In this episode, chess is depicted as Beth’s currency in an unforgiving society that she has no illusions about. As her excellence is recognized on increasingly larger stages, her own elevation is reflected through growing stylishness in her fashion— a new bounce in her skirt, a pop of color here and there, a lightness of fabric we hadn’t seen before. Meanwhile she remains protective of her  femininity, as with anything in her life, when she notices the difference between hers and that expressed by many girls at school; she is quite content staying in her own grid, which can be viewed as a trace of remnant defensiveness and social qualm from childhood trauma, or perhaps signs of a newfound courage and attitude towards the future which she is headstrong about chartering in her own way.