Fellow Travelers
Summary
Through four episode , Fellow Travelershas chronicled the most intense and pivotal moments of the Lavender Scare pass by Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn during the former fifties . The point of the Lavender Scare , in connective withthe anti - communistic Red Scare that was happen simultaneously , was to name and remove suspect " degenerate " and " revolutionist " who participate in ostensibly anti - American bodily process involving communism and gayness . The Showtime series portrays several intricate position of some of the governance employee who were keep down to such intense hunch and secernment such as Hawk Fuller ( Matt Bomer ) and Marcus Gaines ( Jelani Alladin ) .
Fellow Travelersepisode 4places Hawk in the blistering seat like never before as he receives a formal bidding to appear before the M Unit , an investigative committee whose only military mission is to key the aforesaid " deviants " and take out them from their governmental position . Hawk eventually discovers that it was one of his own assistants who reported him to the M Unit after she had found a book inside his desk with a handwritten inscription from Tim . Hawk is forced to take a polygraph mental testing and answer a serial of questionsto effectively prove that he is not a part of the LGBTQ+ biotic community , lie for the rice beer of his career and livelihood .
The M Unit Was Created To Investigate Suspected LGBTQ+ People In The Government
The M Unit Was Responsible For Firing Dozens Of Government Workers
The M Unit was determined to carry off every mistrust person involve in homosexual activity who worked within the U.S. State Department . AlthoughFellow Travelersis a work of fiction based on a 2007 novel by Thomas Mallon , the sentiments of the historic menses in time were palpably capture in the Showtime serial . Hawk was given no selection to decline the courtly interview process and play along to avoid spotting and save his career as a administrative official in Washington D.C. Hawk has always set up a agency to conceal his true intimate identity for the sake of his vocation . However , the M Unit presented an immediate threat with their effectuation of polygraph testing .
The real - aliveness M Unit was successful in having twelve of government employees bump off from their positions during the early fifties . The M Unit claimed to be looking for " moral weaknesses " within their ranks which was in reality just a disparaging cover - up for their actual architectural plan . The heightened paranoia of the Red Scare within the United States government for sure bestow fuel to the fire of the Lavender Scare and there was often a large amount of inequitable overlap as a resultant role . There existed a general concept thatadopting communism and being a member of the LGBTQ+ community were similar characteristics of a questionable or vulnerable individual .
Many Of The M Unit’s Summons Were Based On Profiling & Speculation
The M Unit Targeted People With Alleged Weak Character & Morality
Suspicions of the Lavender Scare attain an all - time gamey in 1953 , which is when Hawk received a process in Fellow Travelers episode 4 . In 1952 , the M Unit fire 134 people who were suspected of homosexual natural process , and were up to 74 mass during the first three month of 1953 . Anyone working in the federal administration could make a ailment against another employee and was often encouraged to , which soon began to mark up a climate of later motives and untrue reporting to the M Unit . During their investigating , the M Unit had the interviewee manner of walking and read loud , as Hawk was push to do in the Showtime serial .
Very little evidence was require to receive a summons to appear before the M Unit . Reportedly , all it could take was an innocent connection with a known phallus of the LGBTQ+ community or a visit to an established taproom or restaurant where LGBTQ+ citizenry frequented . As a result , profiling was the elementary source of many of the allegations made to the M Unitthat were built on malicious judgments and rigid stereotypes of gender expression . With such loose parameters required to make an allegation , the M Unit eventually became a policing military force that focused on other moral issues outside of communism and queerness alone .
How Hawk Was Able To Pass The M Unit’s Investigations In Fellow Travelers
Hawk Realized That The Polygraph Tested Reactions Of Guilt, Not Truth
Hawk was nigh able to deflect the polygraph run after his first round consultation with M Unit investigator Fred Treband ( Michael Therriault ) , but his last - moment aggression towards Treband bugger off him an invitation to come back the next daylight . Hawk went home and cultivate himself to dissociate from the pierce interrogative sentence he do it he would be require by the M Unit , including whether he had ever perform intimate acts with another man and if he ’d ever been in love with another human being . Hawk successfully used mag figure of speech and acute focusto influence his pith rateso as not to appear shamed during the polygraph test inFellow Travelersepisode 4 .
beginning : McCarthyism And Cold War
