I attended the screening of episode 5 of “The Queen’s Gambit” and it aligned with the book in a much more lighthearted way. In the book, after Mrs. Wheatley’s death, Beth goes on a bender. She drinks heavily and becomes reliant on drinking to get her through her difficult time. In this episode, we don’t really see much of that, but we know that Beth is still taking the tranquilizers. So in the book, she doesn’t really take on her newfound independence well, but she does in the show. She appears to even judge a woman she used to go to school with for drinking while taking care of a baby (which is probably fair considering the potential consequences) and so I feel that in the show she is shown as more wise and in control of herself.

Something else that I thought about was how socially stunted Beth sort of was in her life and how this has caused her to not really connect with people properly. This was clear with Beltik in the show, as he seemed to try to have some sort of a relationship with her but she wasn’t really conveying her thoughts and feelings in an open way. I think that he does help her become more open and he definitely helped her get through some of the loneliness and grief she was feeling after the passing of Mrs. Wheatley.