Quick summary:
Marcello emerges as the frontrunner in the bid for Lila's affections. When charming her doesn't work, he ingratiates himself with Rino, who just last episode called the Solara brothers, "worthless pieces of shit." As Lila suspects, Rino is willing to do anything for money, even if it means kowtowing to the Camorrist who fired a gun at him. The rest of the Cerullo family is likewise receptive to Marcello's efforts, especially after he expresses interest in purchasing Rino and Lila's shoes. Eventually, he asks Fernando for permission to marry Lila and the entire family tries browbeating her into acceptance. While all of this drama unfolds, Lenù unceremoniously breaks up with Gino (good riddance), finishes the school year with straight As, and leaves the neighborhood for a summer on Ischia. She lives a privileged life in comparison to her friend, but it's hard to blame her for seizing opportunities that are handed to her.
Corresponding book chapters:
"The Shoes" goes from Chapter 23 through Chapter 29. If Rino gives you anxiety/brings to mind Norbert Leo Butz's character from "Bloodline," buckle up because this section is heavy on his shenanigans.
Notable choice (complimentary):
I must give credit where it's due: Lenù's breakup with Gino is epic. She can be an annoyingly passive character, so it's lovely when she unapologetically asserts herself. It's like this in the book, too, but the show's scene-setting makes the dismissal more satisfying. As Alfonso cries in front of the class, struggling to complete verb conjugations, everyone looks tense except Gino. There's an isolated shot of that smirking motherfucker, clearly delighting in his classmate's embarrassment. When the professor orders a sobbing Alfo back to his seat, Gino audibly guffaws and, in a brilliant rack focus shot, Lenù makes a face of composed scorn.
Outside of class, Gino approaches her and she calmly says, "You laugh too much, like an idiot" before essentially telling him to go choke. If only Lenù could channel this same energy in other upcoming situations with men...
Notable choice (derogatory):
Once again, Lenù comes off as less of an asshole and as a result, I'm bored with her. In "Dissolving Margins," the girls discuss the "Aeneid" and in this episode, we learn that Lenù has used one of Lila's lines almost verbatim in a highly praised essay. In the scene where she tells Lila about her A+, she admits, "I wrote what you said." In the novel, she's less effusive: "I also mentioned to her how well the assignment on Dido had been received, without telling her what I had written but letting her know that it was also her success."
What makes Lenù so relatable is her fear that without Lila, she's nothing. She constantly vacillates between egomania and self-loathing, never quite sure how to conceptualize her own identity. Before this scene in the novel, Lenù agonizes over the fact that the most praised portion of her essay came directly from Lila. She thinks, "[...] hadn't it come to me from Lila, even if I had developed it, with my own ability? What should I deduce from this?" The show removes Lenù's waffling, making her more complimentary of Lila's involvement sans neuroses.
Thoughts:
Rino is the perfect example of why certain (weak-willed, bitchass) men turn to fascism. He sees other men doing better than him, believes he's just as deserving, and vows to do whatever it takes even if countless lives are destroyed in the process. He starts out as a sweet little boy who protects his sister from their violent father but as soon as the allure of money hits, his monstrous side emerges. Wealth inequality does fucked up things to people, especially when there's no available path to stability. Without an education, there's no upward mobility; without money and/or parental support, there's no education. Lenù is in a rarefied position where, if she works hard and marries well, a better future is attainable. Unless they're willing to fuck with the Camorra, there's no such hope for the Cerullos.
Post-NYE, Rino and Lila are both struggling to come to terms with this feeling of being trapped. Lila spends most of her time at home and Rino, annoyed that she's no longer coming into the shop, antagonizes her with petty bullshit like a Befana stocking full of coal. When Rino shows Fernando the shoes he and Lila created, his reaction is predictably abusive. The cruelest part of the interaction is the initial praise Fernando lavishes upon the shoes before immediately rescinding it, calling them "shitty" and mocking Rino's disappointment. Instead of dealing with these emotions, Rino takes his frustration out on Lila, blaming her for his unhappiness. Ferrante writes, "He shouted that she had betrayed him, and would betray him yet again, when, sooner or later, she would marry some imbecile and go away, leaving him to live in this wretchedness forever." Only an ignorant, entitled man would assume that marriage is some kind of salvation and not just another prison.
Later, Lila confesses to Lenù that she's already received two declarations of love: one from Pasquale, the other from Marcello Solara. In a flashback scene, Lila gently rejects Pasquale, who accepts her response with respectful sadness. Marcello Solara, on the other hand, barely flinches when Lila calls him an animal and threatens to scream. He's totally undeterred and maybe even a little turned on, by how disgusting Lila finds him. Lenù, more so in the book, is jealous of this attention and sees the appeal of Marcello, a man with the power to "transition [Lila] from skinny little girl to woman capable of making anyone bend to her will." Since his focus isn't directed at Lenù, it's easy for her to see the alleged benefits and none of the accompanying threats.
