smartgrrrl's guide to stuff

There was a picture of 7 young friends in that townhouse that is visible when several men, including Spangler (Will’s big boss) and James Wheeler, meet there. They discuss Rhumor’s death and indicate that with his death they are “back on track”. The picture of the 7 youngsters was subsequently taken from the townhouse by James Wheeler.

These 7 youngsters may have grown up to be the group representing the “fourth” branch of the clover, or at least some shadow group appended to the government. I couldn’t help but also noticing that after breaking the code with the old timer (using the Yankees World Series wins, etc.) Will Travers uses his cell phone to ask a friend to run 7 names through a data base for him. Are these the same 7 people in the picture taken from the townhouse? Have Will and the old timer found the names of these boys in the code that David Hadas left for him?

In episode three Will only asks his friend to run 3 names: Jeffrey Garcia, Alfred Bermudez and Randy Hobbs. Perhaps he and the old timer have yet to use the dates in the codes to conclusively identify the remaining 4 names, but at least they know that the code represents 4 additional as of yet unnamed persons.

Or am I just full of doo-doo and over thinking these points?

As for the titles of the episodes – interesting question. What do they mean, if anything? Well, I’ll play along as far as my limited intellect will allow. The title of the first episode is “Gone in the Teeth”. This could be a reference to a line in a 1920 Ezra Pound poem called “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”.

The relevant lines of the poem read:

There died a myriad,
And of the best, among them,
For an old bitch gone in the teeth,
For a botched civilization.

These lines are frequently quoted as being representative of modernist disillusionment after World War I, encapsulating anger about that war that calls into question the value of culture itself which produced it. As far as I can tell, the reference to an “old bitch gone in the teeth” is an indictment of nationhood and nationalism that produces cataclysmic wars with the idea that nationalism and the blind patriotic fervor it produces is an idea that is old, outdated and rightly should be dead (i.e. gone in the teeth). It is not a young pretty idea to be adored but an “old bitch” (i.e. ugly and repulsive).

Perhaps the title of the first episode borrowed this line to infer that the nationalism and religious fervor engendered by the terrorism and the war on terror is nothing more than an updated version of the patriotic nationalism that led to the horrific consequences of WWI. Many young boys died for nationalism in WWI. Many have died and will die in the struggle between religiously inspired terrorists and those waging a war on terrorism today.

And, isn’t that really what Rubicon is about – we are watching a show about the warfare of today between intractable foes with diametrically opposed “bitches gone in the teeth” through the eyes of some of the participants in that war – Will Travers and the API crew?

Thoughts?

Bill, that’s fantastic — I did not notice the photograph when those men
meet in the townhouse to discuss Rhumor’s death. Nor did I make the
connection between these men and the seven names Will asks his friend to
track down. But I do think that he did get all seven names — we were only
able to hear three of them this week before the scene changed. I’m sure
we’ll get the rest in due course.

Aside from Hobbs, though, the other names don’t sound WASPy enough to
connect them to this shadow group. And we’d have to assume that one of the
names is “Spangler,” which would certainly freak Will out. But maybe David
didn’t know about Spangler? Now who’s overthinking?

I don’t know about your “limited intellect,” but clearly I need to step up
my game. Because this is brilliant! I can absolutely see the connection
between Pound’s condemnation of patriotic(/fanatical?) nationalism and what
Rubicon is doing in its first three episodes — particularly as the series
began with an epigraph from Woodrow Wilson (“Some of the biggest men in the
United States…know that there is a power somewhere so organized…so
pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak
in condemnation of it”), and there’s at least one character who is either
already disillusioned or quickly on his way to becoming so about his/API’s
role in foreign affairs: Miles, who first can’t believe that civil unrest in
Nigeria is dismissed so readily by a major newspaper and then can’t stop
watching the riots on TV, wondering why they bother gathering all the intel
if no one listens to them.

I admit thinking that the titles were more cryptic, though. Is there
anything that “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” might have in common with “First Day
of School” and “Keep the Ends Out”? The latter, anyway, comes from the first
verse of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line”:

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you’re mine, I walk the line

And I’ve always read that third line as an indication that he’s so open to
the idea of commitment that he’s holding out the ends of the string/rope
that will bind them together. But I could see Rubicon subverting this
notion, as they did with the idea of the “lucky” clover that prompted Tom
Rhumor to commit suicide.

As for “First Day of School” I can’t get any farther than “Tuesday.”

Spangler doesn’t necessarily have to be on the list. He may be a replacement or newcomer. Alternatively, the code sequence for his name hasn’t yet been broken. Since Will only asked for a run down on 3 names, maybe he and the old timer have only been able to positively establish 3 names. Or maybe they have cracked the Spangler name code incorrectly, resulting in one of the 3 names we were made aware of. perhaps a combination of all or none of these – help I am going crazy with conspiracy solving mania!

“I keep the ends out for the ties that bind”.

I Assume you are right about this since it makes sense.

I was also thinking that “Keep the Ends Out” was meant to lead someone to the 2nd part of that line referring to “the ties that bind” – meaning a relationship that is hard, if not impossible, to dissolve, even if it is fraught with bad feelings and memories. After all, the third episode was predominantly about such relationships and the ties that bind various characters together in life and death:

1. Miles and his wife – troubled relationship yet he can’t shake it. Wants to repair the damage between them.

2. Evan Hadas and his father – troubled relationship (David Hadas never visited his son in the mental health facility), but Evan still must have the motorcycle as a permanent reminder of his father.

3. Maggie Young and her ex-husband – he has now returned to re-start the relationship. Although Maggie is leery, what if Sophie could have her dad again?

4. Joan Hadas comes to API to retrieve her deceased husband’s belongings in an attempt to take possession of the remaining material things that represent their relationship even though it was a troubled one “David always used to say, ‘church and state,’” she comments. “I just never knew which one I was.”

5. Katherine Rhumor lies in bed gazing at a photo of a young Tom Rhumor at the beach. That photo, represents the last reminder of the good part of their relationship while the Townhouse represents the bad/secret part of the relationship.

6. The relationship between James and Tom Rhumor is even examined in this episode: James denies knowing about Tom’s secret townhouse. When Ms. Rhumor asks James “What was he (Tom) up to?” she asks. “True friendship,” replies James, “is forgiving someone in ways you would never forgive an acquaintance.” Again a reference to not being able to shake some relationships (the ties that bind) even when they get shaky.

I am sure I missed some nuance in the relationships between the other characters, but I get the sense that the title of this episode was pointing directly at the fact that it was going to be an exploration of the “ties that bind” the various characters in their relationships, thus the use of “Keep the Ends Out” as a lead-in to that thought.

True, Spangler isn’t necessarily on the list. I was just thinking that IF
the seven names are of the men who met in the townhouse after Rhumor died,
he would be on the list. But he might not be. And Will definitely tells his
friend that he has seven names (he actually says “I have *about* seven
names,” so I guess that number is plus or minus), but we don’t hear him name
all seven.