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The curtain has finally fallen on the gripping saga of DTF St. Louis, and with it, the long-awaited revelations that have kept us on the edge of our seats since the first episode.
**Spoilers ahead for DTF St. Louis Episode 7, “No One’s Normal. It Just Looks That Way From Across the Street,” now available on HBO Max**
In just a few short weeks, we’ve become deeply invested in the complex dynamics of Floyd Smernitch, played by David Harbour, alongside Jason Bateman’s Clark Forrest and Linda Cardellini’s Carol Love-Smernitch. This intriguing love triangle and its convoluted relationships have drawn us in, making the impending departure bittersweet. However, the finale has gifted us with the answers we craved, unveiling the mystery of how Floyd ended up lifeless at the Kevin Kline Community Pool in St. Louis.
Speculation has run wild: Did Linda orchestrate her husband’s demise for an insurance payout, manipulating Clark into complicity? Did Clark, harboring deeper feelings for Floyd, act out of unrequited love? Or was it Tiger Tiger, portrayed by Chris Perfetti, who backed out of a plan with Floyd but had his own hidden agenda? The truth is now out in the open.
Here’s a comprehensive look at the conclusion of DTF St. Louis, revealing Floyd’s killer and the curious circumstances surrounding his unfortunate mishap.
What Happened To Floyd’s Penis?
Week after week, we’ve been subjected to bits and pieces of the story about how Floyd’s penis got bent out of shape and how his Peyronie’s Disease came about. In the end, it’s actually quite simple: it was Richard.
As Floyd and Clark are having one of their now-signature heart-to-hearts, Clark asks Floyd point-blank how his penis got its curve in the first place, which is when he goes into yet another soliloquy about what happened after he passed on the high-paying job in Chicago. As he explains it, after seeing an ASL class in progress, Floyd knew in that moment what his purpose in life was, which made Carol unhappy.
Earlier in the episode, we learned that Carol’s sealed record comes from having attempted to shoplift toilet paper rolls for her family, which confirms that Cardellini’s whole character is motivated by the idea of stability and chasing after it. It makes sense then that upon learning her husband would not be going for a lucrative job in Chicago that would treat them well, he would be dedicating himself to ASL and making the small bucks. This, of course, caused her to cry, which Floyd says was unintentional.
Richard (Arlan Ruf), Linda’s son from her previous relationship, did not know the context of why Floyd had made his mom cry, and — having behavioral and psychological issues — came into their room in the middle of the night to confront Floyd. How did he do that? Oh, just by breaking his penis with a baseball bat.
In the end, the journey to get to Floyd telling Clark about how his broken penis came about ended up being more intriguing that the story about the actual event itself. It also provides decent insight as to who Floyd is at his core and how he wound up dead at a pool named after Kevin Kline.
Who Killed Floyd Smernitch?
After all that, no one technically killed Floyd Smernitch; let’s back up a bit. Heading into the DTF St. Louis finale, we knew that despite Tiger Tiger — who we later come to find out is just some random guy named Kevin — calling off the early morning meeting with Floyd, Harbour’s character still showed up at the pool.
Well, after being let off the hook by the police in Floyd’s murder investigation, Clark admits that he was at the pool that morning when Floyd died. He had told Floyd to still go and do something for himself, and then decided to show up and meet him to try and lift his spirits. During that time, the two talked and danced in their underwear, just hanging out like besties do… that’s sarcasm, hopefully that’s obvious. What they didn’t know was that Richard — who had one of the bikes that Floyd and Clark had grown accustomed to riding — had witnessed everything and was confused by what he was watching (samesies, honestly).
Earlier that evening, after his emotional episode, Richard had gone onto Floyd’s laptop and discovered his messages with Tiger Tiger, arranging the meetup for 4 a.m. on November 9. That’s what prompted him to ride the bike to the pool, something the detectives discovered after realizing there were two different bikes on the road that night. After Clark left the pool, Richard went to confront Floyd, only seeing him through the window as he called him a “fat asshole” and told him that no one loves him.
Before Richard could fully leave the pool, Floyd signed to him that he loved him — which Richard misinterpreted as “rock on” — and then Floyd opted to take his own life by downing the entire Bloody Mary drink, which had an unhealthy dose of amphezyne, the prescription drug that Clark had gotten for him as doctors wouldn’t prescribe it to him. His final moments see him depressingly reopening the magazine containing his Indiana Jones-inspired pics and scratching out the face out of disgust. Sadly, it was confusion and misunderstanding that led to Clark downing the amphezyne and nearly getting Clark locked up for life.
What an ending.
DTF St. Louis is now streaming on HBO Max.
If you’re new to HBO Max, you can sign up for as low as $10.99/month with ads, but an ad-free subscription will cost $18.49/month.
If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the discounted Disney+ Bundles with Hulu and HBO Max. With ads, the bundle costs $19.99/month and without ads, $32.99/month.