'Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story' Episode 4 Preview: Dan is the 'man of the house', so will Betty leave?
Spoilers for 'Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story'
Episode 3 titled 'Marriage Encounter' saw the first official crack in Dan (Christian Slater) and Betty (Amanda Peet) Broderick's marriage. After attending one marriage council session at church even though Dan didn't believe in the faith, another woman was introduced to this already shaky relationship. So far, we have seen how the duo had made it from the ground up, now they attend galas and "lunch at the club."
While Betty likes to remember the hard times so she could be grateful for what she had in the present, Dan's hesitant nature to even acknowledge it happened was heavily introduced in the last episode. In the upcoming episode, we speculate that we'll learn more about Dan's new assistant Linda Kolkena (Rachel Keller), and if Betty's paranoia of Dan possibly being unfaithful is valid.
While we know from the true story that there was infidelity in the marriage, we would expect the next episode to dive into that narrative. The last episode did not confirm an affair but it did foreshadow one with Dan hiring Linda because "she's beautiful". Linda appears to have no skills that would help her be Dan's assistant prompting a slight rage inside Betty. This was the first time we had seen Betty's rebuttal when Dan patronizes her and now since that episode ended with Dan as dominant, we wonder what's next for Betty?
We are still shown flashbacks of the couple when their marriage was young, so we speculate we will see more scenes that cement the dynamics of the characters in the present. Since there is another woman now involved, we think that Betty's "crazy" might start to show. Or will she passively agree to Dan's wants? Now, the series has started to show us events closer to when Dan had filed for divorce, we have seen how Dan and his lawyer buddies had helped their friend Martin out of his divorce in the past. Now, we know where his ideas to trap betty had come from.
All those smart husbands, all ready to set their wives up for the worst, should they go through a divorce. It was an interesting scene, as Dan later began to withdraw from his marriage, Betty had a breakdown remembering the old days that although hard, Dan was at least affectionate. Back then, "you at least kissed me, touched my hair, now you don't even look at me. I'm scared, I don't feel like I'm worth anything. I'm anticipating something terrible happening."
After Betty had asked Dan to ger rid of Linda along with a deadline, we saw his real demeanor — something he's now not afraid to show. His dominance over his wife's entire life was made clear as he had told her "I pay for your life. So, if anyone is going to be getting out, it's you" — He had said responding to Betty's threat of throwing him out of the home.
We are hoping the next episode will take us more closer to the events that led up to the divorce and the heat that had built up before Betty had murdered her husband and his second wife (as the present scenes from her murder trial showed), Linda. While we're sure the next episode will take us back and forth through this intense story, we're speculating we may get more scenes from Betty's murder trial. Will she testify next?
We're about to dive into the crux of the Broderick marriage and find out where the hate had started to foster — the hate that had led to a double murder. The part of the marriage that was good seems to have been over when Dan started to have a wandering eye because of his newly attained privilege. Betty has nothing without Dan, she herself has expressed it, so where will she go if she leaves? If she doesn't leave, will Dan ever take her threats seriously? We'll find out.
'Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story' airs Tuesdays on the USA Network at 10 pm ET.
