Did anyone besides me wonder if Skinner suffered from acute paranoia? I think way too much about every technicality of this movie, so I’m probably the the only one.
It explains his actions and reasoning and overall character so perfectly! It was something that sort of crossed my mind a few years ago, and now I have a hard time “unseeing” it, so to speak. It’s apparent from the moment Larousse mentions Renata’s name, and Skinner sees Alfredo for the first time - he is already feeling threatened, which leads me to believe two things: 1) he previously had knowledge, perhaps explicitly so, of Alfredo’s existence and relation to Gusteau, and 2) because of this, he immediately thinks the sole reason for Alfredo showing up at the restaurant is because he wants to take it from Skinner.
You can literally watch the progression of this fear intensify as the story drags on, because all the little coincidences that happen are things Skinner believes to be deliberate, like the fact that the soup got fixed and Alfredo was the only one around when it happened. Not knowing anything about Alfredo (and the fact that he really cannot cook), but (possibly) already knowing who he is related to, his first thought is that Alfredo is just like Gusteau. He has talent. He could easily overthrow Skinner if he wanted to, not just because of his relations, but because, apparently, he was just as gifted at cooking as his father!
Skinner, continually in denial of the truth (another aspect of paranoia), gets the slap of reality in the face when he reads Renata’s letter. Years and years of denying reality, clinging to what little power he had, is suddenly whisked right out from underneath him, because now he is holding in his hands some meager, physical form of the truth.
He spends the rest of the movie believing that Alfredo is out to get him; seeing the rat - or thinking he sees a rat - only makes things that much worse!
His lawyer’s comment after Skinner’s seemingly delusional outburst about the rat, “Should I be concerned about this… about you?” leads me to believe that perhaps Labarthe thinks Skinner has a problem, too!
The only reason I think Skinner already knew of Alfredo’s relations is because of the way he reacted to everything. Why else would he feel threatened by the fact that their garbage boy could actually cook? Wouldn’t that be a good thing? The only way that would happen is if Skinner already had some reason for fear - in this case, he must have suspected that Alfredo was related to Gusteau somehow.
Gosh, don’t get me started on head canons for this movie, because I have a plethora of them for practically any aspect of the film you can think of. ;o; I just got done writing an extensive timeline of head canon events leading up to and following the movie. xD
little chef