'Filthy Rich' Episode 3 Review: Ginger is publicly humiliated on 'Wings of a Dove', making it a disturbing watch
Spoilers for 'Filthy Rich' Episode 3 'Pslam 25:3'
In this episode, we see Ginger Sweet (Melia Kreiling) take up an invitation by Margaret Monreaux (Kim Cattrall) to appear on her show titled 'Wings of a Dove'. If you recall, the last episode saw Ginger "make a mockery" of the sacrament of baptism after she turned it into a wet t-shirt contest promoting her "porn site". All this happened on Reverend Paul Luke Thomas (Aaron Lazar), show which resulted in Sunny Club (the network's online shopping division) subscriptions to get to 8M, which is exactly what the vendors needed. In this episode, we see Margaret's jealousy of the Reverend get to her as she invites Ginger to her show 'Wings of a Dove' where a conversation — or as Rose Monreaux (Aubrey Dollar) puts it — a "catfight" not only publicly humiliates Ginger but also brings up sensitive topics such as prostitution and feminism with a bit more than a sprinkle of religion.
Wanting to have an honest conversation to obviously boost up Sunny Club subscriptions, Margaret ends up hurting Ginger, we don't know how much of it was planned of course. "You turned out holy sacrament into a wet T-shirt contest," Margaret tells Ginger, further asking "so every prostitute is a feminist?" when Ginger claims that she can do what she wants with her body. "Please don't infer that I am a prostitute, not that there is anything wrong with that," Ginger replied bringing up the fact that sacred prostitute has been there "since the beginning of time" and cited Aphrodite as an example. "People understood that bodies are to be celebrated," Ginger said, and brings up Psalm 25:3 that states "no one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, but shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause".
She further explained that the man that comes to them and her "cyber bimbos" are "desperate for connection" and the girls "honor their trust". "We provide what they are clearly not getting at home," said Ginger provoking Margaret even further. Margaret retaliates, calmly, saying that providing for men includes more than taking off your clothes but all that did was encourage Ginger to bring up the fact that if Maragarts had provided for her husband Eugene Monreaux (Gerald McRaney), he wouldn't have "stepped out" with Ginger's mother in Vegas. "Eugene loved her. He came to her for salvation, and she gave him what you couldn't," Ginger tells Margaret. Although Margaret lashes out in her mind screaming, "AFTER EVERY AFFAIR EUGENE CAME HOME TO ME!", in real life, she remains stone-faced as she cuts to break.
This episode had the duo at the center bringing up many controversial topics — both on the series and outside of it. The theme of religion is a tricky one. The series has an entire family that publicly "serves the lord" while internally using manipulation to bring up the subscriber count — even at the cost of family. The aspect of religion is what makes this series a tad bit different from other dramedies. It was an interesting episode to say the least, as we further understood how Margaret works. After Ginger was drenched in red liquid thrown by a supporter of the Sunny community calling her names such as "slut" and "whore", Margaret used it to her advantage to not only expose Jason Conley (Mark L Young), whose real name is Mark, but also yet again, boost ratings. "We build a bridge of forgiveness, we don't mock or tempt. We will win Ginger Sweet back to Christ," she said.
Other interesting aspects of the show included the fact that Eugene, who is fully alive, watches the drama unfold on TV. Big investors such as the governor and MMA star Don Bouchard (Kenny Alfonso) are involved in some shady business with the Reverend, including sending Ginger a "message" that was a picture of her mother and a bullet. Even worse, it seems they are trapping Eric Montreaux (Corey Cott) in all their mess, keeping him away from his family. Although we have to say our favorite part was the fact that Ginger finds out that all these men that are powerful are also a customer on her website and asks her girls to record them when they sign in next. We can only imagine the "travesty" that would cause since one of those men is Eric, Margaret's son himself.
Episode 4 airs on Monday, October 12, from 9-10 pm ET on FOX.