Rose wakes up to find Al Beatty dead in her bed, the second time a man has died while having sex with her. The girls help her work up the courage to tell Mrs. Beatty, who experiences all five stages of grief right before our eyes. Plus Sophia invents normcore and Rose dresses like a pilgrim. All a day in the life at 6151 Richmond!
Below is the Enough Wicker podcast transcript for Episode 15: Rose, the Killer, analyzing The Golden Girls Season 1 episode, In a Bed of Rose's :
Lauren 0:38
Hello, and welcome to Enough Wicker, a podcast where we get in bed with our favorite show of all time, the Golden Girls. I'm Lauren.
Sarah 0:45
And I'm Sarah.
Lauren 0:46
And today we're on the 15th episode in the series, In A Bed of Rose's.
Sarah 0:51
The second time that a man has died having sex with Rose. Which is one of the most ridiculous premises that just works somehow. I totally buy into it both times. It's amazing.
Lauren 1:06
What exactly do you do in bed, Rose?
Sarah 1:09
Nothing! I do nothing.
Lauren 1:11
Maybe that's the problem. Should we just perform the episode?
Sarah 1:14
Yeah! I mean, basically, this episode is full of amazing, amazing quotes. I love this episode. I think it's hysterical. I think it's, again, a ridiculous premise. There even is like, a slightly real, you know, traumatic thing that Rose has to do where she has to tell you know, his wife that not only was he cheating on her, but he's dead. And even that is kind of like a light moment in terms of how the episode handles it. I mean, it's great. I love it.
Lauren 1:45
Yeah, it's kind of it's similar to the the last one we talked about, That Was No Lady, where it's a pretty heavy subject matter, right? Like if you read like a paragraph description of this, you'd be like, oooh, that, what? But it's so funny, and this one even more than the last one, I think is pretty funny all the way through, and I like it a lot, because they could have chosen the moment that she has to tell Mrs. Beatty -- they could have made that moment be much heavier than it is. But it just works.
Sarah 2:16
I mean they play this one -- like you said, it's heavy subject matter on paper, like the last one, but it's not -- there's no teachable moment here, really. It's very like -- everything's kind of played for laughs, including the fact that there's a dead man in the house in the morning, right? They feign the fact that they're upset about it, but they don't really act like it.
Lauren 2:43
Not so lucky!
Sarah 2:44
Yeah, exactly. You can light firecrackers in his nostrils, he won't wake up. Oh, God.
Lauren 2:52
Okay, so let's start from the beginning. Just to sort of try to follow some linear time here. I love that Rose is sneaking a man into the house when she is a woman in her late 50s, early 60s, you know, free to do whatever she wants.
Sarah 3:08
Whatever the hell she wants, exactly.
Lauren 3:09
But it's very on brand. Like she wouldn't want them to know that she's sleeping with anyone. And so they have this very cute -- I think it's cute because it's, it's not like pressure-y.
Sarah 3:21
He's not pressuring her! He is not at all. I really like that. It's like, it made me feel really good about like --actually, we've seen that scene, it was sort of like we were talking about Arnie, you know, where it's, it is what it is. And here, there's even less pressure. Like he's not trying to -- he's obviously telling her how he feels. But he's not like, come on, let's do this, you know? Which I feel like you would absolutely see written into a show today.
Lauren 3:45
Yeah, I mean, the assumption is that they both want to but Rose just doesn't want anyone to know. So I think like, yeah, I love that so much. And maybe we're jaded from like growing up so sort of aware of 'me too,' and things like that. But it's nice to see that not being the premise of like, a sexual relationship for once.
Sarah 4:06
Absolutely.
Lauren 4:07
Ugh, the bar is so low for men. My god.
Sarah 4:11
Seriously. We're like, wow, look at this completely normal scene! Good for him!
Lauren 4:17
He didn't even try to date rape her! What a nice guy! Ugh. Okay, so she sneaks this guy in and it's really funny because the other girls also the next morning when they're talking about how they they heard Rose, you know, having like some bizarre nightmare or something -- They also are kind of acting like the idea that she would be having sex with someone is so out of the realm of possibility that it's, like, a joke in itself that it you know, like it's kind of what it sounded like.
