Mistresses - Unreliable Witness - Review + Season 3 Catch-Up

3.09 - "UNRELIABLE WITNESS"

Directed by Eric Laneuville
Written by Jenna Richman
Reviewed by Gavin Hetherington

Feeling under the weather, Karen heads to the doctor and is stunned when she gets the results. April and Blair move their relationship forward, even though Lucy admits that she's not fond of him. Marc continues to struggle with his old demons, but Harry is there to help him get back on track. Joss scrambles for evidence against Calista and when Calista twists the story to her benefit, the future looks very grim for Joss.

SEASON GUIDE

Click on a title to be taken to the review for that episode. Small reviews of episodes 4-8 are included in my review of episode 9.

• 
  
  Season 2 Episode Guide
  2.01 - "Rebuild" (June 2, 2014)
  2.02 - "Boundaries" (June 9, 2014)
  2.03 - "Open House" (June 16, 2014)
  2.04 - "Friends With Benefits" (June 23, 2014)
  2.05 - "Playing With Fire" (June 30, 2014)
  2.06 - "What Do You Really Want" (July 7, 2014)
  2.07 - "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?" (July 14, 2014)
  2.08 - "An Affair to Surrender" (July 21, 2014)
  2.09 - "Coming Clean" (August 4, 2014)
  2.10 - "Charades" (August 11, 2014)
  2.11 - "Choices" (August 18, 2014)
  2.12 - "Surprise" (August 25, 2014)
  2.13 - "'Til Death Do Us Apart" (September 1, 2014)

• 
  
  Season 3 Episode Guide
  3.01 - "Gone Girl" (June 18, 2015)
  3.02 - "I'll Be Watching You" (June 18, 2015)
  3.03 - "Odd Couples" (June 25, 2015)
  3.04 - "Into the Woods" (July 2, 2015)
  3.05 - "Threesomes" (July 9, 2015)
  3.06 - "Love Is an Open Door" (July 16, 2015)
  3.07 - "The Best Laid Plans" (July 23, 2015)
  3.08 - "Murder She Wrote" (July 30, 2015)
  3.09 - "Unreliable Witness" (August 6, 2015)
  3.10 - "What Could Have Been" (August 13, 2015)
  3.11 - "Guilt By Association" (August 20, 2015)
  3.12 - "Reasonable Doubt" (August 27, 2015)
  3.13 - "Goodbye Girl" (September 3, 2015)

SEASON 3 CATCH-UP

I apologise for being absent for episodes 4-8 of season 3. I was volunteering in Cambodia for three weeks so I was unavailable to write the reviews and there was nobody that could fill in. I've caught up with the episodes I missed so here are my short opinions on the five I couldn't review.

3.04 - "Into the Woods"
This was a good episode even though I wasn't the biggest fan of the episode before it. I didn't care much for Calista's story with Luca, but it was good for her character to see. Blair seems interesting for April and the storyline with Joss and Harry was interesting. The best parts were with Karen and Vivien. I was very taken back by their scenes and how natural it seemed to progress. Then the ending just floored me with Vivien asking Karen to stay. Shock horror!

3.05 - "Threesomes"
Another really enjoyable episode. I am beginning to resent the Joss/Harry dynamic with all their fighting, but I was still surprised by their break-up at the end. All I could think of was Joss's relationship with her sister and how it's ruined because of the pairing. Karen's story moved along very nicely, as bizarre as the situation is, but I really like it. April and Blair had fun, and Calista is a very silly girl for giving in to Luca. Girl needs to learn!

3.06 - "Love Is an Open Door"
I am seriously loving Karen's storyline at the minute. I like how insecure she was in the relationship and how lovely Vivien and Alec were to her. Strange but I love the chemistry in this 3-way relationship. April was sorely under-used, again, but Blair is seeming more of a douche. Glad Lucy has stopped giving April so much grief. Calista had an awesome episode too! I felt sorry for her that Luca screwed her over but she got her own back. She's growing on me.

3.07 - "The Best Laid Plans"
Wow. Mistresses just turned it up! Granted, the best thing happened at the end but it was a very good episode overall. I enjoyed April having her mother around, that's something I hope they explore later on. Karen and Alec's predicament with Vivien being away was interesting, but boy Joss and Calista! I liked how they set Luca up and he took the bait. I was expecting a different outcome, like Luca going too far, but ending up dead? I'm floored (like Luca).

3.08 - "Murder She Wrote"
Holy Jesus. Okay, I wasn't sure how the fallout was going to go after the Luca dead thing, but it's going in a direction I totally love. Calista is such a complex character and she is so good at manipulating people, I actually don't know what to believe with her. She is pretty remarkable. Poor Joss, but this was the storyline she needed. Poor Karen too, I knew the 3-way wouldn't last long, and Blair is starting to freak me out a little now too. He's acting a little psychotic.

