[Fellow Travelers Recap w/ Joe Lipsett] "Your Nuts Roasting on an Open Fire" Turns Up the Fire on Everyone

Each week Joe and Terry discuss the most recent episode of Showtime’s adaptation of Fellow Travelers, alternating between our respective sites. 

Miss a review? Episode 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Spoilers follow for Episode 4 “Your Nuts Roasting on an Open Fire”

TERRY

It’s Christmas time and everyone is trying to keep up appearances in 1950s D.C., Joe. We’re at the midpoint of the show and things are getting more and more troublesome for…well, virtually everyone. “Your Nuts Roasting on an Open Fire” is a vaguely sexual title, but it also suggests that the fire is getting hotter and not everyone is going to survive. This fact is hit home with the opening scene where a man leaves his meeting with the interrogator and walks directly into traffic. 

Turns out there’s been at least one resignation per day and one suicide per week since the interrogations started. Later, Jean Kerr (Christine Horne) will make light of this situation to Tim (Jonathan Bailey) by saying, “Senator McCarthy is our only hope. His enemies are God’s enemies. Let them die. That’s how we win.” It’s callous and evil, but then so is what happens throughout this episode, as everyone tries to look out for themselves in an increasingly bad environment. 

Up first, Hawk (Matt Bomer) has been turned in by his assistant Miss Addison (Keara Graves) and has to go through an incredibly insulting interview where his gait, his speech and more are inspected by the interrogator, Fred Treband (Michael Therriault). Their concept of queerness involves lisps and sashays and limp wrists and it’d be a farce if it wasn’t so deadly serious. Later, he’ll have to take a polygraph and think about the Queen’s crooked teeth, Treband’s wart and the way he licks his lips like a lizard, in order to pass. 

Again, a farce with life-or-death consequences. 

But Hawk has to keep up appearances. In a more subtle turn than I think we’re used to with Fellow Travelers, this interrogation is nicely contrasted with a news report in the 80s where Roy Cohn (Will Brill) is still trying to put forth the appearance he’s straight even while dying of AIDS. 

When you look up information on the real Roy Cohn, you’ll find the following quote attributed to Roger Stone (yep, that Roger Stone) from 2008: “Roy was not gay. He was a man who liked having sex with men. Gays were weak, effeminate. He always seemed to have these young blond boys around. It just wasn't discussed. He was interested in power and access.” Up until and past his death, Roy maintained his heterosexuality. 

In order to push back against rumors circulating about him, Senator McCarthy (Chris Bauer) has married Kerr, his own “Dragon Lady” assistant. But it might not be enough because Hawk has asked Tim to deliver photos and intel on McCarthy and the soldier he assaulted to David Schine (Matt Visser). Because while some of the affected people are doing a good job of keeping up appearances, Roy’s continual interventions for David are placing a spotlight on McCarthy’s team. And this new information adds additional chaos and blackmail opportunities in McCarthy’s sphere of influence. 

“You Nuts Roasting on an Open Fire” does a fantastic job tying the themes it wants to explore with the character beats and plot turns. From that perspective, it’s probably the best episode since the original because it feels more confident in the audience than previous episodes suggested. I didn’t even mind some of the revelations from the 80s-set sequences even though I still really don’t need the AIDS storyline. 

But what about you, Joe? How were the 80s-set storylines for you? Did it make you happy to see that not only are Marcus (Jelani Alladin) and Frankie (Noah J. Ricketts) are still together, but that they also have an adopted son? What are your thoughts on the political intrigue and the way Fellow Travelers suggests that everyone is trying to cover their own asses? 

JOE

I agree, Terry, that seeing Cohn’s testimony on TV justified the present day sequences (for once!). I’ve got plenty more thoughts about the 80s-set scenes, but first, let’s talk about how happily I sighed seeing that Frankie and Marcus are still a couple. It’s a brief light for a character whose storyline remains an outlier on the series. 

The reality is that Fellow Travelers is still struggling to find more for Marcus to do than be Black in an era that’s rampant with racism. While the whole The Post job opportunity/bathroom storyline explicitly addresses this, as a minor subplot, it also feels both shallow and obvious.  

I appreciate that Fellow Travelers is interested in telling intersectional stories about race and queerness, but the way it is handling Marcus’ storyline mirrors the editor’s recruitment pitch:  “Negro writer writing about Negro experiences.” Is this the show’s writers telling on themselves considering most of Marcus’ screentime amounts to “Black queer man experiencing racism and homophobia”? 

Despite this complaint, you’re right that “Your Nuts Roasting on an Open Fire” is arguably the best episode since the pilot. In large part that’s because we’ve invested enough in our “villains/antagonists” that the Cohn/Schine/McCarthy storylines don’t feel like they’re taking away from Hawk and Tim.  

Hell, if we’re being honest, our queer McCarthy trio is where Fellow Travelers is doing its best work. These are the scenes that balance the interpersonal drama with the rich political critique and a lot of these scenes, including the backroom meeting between Cohn, McCarthy and Adams, the Army rep, crackle with tension and wit.  

Now consider how much less compelling the Tim/Hawk stuff is in this episode. When Anya Leta’s script is focused on the blackmail, the polygraph, or Morton’s party, it’s solid stuff. But the Hawk/Tim storylines in both the past and present? They’ve nearly ground to a halt. 

Example A: the results of Hawk’s AIDS test don’t come back. Marcus asks about it, but Hawk informs him that he’s still waiting to hear. It makes sense given that rapid testing didn’t exist back then, but it also feels anticlimactic, as though Fellow Travelers is teasing the audience to stick around for another episode or two.*

*With that said, not knowing if Hawk is positive certainly made his rough encounter with the leather guy in the back room of the gay bar feel that much more dangerous. It seems as though is only just starting to understand the risks of what an anonymous sexual encounter could mean.

Example B: Tim and Hawk spend “Christmas” together before Tim goes to New York and the most eventful moment is when Hawk gives him HF cufflinks. Sure, it’s a sweet moment when Tim says he’s never been happier, but it’s also a little pathetic that this is still the best Tim will get from Hawk (aside from blowjobs now since Hawk finally broke that barrier!).

No, for my money, none of the Tim/Hawk scenes have anywhere near the energy of the present-day telephone call between Lucy (Allison Williams) and Tim. Despite its brevity and the obviousness of them repeating the same “getting by” line, the scene is electric; it has the same element of tragedy and thrills as the series’ best scenes. Halfway through the series and the future already revealed, there’s not a lot of mystery left for the star-crossed lovers, so introducing someone like Lucy into the all-male romantic space makes it feel fresh again.

At this point I’m intrigued to see where the remainder of the back half of the series goes. It was nice to see Hawk have to save himself with the polygraph this week and also get confirmation that his horrible secretary Miss Addison is every bit as awful as we anticipated.* Watching Roy scramble and compromise his alleged beliefs to do the same thing that all of the queers and Commies have done (ie: take down one of their own to save themselves) should be interesting to witness, too.

*It was particularly gratifying to see Hawk seethe at Addison: “You’re right Mrs Addison: I am wonderful so why don’t you just suffer?” It’s not the bitchiest of lines, but I do love the idea of these pious hypocrites suffering with the knowledge that queer people exist and are thriving!

Next week we’re back to QueerHorrorMovies to discuss episode five, “Promise Me You Won’t Write”.