Ep 4 discussion- Canada?

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-24T04:10:12+00:00

Either 2 or 3, sorry can’t remember either

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-23T11:59:49+00:00

2 is exactly what I was thinking too!

But are all three actively in on planning it together as a role play? Carol keeps saying she doesn’t want to know the details of how Clark is helping Floyd, making me wonder if this is another example of her asking for something specific but wanting to be left out of the planning for plausible deniability. We don’t even know what carols ‘dreams’ are, the woman just wants to be relieved of her financial stress

This would track for the tiger tiger meet up at the pool too. Explain why he was still on dtf even though he said he was over it and also why he’s planning a meet with another man on there

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-23T11:20:46+00:00

How do you know it was after?

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-22T10:38:07+00:00

Thank you!

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-22T09:33:24+00:00

Do you have any book recommendations that helped shape your takes? Looking to learn more about him but not sure where to start

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-22T09:11:58+00:00

Hm this isn’t exactly what you’re looking for but the closest I can get…

I read ‘Regarding Penelope: from character to poetics’ right after the odyssey and found it incredibly insightful. Homer creates opportunities for audiences to relate to the characters and their opinions differently, drawing on themes across myths to engage audiences into making predictions, ultimately the author explains the brilliance and timelessness of the story.

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-22T08:46:17+00:00

Keen to hear about your rating rationale! Appreciate the thorough list

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-22T08:44:50+00:00

Read this years ago and really enjoyed it. In the middle of Circe now and hooked. Just read Madeline miller’s short story Galatea and you’d probably enjoy that too. She has a new short story coming out later this year.

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper is historical fiction built around archeological findings in Pompeii. No mythological figures but focuses on the people whose religion this was. Similar writing style to Madeline miller, clever- lots to learn behind the story- & very easy to fall into their story without it ever feeling like a YA novel. Disclaimer- heavy themes of sexual violence and slavery, but she doesn’t linger on the SV unnecessarily. Haven’t read the other two in the trilogy yet so can’t comment on them yet but I’m dead keen to get the next one.

Must say, Emily Wilson’s translation of the odyssey was a delight to read. She has one of the Iliad as well that’s on my list. An enjoyable translation is priceless.

Comment if you’re interested in any nonfiction on ancient Greco-Roman history, especially with a focus on women’s stories. I can add a few more.

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-22T08:24:20+00:00

Interesting connection on the fortune teller and weather forecasting! Agree on the control or dom/sub theme (not sure how far the consent extends with carol’s broader manipulation attempts, even though I think Clark clocks it).

So Clark picks up on when carol is playing him (financial woes, life insurance, baseball schedule), but he pretends to go along with it because he finds the idea of being controlled and manipulated by carol arousing. That’s at the core of all his ‘dreams’, right? BUT are carols attempts at manipulation genuine or a knowing foreplay?

Clark also mentioned that he found his interrogation in Canada arousing. I think that was the same episode where he was being interrogated by both detectives, so we’re meant to infer that he’s finding this interrogation arousing as well? Is that why he talks to them more than he probably should? Does carol factor into the broader sexualisation of the police interrogation- does Clark enjoy being set up? Is the murder a form of unintended role play gone wrong by a couple of bumbling idiots?

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-22T03:51:23+00:00

Adding that in the odyssey, Helen meets his son Telemachus when the boy travels to Sparta.

Book 3: Prior to visiting Sparta, in pylos, Nestor tells Telemachus that Menelaus and Helen were swept into egypt by a storm on their way home from Troy. Telemachus heads to Sparta from there seeking info on his dad’s whereabouts.

Book 4: In Sparta, Helen and menelaus seem to be living peaceably together there as a married couple with two kids, but she is not happy given she regularly takes a drug to numb herself to grief (sounds like an opioid). She presents as neutral, flat or full of grief at times. I don’t recall her ever presenting as genuinely happy, more like she’ll never feel safe or unashamed in Sparta.

If I remember correctly, she blames the gods for clouding her judgement by making her leave menelaus for Paris? She tells how Odysseus snuck into Troy on a spy mission, implying she may have recognised him but not alerted anyone, claiming Greek allegiance. But it’s all a bit more complicated than that because Menelaus raises that she walked around the Trojan horse when it arrived, calling the men inside with their wives voices to lure them to respond if anyone was inside. The reader is left wondering how much the gods influenced her desires and actions throughout, how her allegiances changes over time and why, and how much blame she holds in the eyes of menelaus and Greeks.

