Kingdom 2x12, 14, and 15
So, the show that owns my heart and soul, Kingdom has had 3 episodes that deal with sexual assault related issues and they haven't made me want to throw things at the TV.
I talked about episode 12 and what happened to Nate.
Episode 13 is all about the big Jay vs. Ryan fight. Jay wins, and being Jay, it's party time.
Episode 14
So, Christina, Nate & Jay's mom, Alvey's ex-wife is in rehab again and is having an affair with her counselor, Jason, which has gotten her some extra privlidges, such as getting to go see Jay fight. As soon as he starts talking in a way that screams "relationship" she's done with him. She was fine with mutual itch scratching but that was all she wanted. She makes it very. VERY. clear that she's done having sex with him.
He comes into her room one night, very drunk, after getting an award, and tries to rape her. It's shot in a very non-hubba hubba way. He's got whiskey dick and gives up, and says something about "nothing happened" and Christina picks up his award and cracks him upside the head with it and then calls the cops.
Jay is incommunicado. (Did I mention, partayyyy?) It's NATE who has to pick his mother up.
Nate, who was drugged and raped and can't tell a soul about it, has to pick his mother up and hear about what happened to her and deal with the immediate fall out.
Nate finally gets through to Jay to tell him "you need to come home right damn now, because Mom needs you" and Jay falls apart when he finds out what happened. He and Christina have a good cry together before he tucks her into to bed. (What you have to realize is that Jay is a momma's boy, and Jay more or less raised Nate and now he feels like he failed both of them because he couldn't protect his mom and he failed to protect Nate from having to deal with this whole mess.)
So, while that's going on, a small clothing and gear outfit, OC Atomic, approaches Alicia about modeling some of their clothes. They're a bunch of bros. She's ambivalent about it, but they offer her $2000 for a photoshoot. Alvey says they're nobodies, she doesn't have to do it, and says he's never heard of them, they seem very fly by night, don't do it. Alicia may have won a fight, but she can still use $2k.
Will, Bob's assistant shows up at the Gym asking for Nate, who tells him to more or less fuck off, but Will's good looking and a smooth talker. Nate's not the only guy this has happened to. He might as well stick Bob for $10k, and yeah, Will hates working for Bob and he hates his job, but the last 3 guys who had his job got made partners at the agency. In the envelope Nate finds Will's card and a note on it asking him to dinner.
Alicia goes to the photoshoot, alone, and it's beyond skeevey. The lead bro asks her to shoot topless and when she refuses, he says they won't pay her at all. She says she needs to go freshen her makeup, locks herself in the dressing room, and calls Alvey.
Alvey has a lot of flaws, but bless him, he's THAT guy. He doesn't hesitate to leave the date he very much wants to be on to go pick Alicia up. He marches right in to the room with the bros, asks, where she is, and when lead bro points to the door and starts complaining, Alvey gives him a quick glance and says, "Cunt" -- which made me LOL because it's the most hilariously beautiful insult Alvey could call that bro and he knows it. They are all of them younger and bigger than him and they still don't dare touch him, even after he called the ringleader a cunt to his face in front of all of them.
Alvey grabs Alicia, marches her out, and beyond, "I told you not to do this photoshoot" doesn't say anything more about the issue, in fact, he takes Alicia back to his house and lets her have the bed while he takes the couch, because yeah, she's rattled and he gets that.
At the end of the episode, Nate screws his courage to the sticking place and leaves a voicemail for Will accepting the dinner invite. (Nate's had a blow-job behind a bar and we know there's been grindr hookups, but never an actual date, which is why this is a big thing.)
Episode 15
Jason shows up at Christina/Jay/Nate's house. Epically glorious mistake is epically glorious, because Jay is there, immediately figures out who Jason must be, and knocks him out and ties him to a chair. Jay has questions for Jason, and it's glorious the way that Jay knows exactly who his mother is, and what she's capable of, and yet, sees through all of Jason's bullshit when he says he's come over to apologize.
Christina comes back from her volunteer work to find Jay has a loaded gun on Jason. She convinces him to not commit a homicide. Jason "apologizes" because he's "not like all those other men" who have taken advantage of her. He loves her, you see. Christina responds. “You’re not like all those other men. You’re worse."
OMG Yes. Yes Yes Yes Yes! Snoopy Dance. Snoopy Dance!
Jay takes Jason to his car and gives him one final threat/warning.
Meanwhile, Nate is having lunch with Will who just talk talk talk talks and Nate listens. Will remarks that if Nate approaches Bob for more money, he'll throw it at him and then "he'll own you." And the way it's done implies that Bob did to Will what he did to Nate. (Shudder.)
I love how subtle this is, but it's there -- that the ONE person that Nate can actually turn to, the one person who's literally been in his shoes ... works for the man who victimized Nate and was very likely a victim of that same predator -- and how fucked up is that?
Anyhow, Will ends lunch by saying that he'd like to see Nate again. He knows that Nate's in the closet, and he understands, and he's fine with that, given that it took putting an ocean between him and his dad for him to come out. Nate doesn't want any distractions while he's training, but agrees to call him after his next fight.
On the one hand, this is a huge step for Nate in accepting who he is by seeing a gay man socially, because in S1 he couldn't handle the fact that his Physical Therapist was gay. That said, Will raises several red flags for me because that he first said, "the last three guys who did this made partner" as opposed to, "Bob's got me over a barrel" screams Slytherin to me, not necessarily, decent person who's caught between a rock and a hard place and trying to make the best of a shitty situation.
