So, Catholicism isn’t exactly in my wheelhouse, and feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. But I believe the statuette in Vegas’s room isn’t the Virgin Mary and is actually Santa Muerte, no?
Yes, and quite interesting since Santa Muerte has associations with both cartel life and the LGBTQ+ community.
Some additional info for non-Latine folks:
Santa Muerte is also known as Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte which translates to “Our Lady of the Holy Death. She was originally a male figure, but became increasing popular as a female deity and is a combination of Mexican indigenous beliefs, folklore, and Spaniard Catholic beliefs. In the last few decades she’s grown increasingly popular so you’ll see her imagery show up in various parts of Mexico, the Carribean (shoutouts to my fellow Caribbeans!!), parts of Central America and parts of America with prominent Latine populations.
It should also be noted that Santa Muerte is not a figure of evil, punishment, or judgement even though she is a representative of “death”. She also represents a path to the afterlife, healing, and protection.
Since Santa Muerte is considered to be a deity of protection, particularly for outcasts, she’s become a popular figure within the queer community as well. You can read more about that here in this article.
This makes me wonder if the statue we saw at Vegas after party in ep07 was of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Welp. Ep 10 was a lot to see, feel, and digest. Now that I’ve watched it (repeatedly), I’m here as usual to break down some lines of power, staging, and framing in KinnPorsche.
As usual, I can’t catch or call out everything, and the discussion is always open!
Okay so even though I have never written anything on social media about any TV show, I need to talk about the following:
The VegasPete torture scene (or rather the introduction to it cause we’ll unfortunately get more next week).
Damn… First off, huge props to the actors. Both Bible and Build did a magnificent job, not just in that scene but in the rest of the show as well. But this episode they really said: “You thought we could act? Haha funny, we’re gonna show you that we can ACT”. I’m blown away, honestly.
It’s no secret that the cinematography in KinnPorsche in general is otherwordly, and this scene is no exception. I absolutely loved the angles, the color grading, the flow between takes, the symbolism. Spot on.
Now onto what this post is for - the actual scene, or more specifically, Pete’s smile throughout it.
I have seen people talk about it, and this is my take.
Pete doesn’t actually like what Vegas is doing to him.
I thought that was obvious, but apparently some people claim that because he’s supposedly a masochist (which isn’t really confirmed in the series yet, and if yesterday’s episode is anything to go by nothing is as it is in the novel until shown otherwise) he enjoys Vegas torturing him. In my limited knowlegde of BDSM, the first and most important thing is consent. Even if he were a masochist (which would be fine and not something to judge or use to excuse Vegas physically hurting him without consent), he would not enjoy someone he dispises right now putting his hands on him, let alone doing what he does in the scene, right?
At first I believe Pete’s smiling because he annihilated Vegas’ plan to hurt the most important people in his life (not counting his grandma) - Kinn as his boss, whom he’s loyal to a fault to, and Porsche as his best friend. The torture hasn’t started yet, but he knows what’s to come and his smile says “Bring it on you slimy motherfucker”, and I love him for it.
After that first time Vegas electrocutes him, even though he was screaming a moment ago and understandably so, Vegas expects him to falter, yet Pete smiles AGAIN. This one I believe says “That’s all you’ve got? Think I’m that easy to break? You’ve underestimated me all those times in the past and look how that’s worked out for you. Still haven’t learned?”.
What he’s doing is showing Vegas defiance and immense strength that this seemingly shy and quiet, rule-following guy posesses. He knows Vegas wants to see him break, and he refuses to give him the satisfaction of that (at least for now).
All in all, even though Pete’s view of the world suggests that he’s not all that good and innocent, I absolutely love him. Everything that he displays in this scene is just makes me do so even more.
Mr. Kinn loves you so much. Please take care of him.
I don’t want to lessen Pete’s sacrifice, his willingness to get tortured and killed for Porsche because FUCK NO…
…but we have to talk about Big’s sacrifice. He and Porsche aren’t friends, they’re not particularly close to each other, they don’t even like each other all that much. Hell, Porsche is the person who took his job AND Kinn from him.
And yet, here we are. Big loves Kinn and because he knows Kinn loves Porsche (so it wasn’t only Arm after all) he’s not even HESITATING to take two bullets, to give his life to save Porsche. For the happiness of Kinn. To protect not only Kinn’s body but also his heart.
It’s just so heart-breaking and selfless - especially put to contrast with Tawan’s disgusting selfishness.
And I kinda have a problem with the way the episode just glazed over that - if Big is really dead.
He got stabbed, he got shot twice, there was an explosion…but we didn’t (really) get to see the body. And I have this rule with movies and TV-Shows: if I don’t get to see the 100% dead corpse, I don’t believe it. We saw a body bag carried away with very convenient timing - but only one. Tawan shot himself after all. They suggested “dead” in the conversation between Arm and Kinn but they didn’t SAY the word. And there’s also the fact that the show LOVES to mislead the audience.
I don’t know, it’s probably just wishful thinking because - like I said - I hate the way nobody really acknowledged Big’s sacrifice - but who knows.
Anyways, I am sad and thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
Build kept saying as a hint that Pete isn’t a good person. What he meant was that Pete would walk into Vegas’ room, knowing he would get tortured and did it still, laughed in Vegas face and smiled through the torture because even though Pete isn’t fully aware of it himself, he likes pain, he likes violence. He is intrigued by it. He is drawn to it. The thing is, Vegas repulses and attracts Pete at the same time.
At first Vegas thinks that Pete is only laughing to mock him or to act cool, so he shows him the sparks. But after he hurts him several times and Pete still laughs, he is intrigued. For one, Vegas is impressed by Pete’s endurance and ability to smile no matter what and second, Vegas interprets Pete’s strength as a challenge - which it was. You can see Vegas’ interest in Pete changing the moment right before he asks him ‘One more time?’ He wants to test him and see how far he can go. He wants to know how much Pete can handle.
We only see Vegas’ reflection because we only see Vegas as whatever he chooses to be for a person to manipulate them. He is only a reflection, not his true self. He stands in front of the mirror as if he decides what to look like and what mask he picks for the next person.
The mirror also symbolises that Vegas is a two-faced person.
