The fourth episode of the Queen’s Gambit portrayed Beth and Alma going to Mexico City to play some of the best international chess players. One of the chess players was much younger than she was and she found it difficult to play against him. However, she managed to beat him, and now Beth realizes how others who were older than she was felt when they had to play against a younger Beth. In addition, Beth takes the passing of her mother negatively and starts to drink and take pills again. The audience can see here how strong her bond was with her mother and how much Beth appreciated that her mother went with her for chess tournaments. In the previous episodes, the bond was not too strong and over time it continued to grow between both of them. Overall, this fourth episode demonstrated to the audience how strong her bond was with her mother, and how she is becoming more confident while playing chess. I am looking forward to episode five!

The third episode of The Queen’s Gambit contained much background information about Beth even when it was comparatively shorter than the previous ones. As a group, we noted that when Beth was interviewed by the Life reporter, the reporter did not write down the true story about Beth. Back in the time period of this show most of society did not expect a young girl to be a chess champion and would not accept the fact that she was taught chess by a janitor. We also noted that Beth takes chess much more seriously in this episode since it is the first time that she has officially lost a match in a competition. Beth hardly ever loses and when she does, she begins to overthink and undermine herself in the game. Due to the loss in her game, she grows a stronger bond with her mother. Meaning that she appreciates the company and encouragement that her mother continually gives her throughout the chess competitions. Overall, this episode provided much context into Beth’s character and her growth throughout the years.

In the second episode of The Queen’s Gambit, we see that Beth is adopted and begins to play chess in a Chess Tournament. A few observations that were discussed in the group is that playing chess is an escape from reality for Beth. She is able to do what she pleases and most games are predictable since she regularly wins. Also, during this time the people who mostly played chess were men who have many years playing the game. When Beth beats all of her opponents, the audience could not believe what they were seeing. Lastly, this episode portrayed a significant difference in the color scheme from the orphanage to the neighborhood. In an orphanage the mood tends to be gloomy, unlike a neighborhood where it is bright and outgoing. The creators of the show made sure that they could imitate reality in the best manner possible, which can be noted through the use of color schemes. Overall, this episode was very well created, and I am looking forward to episode three.

After watching the first episode of The Queen’s Gambit I noticed that the young girl, Beth Harmon, is exceptionally smart. She utilizes her talent to learn how to play chess which is a popular game and mainly seen as a highly sophisticated game. I also saw how the show portrayed that chess was not regularly played by females in the mid-twentieth century, in this episode the headmistress of the house stated that when Beth played chess it was rare behavior that she had not seen before from the others. In addition, the high-school teacher who went to visit Beth believed that Beth was like all other girls and gave her a doll as a gift, not considering that she was only interested in chess. One important group observation was that while Beth played chess there was suspenseful background music which conveyed to the audience that chess is meant to be taken seriously.  Many of the societal norms of the mid-twentieth century can be seen in this first episode, however, this show adds a powerful protagonist who aims to inspire others to never give up.