'Good Girls' Season 3 Episode 10 Review: Beth is ready to risk it all but will Ruby be the weakest link?
Spoilers for Season 3 Episode 10 'Opportunity'
After weeks of being the only one with an actual presence of mind among the titular three, it looks like Ruby Hall (Retta) might be the weakest link in their group with Beth Boland's (Christina Hendricks) recklessness getting them almost killed by the very man they are risking it all for — Rio.
Season 3 Episode 10, titled 'Opportunity', sees Beth presented with more than just one, so she hands out the second one to her husband, Dean (Matthew Lillard), while her little sister Annie Marks (Mae Whitman) gets the opportunity to actually fix the life she has been messily navigating.
Ruby, on the other hand, is more of a giver in this episode — probably why it worries us so much about how their masterplan crumbles into pieces through purchase records and church visits of all things, right in front of the police's very own eyes, hungry to lap it up.
When we meet the three ladies, they are at a park, awaiting the hitman to carry out his job.
They talk about their lives and how they want it all to be normal — especially Beth, who craves the normalcy of being a regular mom who takes her kids to playdates and soccer and doesn't have to worry about the impending doom of a scorned past lover breathing down her neck.
It's kind of ironic because later in the episode, the hitman asks Beth how did someone like her gets involved with someone like Rio, and her answer to that is "I was bored."
The same boredom that drove Beth to seek out the thrill and passion of Rio's malicious intent is what has now turned into an in general frustration with the people they have become — robbing banks and salons just to make sure they aren't dead by the dawn.
And by the looks of it, this thrill and excitement aren't working anymore. The same Beth who cheated on Dean is now lying to Rio to get Dean back into business after he quit his job and the fast-food delivery job doesn't seem to work out for him.
So when Rio threatens to stop giving them their allowance, because Beth "doesn't have a system" to turn black money into white, she kills two birds with a stone called hot tub business. Dean gets something he loves back and Beth's get something she desperately needs back too.
One would think Hendricks does her best work as Beth when she is confronting Rio about hating on her idea just because he didn't come up with it, because that subtle layer of panic under a mask of smug conviction isn't all that easy. However, then she goes on a hunt with the hitman, after he refuses to finish the task he was paid for.
The hitman's reason is he doesn't do jilted lovers, and all it takes for Beth to convince him is to accompany him in the assignment and tell him to kill Rio, in as many words, while tailing his car through a telescope. Beth calls the shots and it's set up, obviously.
The hitman was testing her to see if she is "ready" and puts her back on schedule. And while this might be an actual time to celebrate, as opposed to Beth's little dance and twirl earlier in the episode, when she thought Rio had been killed, our worries land elsewhere.
Ruby's daughter Sarah decides to invite the people over whose daughter's kidney is now functioning inside her.
It's uncomfortable as it is for the Hills to have dinner with people whose daughter's grace they practically danced on, as Stan (Reno Wilson) puts it so crudely, but things get a whole other level of sad when the couple starts talking about their lifestyle and the massive financial crisis they are enduring.
They neither have jobs or a car nor can they afford to fly. Ruby's son's bed is a dream sleep for them and all of it is tragic enough to push Ruby to feel a pang of innate guilt — which also forces her to think she owes them more than just a dinner.
Things get slightly amusing and quite outrageous when the next morning, the wife straight-up asks Ruby for a car.
She takes one look at the elaborate breakfast set up and even though Ruby insists they are working three jobs and maxing out cards to afford a healthy lifestyle for their family, the wife uses the "daughter sleeping safely in her bed" trap to force an actual car out of Ruby. And this is where things get bad.
The police who have been following the whiff of nail pain varnish so far, now set their eyes on the massive church even "Sister Ruby" attended recently, where she gave out heaps for the society.
They start following her purchases, and the latest red line on Ruby's splurges, sadly, is a car they buy with straight hard cash. This urge to be good people really brings Ruby to a crossroads where she would have much rather robbed a bank or kicked the poor couple out than buy them a whole car.
But unfortunately, it's time to set an example for Sarah who is out to cleanse her soul, and in turn, drags her mother down right under the police's nose. In all of this, the dinner, however, comes as a respite, with the sad couple talking about one tragedy after the other, and Stan just being unable to contain the awkwardness inside.
Wilson reminds us once again why nobody could have done the newly lapsed amoral father of two better, and speaking about fathers, even Dean isn't a total cheapskate in this episode.
The only one who continues to spiral is Annie as she tries to get out of the test one way or another. It almost makes one feel sorry for her son, Ben, and some major second-hand embarrassment every time Annie is present alongside Dr Cohen.
But at least there's hope that that aspect of Annie's desperation will finally be tamed now that he has told her, explicitly, that he proposed to his girlfriend a few months back.
And while that comes as news worth rejoicing, one can't just shrug off the idea of Ruby — with all her moral quest for being good — will be the first one to drag the trio down.
'Good Girls' Season 3 airs on Sundays at 10 pm only on NBC.