Both girls want to believe that Lila has some power over her fate or at the very least, can derive power from any circumstance. When Lila tells Lenù, "I make people do the wrong things" she's not only attributing unwarranted blame to herself, but grasping at a semblance of agency where none exists. It's better to be the cause of men's bad behavior than the impotent vessel for it. Or maybe Lila is just so used to being blamed for everything that it's her automatic impulse. When the neighborhood friend group gets ice cream at the Galleria Principe, we see how quickly Rino blames Lila for his wild aggression. It's not his fault that he lost his temper and beat the shit out of some dude; it's Lila's fault for insisting they enter a place where they don't belong.
The worst part about the city sequence is how Rino's actions pull Lila deeper into the Solaras' web. At the end of the night, his victim reemerges with a group of pals intent on revenge. If not for Michele and Marcello's opportune assistance, the fight may have ended with a hospital visit. Rino (and by proxy, Lila) is now indebted to them and too stupid to understand that he's being used. When he orders the girls to ride back to the neighborhood in the Fiat 1100, Lila has no choice but to obey. When Marcello shows up at her house the next day, acting all chummy and worming his way into a dinner invitation, all she can do is act rude enough that he knows she's disgusted but not so rude that her father beats her.
Marcello knows what kind of people he's dealing with and how to play the game. If he gets Rino and Fernando on board by expressing interest in their business, they'll do anything to convince Lila of his merits. My favorite part of the conversation is when Lila tells Marcello he can't see the shoes because she threw them out after Fernando insulted them. She deftly avoids letting that rapist weasel touch her creative output while simultaneously making her dad look like a jackass: win-win. Of course, she can only stave off Marcello's advances for so long. Nunzia's suicide threat momentarily stops the family infighting, but no one's casually walking away from the possibility of financial betterment.
Despite Lila's best efforts to dissuade him, Marcello comes to the shop and tries on the shoes. When he learns they're too small, he drops the pretense and tells Fernando about his desire to marry Lila. As this happens, Rino looks like he's going to sob. That idiot motherfucker didn't realize he was nothing more than a means to an end. While he never actually comments on the proposal, Nunzia and Fernando both urge Lila to accept even though she blatantly tells them she'd rather be dead. Her parents think they'll be able to leverage the Solaras for their own power, whereas Lila, at fourteen, knows that this type of marriage would probably lead to her death (either at her own hand or Marcello's).
Lenù, who has been supportive throughout this ordeal, jumps at the chance to GTFO when Maestra Oliviero offers up her cousin's house on Ischia. Oliviero is one of those characters who somehow always knows when Lenù needs her interference. It's like she senses what's going on with Lila and doesn't want Lenù to get sucked into the madness. We don't know how Lenù broaches this vacation with Lila in the book; she simply hops on the ferry and leaves. In the show, Lenù tells Lila about the trip with equal parts guilt and shame. Lila feigns believable excitement for her friend but when she looks to the side, she sees Melina whistling to herself in the street and catches a glimpse of her own possible future. Lenù escapes while Lila stays, getting sucked so deep into the madness that she may never emerge.
Random observations:
- I always liked Pasquale (as much as you can like any of the men in this series), but now that I've seen the Luigi Mangione resemblance, it's a full-blown crush. What does this say about me?
- On the walk past the Royal Palace in Piazza Plebiscito, Pasquale references "the story of the statues of the kings of Naples," but Rino stops him from going into detail. According to this blog, "local wags coined pithy, vulgar expressions in dialect to put in the mouths of some of the monarchs," including "Tagliammolo 'o pesce!" ("Off with his dick!") and other fun stuff involving pee.
- I hate to defend some preppy bastard in a white v-neck sweater, but Rino is riffraff (Street rat! Scoundrel! Take that!).
- Gigliola and Michele's furious front seat makeout sesh (with captive audience) brought me back to the disgusting days of high school when sexuality was frequently weaponized to prove a point.
- So far, "pissant" and "ferret face" are my two favorite Ferrante insults.
- According to Nunzia, Lila should marry Marcello because "he treats your father with respect." My response?
- One of my favorite relationships in the show is the one between Lenù and her mother. Immacolata rarely supports Lenù without an outright battle or at the very least, mockery. If Lenù wants to go to Ischia, she must endure taunts (in the book) about how dumb it is to need rest after a hard year of studying.
- Making fun of that random girl's hat at the Galleria Principe is like Joella reading all the other queens to filth while wearing a busted ass wig in the current season of "Drag Race." (I know at least one person will understand this.)
