Margaux and I discuss a devastating Halt and Catch Fire. (Spoilers ahead.)
Trevor: I can’t imagine many shows being able to pull of what Halt and Catch Fire pulled off in the excellent “Who Needs a Guy.” Many times while reviewing this show with you, I’ve celebrated the fact that it moved away from trying to be the new Mad Men, but after episodes like this I wonder if it isn’t the heir apparent. Maybe that’s hyperbole, who knows, but once again HaCF has me excited for the very medium of television (now that’s hyperbole!). How did you like it?
Margaux: Not only was this episode unexpectedly emotional, there was quite a bit of foreshadowing for the home stretch of Halt and Catch Fire. I don’t want to get too wrapped in my conspiracy theories, as I am wont to do, but I thought “Who Needs a Guy” was a very well written gut punch, delivered expertly at just the right time, even though I saw it coming. I mean, should we put spoiler alerts in place because I blurted out the major plot to a friend earlier today without asking if he’d seen the episode and realized I’d be super pissed if someone did that to me. And yes, sometimes I do read reviews before I watch an episode because I like reading reviews, I must be a lunatic.
Trevor: You were able to spoil this?
Margaux: I didn’t spoil it, but realized I didn’t give him the chance to let me know if he’d actually seen it. Example: last night I texted you after I’d finished watching, and asked if you had seen it yet because I wanted to talk about it. I didn’t do that with this other friend.
Trevor: I’m actually jealous; the only people I know who watch this are you and several critics who I bother on Twitter. I’ll throw a spoiler alert up top, why not. Yes, it was telegraphed, but it had been telegraphed for a few seasons now. It’s honestly an enviable feat of screenwriting. But should we continue to ignore the elephant in the room and talk about the rest of the episode first?
Margaux: We can start with the Cameron and her full-on Unabomber trailer where she’s single handedly invented The Sims. That’s what she’s created, okay? I will not hear otherwise. She’s pitching Sims. But Mystery Bangs isn’t impressed, and I too like like “that don’t impress’a me much” when I first played Sims, but Mystery Bangs seemed extra apathetic about the whole thing and I really cannot figure out her endgame. Mainly, where the hell is the money she gives Cameron coming from? She has the bored rich kid vibe – having a walk-and-talk in the woods while smoking a joint is peak affected rich kid – but that only feels like the tip of her potentially Titanic-level iceberg.
Trevor: I don’t know what to make of Alexa either; she definitely seems too good to be true, and she clearly wants to steer Cameron into the field of medicine or some pivot like that. But with only one episode left, what impact is she going to make? I’ll say that introducing her not only this late in the season but this late in the series was an odd choice (although if she showed up sooner it would have felt rushed). Is she going to facilitate a happy ending for Cameron? Is she in league with some big developer, testing Cameron for a possible job? The more I think about this the more questions it raises. I have faith in the show to justify her, but her introduction came at a strange time, narratively speaking.
Margaux: Well, so did Katie’s, especially in light of “Who Needs a Guy” events. I now truly have no idea what the point to her character is anymore, maybe she’ll become more instrumental in the re-launch of Comet going forward. Be good ally for Haley around the office when she comes back. But for now, Katie and Alexa’s respective purpose looks murky at best.
Trevor: Agreed, which is a shame, because Anna Chlumsky is a lot of fun in the role. I think that’s the downside to introducing new characters into an ensemble this tight-knit. But it isn’t impossible to heavily feature a new character; look at the wonderful work the show has done with Haley. I never expected her and Joe to make such a meaningful, believable connection, but I’m glad they did. Maybe Gordon’s right and Joe would be a bad parent, but he’s a hell of an uncle. I loved that scene of Joe calling Haley and telling her how impossible Gordon was to work with, only for the camera to zoom out and show that Gordon is in the room. It’s an obvious shot, sure, but it made me laugh even though I knew it was coming. My point is, little shots like that show just how far Gordon and Joe have come as friends; here’s Joe MacMillan, the egomaniac who destroyed the Goliath project, talking to Gordon’s teenage daughter, asking her to come back to work. Very sweet, in a quiet way.
Margaux: It’s funny you bring up Joe facilitating Haley and Gordon’s truce, I wrote in my notes, “see! Joe is a good parent.” But maybe you’re right, he’s pretty good uncle, and maybe he’d be a very good step dad (to piggyback on Cameron’s comment about how she’d have kids if babies actually popped out as teenagers, which reminds me of a great Bill Burr joke about the “instant 8s”, but I’ll spare you).
And I’m just gonna go ahead and address this dead elephant in the room because it’s literally all I want to talk about since we decided not to talk about it. With an episode so heavily foreshadowed, starting with Gordon’s death, I think we also got a glimpse of how the Clark family will re-launch themselves as the Clark’s 2.0, and see Joe even more involved in Joanie and Haley’s life. Especially Haley. Considering how much peacekeeping Joe managed in this episode, between Haley and Gordon and even himself and Donna, they slyly set up a family unit that can ultimately function in the wake of Gordon’s somewhat untimely death. Look, you can never be prepared for death (I say this as someone who had two very important people in my life die last year), and despite Gordon’s diagnosis, he LOOKED and SEEMED fine, this will always lure into a false sense security. Audience included. (Although I called Gordon’s death at the start of this season because he’s the one character who was always able to float between factions peaceably, and always had a great Dad joke). All I’ll say is, TAKE SOME FUCKING NOTES, THE WALKING DEAD.
