How is it that “Good Girls” just gets better and better? I can’t possibly answer that but I can certainly tell you all about episode two! Lots happened this week, including murder-attempted multiple times, a potential pay off, some intimidation at children’s swim practice and a revelation! As usual, the episode is crammed with plot but also lots of emotional beats so let’s get started!
Episode Synopsis:
Rio (Manny Montana) forces Beth (Christina Hendricks), Annie (Mae Whitman), and Ruby (Retta) to solve a problem with a possible witness, which challenges the women’s morality. Meanwhile, Annie is in an awkward position with Greg (guest star Zach Gilford) and Nancy.
We begin with the ladies in Ruby’s donut shop arguing about when and how they should kill Boomer with the gun Rio gave them. There’s a delightful riff about them trying to work around their schedules as moms before they decide when to do it. They also have to work around late night customers in the donut shop. Once they decide when to kill Boomer, Beth also realizes this whole situation is a gang initiation which ups the stakes quite a bit.
Annie is having her own crisis while trying to pick up Sadie from Gregg and Nancy. Nancy will not stop talking about the baby and planning her shower and telling Annie she’s the only other one who knows what it’s like to be “pregs with Greggs” which is just a horrible phrase. Annie is decidedly uncomfortable, especially when Nancy invites her to the baby shower and Gregg half heartedly agrees she should come.
Cutting over to Ruby who is in some sort of church-y therapy with Stan and their pastor. This is one of my favorite tropes. When the person or couple is in therapy but they have to be very oblique about the reasons because of illegal or supernatural reasons. It’s legitimately the only thing I think I’d like about “The Sopranos.” In any case, Ruby has to pretend she’s been unfaithful which must be super embarrassing when that’s not what happened and you’re telling it to your pastor. Luckily she gets hers back by the end of the episode.
From Ruby and Stan we move on to Mary Pat, who’s new life is not living up to any expectation. Boomer is watching sports and not letting her kids watch “Minions” because it’s the playoffs. When the littlest one asks why he can’t watch his movie, Boomer hits him with a bunch of bullshit about minding his new daddy which is gross on so many levels. He looks to Mary Pat to back him up and she does which is absolutely heartbreaking. She’s definitely going to turn on him which I can’t wait for, but for now she’s kind of broken which just makes me sad.
At the appointed time the girls lure Boomer out to the woods to kill him. Unfortunately, Beth is still not totally sure she wants to be initiated into this gang and she hesitates and offers Boomer money instead. All the while Annie is insisting she can shoot Boomer if Beth won’t do it. They do come to an agreement about the money which is kind of nice, but will also be extremely problematic when Rio finds out. I also really wish they’d kill Boomer. He’s just the worst.
The next morning we find out Beth has started selling appliances to pay off Boomer including the refrigerator. Dean asks why and she claims it’s so they can keep the house because of his medical bills so he decides to go back to work WAY too early and predictably ends up collapsing as he tries to sell a Corvette. Ruby also continues her trail of deceit and forges Stan’s name on a payday loan application. The girls are still somehow $16k short on payment for Boomer and Annie is not interested in contributing beyond throwing a $20 on the table because she would have shot Boomer. I appreciate her bravado, but also I’m not sure she would have been able to pull it off either. The Boland girls are a little too nice.
Annie excuses herself to Nancy’s baby shower where she drinks straight brown liquor and side-eyes all of Nancy’s friends. I was also struck again by how nice Nancy and Gregg’s house is when I have literally no idea what Gregg does for a living. But then we found out he’s a pharma rep and it all made sense! The baby shower also appears to be an evening cocktail party which is hilarious and weird and perfect for this show.
Once Annie realizes everyone in attendance is hella rich, she goes about snooping through their possessions for something to steal for the rest of Boomer’s money. Gregg catches her in the act but she’s able to play it off like she was looking for a tampon before telling Gregg he absolutely can not leave Nancy now, no matter what. It’s nice to get these moments so I can get a handle on Annie’s morality. She absolutely will kill an extorting rapist, but she will not be a homewrecker. She manages to steal the keys to a Tesla and tells Beth to take care of it.
For being the one who got them so deep in this mess in the first place, Beth is very prim about not stealing a car. But Annie won’t budge, saying if she’d been holding the gun they wouldn’t be in this position. The girls give Boomer half the cash in a donut box and say they’ll mail the rest to him whenever he gets out of town. Then Boomer does the best thing he’s ever done and goes to say goodbye his grandmother played again by June Squibb! Unfortunately, he doesn’t follow through on his goodbye tour and we find out he’s booked a reception hall for his wedding to Mary Pat, so he’s not out of the picture yet.
As mentioned Rio shows up at Beth’s son’s swim practice to ask how it went killing Boomer and Beth does the classic over explanation of a lie. It turns out she didn’t even need to because Rio notices none of the bullets have been fired.
He’s expectedly angry and Beth takes out her fear on a stop sign that’s not missing. Later, when she can’t sleep she goes to steal it and place it on her own street in a small act of protection against her family. While she’s out there Rio approaches her and instead of killing her they just make moon eyes for a while before he says he’s going to teach her how to be a gangster basically. It was VERY good television.
The other major revelation this episode is Nancy already finding out that Gregg is cheating and that he’s specifically cheating with Annie. The information couldn’t come at a worse time either with Nancy and Annie finally finding some common ground about being pregnant and worried you won’t know what to do with the baby. Just like the drip he is, Gregg shows up in the midst of their talk brandishing what I’m pretty sure was schnapps for Annie and the cat’s out of the bag.
There will surely be some fall out next week from Annie and Gregg’s betrayal, but I for one am much more excited to see the beginning of Beth’s gangster lessons so long as it requires more screen time with Rio.
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Featured photo credit: Photo by: Justin Lubin/NBC
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Kristin was a military brat growing up but now she lives in Orlando with her husband Will and their dog Egon. She and her best friend Wil (not the husband!) have written a novel together and recently started the podcast “So…I’m Watching This Show” where they discuss movies, TV shows and pop culture in general. Most nights you can find her drinking wine and live tweeting way too many things.