[Header Image: Christina Hendricks as Beth Boland | NBC]
What is probably one of my favourite shows of all time — Good Girls — is back on my screen again with brand new content and I’m so excited. Similarly to the first episode of season 1, this episode gives you just enough to know what a wild ride season 2 is going to be. You get a taste but there are still so many unanswered questions that will (hopefully) be answered by the end of the season. This time we pick up right where the season 1 finale ended with it backtracking ever so slightly to give us some extra details.
The very opening of the episode is done similarly to how season 1 episode 1 was done. In I’d Rather Be Crafting we see Beth getting cleaning supplies out of her car and washing up a blood-stained carpet before it then goes to several hours previously to show why she’s doing that. In the pilot episode we see the Beth, Ruby, and Annie rob the grocery store and then it cuts back to three weeks earlier to explain. By doing this we’re already being shown something pretty extreme and intriguing to watch but the writers aren’t rushing into it.
I, personally, was pretty satisfied with how that whole thing was concluded. It seemed pretty obvious that if anyone got shot it would be Dean and because of her kids, Beth wouldn’t be able to do it so that left Rio. It wasn’t necessarily predictable in a bad way but in a way that makes perfect sense. Plus, we have to remember that Rio doesn’t know about Beth’s marital problems. I mean, it’s not hard to see that things aren’t 100% but I doubt she and Rio have spoken about any of it. Considering he wanted revenge, shooting Dean would make perfect sense with the knowledge that Rio has. It would hurt Beth because it would also hurt her children, and if you add in the fact that we now know Rio has a son (Marcus played by David Miranda) you could look at it as an eye for an eye thing. Marcus almost lost his dad (by Rio nearly going to jail), and now Beth’s kids went through a similar almost after Dean was shot. Different stakes for sure but it is what it is and it makes this whole Rio showing up at her house thing a lot more layered.
It’s also satisfying because they’re clearly going to move on to other things. Rio sees them as being even now. Sure, Beth might not let go of what he did straight away but based on all of the promos and trailers, her relationship with Rio moves on pretty swiftly. He settled his score with her over him getting arrested and Rio most definitely isn’t the type of person to dwell on things once he feels he’s dealt with it.
Let’s talk about his son, Marcus, for a second. A lot of people speculated about Rio being a father (or perhaps an uncle), especially after this post made the rounds prior to I’d Rather Be Crafting airing. Rio and kids is something I’ve wanted to see for a long time, ever since he helped Kenny out with his homework. I’ve particularly wanted to see him interact with Sadie but him having his own kid is even better. It’s also unsurprising. Quite often the dangerous criminal with seemingly no morals who only cares about himself ends up having some kind of serious family connection, someone he’s doing it for, usually a child which was the case this time around. I was kind of hoping for it really, either that Rio has a son or he’s just incredibly good with children. Really, we got both.
At the moment, according to IMDb, David Miranda is only credited for 2 episodes but we’ll have to see. There’s going to have to be reasons why Marcus was never seen or mentioned prior to this moment so maybe that will have something to do with why he’s not around much, even now. I’m guessing on a base level it’s because Rio wants to keep him as far away from the business as possible but maybe he doesn’t seem him all the time either. Regardless of his episode count, I’m curious to find out more about Marcus and his relationship with Rio. They clearly get on and adore each other so it’ll be interesting to see yet another side to Rio.
The majority of the episode really follows cleaning up one mess after another. When things don’t go to plan with setting Rio up, it turns out that the FBI are testing the pen lid that Beth had in her mouth during the second grocery store robbery. Agent Turner is requesting her DNA but before she does it she, Annie, and Ruby come up with a plan to steal the pen lid back before it can be tested. I did love that it wasn’t that straight forward. They did a pretty good job with laundering money but even that had its ups and downs. I mean, the second time they robbed the grocery store was a disaster compared to the first time. They’re not pros so it makes sense that stealing evidence wasn’t as straight forward as they thought.
Luckily, Stan comes through. As we saw in season 1 episode 10, Stan worked out that Ruby, Annie, and Beth were behind the robberies. He continues to try and convince Ruby to go to the police and cut a deal because they won’t all get one. She does go to the police station but ultimately decides she can’t which is also when she discovers how the evidence is transferred, giving them the idea to steal the pen lid. Which, can I just say, led to the very hilarious discussion about evidence protocol where they used CSI and Law & Order: SVU as examples. We also got the iconic scenes of Ruby trying to hold up a queue in Starbucks.
That being said, I do feel sorry for Stan. He wants to keep his family safe but he’s also trying to do his job and uphold the law he believes in. While I don’t want him to completely turn criminal, I am glad he took the pen lid. Partly because it keeps the women out of prison but things like that will also give Stan an insight into doing the wrong thing for the right reasons which is exactly what Ruby, Annie, and Beth did when they first robbed the store.
By the end of the episode, we have a few things to set us up for the season. Beth has basically admitted to working for Rio to Agent Turner so now he and Boomer are working to try and take Beth, Ruby, and Annie down as well. This also pushes the women back into working with Rio because at the very end he requests that they deal with Boomer themselves seen as it’s their mess.
We also have the fact that Beth is having to take care of Dean. He could very easily go to the FBI or make her life a living hell considering Rio was only in their lives because of the decisions Beth made. Hopefully, she doesn’t put up with any of his hassle for too long but being forced to take care of Dean and be nice to him will only increase any tension.
Really this episode was such a perfect set up for the rest of the season. We have thirteen episodes this time (instead of ten) so there’s even more room to play around or execute things correctly. Season 1 was so incredibly well done that if season 2 is even half as good it’s still going to be fantastic.
Some other thing:
- The opening title credits! They’ve always done the flash of “Good Girls” on the screen but this time they had the episode title (“I’d Rather Be Crafting”) on Beth’s bloody coffee mug at the start. I do hope this continues, it’s such a little thing but it’s so satisfying from an artistic standpoint.
- “He was making a poster for Sara but got tired halfway through. It says ‘Welcome Ho.'”
- The hospital montage was so incredibly well done, the fact that everything was moving so quickly but the camera was always focused on Beth who was completely unmoving was so captivating and beautiful.
- Beth being shocked that Dean was still alive and even a little disappointed.
- Annie getting a stack of DVDs for Sara to watch and Beth making a quilt for her out of her old baby clothes with quotes on it from her favourite authors. I love them both and the sense of family on this show has me sobbing.
- Now we know that Nancy is finally pregnant, I do hope that the cheating stops and Annie cuts ties. I don’t mind seeing her and Gregg together but with Nancy being pregnant I would rather it be done properly. Plus, I feel like it would eventually ruin Annie’s character.
wonderoes 