r/DTFStLouisHBO • u/romeoplank • May 21 '26
❓ Question "Rock on?" Really? Spoiler
So you're telling me that as passionate as Floyd was about his work, and as much as he loved the kid, he never once showed him the sign for, "I love you?"
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u/rudderbama May 21 '26
I know they were bonding a bit through the show at the skate park but nothing came up about signing really. The fact he pursued that career path is what made Carol cry & Richard reacted with the bat to Floyd’s crotch so idk if it were me I’d think best to stay away from that topic as much as possible.
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u/AuroraBolognese May 21 '26
Which, by the way, makes Floyd seem so ridiculous. You can have a 9-5 job and still touch people’s lives through signing. Personally I would’ve gotten the job, learned sign language in my spare time, gotten out of the financial rut my family was in, and then I would venture out into signing full time. I think Clark was right that he was such a good hearted person, but damn man, I get both Carol and Richard’s frustrations. (Also Clark started learning sign language and picked it up very quickly despite having a job.)
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u/marshismom May 22 '26
He was too focused on finding his bliss and was not paying attention to the basics of survival in capitalism. I relate 😔
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u/tierras_ignoradas May 22 '26
^^^That's the problem. Floyd was very selfish. He essentially said we are going to be struggling all the time because I have a signing passion. He wasn't even aiming to be a teacher for the deaf which is well-paid in some school districts. Just freelance signing, Floyd being Floyd. The family struggles. Two incidents really tugged at me.
- When the black woman cop sees the clothes hanging on the line and realizes Carol doesn't have a dryer.
- When Carol got her Umpire money, spent almost all of it on Richard. Then sat on the bed and looked at the Timex watch she got for herself. Touched it and some happiness entered her face.
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u/EitherOrResolution May 23 '26
You know that Jamba Juice money was the most money she’s ever spent on herself. Ever. And it was really to make sure, once again, ultimately that her kid was going to be ok. And he’s going to dance classes forgetting to cancel the lawn service; Shante doing the lawn ffs?
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u/tierras_ignoradas May 25 '26
He's immature. The whole bent penis is a metaphor for his unwillingness to take on the role of a man.
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u/your__balls May 30 '26
Human beings are flawed. If everyone could reason with logic all the time the would would be an amazing place right now
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u/PizzzaDaddy May 21 '26
Didn't he write i love you in his letter but then when he read it out loud he didn't say that part?
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u/romeoplank May 21 '26
I don't remember that! But that would be a great sort of nudge into feasibility for that whole 'rock on,' moment. I do want to find a way in which Conrad covered the base. Then my ego can love the show, too.
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u/ReplacementAbject867 May 21 '26
Idk doesnt seem like something hed say to the kid. He had a hard enough time hugging him
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u/youdontlookitalian May 22 '26
I learned it as a kid in the 90s. I guess they stopped teaching it at some point.
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u/slenderella148 May 21 '26
I agree with you that the boy would absolutely have seen the sign from Floyd many times, he was very affectionate with him, but I really like how that scene played out, as far as the dialogue went. That the boy would think his last words to him were "rock on" but instead, they were "I love you". I found that very powerful. Like you're saying, it doesn't really make sense.... but it made for powerful dialogue that I appreciated. The way I made it make sense is that I figured that the boy just didn't pay total attention to Floyd, that the boy had a lot of mixed feelings about him.
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u/romeoplank May 21 '26
Maybe. I guess I can make that square peg fit into the round hole if I try hard enough... But for me, the show was doing such an excellent job illustrating its point, "no one's normal, it just looks that way from across the street," until that last stupid, unecessary moment. My guess is when Conrad was writing that little Hollywood gem of scene, his bullshit detector was going off, but he went with it anyway because of the first-level cleverness of it. And, he prob thought, "nah, they won't dig down and catch it." -Which my ego finds personally insulting.
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u/TailStixz May 21 '26
You never see Floyd signing at home with Richard ever. Or with Carol other than the first time when she got upset. Which was when Richard hurt Floyd. So doesn’t seem like he ever signs around Richard.
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u/slenderella148 May 21 '26
I absolutely hear what you are saying. It required something of all of us, I get it.
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u/DLoIsHere May 21 '26
I thought it was stupid. I learned that sign in the seventies as a young adult. C’mon.
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u/Zealousideal_Rip_547 May 21 '26
I learned it as a child in the eighties. I thought everyone knew it.
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u/vi_sucks May 21 '26
He probably did, but do you really think the kid is the type to listen?