Final Analyisis Of Capote Vs. The Swans

 

I knew by the end of the second episode of Capote Vs. The Swans, the long-awaited second installment of Ryan Murphy’s Feud series for FX, that the series had the potential for greatness. By the third episode it had lived up to it. And now that it is fully over, this incredible vision will no doubt be a major contender for every single award regarding anthologies and limited series in the months to come for the Emmys and beyond.

The third episode where we saw a planned film by the Maysles Brothers of Capote’s legendary Black and White Ball in 1966 assured its place in the pantheon of the best series of 2024. A masterful bit of work from director Gus Van Sant the cinematography and direction alone would be enough had it not also shown us the duplicity of Truman throughout. We saw him manipulate each one of his Swans into thinking that they would be the guest of honor at his ball, doing everything to make it seem that the cameras weren’t rolling, making it sure they actually were. At the end he betrayed them all when his guest turned out to be Kay Graham. The ball itself was devastating as we saw what a fiasco it truly was and just how monstrous Capote could be when   Ann Woodward (Demi Moore) showed up and Truman went out of his way to all but spit in her face and that of her son. We also saw how he and his companion Jack Dunphy (Joe Mantello) had their far-too-often parasitic relationship as Jack got drunk and unloaded on the man he could not stop loving. The final image of the episode, showing Truman dancing with his mother in his mind, was one of the more heartbreaking.

In the next episode our sympathy remained with the Swans, though for the first time it began to shift as we saw that Babe Paley (Naomi Watts) who was diagnosed with cancer wanted to forgive Truman but Slim (Diane Lane) refused to relent, continuing to argue it was an unforgivable betrayal. Then we saw that Slim was, in fact, having an affair with Bill Paley (Treat Williams) something that everyone knew about – even Babe herself.

Then in the second half of the series, our perceptions took a radical shift. Set the day after Truman’s original excerpt was published in Esquire, we saw Truman truly miserable – and then he got support from an unlikely source, James Baldwin. Chris Chalk’s portrayal might very well get him an Emmy nomination even though it is only a single episode considering not only how masterful it is but how it starts to shift our perception of who the hero and the villains are in this story.

Both Baldwin and Capote are gay and outsiders and Baldwin is the first person to compliment Capote’s work. He leads him on a long day through New York promising he’ll explain what it’s about only at the end. He leads Capote through how he sees the Swans – and for the first time we get the truth about them and it’s uglier than Truman might have written. The Swans have as many affairs as their husbands do and are never punished for it. All of them are miserable parents and truly inadequate at being anything other than society wives. They barely eat their meals and there are suggestions of bulimia. There are constant discussions of what they do to keep themselves young. And we see how truly hateful they are, not merely in racist and homophobic terms – but also to each other. In a devastating scene we see Slim and Lee Radziwill (Calista Flockhart) about to eat when Woodward shows up. In a few short lines they utterly demean her with cruelty. Considering that Slim’s justification for her actions was the suicide of Woodward, we know see the true hypocrisy of the Swans.

When the day ends Baldwin screams at Truman for wasting his gift by being part of society. We hear the acknowledgement of what the writing of In Cold Blood did to him for the only time in the series but Baldwin gives no quarter. He says Capote has a solemn duty to this in order to essentially ‘start the revolution’ and show the evils, the horrors of society. In a sense Baldwin is arguing that these women represent the one percent, which is not inaccurate, and that their ugliness must be made clear to the world. Capote tries to take inspiration from this, and in a sense we can see why he’s trying to move forward.

In the next episode we get a sadder angle to both Capote and the Swans – the world of society that they were at the top of is coming to an end. The gloves and hats that they once considered the paramount of style are no longer trendy. When Truman dresses a model for a photo shoot in front of Richard Avedon, the photographer tells him that he has decorated her like an archetype from the 1940s and has to completely remake her. He and CZ (Chloe Sevigny) go dancing at Studio 54 that night and in the Post the next day they are basically considered the walking dead. Capote tries to find himself in the arms of a younger man in Hollywood but it’s clear very soon that he is obsolete. Oddly enough, he takes the end of this relationship far better than almost anything else in the series – he is acknowledging the passing of the era.