Sarah 4:49
Totally. Totally. She also, when Rose walks in, she has a post-coital glow. She's like, 'Good morning!' Totally, it's hysterical. It's perfect. And you know that like, even if that wasn't in the script, Betty White put it in herself and it's fantastic. I love it.
Lauren 5:08
I also love when Sophia does come into the room when the other three ladies are talking. She's wearing a hat, and it makes me laugh without anything else. It's like, she looks so ridiculous in this like, neutral color, normcore baseball hat. I love it.
Sarah 5:27
Because they're playing golf, right? And we've established already that either when you play golf or bowling, you have to dress like an idiot. I love 'normcore.' Oh Christ. But back to the original scene. I also love when you know they're talking about talking during sex. Blanche is talking about dirty talk. They're like, oh my god, dirty talk. She goes, 'Well, not filth, for god's sake.' And I just I want to know the line -- Blanche Devereaux's line -- between dirty talk and filth. Like give me examples of each, Blanche. Like, what are we talking about here?
Lauren 6:08
Yeah, and Dorothy wants to know why nobody ever wants to have conversation.
Sarah 6:13
Seriously, and I'm like Jesus. Oh my god. How good was that sex with Glen?
Lauren 6:18
Yeah, right!
Sarah 6:20
Oh, as a hearkening to the past episode, too, I do think it's extra funny with Rose being so judgmental of like, 'you instantly sleep with a married man, it's a sin' like, that's it, you know? And it's over. And in this one, she accidentally sleeps with a married man. It's like karma bites her in the ass, like immediately.
Lauren 6:37
I mean, she kills him! More than that!
Sarah 6:41
'I didn't murder him!'
Lauren 6:44
Also it's very funny. This is another moment of a thing they could have made really dark. And I think that like, you know, when you describe it, it seems really dark, but when they're going to discover the body --
Sarah 6:58
Even that sentence you said is heavier than everything -- like Sophia makes a decomposing joke and you just like, forget about it.
Lauren 7:06
'It's gonna be 98 degrees today, it won't be pretty.' Yeah, so basically like it is, it's great. And it's also funny because Dorothy, you know, ever the voice of reason, is like, ugh, we got to go look, like we can't just exist here. But then she goes back and says, oh, I want someone to come with me. And it's a really cute, funny, light moment. But I also love -- there's so many jokes in this like 5-7 minutes about him being dead. And then we find out that he's a diamond importer, and then all of a sudden Blanche is like, Damn, I hope he's not dead!
Sarah 7:46
I also love the 'he bought the farm.'
Lauren 7:49
Yes, I love it.
Sarah 7:50
Rose so genuinely goes, 'what farm?' And then later she they harken it back, where she's like trying to make a phone call and she's like, oh, that poor man. You know, and somebody told me he just bought a farm!
Lauren 8:03
And then there's another one where when she's like 'with a new farm and everything'. It's like three times she does it.
Sarah 8:14
One of my favorite ones in this, again, just like rapid fire 'boom, boom, boom, boom, boom' series of jokes -- She's freaking out. It's kind of the only time Rose really freaks out. There's a dead man but she's just like, 'I can't sleep in my bed!' Well, you know, we'll we'll get you a new bed. And she's like but sheets and pillows. And Sophia just goes --
Lauren 8:35
'Burn down the house!' So good!
Sarah 8:39
Because it's like, you know, where are you gonna draw the line here, man? Like, I know it's creepy, but get the fuck over it. It's great.
Lauren 8:45
Yeah, it's great. That one is that also -- this is another one of those things where like, yeah, there's a 1.5 second pause and I can see it and -- The delivery is amazing.
Lauren
And it also this moment isn't hard to watch or anything, but it is genuinely sad when Blanche is recalling how she found out that George has died. Yeah. And she's talking about the insensitivity of the police officer who's eating chips. But then you know, right after that, it comes back because Rose is like oh, I won't eat chips. I don't like them. They fall in my bra. Like it's perfect.
