After reading a lot of posts, I realized I remembered so little from S1 & 2 and rewatched them to see if there were any Rotis clues before the party. I think there were some but they could also be completely random/unintentional. Since we don’t know how specifically scripted and/or directed the scenes are, it’s impossible to know unless the creator or writers discuss it after the series ends. That said, here are the ones I saw. Full disclosure, I have seen others mention some of them and watches to confirm. Others, I saw myself first and then found other posts confirming. I’m also aware that if you go looking for something, you will often find it in these situations. So IMO if these things were random, then there was nothing to them. If they were scripted/directed, then Rotis was foreshadowed in S1E1. Finally, I KNOW Maeve is the obvious endgame and what everything has built to. But even planned, these events could have just been foreshadowing the short Rotis relationship. I am curious if anyone caught these before or after rewatching?
S1E1: About 31 minutes in, Adam pushed Eric against the locker. Ruby is there and appears to be briefly looking at Otis or Eric. What seems unusual is that she diverts her glance immediately when Otis turns her way like she doesn’t want him to see her then looks back when he’s no longer looking her way. IMO this would be some next level foreshadowing and the least likely on this list.
S1E7: At the dance as Otis is sitting alone watching either the band or others dance, the camera does a circle around him. Ruby is clearly featured in front of him and appears to glance at him. She’s got her hair down in a red dress (will come back to this) sort of lifting her hair and letting it slowly come down. It appears that she’s also been given more space and lighting to somewhat highlight her presence. The song lyrics at this time seem telling as well because I read that they pick and place the music carefully to enhance the scenes. The lyrics as the camera spins past Ruby are, “I saw her dark hair falling. All down her snow-white back. I thought she’d always be my zero.” IF the plan was foreshadowing Rotis, this may be the biggest hint for S2E7.
S2E1: During the opening masturbation montage, the woman on the shampoo bottle resembles Ruby (especially the hair). The woman on the screen at the movies when he gets excited and heads to the bathroom (Princess Aura in Flash Gordon) has long brown hair is wearing a completely red outfit (a subconscious Ruby at the dance trigger for Otis?). The bottle could very well be random but they had to find one with a woman and could have chose a blonde. I know Maeve had dark hair around this time but had Otis seen it? But they could have picked any attractive woman in a movie, yet chose one with 2 distinct characteristics shared with Ruby at the dance.
These are the main ones I saw before 2.7. TBF, there were a lot of time they were in a shot/scene together where you get no indication of a Rotis foreshadow. Meaning those listed above were coincidence or they didn’t want to tip their hand too much and give away a future story arc. Anyway, I openly admit I might be looking for things that aren’t there but I’m doing it with other characters too and I find it a fun way to kill some time when I’m bored. R-O is just one of the more debated ones on here so I posted about that. Let me live in my fantasy world until S4 when I believe we do finally see Motis play out to whatever endgame Laurie Nunn knew would happen before S1E1 even premiered.