Review: The Lowdown, “Truth’s Easy” | Season 2, Episode 3

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Because the “femme fatale” is a character type common to detective stories, it's also common to film noir—and commonly subject to deconstruction and re-imagination in a neo-noir like The Lowdown. Sometimes those neo-noir femmes get so deconstructed that they’re barely fatale at all. That’s certainly the case with Ginger, at least so far. She’s too nice to be deadly, right? Although in the few days since Lee has known her, he has been punched and shot at multiple times.

On Bluesky recently I described the dynamic between Lee and Ginger as being like a warped version of Nick and Nora Charles, referring mainly to their fast-talking repartee. The zippy banter could be read as flirty—if Ginger were truly interested in Lee, rather than merely curious. (“Have you ever dated a writer?” she asked a co-worker in the one of last week's episodes, and seemed to acknowledge as soon as she voiced the idea that it was utterly preposterous.)

This week Lee almost embarrasses himself with how hard he tries to impress Ginger. As they walk around a fairground where Indigenous locals teach tourists traditional skills and crafts, Lee boasts about how good he was at archery in 8th grade. When Ginger gushes over the missing Mekko Dean’s love of Of Mice And Men, Lee interrupts to say he’s read everything John Steinbeck ever wrote. (Ginger: “It’s not a contest.” Lee: “If it was, I’d win.”) He’s trying to make himself at home with her—as evidenced by the way he rifles through her fridge almost as soon as he enters her house.

But in a telling moment late in this episode, when Lee offers to help keep Ginger safe by crashing on her couch—or by letting her stay at the bookstore—she delivers a muted but unequivocal “no.” She’s not much like Season One’s Betty Jo Washberg, who was a more traditional femme fatale. She didn’t ask for Lee’s help. Heck, she’s not even sure she wants him around. And she certainly (well, maybe) isn’t trying to seduce or manipulate him.

Of course this doesn’t mean they won’t eventually end up in bed together. This is still a noir, after all. For now though, Ginger is still committed to Mekko.