Sarah 9:25
I also love where she -- I think Rose delivers the line very well and perhaps like one of the heavier moments where she calls and she's, you know, you just hear this side of the phone conversatio. Which also as a separate note, many many many sitcoms and movies do one-sided phone conversations fucking terribly, like it wouldn't happen in real life at all. And literally, I think they do a very good job on the show, like she has a conversation, and she does these pauses that are very realistic for when you would talk to somebody the other side. But anyway, she's goes, 'right number, wrong person.' Which I think is actually a great way to say, oh shit, that was his wife. She does a great job of that.
Lauren 10:10
Yeah, and I love also when she calls and it rings once, and she hangs up. She's like, nobody's home! Very good. So then, you know, she goes and sees Mrs. Beatty, who -- I mean, we have to talk about Mrs. Beatty. Because first of all, like, she has the same accent that Madonna had in like, 2004. Like, it's like, you lived in London. It's like the same accent that your friend had when they lived in London for six months and studied abroad. They're like, picked up the accent -- like, what are you?
Sarah 10:41
Exactly! It's this weird, hyper enunciated, right? Because yeah, like it's between a British accent and American accent. It's very bizarre. It's like Queen's English but a version for Americans. Isn't there a version of that, like the 'acting English' or something like that, that everybody had?
Lauren 11:00
From theater.
Sarah 11:02
Yeah, exactly. Who fucking knows? Anyway, she is very bizarre. Before we even enter the house, though, the outside of the house, that set, I think it's definitely Mel Bushman's house.
Lauren 11:12
Ah, well, maybe she sold it. She didn't want to be there anymore.
Sarah 11:17
That's it. She has to take the encyclopedia set that her son looked up 'sexual genitalia female.' I can't even do her accent, but you're right. It is just very bizarre. That line always gets me and it's like, I know that the scene where she goes, like, 'I just have to keep talking. You know? I can just talk forever.'
Lauren 11:40
That's pretty good!
Sarah 11:41
Thank you, and it takes me the fuck out of it. It's -- I'm so sad about it. Because I actually think that line of dialogue is very, very good. Like it's, 'I could just talk, talk over it and pretend that it's not happening.' That's a very relatable thing. You know, and there's like a weird Dolly zoom, slow zoom on her face. It's, like, it's really kind of bizarre. I don't even know, but um, but the way she's like, 'I just have to talk forever.'
Lauren 12:07
Yeah. And she also goes through like the six stages of grief in 45 seconds. So she's like, in denial and then she's like, 'Al, the big jerk!' And then she's like, Al! She's really sad. And then she accepts it at the end, it works out, but it is like somebody with a char,t and they were like, 'do all of these as quickly as you can.'
Sarah 12:31
Oh, my God. I didn't even realize that! That's exactly what the direction was. 'Girl, you got three minutes of screen time, go.' Oh my God. Just when Rose comes back and it's like, all quiet. 'I'm gonna become a nun.'
Lauren 12:49
So great.
Sarah 12:51
And they're going through -- The one woman from the St. Olaf story, you know, where she's like, Oh, she lived a great life without men. You know, baking, sewing, tending the animals. And Blanche says, sarcastically, 'Ooh my favorite things!'
Lauren 13:08
'Some Swedish lesbian.'
Sarah 13:13
Proving that this season Blanche knows what lesbian means.
Lauren 13:17
Yes! She forgets it later. So, also, Al Beatty is a big jerk. actually, it turns out. Or I guess not a big jerk, necessarily, but he's a big adulterer.
Sarah 13:31
Oh my god, yes.
Lauren 13:32
She's going through all of the people who slept with and it's like, he started on their honeymoon and schoolteachers, babysitters? Like, this guy!
Sarah 13:40
I know. And it's actually funny because it's sort of played. I do remember watching this as a younger woman and being like, oh, okay, I guess this is an arrangement that she's okay with? And it kind of like in that sense, opened my eyes -- without me knowing, of course at the time -- to different relationships that people can have, right? They can have super open relationships and some people can just have an agreement, like, this is what it is. It's totally fine. But yeah, but then you bring out the line of 'babysitters' and the fact that it sounds like she just had to go along with it, not that she was like totally signed off on it -- Very, very bizarre. And she's like, waiting at home for him to come back from banging some broad like, it's it's very, it's very strange.
