3.01 - "AWAKENINGS"
Directed by David Warren
Written by Marc Cherry and Brian Tanen
Reviewed by Gavin Hetherington
Beware: Some spoilers ahead (but nothing major)!
PREMIERE PREVIEW
SO WHO GOT SHOT?
I'm not actually going to answer that question, sorry! However, the episode begins at the end of season two - when everyone leaves the church after Rosie's and Spence's wedding and Carmen sees Ty putting on the balaclava and raising the gun from inside the car. Carmen tries to warn everyone but she's too late ... THREE people are shot and one of them dies. It's quite a blur when this happens as the action is muted but there's music over the top of it, making it seem pretty surreal. One of the casualties is in a coma for four months - so we have a four-month time jump from the season two finale. The cliffhanger is actually quickly wrapped up and the shooting and aftermath lasts about 3 and a half minutes.
There is actually some pent-up tension between Marisol, Carmen and Zoila. Marisol has had her book (a tell-all about her time as a maid) become quite successful so she hasn't been able to make time for the other girls. She's now really good friends with Evelyn who has a very Evelyn-like reaction to her being the bitch boss in the book. It seems like Marisol is torn between two worlds now. I felt that ever since she stopped being a maid and transitioned into season two, she hadn't really found her place yet. Now she's floating between her "maid" friends and the elite of Beverly Hills. Carmen is in a difficult place herself, screwing a married man who was introduced at the end of season two in the glorious form of Giles Marini as Sebastian. Zoila, now four-months pregnant, realises she can't really hide it much longer and she has no idea who the father is. In typical
Devious Maids fashion, there is some funny predicaments in order to find out if Javier or Pablo are the father. Rosie finds out about one of Spence's secrets about how he has been getting money and she isn't very happy about it.
Valentina has been kept off the
Devious Maids promos and posters, but as revealed in a promotional image that was released (left), she is very much alive so I have not ruined that for anyone (I hope). The actress has been demoted to recurring and you can kind of tell in this episode. Remi is a little obsessed with protecting Valentina after the wedding incident but it starts to cause a huge strain on their relationship. In other Evelyn news, because she is the best character obviously, she and Adrian are having problems in the bedroom and Evelyn tries to do some creative things to help the situation. The scene with the... creativity... was one of the funniest scenes in
Devious Maids. Let's just say it involves German. That's not all though, because the hilarity continues a little later that requires both Evelyn and Adrian to be excused.
And the thing that a lot of people have been looking forward to - the arrival of Naya Rivera as Blanca. Blanca is the polar opposite of the flame-tongued Santana in
Glee, so Naya is trying something different with this character. Naya does a fantastic job in the premiere actually and she feels like a very likeable character already. Marisol hooks up her up with a maid job which ties into the return of Taylor and Michael. If you guys remember, Taylor returned as a guest for an episode in season two and told Marisol she and Michael were looking to adopt. Well they got a little girl, and apparently they didn't just adopt her, they adopted a secret. And let me just say, the little girl is really creepy. A lot of shows I have been watching lately have incorporated a creepy-ass child into the mix (for example
Salem), they are literally the new craze. Move over superheroes and zombies, it's the dawn of the demon-spawn. The scene in the trailer for season three, where Blanca walks into the room with the blood everywhere - that happens, and the severed limb in Evelyn's garden? That happens, kick-starting a new season promising dark and dangerous secrets.
PREMIERE WRAP-UP
Devious Maids, as it has done in the past, started off in quite a spectacular way for the premiere. A season-long mystery has now been introduced and I feel so lost about what's happened already so tuning into the second episode is a must. For the most part, this premiere felt like a regular episode. The wedding cliffhanger was resolved before the
Devious Maids title card, then the characters were explored a little as we find out what they've been doing for four months.
The premiere probably wouldn't have been as good if it didn't end in another cliffhanger where there is potential that a character we know is dead. Yes, the episode had some very funny moments and boy was I glad to have this show back in my life, but it wasn't a truly out-there premiere. I don't know, maybe I was expecting something more... juicy? Scandalous? 'Awakenings' ticked all the right boxes, that's for sure, but it still felt a little scaled down to what it could have potentially been.
Fortunately you do find out who lives and dies from the shooting and you do find out who the father of Zoila's baby is. Some storylines are wrapped or expanded on while more are opened. It's all very exciting in hindsight and the premiere was very good, great in fact, but not as amazing as I was hoping it would be. However, the characters we know and love are back and, judging from what I've seen so far, it promises to be another exciting season of
Devious Maids.
Now enjoy some dialogue teasers:
"You're alive!"
"Now I understand why you got a little..." "What?" "Fat!"
"I don't mean to sound rude but don't we have perfectly good orphans here in the States?"
"Oh come on, everyone's talking about it."
"Then you're just gonna have to get creative, now go!"
"I'm sorry I didn't make you proud."
"You'll break his heart if you tell him the truth."
"At the church when the shooting started, I didn't protect you."
"Don't date a man with an accent sexier than yours."
"I did not see that coming."
"Well if they weren't stupid, they wouldn't be maids."
"I had sex with another woman's erection?"
Got any questions about the season three premiere of Devious Maids? Love the show as much as I do? Let me know in the comments and be sure to watch the season three premiere on June 1st on Lifetime!
About the Author - Gavin Hetherington
Award-winning author of 'Abyssal Sanctuary: Remnants of the Damned'. Gavin joined SpoilerTV in August 2014 and reviews 2 Broke Girls, Mistresses, Orange is the New Black, Pretty Little Liars, Salem, Scream Queens and Sleepy Hollow. Gavin will write previews for Devious Maids and Shadowhunters, and backs-up Empire, The Flash, iZombie, Once Upon a Time, Reign, Scandal and Supergirl. You can contact him at gavin@spoilertv.com.
