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bethgreeneishopeunseen · 7 years ago

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Genekie: The Next Great Gimple Ship™?

(photo credit to @bethgreenewarriorprincess)

We all know the Gimple Ships ™: Richonne, Bethyl, Carzekiel. The slow-burn ships of people with the same hearts wearing complementary armor. When I first watched 7x11, Eugene’s interactions with Frankie caught my attention. Their relationship was tinged with warmth and chemistry. I dubbed them “Genekie” as a play off of “Jinkies”, Velma Dinkley’s catchphrase, as it seemed like something Eugene might say. After further studying Genekie, I believe that Frank will probably play a role in Eugene working against Negan.

Before I go into farther into the sweet abyss that is Genekie, I would like to focus on Eugene. At the end of 7x11 he had declared that he was Negan, and he has stuck to that for the most part, to the end of the season. Gimple foreshadowed this part of Eugene’s arc back in 3x12, as Morgan’s walls read, “Eugene turned.” Many fans denounced Eugene’s decision, while others believe he will become a double agent like Dwight. Personally, I think the latter. Eugene did not choose to join the Saviors; he was abducted and forced to join their ranks at the threat of death by Lucille. He will likely not remain a Savior long-term and during the war, he will start working against Negan, who already suspects that he had something to do with Sasha’s death. In 6x14 Eugene described his transition into a survivor as being similar to that of role play:

“It's simple, really. As with any RPG, tabletop, electronic, or otherwise, the key to survival is allowing oneself to be shaped by the assigned environment. In doing so, a broad range of capabilities are acquired, allowing one to flip the script and use said capabilities to shape said environment for maximum longevity. I'm saying I'm in the process of said stage two. I've changed, adapted. I'm a survivor.”

That is what Eugene is doing at the Sanctuary. Being Negan’s engineer keeps him alive and awards him certain privileges that he can later use against the Saviors. For example, being an engineer allowed him to take valuable medical supplies without question. Furthermore, Eugene is trapped in an abusive situation. Abusive relationships and systems of oppression flourish from the same roots of thought (superiority, entitlement, selfishness, etc.), and Negan is both. Eugene has to work for the Saviors. the fact that he gave the pills to Sasha speaks volumes to how strong he already is. He could have fully submitted Negan and not help Sasha at all, but he did at risk of his person. I live in an abusive family, fighting against manipulation, minimization, and psychological abuse as well as the occasional threat of bodily harm. I have to suppress a large of my personality in order to cope while also playing the good daughter, the good sister. Much like Eugene, I have no allies. At the end of the episode, Eugene said that he and Dwight were Negan, and by that point, Dwight had already turned, lying about Sherry and Dr. Carson. For me, that foreshadowed that Eugene will also turn. Right now though, he’s immersed in his role as a Savior. The only person who is possibly more manipulative and better at lying than an abuser is the abused. You have to learn the game being played against you. Frankie will probably/hopefully be a catalyst for Eugene, because Eugene’s allegiance to the Saviors began and will end with Abraham.

In 7x15, Sasha and Eugene discussed his situation. She tried to appease to his sense of honor, his character. Eugene cited Abraham’s murder as his reason for cooperating:

“You know, I believed I could be brave, that I could be a survivor like Abraham was, and ridin' that RV into the sunset was some of the greatest 37 minutes of my existence. But I know now that I was full-tilt delusional. I have never in my life been as scared as I was that night in the woods, kit to the grit, fully believing my number's about to be called, then seeing it happen to someone brave, to a survivor. And then the pants-pissing terror of the rinse and repeat of that very same event -- I just I couldn't. Being here means I'll never have to again.”

The writers even stressed this connection by having Eugene callback to Abraham’s speech in 5x02, when he convinced Team Family to go to Washington. TWD often uses a circular narrative style, such as the season six finale and season seven premiere being an inverse of the season five premiere. Eugene is not a bad person, nor is he a true coward. He was willing to sacrifice himself so Maggie could get to the Hilltop, and then he confessed to making the bullet. He may still be afraid, but ultimately he doesn’t let that fear stop him. Eugene’s family empowers him to be a good man, to be brave. Right now, he is without his family, trapped with a murderous tyrant. He needs someone at the Sanctuary, someone he cares about, to help push him. He already defied Sasha by giving him her the pills. He’s almost there.

