'Filthy Rich' Episode 2 Review: Margaret manipulates Ginger's mother into getting her daughter baptized on show
Spoilers for Fox's 'Filthy Rich' Episode 1 - 'John 3:3'
The second episode of Fox's new drama series delves into religion and a tad bit of manipulation as Margaret Monreaux's (Kim Cattrall) secret-spilling press conference (last week) to upstage one of her late husband's illegitimate children leads to an absolute disaster for the ministry's network. Margaret, the CEO of Monreaux Unlimited, is now responsible for making sure the network launch for Sunny Club goes smoothly. The club offers quality products for the subscribers, and 20% of the club is given "back to the faith."
Last week, Ginger Sweet (Melia Kreiling) wanted to tell the world that the late Eugene Monreaux (Gerald McRaney) had fathered three illegitimate children -- her, Antonio Rivera (Benjamin Levy Aguilar), and Jason Conley (Mark L Young). Instead, Margaret held a press conference spilling the beans and telling the network fans that these kids are now her own family. With that, the subscriber count for Sunny Club began to take a hefty hit, and Margaret was on a path to losing her vendors. This episode not only gave us a bit more of a background of the three children and their own families but also gave us more insight into how Margaret uses the guise of religious faith for manipulation.
Margaret calls for a meeting with all her children, but only Ginger, Antonio, and her actual daughter Rose (Aubrey Dollar) show up. In this meeting, she reveals that each child will receive an allowance of $10,000 every week instead of the 1% that Eugene had mentioned in his will. That, Margaret, told Ginger, will only be able to be cashed out once Margaret is dead. Ginger being the stubborn person she is, and rightly so when it comes to the Monreaux family who had to play her, decides that she will build her online soft porn brand on the back of her Monreaux family's scandal. Sadly for Rose, she was given the job of going to find Jason in Colorado. Upon her arrival though, she finds out that the Jason that had shown up to New Orleans last week was not Jason at all, but his brother Mark. Jason in fact was in a coma and his adoptive mother had asked Mark to lie to the Monreaux's so they could help themselves when it came to medical bills. If you recall, there was some romance brewing between Mark and Rose, so now that's not her brother, Rose seems to have cozied up to Mark, deciding to take him back to her mother as Jason.
On the rich family front, Margaret uses the help of Reverend Paul Luke Thomas (Aaron Lazar), the brother of her daughter-in-law Becky Monreaux (Olivia Macklin) to bring the subscribers count to 8 million for Sunny Club. Using Ginger's feisty attitude to her advantage, Margaret manipulates Ginger's mother who then convinces Ginger to get baptized on the show. Of course, Ginger uses this to get eyes on her brand, and after she's dipped into water, her wet white clothes not only reveal her naked body but also her website saintwagon.com, which is printed on her shirt. This of course was not the plan, but Reverend Paul was aware that whether the baptism went smoothly or not, the subscriber count would go up and so it did. He just wanted one thing in return, Eric Monreaux (Corey Cott), his sister's husband, be given a position of power in the company and so that's how Eric has now come to lead the missions for the ministry.
Interestingly enough, the premiere had already revealed that Eugene was alive and healing with a woman that had saved him right there in Louisiana. Thinking God spared him from hell, the woman that saved and nursed him convinced him to shed his season through baptism. Then off he went, with a stick, on his way home to his family.
While this episode seemed a lot slower, we did find out that Antonio lives with a mother who is into something shady, Ginger's mother doesn't support her daughter's antics and Jason isn't Jason, but Mark. We feel that this episode built a foundation on which Luke Taylor (Cranston Johnson), a journalist, can investigate who it was that wanted Eugene dead. The situation was "muddy like a perfectly inspected private jet just catches fire and falls out of the sky." The characters were definitely explored in this episode, showing the audience that the Monreaux family doesn't shy away from using religious belief in their selfish favor.
'Filthy Rich' Episode 3 airs Monday, October 5, 2020, from 9:00-10:00 pm ET on Fox.