The Cleaning Lady - Spousal Privilege - Review

After last week’s tragic ending, everyone is on edge to bring Kamdar down – and in the midst of the pain, guilt and loneliness, Spousal Privilege exposed a long kept secret...

Warning: spoilers.

Alone. Only a few hours have gone by since Maya's death, and after spending the night rehashing and blaming herself while watching over her family, Thony had no other choice but to send them away to keep them as far as possible from the danger she inevitably brought home. But everything is still so fragile - Luca has to be closely monitored, and Chris, though already feeling better, is still traumatized by his "visit" at the police station. 

Once he was reassured by his mother, he once again stepped up - and helped Luca feel better when his mother couldn't join them on their fun "staycation". It was so refreshing to see them in such a lighthearted mood once they joined JD at his place. I had the same smile Jaz had, swooning at her parents joking together, Chris being himself again, and last but not least - Fiona having right there everything she deserves and longs for. Those scenes felt like a much-deserved break for the entire De La Rosa family - except for Thony, who was stuck at home to try to find a way out of the mess she got into.

I’m glad that JD is someone they can rely on – but when he found out about Thony’s double life as a CI, he was just a father worried for his family. Even though he can’t force Fiona and Chris to stay with him, he made it clear that he’s not willing to let his daughter come close to her aunt until it’s over. Thony has always done what she felt was best for her family, and always puts them first - and this episode, she has once again to face the fact that she’s putting them in danger by now simply existing. Marco, Fiona, and now JD, all questioned her – but this is the first time she really has painted a target on their backs. It is a tough situation for Fiona, she does have to put the kids first – and they already have been doing just that - but at the same time, cutting Thony loose isn’t something she can see herself doing if it were to come to that. 

It was absolutely heartbreaking to have to watch Thony feel so alone, and those scenes were stunningly painful. Honestly, I wouldn’t have complained if the entire episode would have been composed of silent shots of Thony staring into the void. Elodie Yung's performance is so powerful, and once again, no words were needed to get the audience to feel her pain - and time went by while she felt empty in this quiet house that didn't feel like a home anymore.

Guilt. Thony is guilt-ridden, she feels grateful for everything Garrett has done for her - protecting her family, helping Chris move on - but to protect herself and Arman, she has to lie to him about what really happened to Maya. In the meantime, Garrett has also been beating himself up, and is convinced that there was something - anything - he could have done differently to keep Kamdar from finding Maya at that safehouse. And that's exactly where Thony is struggling too - she is desperately trying to understand if there was any other way out of the situation she and Arman were in, than the one they chose. As I said last week, regrets won't change the past - but it is a human response to trauma, and it was such a nice parallel to see those two characters struggle on the same level without being able to open up about it to each other. 

Garrett was sure that there had to be a breach inside of the FBI - only a few people knew about Maya and the safehouse. But when he got a hold of her personal belongings, everything became clearer. I’m glad he has such a good friend in Katherine - despite being his boss, she’s always there for him and tries to keep him as steady as possible – and she was there to remind him that it was just an accident when they found the tracker Cortés had hidden in her bracelet. Now, I could be reading too much into this, as this was probably just to make it clear that there was no mole within the FBI...but should we be worried about Nadia’s ring too? Kamdar will never trust anyone fully, not even her - and he had it long enough to put something inside of it…

I couldn’t help but nervously laugh when Garrett once again brought his James Bond gadgets around. It definitely wasn’t the right time, and no one was in the mood after the trauma they had gone through, but I would have loved to hear Arman make a comment about that necklace – which was similar to the one Garrett tried to make Thony use against him in the fifth episode of season 1. And again, I just love those little nods to the flawless first season – and to how far they’ve come, now that they have a common enemy. 

Given how thorough Kamdar is when it comes to his safety, Thony and Arman knew nothing would go by undetected - so they had to agree on using another listening device that wouldn’t even have to cross his office's door. (how many of these does the FBI have though, Garrett came by prepared). Even with all these precautions - and little does Garrett know - it was all still quite risky for Thony and Arman. If Kamdar were to mention Maya and what part they played in her death, well…you know. Because, after all, it does matter to him who pulled the trigger – he wants every person that was involved that night to go down. As I said last week, one can only hope that once he gets the entire story, he’ll understand and will start to grieve...and forgive himself.

Compromises. Things would have gone way too smoothly if they just had to get Kamdar to say something incriminating – so Thony and Arman came face to face with Nadia, who was left in charge of Fast Lane and its underground activities while he’s out of town. Arman still deeply cares about his wife - and after all, she might have put him in this mess, but she only did it to save him and get him out of prison - and he desperately tried to keep her quiet while the FBI was listening in.

Arman made it clear to both Garrett and Thony that he won't let his wife go down with Kamdar, so Garrett's plan failed. Thony was already eyeing the ledger Nadia was filling out for Robert, and she came up with a different plan, which demanded access to Nadia’s key card. Everyone had to make compromises to protect their families, and as Thony suggested, Arman tried to reconcile with his wife - and he definitely knew he had to tread carefully. As much as my heart breaks for Nadia to have fallen for his trick, knowing that she'll only get hurt, he did have her best interests at heart.

But she was starting to move on, and even though things were far from perfect, she was doing better. She left Kamdar years ago because she didn't feel safe by his side, and now thinks he has changed - or at least that she has enough influence and control over him, to not feel threatened. And he is putting her first, trusting her with his business while Arman cut her out of theirs - which is making her feel good too. But the look on her face when she started having doubts - twice - after Arman kept her busy was absolutely devastating...

I'm repeating myself here, but my heart broke for Thony throughout the entire episode - to some extent, and even if it was based on a lie and won't last for long - Arman got back to his family, while she had nothing left at that moment. He was there for her and promised to stay by her side, but to get back what she need the most, she had to let him go back to Nadia - and in doing so, she felt lonelier than ever. Thony was in so much pain from all the recent events, and when she had to face the reality that she was becoming a threat to her own family, it was just too much to bear. She took even more risks, and almost got caught because she needed it to be over fast - so that she could have some noise and chaos back in a too quiet and calm house.

Thankfully, it wasn’t all for nothing - and Thony got what she had hoped for in Kamdar's office, and more...Garrett now has the ledger that still needs to be decoded, but Arman is left confused with a marriage certificate for Robert and Nadia. This should imply they never had a divorce, otherwise, why bother with that document? And it would also mean that Arman and Nadia’s marriage is actually null and void…

Careful, spoiler for the next episode coming in 3…2…1…I was wondering how Arman could handle that information without exposing his plan to Nadia and we've got the beginning of an answer with the synopsis for 2x09 – he does confront Nadia about it. Now, how he’ll explain that he found out without revealing he used her to get the key card is something we’ll find out in two weeks, on November 28th!

What did you think of the episode?

Let me know in the comments!