The key to decoding the connections between Abraham and Eugene’s arc lies primarily in 6x14. @diamondcitydarlin first noticed the connections, writing that:

“[T]he fact that we revisit some central moments in his and Abraham’s friendship (’pump your breaks, red’ as repeated to Frankie, the suggestion of pouring molten metal over the walkers as per that walker that attacked him that Abraham ultimately had to save him from) seems to me all very intentional subtext to the fact that Eugene is not truly Negan.” (X).

The situations are mirrors of each other. Eugene told Abraham to “pump your breaks” as he wanted to kill the molten walker himself, and he told Frankie the same thing when she urged him to help Amber. One conversation involved killing a dead thing, while the other involved killing a person. Furthermore, the first molten walker tried to kill Eugene, pitting him against Abraham. Yet Eugene’s solution for the fence walkers saves him, as it makes him useful to Negan. Both situations also build on the theme of “usefulness”. In 6x14, Eugene angrily said that Abe was now useless to him, as he could survive, while in 7x11 Negan cites Rick not taking full advantage of Eugene’s abilities. Abraham mentions that “ghosting hostiles” was his skill set, and in 7x11 Eugene described attacks as “hostiles and calamities.” Much like Abraham, Negan is crude, womanizing, and physical intimidating. He does not see Eugene as a survivor, only as a smart tool.

The episodes did not have the same writer nor director, meaning that these parallels were less accidental than most thematic connections in storytelling. The writers wanted to intentionally connect Frankie to Eugene through his relationship to Abraham.

We were first introduced to Frankie in 7x07, when Negan showed Carl his harem. She sat in the background as Sherry comforted Amber. Then in 7x11, Frankie had a name, and she became a real character. Of the three wives who met Eugene, she showed the most interest in him. She offered him a massage, she hugged him after he exploded the balloons and also tried to get him to smile. She wanted him to enjoy himself. Neither the massage or smile were necessary to convince Eugene to help them, and she offered him the massage before she even knew how smart he was. Then, when she and Tanya went to him to “help Amber”, she appealed to his character, calling him a good man. Her interest and relationship in Eugene stems from his as a person. She values his intelligence, but she doesn’t see it primarily as a tool. This is her face when he explains how he would make a bomb from kitchen-based supplies:

Shock, with a bit of wonder mixed in.

In addition, cinematographic elements connect her Eugene more so than Tanya. When her first and last scenes with Eugene end, the camera focuses on her looking at him (X) (X). While she was furious at him for refusing to give her and Tanya the pills, she does not call him a coward and she waits for a moment before leaving after Tanya. Furthermore, TPTB set up her first scene with Eugene to maximize her closeness to him, implying that she was interested in him. By the time Eugene settles into his room, he had moved the armchair and television set, and Tanya chose to sit next to him, using a chair that was originally near the door. I looked around his room again and noticed a spare chair by the microwave. Frankie chose to sit on the arm of Eugene’s chair not of necessity but want.

In film, every prop serves a purpose. The extra chair speaks to Frankie’s personality and her burgeoning relationship with Eugene. The furniture had already been moved, so why not move the armchair just a little more so she could a chair in? Because TPTB wanted to portray Frankie being the most interested wife. The chair placement also reminds me of the iconic Bethyl meals in Alone. Daryl had moved his chair from across the table as a physical expression of him being emotionally closer to Beth. Bethyl is the central romance of the series and will resume once Beth returns (X), and Gimple’s other original ships (Richonne, Carzekiel) share many similarities with them. So does Genekie.

Genekie as a pairing actually makes a great deal of sense. Much like Bethyl, Eugene and Frankie have complementary personalities and types of intelligence. Eugene thinks strategically, planning an outcome like assembling a puzzle, and I believe that Frankie would follow her heart, i.e. her appealing to Eugene through his morals and feelings (you’re a good man). Following Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences (X), Eugene has logical-mathematical intelligence and Frankie has bodily-kinesthetic and interpersonal intelligence, which means she knows how to use her body, like athletes, and how to communicate with others. Furthermore, they would have a natural understanding of the other. They're both being used: Frankie as a wife and Eugene as an engineer. Frankie signed up, but she's had to make herself a tool to survive, like Eugene lying about D.C.

