Good Girls continues its streak of being highly entertaining with episode five. Annie makes a mistake that is the catalyst for some raw emotion from Beth, Ruby learns that her daughter can pick up on more than she thought, and Dean continues to be a clueless thorn in Beth's side. Let's get to it!
Keep Calm and Con on
The three convene at Ruby's where Beth tells them both about the fed, and Beth wants to postpone their 'shopping trip'. The other two are not down for that because they need the cash and also Rio is not going to wait. While they make plans, a very proud Stan struts in and shows off his fresh police uniform where they all give him props for making it look good. It was in this moment that I got even more sad for Stan because not only is Ruby lying but two other women he seems to care for are also lying to him, I am not sure if I am alone in this but Stan is so sweet and it is going to be heart wrenching when he finds out.
With no options and the clock ticking, the girls decide that the shopping trip will proceed as scheduled even if Agent Turner is putting some heat on them. Beth pulls out her Black Friday shopping map as blueprint of where to go...oh how things have changed for these three in such a short span of time! She tells Ruby and Annie to put red bands on the fake cash and green on the real stuff, simple enough right? With all this in place, it is time to get our shop on!
Beth fills her carts full of high ticket items and goes to the register. I wondered if this was a very smart strategy because she pulls up to the register with piles of small, expensive electronics and a stack of cash. They are not making themselves look very inconspicuous here but I also remind myself that these are the same women who used toy guns to rob a grocery store. They are not seasoned criminals so it is kind of refreshing that the show is leaning into the fact that these women are not good at this yet. Beth sweats her transaction going through because the store has a new fancy bill authenticator instead of the pen Annie assured her doesn't detect the fake stuff. To Beth's relief, it goes through fine and she did it. Ruby's part is to return the goods, and she tries to play it cool by coming up with some story about flipping houses and getting the wrong color tone of appliances, after a quick check from the manager, Ruby also comes away clean. The ladies meet Rio and Beth informs him about the fed to which he doesn't care, he just wants the job done and the money cleaned. I also thought it was funny that Annie was trying to play it cool with Rio and he just wasn't having it. Speaking of Annie, her part in the cleaning goes horribly south with yet another impulse decision.
Annie meets Brian
For Annie's part in the shopping she goes to an electronics store to get some TVs and meets Brian the salesmen (played by The 100's Thomas McDonell), they flirt it up and he is shocked when Annie drops close to twenty grand on televisions. Again, how is this smart? I know I said they are inexperienced and I appreciate they show this but I can't be the only one yelling at the TV like, seriously Annie? At least go to a few stores to spread the fake wealth! Brian also decides to give Annie his number on her receipt with a cute note about him being her personal installer. Later on, Annie is lonely and not doing well without Sadie and texts Brian. They seem to have some fun and Annie wakes up to find him putting on his pants saying he needs water. Really he just needs to make tracks as quickly as possible because Brian is clearly an install it and quit it guy. Annie catches on to this and yells out the door but Brian is long gone. When she goes back in, the receipt with his number is gone, ya know, the receipt Annie needs to get the real cash.
Annie has to tell Ruby and Beth because all efforts to find jerk face Brian has failed and she doesn't know what to do. They go to his store but he is off for the day and Beth improvises to get the deets. She poses as some sort of manager and gets the scum bag's address. The three storm over there and Brian is shocked to see Annie but tries to play it off telling her he threw away the receipt. Just when they are about to lay into him a young women with a baby appears behind him and the reason for the ghosting is all too clear. Beth rushes them away much to the confusion of Annie and Ruby. The girls must dumpster dive in the hopes of finding the receipt.
Beth is really annoyed Annie's impulsiveness has bit them again and Annie thinks she the victim of a bad guy. They get into it and Annie wants to know why she wouldn't let them say anything to Brian's wife, to which Beth painfully says that woman already knows, she may not want to know but she knows. It was really the first time that Beth has shown some of the pain of what Dean did and admitted she knew but just didn't want to accept what he was doing. During all of this, the receipt is found and they avoid disaster once more, but wounds were opened in that disgusting dumpster that will be there for awhile.
The Cracks are Showing
Sara takes a turn for the worst in this episode and has a seizure for which she must be hospitalized for. The doctor wants to know if she is taking her meds and Stan and Ruby are sure she is but the doctor questions if they watched her swallow them. The parents frantically search her room and find a tin containing the pills. When they ask Sara, she says she knows they cannot afford them so she hadn't been taking them regularly. Ruby and Stan realize Sara knows what more than she lets on and try assure her they are actually rich and she needs to worry about being a kid. Kids know way more than we give them credit for and it also made me wonder if one of Beth's little ones will catch on to something that mom is doing in the future.
Speaking of Beth, we see her in the episode towing the line of mom and con-woman. She meets Rio to give him her money and again wants to talk about the fed because he showed up wanting to interview her at the office this time. Rio is still unconcerned but can tell Beth is, he tells her to say they were having an affair. Beth scoffs at first but kind of seems into this lie, she questions how she would explain a woman like her being with a guy like him and Rio shoots back and says 'What are you doing with me?'. I don't know why, but I found this scene kind of sexy, but I will say I am still uncomfortable with Rio calling her a bitch last episode so I am bowl of mixed emotions on this push/pull. I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like Beth is the one that is shockingly good at this lifestyle. She uses her life skills for the benefit of the crimes and seems to relish in having this life apart from Dean. Oh and Dean, ugh Dean. We didn't get much follow up on what 'cancer' he is pretending to have but he sure is trying to weasel is way back in and it is so transparent. Dean thinks that cooking some dinner and being a little more present is going to fix what he's done, well newsflash, Beth is not having it and he seems to finally realize that he may not get Beth back no matter what he does.
In the closing scene Beth tries to throw Agent Turner off her scent with some false stories he isn't buying and things look bad. The tides turn when Beth turns on the wounded wife pain from before and comes up with a story Agent Turner can buy. She describes in great detail that after she realized her husband was cheating on her, she met Rio and took him back to her house where they had sex on her counter. She did it and felt bad and never saw him again. I half wondered if we were also seeing a silent fantasy that could have played in Beth's mind about Rio, or am I just reaching? I guess we will find out down the line, or not.
So what did you think? Is Annie's careless nature starting to become a liability? Does Ruby need to get out before she destroys her relationship with Stan? Is Beth loving this life a little too much? Also, that scene with Beth, Ruby and Annie in the hospital was so awesome, it made me want a few flashbacks about how these three came to be such great friends.
