spoilers I think: s3 discussion on the symbol of Cassie’s wedding flowers...
**This is how I interpret the flowers and the significance of them. The flowers were a symbol of the power Cassie thought she had. The debt and the home invasion are the betrayal of the promise she thought she had from Nate. The marriage is over. Her life is effectively ruined. If you read it this way... the scene of Nate getting beat up is really his problem, his karma. I’m writing this because this is the answer to why Nate seems lobotomized ... he is not. This is the same Nate. Blaming Cassie is justifying Nate...
First- their lifestyle:
Nate is the head of household and is responsible for all expenses.
ex. 1: House is 2.5 million. ex. 2: Nate’s Car is 90 K *
(**doesn’t address other expenses: like hiring people to help with the house, all of Cassie’s living expenses, as well as furnishings and costs that Nate has to incur to run his LLC. Also these things might not have been bought outright but it’s almost irrelevant. These are Nate’s decisions and only Nate’s decisions.)
We all know that Nate is abusive and people discuss if he’s not anymore, because why hasn’t he done anything to Cassie. The reality is that he is currently doing something- he is financially abusive. The purpose of domestic abuse and violence is to exert control over someone else. Sometimes financial abuse is how a person can achieve this. Nate is in complete control over Cassie’s life. Notice how he treats her when she expresses a desire for some financial independence -
^(Cassie - “what if I pay for the flowers?)
^(Nate- laughs... “you don’t have any money”)
^(Cassie- “I can make it”)
^(Nate - laughs, with evil smile “doing what” (implying she can’t do anything))
Nate wants to control all of the finances. He doesn’t want an empowered woman. For all we know Cassie did not go to college. He wants a grown up teenager and for all we know... he has actively participated in stripping Cassie of all agency she could have had.
Now it seemed like wedding planning was the only point of agency for Cassie up to episode 3. She encounters the cost of a wedding that suits their lifestyle overall (lives in 2.5 m in LA suburbs, for instance)... she THINKS they are rich. That’s why she is OK with having no control, it’s her Faustian bargain. So a floral arrangement of 50k ... that’s not unrealistic for how she thinks of money in accordance with their lifestyle. (*Note- the actual cost of those flowers was around 200K (according to producers) so 50K would only be 1/4 of what we saw on screen... so maybe only that 1 room instead of all of the stuff outside).
She gets it... great. Now at the wedding, a crazy mafia guy (who she has never met) comes and tells Nate he owes him 500K +. Cassie now realizes... she has been completely betrayed, lied to and manipulated. The 50K pales in comparison to the debt Nate owes. She realizes how vulnerable she has been... and how the basis of her life is a complete lie. She traded everything for the security of the provider who cannot provide and she finds this out right after she married him (which is a business deal in many ways, legal and binding). The flowers were a symbol of the power she thought she had. The debt and the home invasion are the betrayal of the promise she thought she had from Nate. She has been seriously effed over by Nate and only finds out when it is too late. Why would he sign divorce papers at this point? She owes that money now too. And just like that ... Nate’s financial abuse has cleared the way for serious exploitation. She is now an equal opportunity target for Naz which puts her in a dangerous position. But who really put her in this position was Nate. Also not to mention, that male providers who are in financial ruin is the exact context for which many family annihilator situations come to fruition.
So if you look at it this way... I think we can theorize and discuss what might come next. Curious what y’all think. Again, Cassie does have serious freaking problems but I think with a person who isn’t abusive this would not have happened ...