In the penultimate episode ‘Beautiful Babe’, the inevitable tragedies for the two major characters come. Babe’s cancer has reached the end stage and she knows it. In a horrid scene between her and Bill, she tells him how empty her life has been and how much she has tolerated his affairs. At a lunch with the Swans, she tells them to forgive Truman and tells them: “We’ve all done bad things. We’ve even done them to each other.” Then she prepares for one last party – the memorial after her funeral.

In a sad scene we see Babe in what is her final moments. Truman is there, younger and happier, and he begins to prepare her for ‘the fireworks’. We are relatively certain that this is a fantasy and its confirmed when Truman leads her to the bathroom and there’s a swan in the tub. We cut to Babe’s deathbed where her family is gathering and her daughter – who she has been estranged from and who refused the entreaties by Bill to see her – come just as she leaves the world.

The memorial itself is horrible as the three remaining swans mock the event of Babe’s passing as an excuse to talk trash about her, mock her abilities as a parent and cluck to see how soon Bill will have another wife. They also say they wish Truman was here, as if there entire motivation for the grudge means nothing to them now. The sadness comes when they try to discuss about getting together for lunch and their schedules keep missing. They part without making plans, simply saying they’ll get together later. We know in our hearts they won’t.

While this going on Truman is in the end stages of his collapse. Devastated at not being able to attend Babe’s funeral, we see him at a talk show where he is drinking and incoherent. He wakes up in a miserable hospital where Jack is there, telling him frankly that this is the last time. Truman, desperate to connect, says that he is lonely and that he has no one left. He tells Jack that he’s cold. Jack moves towards him, adjusts the blanket and leaves him for the last time.

We then cut to Hollywood where Truman is being cared to by Joanne Carson. (I have to tell you I’d seen her in three episodes and I didn’t recognize Molly Ringwald until then.) Truman is in the final stages of his death and has come to accept it. Joanna does to: we see her about to call 9-1-1 – and then she hangs up. She is the only one left for the final moments.

In a scene that mirrors Babe’s final moments,  Truman sees Babe in his final moments. Babe is tender to him, tells him what he knows in his heart, and that it is time to let go. The final scene shows the two of them on a beach. Joanne watches as he dies, and then calls Jack in New York. The look in Jack’s eyes shows regret as he asks about Truman’s last moments. Joanne tells him that he smiled and that his last words were “Beautiful Babe.” The episode makes it clear that Truman and Babe were each other’s soul mates in a sense.

The final episode enters the realm of pure fiction. We have never known whatever happened to Answered Prayers in any form so the series finale, fittingly, gives us a fictional response. Truman starts by visiting Babe’s grave. He claims that he hasn’t had a drink in three months and there are signs he might be sincere. He visits Jack and tells him that he has a grand plan, and that it involves an apology and forgiveness for his actions. Jack wonders if its too late and Truman – referring to In Cold Blood, however indirectly – tells them of the experience of those on death row wanting forgiveness. Jack tells him he has to forgive himself.

Most of the final episode takes place either in Truman’s apartment where is working on Answered Prayers or in a fictional world of his novel where he seeks out each of the Swans he has slandered and tries to make a grand gesture to earn their forgiveness. For C.Z. who tells him that he destroyed the image of the beauty she had, he helps her dispose of the Diego Rivera painting of her nude that she has never been able to get rid of but can not tolerate. For Slim, who has held her grudge by far the longest she seems willing to let go of her rage. They go to her apartment and in an exercise of Catharism she and Truman destroy a set of precious chinaware and he throws her another black and white ball in her honor where she meets her final husband. For Lee – the only Swan who he doesn’t change her name – he writes her memoir, the story of the life as Jackie Kennedy’s sister who she’s never been able to shake and helps to poison her latest husband – who is clearly a mirrored version of Jack.

Much of this would be more hysterical were it not for what is going on in Truman’s apartment. The ghost of Truman’s mother appears (Jessica Lange) and she criticizes his initial writing. She tells him he must resume drinking to regain his voice. He increasingly gets more drunk and begins taking more pills. As he descends further into oblivion, we finally delve in the past we’ve never truly seen. We see the young Truman being locked in his room while his mother sleeps with other men, denies being his actual mother to his face, denounces his homosexuality. We wonder whether he has decided to write his novel because he blames society for his upbringing or whether he sees the Swans – who have all been terrible parents – as mirrors of them.

