u/sbd2010

I think Floyd at least semi-lied when he signed to Clark that he knew about the affair the entire time. If my timeline is correct on that scene, they only started hitting the gym that hard together closer to the end of summer before the life insurance policy was purchased. If that had been the case why would he wait til October to go to the hotel asking for his discounts? He and Carol were in deep financial distress the entire summer where we see Clark telling us about the true timeline of his sexual relations with Carol. And despite having a regular job in the news and decent side gigs, I see Floyd blamed a lot for those financial issues in the audience. We see a single bank statement in the hotel manager meeting, and it’s showing multiple charges per week in the month of October.

Ethical non-monogamy wasn’t as popular/accepted in 2018 so Clark and Carol both *had* to do some non-ethical non-monogamy to get their sexual needs met. It took me a long time to truly believe Carol or Clark either really cared about Floyd at all. But in Clark’s interviews it’s like he slowly realized he loved Floyd more as a person closer to the fall than he had enjoyed using Carol for his sexual gratification all summer long after that cornhole party where he got *literal* tunnel vision when he first laid eyes on her.

Floyd probably figured it out at some point. He’s not that dumb and he obviously had access to their bank records. He and Carol may have even actually talked about it well before Floyd told Clark he knew. They may have had an agreement where he was fine with it. But he still valued both relationships. Whereas Carol—what we’ve seen of her—she seems distant, cold, disconnected from Floyd entirely. She claims Clark seduced her. The audiobook she listens to (you can see the purchase at the beginning of the October statement that Floyd took to the hotel) reveals even more about her character. I’m unsure that Richard developed BPD from his father alone. They’ve both clearly been through some stuff before Floyd came along.

But Floyd does try—he’s been unlucky in life and made forgetful mistakes. But he bought those beautiful earrings for Carol and looked so genuinely proud of himself. As a fellow poor, that pair would not be that hard to finance unless your credit is complete trash. He makes incredible gains in building a relationship with Richard. And we see him really enjoy his work as well as his hobbies, the relationship he’s building with Richard, and the he built with Clark. He tries hard to communicate with Carol to find a way to work around his manhood issues. But as the audience mirrors—people are critical of Floyd’s shortcomings. His mistakes are always magnified because he never quite fit the mold of our society’s rigid guidelines for what success in life looks like in the first place—especially for a man. I think he was deeply troubled in a way that we can’t truly know as he isn’t here to narrate to us.

Depending on when Floyd really found out, he may have felt that relationship he built with Clark had been an immense betrayal. He would have made the connection between why Clark was pushing him so hard to use DTF. And why Carol didn’t even feel the desire to try to be sexual around him. Given all of his life circumstances, I still think it was a suicide ultimately. Floyd lost all of his passion and all the life drained out of him after the failed hotel encounter with Clark in the closet. He feels he lost two important relationships at once due to his low self-esteem. Who showed up at the pool house and why still remains to be seen. Perhaps someone trying desperately to stop him—Tiger Tiger (Clark) obviously knew where and when Floyd would be on that night. The timelines fit his morning schedule on surveillance. And the true intentions of Carol may never be revealed, especially if the internal police department fraud gets her off the hook from testifying/questioning.

Anyway, it’s been a crazy week and I’ll probably be late seeing the final episode. My one Birthday Wish: Don’t spoil things in the titles tomorrow night! It’s been a fun adventure theorizing with y’all.

In episode 2 when Homer is first interviewing Clark, we get this snippet of dialogue:

H: So you would you would meet more regularly at the quality garden suites? Hmm?

C: Yeah, our dream meetings, yeah.

H: What’s a dream meeting?

C: Well that’s uh when we’d just meet and um make each others dream come true. Sexually. Make all our dreams come true. At the.. quality garden suites. Yeah.

H: Mm. That’s the one in the suburbs, right?

C: Yeah.

H: And that’s where your dreams came true?

C: Yeah

H: Yeah… like?

C: Like what?

H: Like, what’s one of your dreams?

C: Um… like…. Weight. Weight placement.

H: Weight placement?

C: Like someone places their weight on you.

I’m having too much fun scrutinizing every detail of this show to try to figure it out. But this early dialogue stands out to me because of Clark acknowledging his love for weight upon him. We know Floyd is insecure about his weight. And this just seems like such an odd coincidence that Clark’s first thought of an example of a dream was when “someone places their weight on you.” I think he cares deeply for Floyd but I can also see him viewing Floyd as a weight upon him, figuratively and perhaps literally as well.

Going back to the line “make ALL our dreams come true.” Could be referring to his and Carol’s many dreams but also could refer to all of them, as in all 3. I’m starting to wonder if we will see Clark and Floyd engage in some weight placement at the quality garden suites, in an attempt for them to both get some sort of sexual gratification. Perhaps weight placement is part of what we saw Clark and Floyd agreeing to in the phone call on last nights episode where—note: Floyd is in the pool putting his face in the water, grimacing, while on the phone. Every scene that takes place around Floyd’s pool is haunting me for some reason.