With the release of the bombshell story in the first episode, The Swans began to form a wall. If Truman Capote (Tom Hollander) can only write about their exploits, shutting him out will dry out his well of material. Capote believes he did no wrong, but the two sides have begun the fighting in earnest. Truman quickly begins falling apart. Episode 2 – “Ice Water in Their Veins” – returns to Gus Van Sant as director. Jon Robin Baitz writes the teleplay.
Capote vs. The Swans “Ice Water in Their Veins” Recap
Babe Paley (Naomi Watts) begins chemotherapy but does not want it to disrupt their life. Bill (Treat Williams) offers to cancel a family dinner, but Babe insists they proceed. The Swans (Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny) and Lee Radziwill (Calista Flockhart) attend Ann Woodward’s funeral. Ann’s son calls out Capote and the societal elites for believing his lies. Babe grows sick during the post-funeral lunch. While Babe, Lee, and Slim are united to freeze out Capote, C.Z. does not agree to break off all communication.
Truman tries calling Babe from the set of Murder By Death (1976), but she will not take his call. His substance abuse causes him to hallucinate his Swans while he delivers his character’s best lines. However, he stumbles, and they call cut. Robert Moore (Anthony Misiano) tells Truman he needs to see a doctor. He tries calling Babe again, but she still refuses to answer. Truman attempts to clean up and pours all his alcohol down the toilet.
Slim visits Babe and realizes how sick her friend has become. While Babe begins to wax philosophical about the end of her life, Slim will not hear of it. Instead, she wants to celebrate their friendship. When Babe brings up Truman, Slim tells her it’s time for them to move on without him.
Capote dines with C.Z., but he realizes she’s annoyed with him. He tries to defend himself as an artist and a writer. C.Z. pushes back, telling him it could be accepted as art one day. However, he chose the wrong path if he did not want to become the villain in their social circle. C.Z. believes Truman wastes his talent and his love pursuing this path. Truman asks to come to Thanksgiving, but C.Z. does not allow him to attend when Lee interrupts their lunch.
Slim drops in on C.Z. while she’s with her horse Mercury. C.Z. tries to explain her time with Capote at lunch, and Slim lashes out at her. Truman hurt Babe, and that was a step too far. While they both agree what Truman wrote was accurate about Bill and their life, hurting Babe was inexcusable. Slim tells C.Z. she cannot allow Truman to come to Thanksgiving. C.Z. calls Truman, telling him she is too sick to have guests.
John O’Shea (Russell Tovey) says goodbye to his kids during Thanksgiving. Truman watches TV in his apartment and tells John that Joanne Woodward (Molly Ringwald) is flying them across the country. When John tells Truman he’s staying behind for his family, Truman pushes back. He reminds John how he betrayed his kids, and John punches Truman in the face. John angrily tells Truman to never talk about his kids and storms out. The next day, Jack (Joe Mantello) asks Babe to step in, but she refuses to be a life raft for someone who continues to take. She leaves and tells him to take care of himself.
Truman and John fly to California and attend Joanne’s Thanksgiving dinner. John takes a minute in the car by himself, and Joanne meets him at the door. Inside Joanne’s house, Truman finds himself the focus of attention once again. In Florida, C.Z. hosts Slim, Babe, Bill, and others. We cut back and forth between the graces, and John takes out his continued aggression on the turkey in California.
When Truman goes to get another drink, he hallucinates the ghost of his mother, Lillie Mae Faulk (Jessica Lane). She makes fun of his weight and spitefully harasses him. While Truman brushes her off, the specter insists that his writing against the Swans was a form of pseudo-vengeance against the women who destroyed her. Lillie points to the deep hatred in the writing and that he can just end it all now with the drugs in his possession. Truman refuses, saying he cannot go until his masterpiece is finished. He is startled when the bartender returns with his drink.
When he returns to the table, John complains about being stuck with Truman. When Truman brings up John’s family again, John throws Truman in a chair and beats him. Truman loses a tooth and gets beat up again when they return to New York. Jack calls Babe once again, begging her to come help Truman. She again refuses. When Bill asks why she will not go, she tells him that she cannot go back. No matter what has happened to Truman, it does not forgive how he betrayed her.
The Episode Critique
The first episode focused on Babe provides more women-focused storytelling. It makes this one of the season’s strongest episodes, and adding Calista Flockhart certainly helps. After she was sidelined throughout the first episode, she gets highlight moments throughout the episode. She quickly becomes one of the most enjoyable presences on the show.
Perhaps the most interesting sequence in the episode comes between Jack and Babe. The two are Truman’s only real loves. Their discussion encapsulates much of their ties to Truman, and how much he takes from them. The choice to use words like cancerous is clearly not surprising. It draws the strongest parallels in her story. It reminds us that Babe does not have the strength to both literally and figuratively fight cancer in her life. Additionally, they confront the elephant in the room – that genius is no excuse for his actions.
The depiction of domestic abuse against Capote shocks. The first time seemingly rises from nowhere, but the second time is so brutal it’s hard to ignore. Domestic violence against same-sex lovers has rarely been shown so viscerally. Of course, there’s a self-hatred building within John, but Capote vs. The Swans also hints that Truman is seeking out punishment. After all, the beating he takes comes after he hallucinates his mother asking him to commit suicide. That is no accident.
The scene between Hollander and Lange is also one of the best in the season. Lange often shines in small roles like this, and her charisma powers her devil-like performance. It’s tempting in every way, and as usual, Lange swallows the scene with her unparalleled talent. Even when playing against Hollander’s brilliant, subtle emotions, Lange dominates the screen. It’s the kind of show-stealing performance we expect out of her.
Jumping to Murder By Death is a fun touch. The film, which Truman Capote starred in alongside Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, Peter Falk, and Alec Guinness, is a fun little who-dun-it. Even for just a couple of scenes, it’s one of the showier sequences in terms of costumes and production design. High-end limited series like Capote vs. The Swans need these scenes to be at their best.
In Conclusion
One of the best episodes of the season comes early. It mixes the drama of Capote’s struggles without his closest friends with Babe’s weakening body. Van Sant directs the hell out of the intimate details, and his actors all come into play. It also features one of the best exchanges in the entire show, with Jack and Babe actively discussing their roles as Truman’s pseudo-partners. Still, there are some moments that slip away from the series and cast a distracting light on the unfolding drama.
8/10
Full season review of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans here!
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