Eugene and Frankie are both underestimated as Bethyl is. Daryl was the redneck asshole, and Beth just another dead girl. Eugene’s first encounter with a molten walker was actually an inverse of the scene in 4x12 where Beth killed the butler walker. In 4x12 Beth struggled with killing the walker, and Daryl just watched, as he believed she could take care of herself. In 6x14, Abraham killed the walker even after Eugene had called dibs as he didn’t believe Eugene could do it. Now, Eugene is the “Daryl” of the Saviors, in a sense. He has value in the apocalypse because of his specific skill sets, while Frankie is “replacable” to Negan. Like Beth, Frankie also is a nurturer. After Sherry left, Frankie took care of Amber the most, paying attention to her and comforting her. This part of Frankie’s character is very important to Genekie’s success. Eugene probably/likely has Asberger’s (X), so he sees the world differently from most and would struggle socially, as we’ve seen. I see parallels between Daryl and Eugene’s poor social skills. Daryl is a survivor of childhood abuse and likely has complex P.T.S.D., which would alter his brain. (Complex P.T.S.D., or C-P.T.S.D., is essentially long-term P.T.S.D., as it develops from multiple traumas over a long period of time, shaping the person’s identity, and usually arises from a situation with little hope for escape. Child abuse is probably the most common cause. While it’s not in the DSM yet, the concept has been in the medical field for twenty-five years, and it will be added to W.H.O. book next year.) Both of their brains are different from the majority of people. Everyone also has an inner child, and for those going through abuse with a tyrant God-figure like Negan, that inner child comes to the front. Daryl definitely has an inner child, and while he grew up with Beth, that child will always be there ready to take over during times of crisis. I thought about Eugene taking Grembly Gunk, and that’s when the child connection clicked. As a survivor of child abuse, I still keep a stuffed animal with me when I sleep. It makes me feel less alone, and having something to hold helps as I was probably neglected to an extent. Touch is so important for abuse survivors as it allows us to repair and forge connections. As Daryl needs a nurturer like Beth, Eugene needs a kind, patient, and understanding individual as a partner.

And it makes sense that Frankie would be interested in Eugene. He is everything that Negan is not.

Gimple has plans for Frankie. In the comics the only named wives are Sherry and Amber. I believe that he is adapting Eugene and Rosita’s relationship from the comics as Genekie. Rosita is very different from her comic counterpart, and a romantic relationship with Eugene would not work. While she cares about Eugene, she is more aggressive and emotionally unstable than her comic version. Comic!Rosita was known for her kindness and emotional stability. In the comics, Rosita used her body in order to be protected while traveling on the road, before she met Abraham. So comic!Rosita and Frankie are similar in those regards. TPTB acknowledge this different in character in 7x15:

“A lot of guys wanted to protect me, like there was no way I could know how to take care of myself. And I didn't. And I hated the way that felt. So I rolled with it. They didn't even notice I was picking up everything they knew how to do and doing it better. Then I'd outgrow them and bounce. The sex was just for fun.”

The writers didn’t need to mention why Rosita had sex with the men who proceeded Abraham as there had never been any earlier reference to them. Unless the writers were acknowledging comic canon. As I mentioned in another post, TPTB treat the different TWD universes as interconnected in a sense (X). They want those familiar with the comics and the show to make comparisons. If Rosita will not end up with Eugene, then who will? Frankie makes hte most sense as of now. The other night I read diamondcitydarlin’s Genekie fic, and a large part of the story centers on Eugene helping Frankie escape the Sanctuary when she discovers that she’s pregnant with Negan’s child. Eugene later joins her after the war, raising her baby as his own. In the comics, after she married him, Rosita became pregnant with another man’s baby, and then was murdered by the Whisperers. Reading diamond’s story helped Genekie’s potential click for me. It makes so much sense that Gimple would adapt Rosita’s comic story and expand upon it. (He wouldn’t create an original character, pair her up with an iconic comic character, and then kill her.) Sherry took a pregnancy test in 7x03, so it’s possible that Negan would be trying with his other wives. Even if the pregnancy storyline does not play out in the show, Frankie is vulnerable to an extent. Abraham was the most important relationship in Eugene’s life, and Red protected him. Now Eugene would protect Red. From protected to protector, like a Cowardly Lion who steps up at the darkest hour, Eugene will find his courage again for the woman he loves.

#genekie #eugene x frankie #eugene porter #twd frankie #bethyl #bethyl meta #parallels #genekie meta

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