Girl talk
Faye and Bethany after Faye discovers Bethany’s crush on Gary, Tuesday. The two of them negotiating new terms of their relationship made up for the final scene Monday. That was totally icky: Bethany purring around, putting the makes on Gary, and him totally oblivious.
Faye thought so too. She comes into Gary’s hotel room and is surprised to see Bethany lolling around like a Lolita. Or, as Faye put it, “lying on his bed looking well slutty.”
I know the Bethany crush on Gary has been going on for awhile, and it is believable. But I hoped the writers would resist the temptation. They’ve gone on the path of way too young/way too old/too incestuous pairings before, and I think (hope) no one ever liked it.
When Bethany found out that her mother and Gary were seeing each other, I’d hoped that her little temptress efforts would stop. And they appeared to have done, up until this overnight stay in Leeds for a concert. Of course, Sarah can’t go. So it’s just Gary and the girls.
It was horrible to watch, and even more horrible to think about what might come next. So what a relief when what came next was Bethany getting busted by Faye. And Faye speaking for all of us when she told Bethany how gross it was.
Trading on a crush
The two of them then did a superb job of two adolescent girls marking status and getting one up on the other. Bethany used her two additional years to argue that coming on to someone old enough (barely) to be her father was ok and drinking vodka out of a pink glitter flask was ok. She is “more mature” than Faye.
Faye didn’t really have to prove anything. She only had to say I know what you’re doing. The “and I’ll tell” part was understood by both.
So Faye got the flask of vodka and Bethany’s brand new top in the deal to keep her mouth shut. Bethany got the message that she had better give up on her plans to seduce Gary. The vodka and top would not be enough to buy Faye’s silence if she persisted.
Of course, it went from bad to worse. Faye got drunk, and got caught. Gary went after “the older man” Bethany was interested in. He got it wrong, of course. Bethany ran away, thinking that would somehow make things better for her mother. Sarah told her to “grow up,” a humiliating insult to a 16 year old girl.
