Each week Joe and Terry discuss Starz’s import of Channel 4’s Tip Toe, alternating between our respective sites.
Spoilers follow for Episode 3
JOE
Well Terry, we called it: not only does the truth about George (Jackson Connor) come out in episode three of Tip Toe, but so does the truth about Saul (Joseph Evans)!
Considering that we’ve crossed into the back half of Russell T Davies’ series, it makes sense that this is an eventful episode. Still, I’ll confess that I’m surprised at how many revelations came out in the space of a single hour.
Intriguingly, most of the episode is actually dedicated to Clive (David Morrissey) as we unpack a lot of his motivations. After a quick cold open that confirms he used to perform in a British (boy?) band, we learn that Clive has effectively been cast out from reliable construction gigs because he bullied other employees and no one wants to work with him.
On his current gig, he strikes up a flirty relationship with a lonely woman, but – after preparing to go through with another adulterous affair like the one at the caravan park that caused his rift with Marie (Pooky Quesnel) – we actually get confirmation that he lied about the whole affair. He’s done that for SIX YEARS, Terry – because he thought that telling Marie the fib would make him seem sexier.
And instead it just wrecked his relationship. Woof.
Dedicating nearly half of the episode to flashbacks and exposition about Clive is an interesting creative choice from Davies and co. It makes sense to unpack the other half of the equation before moving the story any further, though I’ll confess that I’m a little mixed on how much real/new insight these details offer us about Clive. Sure, it’s pretty wild to get this big info dump, but does his confession about the affair and the rockstar past denote that Clive is – like so many of the characters on the show – simply looking for reassurance about their sex appeal and worth? Or is it something more than that?
After all…there’s an undeniable hint of repression in Clive, no?
Initially when the series began, I thought that Clive was going to be revealed as a closeted queer man who hates the LGBTQIA community because he can’t be honest with himself. I’m happy that that doesn’t appear to be the case, though.
If anything Clive is just completely unmoored in life: clearly things haven’t gone to plan and he hates himself (and maybe everyone else) to the point that he makes everything miserable. George hurls that in his face when the family demands an answer for why George broke into Leo (Alan Cumming)’s flat. And we have SO MUCH to unpack about that sad post-sex bathroom scene between Clive and Marie.
But maybe I’ll flip it over to you, Terry: what did you make of all of the revelations about Clive in this episode? Were you surprised by his reactions to either George or Saul? And how upsetting was the physical assault between him and Leo in the foyer? (Cumming’s terrified scream/cry of “Don’t you ever!” is absolutely haunting!)
TERRY
I have to admit, Joe, that I was so mad for the first 17-20ish minutes. I kept going “why aren’t we addressing how last episode ended??” I even stopped the episode for a moment, thinking that maybe I had accidentally skipped ahead to episode four.
When it finally clicked, I enjoyed the first half of this episode a whole lot.
I particularly enjoyed the way it reframed everything leading up to the surprise reveal of George in Leo’s house. The whole Clive/Diane situation I found endlessly enthralling. The way in which Davies deconstructed toxic masculinity by showing and not telling was fascinating to me. You’re right that I don’t think we learned too much about Clive that we didn’t either already know (he’s a raging prick with a huge inferiority complex) or expected (that the affair didn’t happen). But I did love the way in which Davies provided context without pushing forgiveness on us.
I am completely with you on your fear that Clive was secretly closeted. That it would be another boring homophobic homosexual who turns out to be a bully. While that truly does track in the real world, I find the trope in fiction super exhausting. The opening with Clive in a band as a teen also lured me in that direction; I even wondered if he was sneaking onto the construction site to hook up with a dude. I’m glad Davies veered down another path that, again, makes Clive somehow look more pathetic and evil than before.
You mentioned repression and I think that’s absolutely true (though not gay repression we anticipated). The dude is just repressed. Period.
Ultimately, I didn’t completely understand the boy band scene because it didn’t really lead anywhere. Sure, it reaffirms that the man Clive is now is not the joyful kid he once was. But I really expected a bit more from the big, striking Alan Wake-style letters (sorry for the random video game aside).
Maybe, since we have literally two episodes left and it feels like the murder is probably happening the same night, we’ll get more insight into Clive’s back story? Something has to have crushed that free-spirited pop rocker. Was it life? His father? Not to sound dismissive, but do I even care?
As far as I’m concerned, Clive is irredeemable. This episode simply confirmed it.
Moving to the most thematically intriguing part of the episode, I was completely invested in the devastating conversation that happens post attempted coitus. Clive cleans up in the sink while Marie sits on the toilet as she lays out the most dreadful life ahead of them: that they can’t dream of a better future. That, in the most writerly sentence, they need to “stop planning the things that are never going to happen.”
What intrigued me about this exchange is that Marie is mostly talking about how trapped she is. That she would love to envision her own flat, a small garden and a future where she’s not chained to…who? Clive, most certainly. But the boys? Quite possibly. A whiff of Brexit influencing their current situation hangs in the air, Joe, compounded by the fact that it sounds as if Clive (“and his lot”, as the foreman at the construction site spits at Clive) voted for it. Marie even mentions the fact that, at 25, Saul doesn’t seem to have any intent on leaving home and that, in this economy, George will probably boomerang back after college.
It’s a grim future for a woman who works as a chef and probably would love to be on her own and not saddled with the men in her life.
I’m going to turn this back over to you, Joe, because honestly? For me, the episode nose-dives after this surprising, yet fascinating, first half. That said, I do have to briefly shout out Alan Cumming’s acting in this episode. I always think of him as a mischievous scamp, but that aforementioned “Don’t you ever!” followed by his breakdown in the not-so-safety of his home chilled me to the bone.
