the baseball
What was the purpose of the baseball? It kept showing up, but was never mentioned, and never figured in the plot. Was it just to distract the audience and make us think it had some significance?
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MovieChat Forums > Knives Out (2019) Discussion > the baseball
According to Rian Johnson's In-theater Commentary track (paraphrasing, of course):
Richard threw the baseball out the window out of spite and pettiness after thinking the letter was blank and Harlan was just interfering. Linda eventually took the baseball from the dog and returned it to the study, and that's when she found the letter from her father.
It seems Rian thought it was funny or ironic that Richard's pettiness eventually caused Linda to get the letter., or that she may not have seen the letter if he hadn't thrown the baseball and she didn't return it to the study.
Many of the characters handled the baseball during the movie, although it's significance to Harlan and the reason it was on the desk to start with was never explained (unless I missed something!)
I kept thinking Detective Blanc's crazy monologue about holes in doughnuts was going to have some connection to the baseball, and that the baseball was going to somehow be a key clue to solving everything. But then it wasn't ever important, which annoyed me.
The ball was the thread of the side story of Don Johnson's cheating. Started out in the father's hand at the beginning, when he revealed his knowledge, then Don Johnson threw it out when he thought it's not a problem any more. Went to places throughout the movie, but always been there. And at the end it got to Linda, who knew where its place is, put it back where it belonged, and she was the only one who knew how to read the letter.
It was nice little active metaphor, I loved it.
^ yah i think it had to do with Linda's discovery of the affair
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