Finally his mother presses him to deal with ‘the Black Swan’ – his mother’s suicide. As we watch this the other witness is Ann, the one who he has by far offended the most. Ann tells him that of all the Swans, she reminded him the most of his mother – and of himself. “That same trapped look in your eyes.”  “What is the book about? The end of society? Which you yourself helped destroy?” she shouts at him.

We then cut back to the scene that opened the series: Truman standing over a pond, looking at a flock of swans. Then he goes to his car and takes out a box. In the box is the finished manuscript of Answered Prayers. He looks up and Ann is watching him. He takes out paint thinner and pours it over the manuscript. As he lights a match, he says: “I can’t do it.” Ann says: “The book or your soul?” Ultimately he chooses his soul – though considering he was working on something in California, we’ll never know for sure.

The final scene takes place in 2016 after Joanna Carson has died. There is a bidding war for the ashes of Truman Capote. As they are finally bought by a mystery buyer, we see the ghosts of the Swans in perfect white dresses. Even in death they are unyielding saying how far society has fallen and that there is nowhere to go. “Not even New York is like New York anymore.”

But despite their mourning of the end of an era, part of me really wonders what was truly lost when they all passed from the world. Yes, the world they lived in was pretty and they had more style and dignity than so many of the tech billionaires and performers and influencers we have today. But where they truly any better? What Capote Vs The Swans show is that, at the end of the day, these rich and powerful women were, for all intents and purposes, just as snobbish, elitist and if we’re being honest, useless as so many of today’s figures. One can’t forget how upset they were when Kay Graham was the subject of the Black and White Ball but Graham actually accomplished something and did something with her money and prestige that none of them even tried to do. The comparison to them as the ‘Original Real Housewives’ a blurb for the show, is frankly dead on: we see the same toxic bad behavior on reality TV, only wearing slightly better outfits. The only difference is none of these women would be caught dead in front of a camera – their deep hatred was just done behind the scenes.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jon Robin Baitz chooses to end the series in 2016. Because I know, without even having to be told, how all of these women would have voted. These women might never have worked a day in their lives but none of them would have tolerated the idea of a woman running for President, much less voting for her. I’m not saying that they would have much liked Trump either –  they’re the kind of people whose approval they would have been proud to never give him – but after all, he was one of their own.

It’s hard to know the real victor of this feud was. Truman died drunk and isolated from the society he’d so badly wanted to be a part of, having wasted all of the talent he had once had. But it’s hard to see the Swans as victims really. The real sin Truman committed was airing in public what they said and did in private. Some might have loved him, but watching their behavior they might have just as easily regarded him as the court jester or a performing flea. Truman might have betrayed their trust but watching them in this series, the wonder is that they deserved to be trusted by anyone.

I am beyond grateful that Ryan Murphy chose to entrust Baitz and Gus Van Sant with his vision for the second season of Feud. And just as with Bette vs. Joan, it tells a story that needs to be told. Like that it tells the story of celebrated women who have less power than they think or will admit. In this case, they choose to focus their range on what they consider a betrayal rather than someone who was as much an outsider as they were. The final episode of Season 1 was about the tragedy of two powerful women who spent so much time hating each other rather than helping each other. Here they focus their hatred against an outsider but it is just as destructive and it can’t halt the passage of the forces against them. In both cases, you get the sense at the end of an immense, horrible loss.

It is certain that this show will be among the nominees for Best Anthology series; that Tom Hollander will be a major contender for Best Actor and that all of the women will be among the contenders for an already crowded field for Best Actress and Supporting Actress in a Limited Series. (Watts and Sevigny are my choices for the former; Lane and Flockhart for the latter.) It is more than likely Treat Williams will receive a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his final role and Joe Mantello deserves to be their alongside him.

It has been seven years between the first two seasons of Feud. I hope we don’t have to wait nearly as long for the third. I don’t know what Murphy could do for Act Three but he has the innate ability to surpass himself with each new version of everything. This is one of the great accomplishments of 2024 so far.

My score: 5 stars.