But over to you. You seemed equally as affected by the post-sex scene and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it and the future Marie sees for them (her grim assessment that it won’t be forever because they’ll eventually die felt a bit on-the-nose, but still effective). And then we have to break down the back part of the episode. You mentioned that reveal after reveal happened (I agree) but I’m curious…did any of the back half work for you?
I have my own thoughts that I’m sure we’ll get into, but I would love to hear your thoughts, first. Did Clive’s porn-watching surprise you? Do you think Marie’s assessment of their situation and how they might get out of it – playing the groomer homosexual card – feel in character or did it strike you as weird?
JOE
It’s tough because the show’s emotionally affecting scenes/beats are really hitting, so the devastating realization of a long married couple essentially realizing that they ought to throw in the towel on their dreams because real life is crushing? Yikes.
It probably doesn’t hurt that you and I are both men of a certain age, Terry, where those same lessons become a little less narrative fantasy and a little more real. Why are you attacking us, Tip Toe?!
I guess there’s a certain inevitability to some of this back half stuff, though, right? It seems impossible with so many staffers knowing about Saul’s OnlyFans history, and how loudly everyone has been talking about Leo comforting/counselling George, that someone would inevitably slip up and clue Clive in. I kinda like that it doesn’t actually happen at the club; it’s because Clive has actually gone into Leo’s house and used his computer (like a psychopath).
Clearly there’s some comedic tension as everyone urges Leo to delete the incriminating texts, voicemails, etc and we see Clive witnessing it all in real time. It’s something of a comedy of errors…were it not for the bracketing device that confirms Leo will end up dead after all of this.
As for the pivot from “George, what have you been doing” to “we’ll slander Leo as a pedophile groomer if he tries to sue”…it does feel abrupt and, yes, maaaybe a little out of character? This is the problem with only barely knowing Marie: we don’t know much about her relationship to the boys aside from that bathroom confession.
There’s a hint of something earlier in the episode when we see her watching TV while the boys are on their phones, as if to suggest that they’re all living their separate lives in this shared space. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that’s grasping at straws because we ultimately just don’t know enough about Marie (specifically) or the Goss family (broadly speaking). We’re really only scratching beneath the surface of Clive here, because the series is slightly unevenly balanced to prioritize Cumming’s Leo.
And so we’re left with another cliffhanger of sorts as Leo enters his flat to find Clive ominously waiting for him on the stairs. I think this is a fake-out: Leo and Clive need to hash out their shit again and the physicality of their earlier encounter – while terrifying – felt like the escalation we were expecting. I’m predicting episode 4 will bring things back down to a simmer as we try to figure out how we go from here to lynching an elder queer by the finale.
Back to you, Terry: I’m curious about your thoughts on Leo’s bestie Stephanie (Elizabeth Berrington), who is clearly a supportive ally, but also tends to be extremely judgey when it comes to the more…sexual elements of queer life? (Here she reminds him she doesn’t have anything like Saul’s video or George’s text messages on her phone, which may be fair, but is also undeniably judgey.) Did you enjoy her “men wank everywhere” monologue? And are we truly meant to believe that George was going to fap it to the hot guy in the car video (I guess all of the free pornography in the world isn’t available when your father has access to your phone).
TERRY
Okay, thank you for bringing up the car video. I honestly was a little confused for a hot second because I saw the commercial, I saw him reach down and went…wait…is he…? To a car commercial?? Dude had bara porn on his phone just a few episodes ago.
We absolutely do have to talk about Stephanie, though. She was the only part of the back half that I actually liked. I’ve had my eye on Stephanie from the beginning because the only time we really see her she’s in a frustrated huff…though, to be fair, I also would be huffy if my friend called me early in the morning because they got locked outside of their flat in their knickers. This doesn’t feel like it’s the first time that’s happened.
This episode, we see her go directly into lawyer mode (though I don’t even know what she does for a career) and working out the way to move forward with Clive’s assault. In an interesting bit of mirroring, she and Marie are the ones who seemingly take charge and become increasingly aggressive in their tactics while the men don’t know how to react. Is it a subtle framing that women are unfortunately used to being on this side of the situation and the men are completely oblivious? Maybe.
But what I found so fascinating is that when she gets a little buzzed, she starts to become a lot more open about her very apparent disdain for aspects of the queer community. I’m suddenly remembering that in the first episode, she brings up the “whole pronoun thing” when she was angry at having to drop everything and help Leo. And then here, once the liquor has removed her filter, she shows her true feelings again. The number of straight white women who are proudly fruit flies who then become uncomfortable when the topic of sex comes up is numerous.
It’s complicated. But in the same way that most of the characters on this show are also complicated. I appreciate Davies working in shades of gray in a current media climate where producers/media companies look down on their viewers and believe everything must be spelled out so the audience isn’t confused.
That said, I absolutely hated the framing of the Clive/Leo computer reveal. It turned the series from a very serious drama to camp. The way the camera would cut back and forth between the two scenes was probably intended to feel like the two men were fencing, trading revelation and deletion in turn. But instead this is the one time where Davies really spelled everything out right before or as it’s happening. The number of times I rolled my eyes at this sequence, Joe!
I even wrote “this is frustrating” in my notes. This is the first time I haven’t liked the show and I’m afraid that while all of the tension leading up to the final two episodes has been queasily fantastic, that when it gets to the intricacies of the actual plotting it’s going to fall.
I hope I’m wrong. We’ll start to find out next week when we go back to Gayly Dreadful for Episode 4.
Tip Toe airs Fridays on Starz
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