'Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story' Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Shots are fired but is Betty really guilty?
Spoilers for 'Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story' Season 2 Episode 7 'The Shillelagh'
And now it's done. Concluded in a bloody mess that has forever left its mark on Betty. In the hard-hitting penultimate episode of the USA Network series, Betty Broderick (Amanda Peet) finally fires the shots that kill Dan (Christian Slater) and Linda Kolkena (Rachel Keller) in the dead of the night in their own home.
A surreal sequence highlights the chaos in her mind just before the murders. At this point, all love between Dan and her has been lost — he has made abundantly clear of that. All that is left are remnants of a life spent together only to have come all this way and parted away. Over the course of this divorce, Betty has lost a lot more than she can account for and every day is a sore reminder of how her seemingly happy married life was turned upside down because of "that wh**e".
Her husband, her house and her kids, all seem to have vanished from her life — suddenly yet painfully slowly. For years, Dan had placed Betty's life in the stagnant grips of their divorce so much so that she could barely move around without feeling the hold become more intense. As Betty finds herself deeper and deeper in this mess without any prospect of a better future, Linda and Dan plan theirs. They go around telling anyone and everyone with ears — particularly Linda as she always has done — about their honeymoon, their plans for their next holidays and children.
If you were under the impression that Linda was just a bimbo who happened to fall in love with a married man, it's not entirely true. For most part of 'Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story', Linda refrains from coming in Dan's way. She knows that he can handle his ex-wife all by himself. So even though the abusive voicemails get to her, she lets her boyfriend handle them. But it doesn't stop her from mocking Betty in the company of her friends.
Here's an interesting thing about Linda. Played by Keller with ease, Linda is pretty much the young butterfly chirping around Dan. It is in the way she talks around him and the energy between them. You could say that Dan's main motive to leave Betty was to leave behind his troublesome past — that period of time in his life when all he did was struggle and scramble for money in between ambitions.
Betty reminded him of a time that he very much wished to forget. Linda, on the other hand, showed to him everything he could be if he left Betty. For hundreds of feminists watching Betty's story today, 'Dirty John' is triggering. Imagine having four kids, miscarriages, dealing with the death of a baby boy, overcoming poverty, sacrificing sleep, health and dreams for those of your husband only to have him leave you for a younger woman?
Because you remind him of a time that he wishes to forget. And all of that is snatched away by the same person you built it with. That is a nightmare for women today. And a harsh reminder that no one deserves a Dan in their lives. Even today, if someone says Betty was delirious, remind them that it was Dan who drove her down that road.
'Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story' airs on Wednesdays at 10 pm on USA Network.