[S1E2] The Woman Who Ate Photographs REPACK
Each story in the collection is about women's experiences and how women navigate through others' perceptions of them as well as their own. Highlighting what it means to be a woman, these stories are considered "darkly comic feminist fables."[1]
[S1E2] The Woman Who Ate Photographs
In May 2022, the British TV show Gogglebox featured a scene from the fifth episode "The Woman Who Was Fed By a Duck" wherein the duck performs a sex act on the woman. The broadcast of this scene resulted in over 200 complaints to the broadcasting regulator, Ofcom.[10]
Robin (Nicole Kidman) is a woman struggling with the fact that her sons are growing up and that her own mother is succumbing to the effects of dementia. While helping her mother move into their family home, Robin discovers that eating old photographs of her as a child allows her to vividly experience each of the memories represented in each photo. Despite Robin's husband's misgivings about her mother moving in, Robin's entire family ends up supporting her decision to keep her mother close. Robin's visceral act of eating photos represents the physical and emotional toll of her experiences as a mother and as a daughter. As Robin arrives at a crossroads in her mid-life, thankfully, she has her family standing right beside her for support.
Drawing comparisons to the surreal romantic comedy series Man Seeking Woman, the fifth episode of the Roar series is about Elisa (Merrit Wever), a woman who dates an actual duck, named Larry (Justin Kirk), who starts talking to her while she's at the park. After she realizes that Larry's good-guy act was just a facade and that he's actually physically and emotionally abusive, she calls animal services to pick him up. When the cute animal services guy (Eric Andre) tries to ask her out, Elisa politely refuses as she decides to focus on her goal to become a doctor.
Flahive walked back her statement a little bit. In order to ensure the filming would be safe for Kidman, they did produce edible photographs. They might not have tasted all that good, but Kidman would have been safe had she chosen to go method and really eat the photos.
Swallowing photographs is odd behavior for a character, even if they were edible behind the scenes. Flahive could understand what Ahern was getting at when she literalized consuming mementos and memories.
Thankfully, it seems poor Teonna may have someone on the outside looking out for her. An older woman arrives at the school to speak with the superintendent. She appears to be the girl's grandmother and primary guardian, who's lobbying to get her placed at a school on the reservation. The superintendent treats her with great disdain, initially dismissing her request outright, but ultimately sending her off to navigate a series of bureaucratic hurdles to have her request considered.
The episode closes with another lengthy stretch in Africa, where Spencer is still drinking heavily, this time at a hotel bar. A British woman named Alexandra and her friends approach him and quickly identify him as "the American war hero who kills the man-eaters." Alexandra is clearly growing fond of Spencer, so her fawning friends remind her that she's engaged and whisk her away.
Aabis has gone straight to the top, sleeping with the King, but that's hardly an exclusive club, as every time King Francis emerges from a doorway, he's followed by a flustered woman straightening out her clothes. Angelica (Ruby Bentall), Catherine's perfumier, is tight with Ruggiero, Catherine's magician, who provided a smelly unguent to guarantee conception, but getting Catherine's husband to play his part is the real issue. Sebastio suggests she approach Henri, escorting her to the gardens where teenage boys are wrestling like a bunch of lively puppies. Henri and his brother Francis are there; young Francis, a chip off the lecherous old royal block, makes a suggestive comment to Catherine and propositions Mathilde.
On his way to Catherine's bedchamber Herni is waylaid by Diane, inviting him to read the Bible with her. (She promised his mother; it's wrong on many levels). Catherine, she tells him, is menstruating, so there's no point in going. Ruggiere's unguent applied, Catherine is ready; when Henri doesn't show up, she makes Mathilde show her a spy hole into his bedchamber. Diane, deftly combining religious and erotic ecstasy, in turn, stares back at Catherine. The following morning, Diane tells Catherine the new Pope allied with the Holy Roman Emperor (the Queen's brother). So much for her dowry. She offers Catherine a lady-in-waiting position, perhaps a servant, while Henri marries her. His initial response is to laugh and says Diane's too old. She responds she's not too old for a baby. Besides, she has a repertoire of sexual tricks a younger woman couldn't imagine.
What if he is killed in battle? Diane asks. In that case, Catherine replies, she will have achieved that highest of pinnacles for a woman, widowhood, as Diane suggested. It's a great move on Catherine's part; her status at the court is confirmed with the King on her side. However, there is a little more tidying up as Ruggiero and Angelica ride out and find Tim's son in hiding. Ruggiero hands him a straw effigy doll, a weapon of witchcraft. Later, Catherine rides out and discovers his body.
Alex tries to help Piper out by sneaking her a cube of cornbread, but she would rather starve than accept help from the woman she blames for landing her in prison in the first place. And the staff notices, and stops feeding Alex as well.
After checking in at the front desk, Genevieve meets with Beecher in one of the visiting rooms. Genevieve mentions to Beecher that their daughter, Holly, made a painting for him but she forgot to bring it in with her from her purse. Amongst the details of the painting, she notes that Beecher wasn't included in it. Following the visit with his wife, Beecher returns to his cell where Schillinger has found some photographs of Beecher's family that he had hidden. After some not-so-subtle threats from Schillinger, Beecher destroys the pictures of his family.
You can take a lot of things away from a man. Cigarettes, the gym. You can take his freedom, his legs, but not his feelings. Not his feelings. A man loves a woman. Don't matter what kind of man he is, if he loves her, he wants her. He wants her body. He wants her to want his. So you say to him, "you can never make love again. You will never touch her in that way again. This is the last time. The last time. Forever." If that's not cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what is.
Lee and Danny make their way into the woods, and after a short while, find a small camp. Danny checks the only tent while Lee checks the supplies. Lee finds all the boxes empty, and tells Danny some are from the farm. Danny says the bandits probably stole them. A few moments later Lee finds a video recorder, which Danny tells Lee to let him see it. Lee states that the batteries are dead and not to worry about it. Lee then checks the tent, in which he finds two sleeping bags, one kid sized, inside the tent. He then finds Clementine's hat, after which a woman, by the name of Jolene, sneaks into the bandit's camp. She tells the two men to drop their weapons, or she will shoot.
NICK: Well, first, let me say I think you guys make some really interesting points. Points that I respect, but I will say this. I have lived with a woman, Caroline, as you guys know, and so I know that there are pros and I know that there are real cons, guys. 041b061a72