The drama Loot has indeed veered off its intended course in Season 3, and it seems, if I'm not mistaken, that its hidden agenda is to make us resent every character in the show. While I've disliked certain chapters for various reasons, some of them personal, last week's episode set a troubling precedent, and Episode 8, "Mr. Maro Gold," may spell doom for the entire series. The character development is nonsensical and devoid of substance, and the most insightful moments in the subplots are when they expose certain characters' competence in basic communication and others' utter incapability to do the same.
Last week, I wondered if we had seen the end of Molly and Arthur's relationship difficulties. I thought that would have been lazy storytelling, but now I realize I would have preferred it to what we're getting now—a rehash of the same basic issue: Arthur is uncomfortable with Molly's billionaire lifestyle, and she can't let it go—in even more ridiculous terms.
Thanks to something involving the Wells Foundation that I didn't fully grasp—all of the foundation's charity work is happening off-screen, and its effects in terms of social media virality and so forth are being hand-waved at the beginning of episodes for context—Molly has to attend a swanky themed gala and would like Arthur to go with her. He'd rather not, since it's not really his thing and the outfit he'd have to wear is preposterous, but he tells Molly to enjoy herself. That should be that, really, but for some reason I can't explain, Loot keeps continuously implying that Arthur is in the wrong and Molly is somehow being victimized by this.
But is it just me? Arthur is absolutely within his rights to resist this, and he's completely and totally right that he and Molly have profound communication issues that need to be addressed by being open and honest with each other. However, Nicholas, who has returned from Korea and boasts a new position in the foundation that, as far as I can tell, is exactly the same as before, pushes Molly to feel like Arthur is being unreasonable, and then, when the titular Mr. Maro Gold is introduced, he pushes her to flirt with him.
Mr. Maro Gold is Arthur's polar opposite in all things. He's a shallow moron who indulges Molly's worst tendencies, yet not only can Molly not stop ogling him, she can barely restrain herself from cheating on Arthur with him. Then, when Arthur makes the nice gesture of saying he'll come to the gala anyway, despite not wanting to just to support her, he decides to instead wear a normal suit instead of the ridiculous themed piece that makes him deeply uncomfortable. In response, Molly goes to the gala with Maro instead.
I find it hard to fathom that we're expected to invest in this narrative. It's absurd. Molly has been consistently coming across as deeply unlikable for several episodes in a row now, and it seems like this is the direction we're permanently headed in. Arthur is just a casualty in this mess. But she's dragging Nicholas down with her, and the potentially intriguing idea of seeing how a billionaire might actually navigate a relationship with a relatively normal person is completely off the table now.
Our only hope in Loot Season 3, Episode 8 lies with Sofia, Howard, and Destiny. However, this subplot is burdened by predictability and – you guessed it – a complete inability to communicate. Destiny decides she's tired of being cooped up in the office and wants to travel the country in a van with Howard. He goes along with it for a while, but eventually confesses that it's really not his thing, and he was just pretending because he's scared of losing her. She reassures him that she would never leave him just because their interests were slightly different, and then completely abandons him during the night.
I hope you didn't like Destiny's character because, let's face it, who would want her to return after this move? Sure, it gives Howard and Sofia a nice moment together where they discuss their mutual broken hearts, and it makes sense for Sofia, especially, to have realized that people can change by the fact that she accepted Destiny for who she was despite her past misgivings. But it's significantly less interesting than keeping Destiny around so we can see her grapple with the difficulties of trying to change. This cowardly way out is reflective of Loot's storytelling overall, which would rather leave problems in the rear-view mirror than attempt to deal with them. It's disappointingly shallow.
