Critic’s Rating: 4.25 / 5.0
4.25
The penultimate episode of DTF St. Louis Season 1 begins to lock in what happened to Floyd.
And while the guilt of what happened to him is a burden many can share, it seems the reality of his demise likely lies solely in his own hands.
The hour begins with a conversation between Floyd and Richard, and I think it points to the one untainted, pure relationship Floyd had left at the end of his life, and how, when it suffered the same fate, Floyd begged out entirely.
Richard thought it was pretty cool that Floyd’s best friend was on billboards. But Floyd said that’s not why they were best friends. It was because if someone was making fun of him, he’d say those guys were dicks, and Clark would have the same for him.
And it’s no joke that they do things for each other that most friends wouldn’t. Floyd just had no idea how far Clark would go for his happiness at that moment, even if what they’d experienced already should have been a good indication.
When it was Clark’s first time in the closet, seeing what it was like to be on the other side of sex with Carol, it didn’t go as planned.
The whole dynamic was so weird, and it was made weirder because Floyd and Carol’s attempt at sex fell far short of what Floyd was expecting.
Carol admitted that she didn’t want Floyd on top of her. She felt like she wanted to squirm out from under him. She was no longer in love with Floyd, or, at the very least, she was no longer sexually turned on by him.
Did she love him? I’m sure she did. But loving someone and being in love are much different things.
It was hard for Floyd to experience that, but I have to think it was even harder for Clark. He was stuck in that closet watching it go down, and damn, it was awkward as hell. Painful, even.
This was the moment that everything changed.
Floyd lost his mojo. His best friend was sleeping with his wife, and his wife wanted to squirm away from him. It began affecting his work, and he couldn’t even do his routine on the park bench, the one he’d done every day for decades.
It also made Clark fire up his Tiger Tiger DTF account, possibly to make Floyd feel better about himself. I have no doubt that Clark loved Floyd.
But now, Homer and Plumb believe Carol had a motive. Clark’s attorney thinks it’s the wrong time to clam up, but he goes against her wishes. For a while, anyway.
At this point in their investigation, we know about the nature of the threesome, but Plumb and Homer are still in the dark.
Asking that question is what got Clark to open up again.
He asked them if they understood “beware” and recalled his hands tingling. As things fell apart with Floyd, he lost his focus. He had a bit of a breakdown on air, screaming “beware” and doing karate in front of the weather map.
That happened on hair-braiding night, when Clark braided his girls’ hair and feigned listening while he internally examined what the hell happened to him earlier in the day.
It was in that moment that he decided to cheat on his wife with Carol. He liked the suburban danger of it. And he thought it might help him be more present when he spent time with his family.
It’s as if he were compartmentalizing his life. Family was one, and his sexual desires were another.
And that’s why, as he said in DTF St. Louis Season 1 Episode 5, he no longer wanted to talk because doing so would hurt Floyd. He can’t stand the thought of Richard discovering these things about his parents.
The tears in Jason Bateman’s eyes told the whole story. The suburban danger continued to threaten more lives even after taking Floyd’s.
But things had fallen apart pretty quickly after Floyd realized his wants no longer seemed to matter.
It certainly gave more credence to the possibility that Floyd killed himself. I wonder if it was accidental. If he perhaps tried pleasuring himself to his own Playgirl spread, using too much Amphezyne, and he died.
I’m not sure whether Clark was trying to keep what he had with Carol alive with the Tiger Tiger account, or if he was really trying to cheer up Floyd. He figured Floyd wouldn’t want to see Tiger Tiger since he’s a man.
But what if his Playgirl and his experience with Carol and even that fleeting encounter with Modern Love led him to believe that males might be in his future if women were not?
Floyd feels invisible. I understand that feeling. You reach a certain age, and your body changes, and your looks fade, and you feel like you could walk outside naked and nobody wouldn’t take a second glance.
So Clark’s attempt to pump up his friend backfired because Floyd was at the end of his rope, and Tiger Tiger was like a lifeline. The account represented a last-ditch effort to see if he could have someone, anyone, in his life again.
He was reading more into the “fuck” part of DTF in his desire to have a connection again. His obsession with penises had him wondering if they represented honesty, and that honesty led to a boner.
Floyd’s self-image had tanked so far that a man getting a boner at the sight of him could lead him down an entirely different path. He was banking his entire future on the possibilities represented by Tiger Tiger.
Tiger Tiger was a ray of hope in a dark world.
That led to the Denny’s Plan. Because of course it did. At least Clark felt enough for his friend to shell out $900 at the Boys Town Denny’s to possibly lift him out of the cratered self-image he was experiencing.
The awkwardness of Clark’s conversation with poor Terry at Denny’s made me look away. But one person’s awkwardness is another’s opportunity, and sure enough, one of the fellows in a nearby booth stepped up for the cash.
It was hilarious that he pointed out that it’s illegal to pay someone for sex. And when you think about it, Clark was really taking a chance. He was a semi-famous person and couldn’t exactly hide it.
The Denny’s plan took a wrong turn when Faux Tiger Tiger arrived a day early and began tailing Clark. Whether he already had the erection-fee at that time is unclear. But he surely saw a guy who would be willing to pay even more to hide the fact that he was in this situation in the first place.
And then Floyd admitted he was down to feel good, changing the core idea of DTF. Talk about a struggle. The struggle for Clark came when Faux Tiger Tiger put the kibosh on his involvement.
Even for $900, he couldn’t pretend to get an erection for Floyd. Making matters worse, Floyd was watching the conversation between the two men unfold, and Clark had to admit he was Tiger Tiger, not the kid.
So, in effect, if Floyd killed himself, Clark must feel responsible.
The only question remaining is who knocked on the door. And since Carol said she was getting the bike for Richard, we can guess that it was Richard knocking at the door.
But did he kill Floyd? I say no. I’ll circle around to my idea at the top of this review.
Floyd was trying to get a boner off of himself, and Richard interrupted him. When Richard saw it and was disgusted, Floyd decided to drink the whole can of Amphezyne-tainted Bloody Mary, ending his suffering.
I don’t think this was a murder at all. Homer and Plumb see murder because it’s their job. As homicide detectives, they look for clues that support their theories.
But it’s looking more and more like the events of DTF St. Louis were all just a tragic mistake, and nobody and everybody is to blame.
What do you think? Have your say in the comments below, and don’t forget to vote in our poll, too!
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