Lauren 14:24
His cover story, also, so he tells Rose in the beginning that he lives with his sister. He's like, she's an insomniac. So you're telling me you're a 60-year-old man who lives with his sister in a one bedroom? And there's no private space, and nobody thinks that's weird?
Sarah 14:40
Yeah, exactly. Even if it was a two bedroom and that she's up, like, tough shit, man.
Lauren 14:46
Go to bed!
Sarah 14:46
Yeah, go to bed, get out of here!
Lauren 14:50
Um, but yeah, so also like, this St. Olaf story -- by any other name -- is a great one. You know, this black widow woman who puts her husband in the hay baler, and it's like, and then there were bits of Joe's arms and bits of Joe's shirt.
Sarah 15:10
It's a super fucking intense, like, storyline that;s just played for laughs. There's a lot of death in here. I totally forgot that that was part of the story.
Lauren 15:22
Yes, it's so dark. I do want to say, though, about Mrs. Beatty. kind of similar to how we talked about how it's great that there's no weird sexual pressure. I very much appreciate her -- later on in the episode, it's displayed a little bit more aggressively -- but even when Rose goes in person to tell her, which like everybody agrees is a very nice gesture for her to do, Mrs. Mrs. Beatty never blames her. Like she never is mad at Rose, which is nice.
Sarah 15:53
Yeah, and then they have that whole funny scene where like she's consoling Rose and she's like, 'Um, hello. LIke, you just told me my husband died in your bed.' Which I do really like that part. I don't want to brag on that actress entirely, on Madonna from 2002. But it is nice when she visits Rose later on, etc.
Lauren 16:15
Yeah, so she visits Rose, actually, to come back to tell her that Al had a bad heart and whatever.
Sarah 16:21
He had meat for dessert.
Lauren 16:25
She says that it's autopsy results, and I was like, So did they wonder if Rose killed him? Like they ordered an autopsy because it was a little suspicious.
Sarah 16:38
I do love like, squaring up the television, 'oh, everybody gets an autopsy!' Which is not fucking true in real life versus like, you know, us investigating on the other end, like, well, there would only be an autopsy if it was suspcious.
Lauren 16:53
Exactly!
Sarah 16:55
Oh, also we forgot to talk about the great -- you know, when Rose is formulating the plan, when she realizes how she could tell him how Al died. And Dorothy's like, 'he died visiting.' But before that, you know, it's like, 'tell him you went to go turn the sprinklers on and you found him on the lawn,' and Rose just pauses and she goes, 'That's not bad!' Which, like, honestly, when she suggests that I was like, I would totally fucking do that.
Lauren 17:27
Yeah!
Sarah 17:27
I mean, but yeah, I guess she couldn't carry the body out. I don't think I would go that far, you know, but anyway. I would also probably call the police immediately, like if I was Sophia, instead of wear my normcore hat and walk into the kitchen.
Lauren 17:42
'I didn't murder him!' So then, also another thing is when Rose is, sort of -- it's crazy because everybody's acting like she's pouting and being a baby for no reason and, like, she won't come square dancing with them, but like, she has just experienced the second time a man has died while having sex with her.
Sarah 18:06
For fucking real!
Lauren 18:08
Maybe she doesn't want to square dance right now.
Sarah 18:10
[hopeless giggles] I know. But they gotta move things along somehow. Get over it, it's been a day.
Lauren 18:23
But also, when Rose has to confront the issue of whether or not she wants to try again, she's going away for another weekend with Arnie.
Sarah 18:32
Totally. And I actually thought that was weird. But yeah, I remembered that he was visiting his brother in town, right? So he doesn't live in Miami as of right now -- or Arnie, Arnie Peterson from New Jersey doesn't live in Miami. So he must be visiting or something.
Lauren 18:49
Right? So it's nice that they call that back. And there are two outfits in that scene that I love. First of all, Blanche is wearing like an amazing sweatsuit when she's out on the lanai that I want. Like I just want to like take a picture of it and send it to eBay and find it.
Sarah 19:05
'Somebody make this for me.'
Lauren 19:06
Yeah, Rose comes in and she's wearing this -- it comes up a couple times, she's wearing it in a few different episodes, but it's a very like Amish-looking dress. It's green. You know what I mean? It has like the white, like, Dickie basically.