Trevor: And that false sense of security transmitted to the viewer too. I can’t speak for you, but I had pretty much assumed that the tumor would be commented upon – such as his continued journal-keeping – but wouldn’t be fatal. I love being wrong sometimes. His death scene was beautifully done (all credit to director Tricia Brock and her hallucinatory lighting). It was unlikely any death scene I’ve seen before, and it had everything you wanted out of a character death: heartbreak, surprise, grace. And Scoot McNairy sold it all terrifically with his expressive face. As much as I love Scoot, I don’t want him to be a movie star; I want him to get on another TV show so I can see him every week.
Margaux: Good news, looking at Scoot McNairy’s IMDB right now and he will be on a new TV show, something called Godless (premiering on Netflix in November). And it’s a western, you love those!
Trevor: You’re goddamn right I do! Hopefully he doesn’t die in episode one like he did in Fargo.
Margaux: But back to the show where he was recently killed off. Besides my increasing anxiety every time Gordon would get near an electrical outlet, with a goddamn screwdriver, attempting to fix the A/C, it was really well built upon tension because it started small, the thermostat in the office, and ended with him outside, on the roof, fixing those giant fan things (I don’t know anything about A/C, do not @ me cause I don’t fucking care how “accurate” the description is, you know what I’m talking about anyway, don’t be a dick) that power the whole operation. When Gordon managed to eventually leave the office, not on a stretcher, you thought you could breath a sigh of relief. You were wrong. But his life flashing before his was most elegant and almost lyrical ending for a character I’ve seen on TV in recent memory, and we watch a shit load of TV (it’s called a job, LOOK IT UP).
Trevor: I was trying to think of another character’s death that was as satisfying as Gordon’s, and right now I’m drawing a blank (I’m sure something will occur to me soon). Actually, you’re going to laugh at this, but the way Vince Vaughn dies at the end of season two of True Detective was great in a similar way, although it lacked the emotionality. My point, which I’m rapidly losing, is: this is not a show where people die. If anyone were going to die, I would have said it would be Bos; he’s older, and he had a heart attack.
Margaux: Speaking of Bos, he’s such a goddamn G, he made a heart attack joke about HIMSELF. Like, immediately after seeing Donna for the first time since his heart attack. And how sweet was it that Bos called Cameron to be his witness to his marriage to Diane? Man, am I also relieved that Donna and Diane made up (Diane was a total wang last week), but I don’t think Donna – especially in light of Gordon’s death – will take Diane up on that promotion to partner, despite it being what she’s ostensibly strived for. Gordon’s death coupled with the humiliation and defeat over Rover, something wasn’t supposed to happen in the driver’s seat as a high-powered VC lady, I think soured her on the whole “getting ahead” bit.
Trevor: Halt and Catch Fire had precisely one chance to get this right, they saved it for their penultimate episode, and delivered a hall of fame death scene that I won’t forget anytime soon. Would you like to talk stars?
Margaux: One last bit, Donna finally got to the end of Pilgrim, now what? It feels significant. And we hear Mutiny get name checked again. WHAT DOES IT MEAN, TREVOR???
Trevor: It means Donna found a home – secluded, much like Cameron’s trailer – and it’s with Cameron! I think! I don’t read any sexual subtext in there, I just think they get each other better than any other pairing on this show does!
Margaux: Look, the world’s most valuable resource is female friendship, and I am here for it. All I’ve wanted this season is for these two crazy kids to get back together. Sometimes death can do that, or at least help you forget about stupid fucking grudges that do nothing for your except further isolate you. I mean, my heart broke when Donna yells at Joe – who, true to form, shows up at her doorstep to DEMAND an answer about Rover numbers because he really is a lunatic – “YOU GOT EVERYTHING. YOU WON.” It felt so real and true for Donna, how could you not see what these last few years have done to her?
Trevor: That’s the magic of this show, it never gives you a clear-cut villain. Even Tripp: yeah, he’s a dick, but he’s not evil, and he’s just doing his job. Everyone exists in this gray area that makes them messy and irrational and human.
Margaux: That’s also why, at least I, get so emotionally invested in their lives and to me, that is the testament of wonderfully written and acted show. We say this every week, but I will miss Halt and Catch Fire immensely when it’s over in a couple weeks. You know that meme of what it feels like when you listen to a podcast, it’s a picture of kid eating ice cream and sitting next to a cardboard box of a toy that kids playing and having fun together on it, that’s me with this show.
RIP Gordon Clark. Maker of computers, the internet, and A+ dad jokes.
5/5
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