'UNRELIABLE WITNESS' REVIEW

You never fail to impress me so far Mistresses. For the last several episodes, the scorching drama of this show has been heating up to a great level and apparently there's no slowing down. We had more development in Luca's murder investigation that, shock, ended up in Joss's arrest! Karen deals with her post-break-up with Vivien and Alec, and April's relationship with the shady Blair also kicks it up a gear. There were great things and not-so-great things about this episode, but for the very big majority, this was a thrilling watch and one that is surprisingly putting season three above season two. I honestly thought this show would suck without Alyssa Milano, but this season so far has injected some must-see drama into it. Thanks for proving me wrong!

I have to talk about the best parts of this episode first, and those were the scenes involving Joss, Calista and the murder investigation. It's so interesting to watch Joss in this kind of situation as she makes it feel so real - her thoughts, her feelings - so much so that I genuinely worry whether or not she is going to get out of this one. The evidence does not point in her favour and Calista has come out as a master manipulator. Having said that, I think I do love Calista. As bad as she is being right now with lying to the police and letting Joss take the fall, she is actually a very complex character and it's entertaining to watch this multi-dimentional person shake things up with our three other leading ladies. She's so bad, she's good. And as psychotic as Calista is acting, I really don't think she was the one who murdered Luca. I think it was either Calista's assistant Wilson or Luca's model mistress from a couple of episodes before.

So Joss is in a very bad predicament, but on the plus side, at least her lawyer is pretty cute, right? David Hudson. He also seems like he knows what he's doing while being a little clueless sometimes, allowing us to feel a little secure that Joss has a lawyer that has her back but worried that he won't be able to save her. The scenes with Joss and Calista have been wonderful this season but I especially loved the back-and-forth between them. Joss hates Calista now and thinks she's psychotic, while Calista initially thought Joss was her friend but realised she was wrong when she finds out Joss has been digging into her past. That's also suspicious that Calista's ex-mother-in-law thinks she killed her son. One husband's death is unfortunate but two is a pattern.

Quick discussion as well, but Joss telling Karen she hates Savi was interesting. Joss hurt Savi when she slept with Harry, and I love Savi but I think what Savi has done was maybe too extreme. Here Joss is in this awful situation and her sister isn't there for her. But I have mixed feelings about this because Savi has a right to be upset with Joss on a huge, huge scale but also I love Joss and she needs her sister more than ever. It would be nice if Savi could realise what she's doing by avoiding the situation is only making things worse rather than helping. I wish she would come back to sort things out, but I know that's impossible for Alyssa Milano. Savi would save her right now.

Karen's scene with Calista too was amazing. I was really rooting for Karen to give Calista a good beat down, but having her scold Calista and tell her to stay away from Joss was still great to watch. Karen is the ideal friend and person who always seems to have one obstacle after the other but still goes out of her way to attend to others. I felt bad for her that she was kicked out of her three-way relationship with Alec and Vivien, but Karen was also right - where was it going to go really? I was really interested to see how far it could go, but I guess having Karen be pregnant is one way of keeping her in this bizarre relationship. I'd love to be friends with Karen on Facebook just to see what she'd put as her relationship status. I kind of knew she would be pregnant as soon as she was talking about anxiety attacks at the police station.

I love how shifty Blair is and how that's making April more interesting in this late half of season 3. She's clueless to it right now, and I was hoping Lucy would have been more forthcoming with her feelings about him, but she downplayed it so April has no idea how weird Blair really is. And what is Blair's deal, too? Is he just a control freak? I'd love to know the deal about his late ex-wife. I hope this Blair storyline will bring juicier and more exciting things for April. She needs something to bite her teeth into. I want her to get with Marc if I'm honest. And poor Marc. 3 years sober and Harry ruined it for him. It wasn't Harry's fault as he didn't know his barman was a recovering alcoholic, but still. I hope this relapse doesn't go too far for him and that he is on the upward swing because he needs to show April how good a man he is, and how good he would be with her.

EPISODE VERDICT

This was an awesome episode of Mistresses. All my worries that season three wouldn't be that good without Alyssa have been vanquished (get it?). I am loving this storyline for Joss who really needed this to get her back to being a truly interesting character instead of constantly bickering with Harry. April is improving with her storyline with Blair, though that was underplayed in this episode. Karen's pregnancy - I'm not sure how I truly feel about this but it will mean more time with Vivien and Alec and I loved their dynamic together. Joss being arrested at the end was the perfect way to keep me on the edge and I am very excited to see the outcome of this bad-ass storyline.

Best Character: Joss.
Most Interesting Character: Calista.
Best Moment: Joss's arrest.
Best Line: "You came to my house." - Calista. "Don't make me do it again." - Karen.
Best Pairing: Joss and Karen.
Shadiest Moment: Calista telling the detective Joss said she would kill for her.

Did you guys enjoy 'Unreliable Witness'? Let me know your thoughts in the comments and be sure to watch the next new episode of Mistresses, August 13th on ABC!

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.

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