#rita x scooter
Rita is ambitious, ruthless and glamorous. All Rita wants is to have a lavish life with her lover Scooter and she sees her elderly and rude husband as a road block to her dreams.
At her best, Rita shows that she is caring and loyal. Deep down under her tough exterior, we see that Rita is unable to turn on her cousin Isabel in order to save herself from prison time over Carlo’s death. She really considers Isabel as family and is willing to stay in jail for a crime she didn’t commit instead of betraying her family.
At her worst, Rita is cruel and callous towards others as a way of deflecting from her own issues and keeping up appearances. She uses her wealth and tries to assert power over others through threats. We see that she manipulates and uses information against others such as the affair with Joan. She also becomes dangerous like we see when she threatens Alma and destroys her prized garden.
Rita is all about her image and how other people see her. She is extremely concerned with her status and likes being the president of the Garden Club. We learn through the series that she came from humble beginnings and she was a cocktail waitress before she met Carlo. She goes to great lengths to present herself as an elite and upper class woman, going so far as to change her accent to appear more proper. However, if you didn’t know this it wouldn’t be evident at all in the way that Rita carries herself and portrays her image to others.
Rita is a very jealous person and can’t stand the idea that Scooter could be with another woman. When she finds out he has been sleeping with Dee, her reaction is to criticise Dee’s appearance and be bewildered that Scooter would be with her. She uses her appearance to her advantage and the other ladies have started to label her as a gold digger due to her relationship with Carlo. It seems like she has hardened over time and that her marriage to Carlo was always unpleasant with a very unbalanced power dynamic. As a result, she changed and became even more obsessed with status and success than before.
Rita has a wing 2 as she is very people oriented and loves to try and charm others or ingratiate herself towards them.
Tri-type: 3w2 - 8w7 - 6w7
Some quotes to describe Rita’s motivations:
“I started the day convinced I would never laugh again. And then… you walked in, wearing that frock. Oh, bless you, Alma.”
“Everyone has a price.”
“I don’t want your admiration. I want your fear, and now that I have it, get the hell out of my house.”
“Oh, she’s taking you out of my life. Whatever shall I do? Besides cartwheels, I mean.”
“If you can pretend to be interested in a fat girl, you can fake a bit of passion for a middle-aged woman.”
