself, the most disturbing thing about the episode, beating out Anne Lao's scene with Inquisitor!Schiff.
I can't believe the season will be over soon!