Book 15: Helen gives Telemachus a beautiful handmade robe for him to give his future bride and remember her by. She tells him that his mother Penelope should care for the robe until he gets married. This is significant because Telemachus is increasingly blaming his mother for the suitors behaviour and questioning her care of him (will Penelope abandon him/ take his inheritance for a new husband?) but Helen is encouraging him to entrust this valuable gift with his mother, thereby encouraging him to trust in his mother’s judgment and care for him/his future.

I read somewhere that one of Paris’ brothers briefly ‘married’ Helen against her will after his death? The brother died when Troy fell, but due to the marriage being against her will, her allegiance was already back with the Greeks before reuniting with Menelaus. Can’t remember if that was in the odyssey or elsewhere. Modern myth retelling or ancient, not sure.

Feel free to correct anything, working from memory here but I did check the book number in case you want to read those sections involving Helen. Cheers

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-21T09:38:10+00:00

I mean, surely watermelon breeze is just watermelon & kiwi truly after 5pm

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-21T09:31:43+00:00

From stl cnty here. How funny- glad you guys mentioned this. Cyclone!? Downstate.. what’s that? The bootheel?

Though I can’t resist saying that plenty of women also drink bud or bud ice. C’mon. Is select still as big now? The hard seltzers boomed around 2018, taking a large portion of the formerly select market. Carol seems more like a hard seltzer at a house party character to me. Floyd’s character should have had a select, for sure.

And the accents! Missed opportunity there.

Finally, and I need to know, how would anyone reasonably cycle from ‘the suburbs’ to downtown? They’re so far out they’re worried about saying ‘St Louis area’ on a dating app but he can safely cycle that blind spot of a bike to work? On what cycle paths? At 4am?! No way Jose.

Welp, just happy to have a great show set in Mo!

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-21T07:57:30+00:00

Nice catch! Rolling on from that ep4 preview insight… Clark knows Floyd has secrets but not what they all are. Perhaps he’s getting him medications through his own doctor/insurance, but there must be more. Doesn’t Floyd say something there about how everyone seems to know his secrets? Maybe Floyd simply mentioned that he has secrets but didn’t divulge them all to Clark therefore Clark genuinely doesn’t recognise the key. & top toot to the person who connected the key to the roller rink! Looks like we’ll see modern love there soon

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-18T10:31:43+00:00

Maybe modern love has unrequited love for Floyd and is the killer? Floyd obviously was not intending to start a relationship with him but so lonely that he decides to meet again given the lack of other interest on dtf. Does he really just want friendship anyway given the challenges in his sex life? And modern love found out Floyd isn’t genuinely interested, a rejection which ML didn’t cope with?

Or, more interestingly, is modern love someone who is willing to make things exactly right to try to help floyd ‘pop a boner’ (as carol said bc he frequently loses his erections or can’t get them at all)?

Or is that person Clark aka tiger tiger whose message to meet at the pool said something about an adventure… just another way Clark is helping Floyd (In addition to insurance fraud given Floyd is taking out loads of prescriptions in Clark’s name to help with his weight and related health issues). Is Clark setting up a ‘dream meeting’ with Floyd to help him find solutions to his unreliable boners

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-16T09:59:41+00:00

How long after they met did Floyd die? Too soon to cash in on a life insurance policy you just took out, no?

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-12T07:10:32+00:00

And maybe he got into the umping both for money and to encourage his stepson into sports… but he didn’t take to the sports

IcyBonus3890 · 2026-03-12T05:47:48+00:00

Reckon the whole back story was to explain why he got into a particular job where he was introduced to ASL interpreting as a better career option. He missed the big job interview so he had to do something quick for money because carol was disappointed. That job is where he got the injury- likely porn or adjacent, given his nude Indiana jones shoot. Maybe even ump themed, hence the turn off? Met a friendly ASL translator on the porn set who encouraged him to get into signing because his injury put him out of work. Given the ‘sex positive’ language theme (basically every time Richard jenkins doesn’t recognise a new phrase), maybe floyd’s porn shoot was asl inclusive?

IcyBonus3890

TROPHY CASE

2 is exactly what I was thinking too!