“Good Girls” hits it out of the park in a completely new and fresh way! The girls are at odds in this episode which was tough to watch but the show handled it super realistically and it all came to a head in the best possible ways. We also got little versions of all three of the girls which were super fun.
Episode Synopsis:
Beth (Christina Hendricks) and Ruby’s (Retta) friendship fractures just as Dean’s (Matthew Lillard) vendetta against Rio (Manny Montana) compromises the women’s business dealings. Meanwhile, Nancy, on the verge of giving birth, needs Annie’s (Mae Whitman) help.
We start off with a little Ruby hanging out on her front porch when little Annie and Beth come careening through the streets in their mom’s car on the way to the grocery store. When they crash into a bunch of garbage cans Ruby introduces herself and insists on driving them the rest of the way and a lifelong friendship is born.
Luckily this friendship has lasted in the best way because when we return to the present day Ruby is coming clean to Beth about stealing her “book club” calendar. Beth is naturally furious and spends most of the rest of the episode only speaking to each other through Annie. It’s horrible to watch because on the one hand Beth is the only one would could serve legit jail time, but if Beth doesn’t go to jail then Agent Turner is going to send Ruby and Stan. Either way it was great that Ruby admitted everything to Beth so quickly.
While all this is going on, Annie is getting closer to the new manager Noah which is both adorable and extremely concerning since Annie doesn’t catch breaks like this too often. She seems to understand that too because she makes up a ton of stories about her life and what she’s been doing to impress Noah. And while they’re so over the top that I assumed he was in on the joke, by the end of the episode it looks like he was potentially believing at least some of them which makes me question his intelligence.
Stan finally takes his lie detector test and he tells Ruby he failed completely. In the first place, I doubt it and in the second place as a true crime fan I know that lie detectors are extremely questionable at this point. In any case I have a big feeling that Agent Turner is going to wind up like the DEA agent on Weeds who gets extremely murdered when he won’t leave the gang activity alone.
From there we check in with Dean who has called up the krav maga instructor’s “friends” to kill Rio. They turn out to be a couple of idiot stoners in their early twenties. Apparently Dean tells them where he lives as well because when Beth gets home that evening Dean is tied up and literally all the money has been dug up and stolen from the back yard! He is literally the most useless person on this show but he gets SUPER butthurt about Beth checking on the money before checking on him which is just hilariously out of touch.
When Beth tells Rio about the money being gone he first laughs at her for a solid minute before telling her he’ll take care of it. She doesn’t want the boys to get killed because they’re just kids. Rio obviously disagrees, but lets her take the lead for the time being. As you can imagine it goes poorly and Beth doesn’t get her money back and even better it turns out that Dean got recorded asking the boys to kill Rio which is just exactly what you’d expect to happen.
The last big plot of the episode surprisingly belongs to Nancy who has gone into labor and doesn’t have anyone with her. Sadie calls Annie in a panic and Annie shows up with Noah because despite her bad decisions she is a great person. She sends Noah and Sadie away and even though Nancy hates her she stays with her in the gross tub of questionable liquid while Nancy gives birth. It’s a lovely scene and hopefully a little bit of a button on their strained relationship.
The best part of the episode comes next though. Annie gets home after the birth and tells Sadie “it’s a boy” to which Sadie says “so am I.” The joyful face journey Annie goes on is some of the best acting I’ve ever seen from Mae Whitman and you can tell so much from it. You know that she’s known about Sadie for a while but was just waiting for them to tell her. You know that she’s so happy Sadie finally felt comfortable telling her and you know that Sadie feels so much better after telling Annie. It’s a great scene and pretty revolutionary on a network TV show and I can’t wait to see how it’s dealt with going forward.
Before we’re totally done with the episode Beth and Ruby do end up making up thankfully because having them at odds is uncomfortable. The girls also manage to get Agent Turner off their backs for the time being by setting up the two dudes Dean hired to take the fall for some of their crimes. But the final moments of the episode show Beth getting home to find that Dean has taken the kids and left her which is fucking rich. The girls are all together again at the end of the episode and unbeknownst to them Noah is TOTALLY WORKING WITH AGENT TURNER!
The next episode is sure to deal with both these fallouts pretty quickly and I honestly can’t wait. Now that the girls are a united front again I think it’ll be interesting to see if they’re able to avoid persecution more easily. I’m sure Noah will throw a wrench in that, but at the same time, he might actually fall for Annie so honestly who knows. All I know is this remains one of the best shows on TV right now and I’m always excited for the next episode.
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Featured photo credit: Greg Gayne/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.