Hap and Leonard: Monsoon Mambo
April 12, 2018 5:07 PM - Season 3, Episode 6 - Subscribe
Hap and Leonard can't let go.
The ending was devastating. Serious question: in this episode, was Florida a ghost? We've certainly seen a number of ghostly figures both this season and last, and while I'm not sure we're meant to take their presence exactly literally, I can't see how Florida could have been alive and trapped in the car for days and days. Just finding her at all seemed too good to be true. It's somehow easier for me to believe that her spirit needed to be found and freed -- especially this season, where Belinda's voiceovers and the dramatization of the old blues singer's meeting with the Devil seemed to create a bleak aura of magical realism right from the start.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:29 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:29 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
I’m not sure how much time passed in the season, honestly. I thought the total time was about a week, so I thought Florida was really alive when they found her. She clearly had air, and it rained a fair bit, so she had water too. I do think, though, that she died in the flash flood because she heard the cursed song. Hap and Leonard could save her from Tim (and the Klan, and the kkkops), but they couldn’t touch the curse.
Fucking Grovetown.
posted by epj at 11:32 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
Fucking Grovetown.
posted by epj at 11:32 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I liked this season overall, but the ending seemed strangely hollow to me, and I'm not convinced the timeline really lines up.
The last episode just didn't seem to rise to the levels it needed to rise to based on the amazing buildup. It doesn't end so much as it just kind of stops. I can kind of get that we're set up for this huge, apocalyptic blowout where Hap and Leonard go back to Grovetown armed to the teeth, and we're expecting them to basically level the whole damn town, and then we don't get that. I can appreciate not going with the Schwarzenegger-esque beatdown of vengeance. It's not really who Hap and Leonard are, no matter how much we've been primed for one all season. But the alternative we get leaves them oddly passive. They just stand there while people shoot each other all around them.
Even the big storm isn't really convincing. People talk about it, but it never really is there. It rains a little around town, but then it stops, everyone goes home and (I guess) a few days go by. Then back at the Rocket Garage there's some not terribly convincing artificial rain in the middle of what looks like it was really a sunny, very nice day off camera. Back in Grovetown, everyone's doing their damndest to act like there's a big storm, but there just isn't. And suddenly there's a biblical flood tearing through the forest out of nowhere. I know there was some vague mention of there being a dam somewhere, and I'm assuming it gave way. But it all just felt hollow and contrived, like they ran out of time and got cut off before they ended it.
As for the timeline, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's Christmas Day when they first arrive, right? Their car gets trashed, and they end up at the Rocket Garage within a couple hours of first hitting town. So there can't be any overlap where Hap and Leonard and Florida are all running around Grovetown missing each other, right? That means Florida had to be in the trunk of that car no later than Christmas Eve night, and so she was in there for like a week? Okay, maybe she can survive that long with rainwater dripping through, but it's kind of pushing things.
A couple points of plot order. Tim thinks Florida is dead, so he hides her body out in his junkyard, and then I guess it must have been him who put her Volvo out in the woods near the Klan Tree Farm, right? Perhaps to draw suspicion away from himself. If someone did find the car out there, it would be natural to assume Truman's boys were behind it. But that being the case, why didn't he put the body there too? Why keep it at his place?
And regarding the cursed song, I like epj's theory. We know Tim and Florida both heard at least part of it. But didn't Sonny Knox hear the song too? He offered an opinion about its authenticity in one of the early episodes.
And where did the tape end up? If I'm following the twists and turns, Tim had it last. He didn't sell it to Sonny Knox. I'm assuming it was still at his place, and maybe destroyed in the Great Biblical Torrent?
Anybody heard word of a fourth series?
posted by Naberius at 7:59 AM on April 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
The last episode just didn't seem to rise to the levels it needed to rise to based on the amazing buildup. It doesn't end so much as it just kind of stops. I can kind of get that we're set up for this huge, apocalyptic blowout where Hap and Leonard go back to Grovetown armed to the teeth, and we're expecting them to basically level the whole damn town, and then we don't get that. I can appreciate not going with the Schwarzenegger-esque beatdown of vengeance. It's not really who Hap and Leonard are, no matter how much we've been primed for one all season. But the alternative we get leaves them oddly passive. They just stand there while people shoot each other all around them.
Even the big storm isn't really convincing. People talk about it, but it never really is there. It rains a little around town, but then it stops, everyone goes home and (I guess) a few days go by. Then back at the Rocket Garage there's some not terribly convincing artificial rain in the middle of what looks like it was really a sunny, very nice day off camera. Back in Grovetown, everyone's doing their damndest to act like there's a big storm, but there just isn't. And suddenly there's a biblical flood tearing through the forest out of nowhere. I know there was some vague mention of there being a dam somewhere, and I'm assuming it gave way. But it all just felt hollow and contrived, like they ran out of time and got cut off before they ended it.
As for the timeline, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's Christmas Day when they first arrive, right? Their car gets trashed, and they end up at the Rocket Garage within a couple hours of first hitting town. So there can't be any overlap where Hap and Leonard and Florida are all running around Grovetown missing each other, right? That means Florida had to be in the trunk of that car no later than Christmas Eve night, and so she was in there for like a week? Okay, maybe she can survive that long with rainwater dripping through, but it's kind of pushing things.
A couple points of plot order. Tim thinks Florida is dead, so he hides her body out in his junkyard, and then I guess it must have been him who put her Volvo out in the woods near the Klan Tree Farm, right? Perhaps to draw suspicion away from himself. If someone did find the car out there, it would be natural to assume Truman's boys were behind it. But that being the case, why didn't he put the body there too? Why keep it at his place?
And regarding the cursed song, I like epj's theory. We know Tim and Florida both heard at least part of it. But didn't Sonny Knox hear the song too? He offered an opinion about its authenticity in one of the early episodes.
And where did the tape end up? If I'm following the twists and turns, Tim had it last. He didn't sell it to Sonny Knox. I'm assuming it was still at his place, and maybe destroyed in the Great Biblical Torrent?
Anybody heard word of a fourth series?
posted by Naberius at 7:59 AM on April 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
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I loved Charlie making sure Hap and Leonard would be okay with each other. I love Charlie period.
posted by epj at 7:48 PM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]