Summary
After leaving the bathroom, Walt tells Sue he bit his tongue and suggests they go downstairs and eat some of “that good gook food.” The shot cuts to him eating while surrounded by older women. They are all smiling. Sue pulls him away to the basement to mingle with younger people. Walt notices the dryer is off balance and so gets on the ground to adjust the leg and fix the wobble.
Thao sits far away from the other Hmong people, glancing at a young woman. Eventually the young woman gets up to ask Walt what he is doing there. They shake hands. She asks what he does. Walt says he fixes things. She says he is funny and tells him to enjoy himself. She leaves with other people following.
Walt goes over to Thao and tells him he is “blowing it” with the young woman. Thao says he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Walt says he got the best woman on this planet to marry him. Walt tells him the woman likes him, that she’s been looking at Thao all day. He calls Thao a “big fat pussy” for letting her walk away with the other young men.
Another day, Walt mows his lawn. Two Hmong women drop off potted plants on his stairs. Later they bring him food in foil. He resists for a moment, then lets them come in because he realizes it’s the chicken dumpling he tried the other day. The scene cuts to Sue, Thao, and their mother waiting out front. They say Thao is there to work for him to make amends. Sue explains that they are traditional and need to have Thao repay Walt for his kindness.
Later, Thao comes over and asks Thao what he is good at. Thao says he doesn’t know. He tells Thao to count all the birds in a tree out front. The next day, Thao comes over and asks to be put to actual work. Walt says he maintains his own property. Walt then has the idea to get Thao to fix the gutter on the deteriorating Hmong property across the street. A montage follows in which Walt smokes on his porch and watches Thao improve various aspects of neighboring properties.
One day Thao pushes Walt’s doorbell. Inside, Walt is coughing blood again. Thao says it is his last day; Walt tells him to have the day off because he’s done enough. Walt is about to say something else but stop himself. The scene cuts to Walt meeting with a doctor. He is surprised that his regular doctor, Dr. Feldman, has retired and been replaced with a female Hmong doctor. She says she wants to run a battery of tests. Later, Walt calls his son and asks questions about his grandkids and his son’s work. He looks at medical forms, including blood test results, on his lap. His son gets off the call quickly before Walt can tell him what he needs to.
Walt smokes on his porch as Spider’s white car drives by slowly. Walt says Thao doesn’t have a chance. He makes a finger gun and pretends to fire it at the car. Thao comes by to ask what Walt knows about faucets. While in the neighbor’s house, Walt notices the ceiling fan is wobbly. The scene cuts to Thao and Walt in Walt’s garage workshop; Walt is fixing the ceiling fan mechanism. Thao admires Walt’s tools and says he can’t afford all this stuff. Walt says he acquired it over fifty years, then gives Thao a roll of duct tape, a can of WD-40, and vice grips. He says he can repair most things with those.
Walt coughs blood; Thao tells him to see a doctor. Walt asks about the Hmong gangbangers. Thao says they were going to take him away and initiate him by having him steal Walt’s Gran Torino. Walt smiles to learn this. The scene cuts to Walt lifting a deep freeze on a dolly, attempting to bring it up from his basement. He goes to Thao for help. Thao insists that Walt let him take the top, the heavier side. Walt relents and lets him. Thao says they need a freezer. Walt says he was going to sell it for sixty but Thao can have it for $25.
Analysis
After his epiphany in the bathroom, Walt returns to the barbecue with renewed vigor. Another of the few scenes in which Walt genuinely seems happy, he enjoys eating Hmong food while surrounded by women who seem pleased to feed him. The scene contrasts with how Walt behaved around his family during his wife’s funeral and wake. Around his own family, Walt acted taciturn and was always moving about on his feet. Around the Hmong people he is just meeting, Walt sits comfortably and laughs.
The barbecue scenes also show the audience the beginnings of Walt’s affection for Thao, who he had previously disdained. Although Walt still speaks to Thao in abusive language, Walt tries to convince Thao that the girl he has been looking at likes him too. An unlikely wingman, Walt berates Thao into understanding that he is “blowing it” with the girl, and that all he has to do is talk to her.
Walt and Thao’s relationship deepens further when Thao begins working for Walt to make amends for breaking into the garage. Because of his self-reliance, Walt insists that he maintains his property himself. However, he realizes he can get Thao to fix other homes around them so that Walt doesn’t have to look at dilapidated properties. When a little girl and her grandfather for whom she translates come to ask Walt for Thao to fix something at their house, it is clear that Walt’s volunteering of Thao’s services has made him an even more prominent figure in the Hmong community.
The brief interval of peace and harmony in Walt’s life is undermined when he coughs up more blood. It is obvious to him and the viewer that his smoking has made him very ill, but his self-reliance and masculine repression have prevented him from seeking medical treatment. When he does finally go to the hospital, Walt tells no one who knows him, deciding to keep the news to himself. Even when he phones his son to discuss the results, acting uncharacteristically chatty with his estranged son, Walt cannot access the level of vulnerability it would require to tell his son the truth of his failing health. He knows the implications might mean he would have to seek treatment and give up his house to live in an assisted living center, and Walt is unwilling to rely on anyone else.
Instead of dealing with his medical diagnosis, Walt continues living as he was. Having established a rapport, Thao comes by Walt’s to ask his help in fixing their kitchen sink. Without quite realizing it, Walt has become a mentor to the fatherless Thao, who has no male influences in his life and family besides Spider, his violent cousin. In a rare moment of vulnerability, Walt admits he cannot lift a freezer out of his basement without help, so he goes to Thao. And in a rare moment of defiance of Walt’s authority, Thao insists he take the heavier side of the freezer. Walt, to both his and Thao’s surprise, relents, allowing Thao to do more of the lifting.
