#emphasis on speculation bc i enjoy playing w/ the source material but

[roominthecastle]

I love reading your take on TBL so if you could indulge me one more time... Why do you think Red was so affected by Elizabeth's fantasy? His reaction - his unusual silence - is something that always comes back to me... (I'm sorry if you have talked about this before) Thank you!!!

I’m always happy to go down these rabbit holes over and over again, anon. but let’s take it behind a cut:

Yes, this question came up a few times before, so first let me copy-paste one of my old answers here:

(the episode referenced is 304)

Ithink the look on Red’s face upon hearing what Liz really wants and him fallingsilent for a while signal an internal struggle. A dilemma, if you will. Red waswrestling with himself and then he reached a conclusion: it is as it shouldbe.

Sowhat was this inner struggle about? Why did Liz’s confession that she wants anormal life send Red spiraling all of a sudden? I mean, it wasn’t exactly brandnew information, right? It couldn’t have been an unexpected revelation,especially for Red who has a knack for reading people and gauging their wantsand needs (a talent which is also referenced in the episode: “It appearswe’re all good at reading people. What fun.”). What was up with him? Well,I suspect that he suddenly felt conflicted about his precise role in all this: doI wanna be an observer of her fantasy or a participant in it? Can I even be aparticipant? Should I be? And I think this dilemma is visualized by himmoving from the acting area where Liz sits to a seat in the viewing area andthen back to the acting area again (when the subject of Tom is brought up)where he eventually sits on the bed, quasi-separated from Liz but still onstage w/ her (then, at the end of the episode, he is back in the viewing areaagain).

Reddid not want Liz to end up a fugitive but she did nonetheless. She crossed intohis world and I think part of him cannot help but relish in her company despitethe unfortunate and perilous circumstances. They basically live together nowand in this particular episode they are hiding out in a theater where the stageis arranged as a home. It’s their (temporary) home. In other words, theyare literally playing house. It is their shared, collective fantasyright there, something they both lost and a possibility Red wasn’t entertainingprior to his arranged partnership w/ Liz, and they are briefly enacting ithere. But it is a fantasy and I think what hits Red later on is that a) this isprobably as close as he will get to living it and b) this “walk in the park”scenario is kinda unattainable for him but it is still within reach for Liz andhe will do anything in his power to help her attain it because she deserves it.

Now we can also add to this the “shippy end” of ep 302 where Red brings up the story of Odysseus while the song “Our House” plays in the background. There are many similarities btw Red and the legendary schemer/warrior, the most obvious being the governing theme of finding one’s way back home.

Liz’s fantasy hits Red like a ton of bricks bc it reflects his most profound loss and also his most profound yearning that was likely much more dormant before he “exposed” himself to Liz. His behavior in subsequent episodes supports this idea too, e.g. how he shatters to pieces after Liz’s “death” (a loss I believe he later equates with his own death and compares it to being lost at the bottom of a fathomless sea) and how he clings to Agnes. I also think that his initial willingness to "let go” has been compromised by several factors, one being Liz’s fake death which was all too real for Red. When we lose someone and then get them back, it is only understandable that we cling to them tighter, not wanting to experience that devastating loss in any form ever again. Loss also clarifies things and this “death” certainly seemed to clarify Red’s feelings as he essentially interrogated himself in “Cape May,” ordering himself to expose the truth to himself (”Tell yourself.”)

so folding this back to the topic at hand:

Liz and Agnes are Red’s home but he is kept “away”. He is even willing to tolerate Tim if it allows him to linger on the periphery of their lives, which alone should give you an idea of just how deep his yearning cuts - a yearning he is increasingly powerless to “mitigate” as his mental-emotional turmoil amplifies. And this only feeds the core “observer/facilitator vs participant” dilemma mentioned above, and generates more and more conflict bc one cannot fight a war and be home at the same time w/o contaminating it with death/destruction. One can’t have it both ways and Red is, imo, stuck and torn in-between - as a prisoner of his own choices, as a victim of circumstance, and yes, as a man in love. He wants to come home (”May I see your new apartment?”) but he can’t, he isn’t allowed bc his war is not done (”Not yet. Maybe someday.” cf. Red’s assessment in 311: “It’s a mythic battle, and it’s not anywhere close to being over.”)

But we know Odysseus also had to prove himself to his wife and kill her suitors/interlopers (who also lived with her) before he was accepted back, so…

;)

p.s. yes, I know I’m esp stretching it w/ the apartment thing but I couldn’t resist.