Sarah 19:18
It's a pilgrim! They make a crack about it being a pilgrim dress, and like, as soon as she walks in. I also love like, you know, blanches being totally fucking nice to her like and sweet when she was just like, oh it's a little old fashioned, you know, I wasn't sure if it was new.
Lauren 19:41
Yeah, she's so rude.
Sarah 19:43
I know. But it is also a very bizarre dress. I gotta give her that.
Lauren 19:46
Yeah. And I like the way that this wraps a lot and I love when Rose does come back from the weekend and they're all speculating on whether or not she slept with him, and it calls back to the first time where she wasn't sure if she was gonna sleep with Arnie, and they're, like, wondering if she had, you know.
Sarah 20:05
This like 'virginal story' that you were talking about when we went through that episode. It's the exact same thing -- this whole, like, I bet she slept with him. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't. You know, oh my gosh, it's like a perfect scene, for just like the giddy gossip about your friend. It's great.
Lauren 20:20
Yeah, and I love her prank, like how she tells them. It's a little tiny bit out of character for Rose, but it's not, actually -- like when you think about it overall, like she loves like laughing and she loves what she perceives to be a harmless joke. Yeah, which it is but but you know, like, it's so funny when she's like, talking out all the men that she's killed. Like, 'let's see sleep with me!' When she's talking about the sheriff? It's so -- Betty White is just the best.
Sarah 20:47
Oh my gosh, it is very cute. And yeah, I also noted that I really think that the prank is awesome, even though it isn't like perfect, perfect Rose. But yeah, like you said, it does mesh with her. And especially like, it just shows that she, again, is caring that her friends care about her so much. Because you know, they gave her a great pep talk before she left and she's coming back with, 'of course Arnie was fine. Everybody's great. We had an amazing time', like you guys were right. You know, like she's kind of reinforcing that by making light of the situation. But of course they react not how she thought it was gonna be, which is just great. 'I was set to go to her hanging!' Again, just corporal punishment, like just a lot of death in this. My God. One of my favorite lines is actually when she's dressed as a pilgrim. And then she's freaking out and she's just, it's like verbal diarrhea with like, 'I don't know. And since we already have I don't know if he expects bah, bah, bah, bah.' And Rose goes 'well, I'm off' and Sophia goes 'totally.'
Lauren 21:53
It's very good.
Sarah 21:54
I always thought that was such a great comeback, and it's fantastic.
Lauren 21:59
It's really interesting -- you can totally see in the first season, you know, when they had the chemistry down and when they didn't. And you can see that when the earlier episodes were filmed, you know, we've talked about this before, but it is so obvious. And I think even if you are a first time viewer or a casual viewer, you would maybe think some of these episodes -- like this one for example -- you could convince somebody that this was season two. Like it was when they were established as actresses together, they had it down, but then in a couple episodes we'll go back, and when Lucy comes, it's just very clear that they don't know each other and they don't know the timing, and things like that. But this one really, you know, like it's perfect The timing is perfect. The chemistry is there, they're comfortable with each other each other enough to be there for Rose during this insane time but still be making jokes. It's great.
Sarah 22:55
You're right. Actually, you know, I'm not very perfect, like in terms of, 'tell me to recite in order all of the episodes of season one versus two versus three.' But I do, especially back when I was less familiar when I was just watching it on reruns of which season, you know, which episodes were part of. I do think this one does -- like you said -- doesn't feel like the first season. And I think that a lot of the ones I love in the first season don't feel like first season, because it feels like they're past their groove, and like you're in that beautiful middle chunk where it's like oh no, this is the established show, the established characters, they're like taking it and running with it. As opposed to when you get to the tail end and then like storylines start to shift a little and character development get a little wackier, etc, etc. So, you're right, I don't even realize that that this is, like, spot-on episode.
Lauren 23:48
It's a good one. I don't think I have anything else for this one.
Sarah 23:52
No, I mean, it's yeah, just that lightning striking twice. Two dead guys in Rose's bed, my god. She gets over well. All right, well next time we are going to discuss the perils of both estate planning and den-paneling Rice Krispie logs. See you then!
FIN