-----
So yeah, didn't make me want to throw things at my TV, but showed the ongoing fall out of what sexual assault does, and what a near-miss looks like and how fucking scary that is, too.
I talked about episode 12 and what happened to Nate.
Episode 13 is all about the big Jay vs. Ryan fight. Jay wins, and being Jay, it's party time.
Episode 14
So, Christina, Nate & Jay's mom, Alvey's ex-wife is in rehab again and is having an affair with her counselor, Jason, which has gotten her some extra privlidges, such as getting to go see Jay fight. As soon as he starts talking in a way that screams "relationship" she's done with him. She was fine with mutual itch scratching but that was all she wanted. She makes it very. VERY. clear that she's done having sex with him.
He comes into her room one night, very drunk, after getting an award, and tries to rape her. It's shot in a very non-hubba hubba way. He's got whiskey dick and gives up, and says something about "nothing happened" and Christina picks up his award and cracks him upside the head with it and then calls the cops.
Jay is incommunicado. (Did I mention, partayyyy?) It's NATE who has to pick his mother up.
Nate, who was drugged and raped and can't tell a soul about it, has to pick his mother up and hear about what happened to her and deal with the immediate fall out.
Nate finally gets through to Jay to tell him "you need to come home right damn now, because Mom needs you" and Jay falls apart when he finds out what happened. He and Christina have a good cry together before he tucks her into to bed. (What you have to realize is that Jay is a momma's boy, and Jay more or less raised Nate and now he feels like he failed both of them because he couldn't protect his mom and he failed to protect Nate from having to deal with this whole mess.)
So, while that's going on, a small clothing and gear outfit, OC Atomic, approaches Alicia about modeling some of their clothes. They're a bunch of bros. She's ambivalent about it, but they offer her $2000 for a photoshoot. Alvey says they're nobodies, she doesn't have to do it, and says he's never heard of them, they seem very fly by night, don't do it. Alicia may have won a fight, but she can still use $2k.
Will, Bob's assistant shows up at the Gym asking for Nate, who tells him to more or less fuck off, but Will's good looking and a smooth talker. Nate's not the only guy this has happened to. He might as well stick Bob for $10k, and yeah, Will hates working for Bob and he hates his job, but the last 3 guys who had his job got made partners at the agency. In the envelope Nate finds Will's card and a note on it asking him to dinner.
Alicia goes to the photoshoot, alone, and it's beyond skeevey. The lead bro asks her to shoot topless and when she refuses, he says they won't pay her at all. She says she needs to go freshen her makeup, locks herself in the dressing room, and calls Alvey.
Alvey has a lot of flaws, but bless him, he's THAT guy. He doesn't hesitate to leave the date he very much wants to be on to go pick Alicia up. He marches right in to the room with the bros, asks, where she is, and when lead bro points to the door and starts complaining, Alvey gives him a quick glance and says, "Cunt" -- which made me LOL because it's the most hilariously beautiful insult Alvey could call that bro and he knows it. They are all of them younger and bigger than him and they still don't dare touch him, even after he called the ringleader a cunt to his face in front of all of them.
Alvey grabs Alicia, marches her out, and beyond, "I told you not to do this photoshoot" doesn't say anything more about the issue, in fact, he takes Alicia back to his house and lets her have the bed while he takes the couch, because yeah, she's rattled and he gets that.
At the end of the episode, Nate screws his courage to the sticking place and leaves a voicemail for Will accepting the dinner invite. (Nate's had a blow-job behind a bar and we know there's been grindr hookups, but never an actual date, which is why this is a big thing.)
Episode 15
Jason shows up at Christina/Jay/Nate's house. Epically glorious mistake is epically glorious, because Jay is there, immediately figures out who Jason must be, and knocks him out and ties him to a chair. Jay has questions for Jason, and it's glorious the way that Jay knows exactly who his mother is, and what she's capable of, and yet, sees through all of Jason's bullshit when he says he's come over to apologize.
Christina comes back from her volunteer work to find Jay has a loaded gun on Jason. She convinces him to not commit a homicide. Jason "apologizes" because he's "not like all those other men" who have taken advantage of her. He loves her, you see. Christina responds. “You’re not like all those other men. You’re worse."
OMG Yes. Yes Yes Yes Yes! Snoopy Dance. Snoopy Dance!
Jay takes Jason to his car and gives him one final threat/warning.
Meanwhile, Nate is having lunch with Will who just talk talk talk talks and Nate listens. Will remarks that if Nate approaches Bob for more money, he'll throw it at him and then "he'll own you." And the way it's done implies that Bob did to Will what he did to Nate. (Shudder.)
I love how subtle this is, but it's there -- that the ONE person that Nate can actually turn to, the one person who's literally been in his shoes ... works for the man who victimized Nate and was very likely a victim of that same predator -- and how fucked up is that?
Anyhow, Will ends lunch by saying that he'd like to see Nate again. He knows that Nate's in the closet, and he understands, and he's fine with that, given that it took putting an ocean between him and his dad for him to come out. Nate doesn't want any distractions while he's training, but agrees to call him after his next fight.
On the one hand, this is a huge step for Nate in accepting who he is by seeing a gay man socially, because in S1 he couldn't handle the fact that his Physical Therapist was gay. That said, Will raises several red flags for me because that he first said, "the last three guys who did this made partner" as opposed to, "Bob's got me over a barrel" screams Slytherin to me, not necessarily, decent person who's caught between a rock and a hard place and trying to make the best of a shitty situation.
-----
So yeah, didn't make me want to throw things at my TV, but showed the ongoing fall out of what sexual assault does, and what a near-miss looks like and how fucking scary that is, too.