Things get even more “Batshit” crazy on “Claws” this week as Desna deals with problems past and present.
The cliffhanger from last week – Bryce kidnapping Dr. Ken because he thought he was Roller’s killer – is resolved rather quickly as Jenn figures out where they are and Desna manages to talk Bryce down from shooting him. Unfortunately, Desna and Virginia’s cover-up hits another snag when eyewitness accounts of the fight they had in the pilot/the day Roller died make their way to Uncle Daddy’s ears. Virginia spins another lie about Roller having problems with his drug dealer, but it’s clear that Uncle Daddy and his wife (and sidebar – character actress Dale Dickey is a hoot in this sequence, and I need more, much more, of her and Jenn scrapping) are mighty suspicious of “those skanks.” Meanwhile, to Jenn’s dismay, even promises of regular anal sex and fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches can’t sway Bryce from the dark path he’s heading down with Uncle Daddy, and she’s furious when he lets Uncle Daddy accuse her best friend of the murder.
Unbelievably, Desna has even bigger fish to fry than covering up a murder from a mafia boss. We saw Dean melt down last week when he spotted a magazine ad featuring their abusive former foster parents, who appear to be Florida real estate moguls. And he’s still spiraling this week, climbing up on a billboard to deface their picture and eventually getting it into his head that he needs to confront them in person. And even though everything on this show is larger than life, it’s still shocking how outlandishly evil Keith and Sandy Coombs are when they are reunited with “Butterball Desna” and “Ricky Retard-o,” how smoothly they slide from sugary sweetness when they think they’re prospective clients to remorselessly recalling how they mistreated them. Somehow, it gets even worse, when Dean breaks down and tells a horrified Desna that the Coombs sexually abused him, and forced him to keep quiet by threatening to do the same to her. It’s a sickening revelation and Niecy Nash plays the hell out of Desna’s devastation.
So, like a boss, Desna decides to kill two birds with one stone by framing the Coombs as Roller’s drug dealers/killers. She manages to get Virginia on board, and she in turn has the perfect accomplice in mind – Polly. This comes after an amazing scene where Virginia comes home and finds Polly waiting for her with freshly baked cupcakes, a big-ass butcher knife, and threats to “cut a bitch” if her shadiness comes back on Desna. Once Polly knows the whole story, she’s all in to help and this leads to another awesome sequence where she’s slinking her way through the Coombs’ house in a hilarious getup to plant incriminating evidence like drugs and Roller’s cash. Desna then places an anonymous call to the cops, breathing a sigh of relief that all her problems will be solved.
There’s a sliver of a subplot with Quiet Ann flirting with a female police officer, which I hope means she’ll be getting more to do story-wise soon. More importantly, Mandy the realtor finds another salon for Desna to purchase, but the girls are disappointed that it’s not much of a step-up from their current situation. So, when Mandy later reveals that the fancier place from the pilot is back on the market, Desna decides to shoot for the stars, even if it’ll be a harder road.
The girls celebrate this good news with a super-fun dance montage set to “Lady Marmalade.” But as the episode ends, they get the news that, instead of the Coombs being arrested, they were executed by the Dixie Mafia. Jenn bursts into tears upon hearing Bryce pulled the trigger and, oh boy, that is quite the ticking time bomb between her and Desna. And finally, we see that – as we all somewhat expected – Roller is alive and well...but is being kept in shackles by some kind of crazy woman. That is so “Claws.”
What “Batshit” plot twist surprised you the most? Sound off about this week’s “Claws” in the comments section.
