You Can Thank ‘DTF St. Louis’s Creator For Making Us Wait To Find Out How Floyd’s Penis-Curving Disease Led Him To ASL, David Harbour Says

By Hope Sloop

Four episodes into DTF St Louis and I’m still asking the question: How the f**k does Floyd’s (David Harbour) penis-curving Peyronie’s disease relate to getting into sign language? Well, Harbour says we’re going to have to keep waiting and it’s all thanks to creator Steven Conrad.

**Spoilers ahead for the first four episodes of DTF St. Louis, now steaming on HBO Max** 

It’s been nearly a month since we were first introduced to Clark Forrest (Jason Bateman) and Floyd Smernitch, who became fated friends after appearing on the news together as a meteorologist and his ASL translator. The two quickly struck up a conversation after their live hit in the field, which is when Floyd explained that his Peyronie’s disease — a significant curvature in his penis — is what got him into ASL, failing to explain how he got the disease or what the connection between Peyronie’s and ASL is. Truth is, you’re going to have to just hold out for all the answers. 

“I’ve been developing this series for about four years, and that’s been in there since the very beginning. It’s this thing where [I was like], ‘Steve, you can’t have a guy tell a story like every episode, just a little bit, and then be like, oh, shoot, I gotta go,'” Harbour told DECIDER during a recent sitdown. “And he was like, ‘Yes, we can.’ And he was right because it’s really funny.”

Photo: HBO

According to Harbour and his fellow castmates, Bateman and Linda Cardellini, fans are going to have to wait until the season finale — which airs on April 12 — to get the full picture of Floyd’s condition, as well as a more in-depth look at what exactly led to him ending up dead at the Kevin Kline Community Pool in St. Louis, Missouri. 

“You got to wait til [Episode] 7, I think, to get to the full story because he tells the story several times,” the Stranger Things alum said, adding that having Floyd repeatedly start and stop his explanation “That was one of the funniest little jokes throughout.”

Slow-burn is the name of the game for this TV series, which has proven that sometimes, it pays to be weird and a head scratcher. From the start, the exact vibe of the show has been all over the place, with fans and critics alike struggling to box it into one genre. Murder-drama feels accurate, but with so many bits and whacky parts, surrealist comedy could also be just as apt. For the stars, that confusion is part of what brought them to the project in the first place, as they similarly struggled to deduce the tone of the series. 

“You think it’s just going to be a silly thing, we have a bunch of little silly things, and then in the end, it really is a big, huge emotional payoff,” Harbour said of Episode 7 as Bateman chimed in, “and a slight hint towards the answer about the death.”

For television actors, though, is there anything more exciting than having to stay on your toes with a project? Well, maybe winning an Emmy is more exciting, but if all goes well, this bunch could be looking at having checked off both boxes for DTF St. Louis. 

The first four episodes of DTF St. Louis are now streaming on HBO Max. New episodes premiere on Sundays. 

If you’re new to HBO Max, you can sign up for as low as $10.99/month with ads, but an ad-free subscription will cost $18.49/month.

If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the discounted Disney+ Bundles with Hulu and HBO Max. With ads, the bundle costs $19.99/month and without ads, $32.99/month.