Good Girls Season 2 Episode 8: ‘Thelma & Louise’ Review

[Header Image: Jessica Treska as Young Beth, Juliet Donenfeld as Young Annie, and Gi’onna Kamille as Young Ruby | NBC]

It’s been several hours, I’ve even slept in that time, and I’m still not over how good this episode was. It was by far one of the best of Good Girls to date. Looking back over the episode to write this review, I genuinely can’t pick a favourite moment because it was all equally compelling. Even with Dean being annoying or Turner continuing to be frustrating, everything about this episode drew you in and overall there was this perfect balance between the comedy and the more dramatic side of the show.

While I always like to speak pretty highly of Good Girls and its writing because it is genuinely good all of the time, this episode really did go above and beyond and I’m honestly struggling to think about anything else.

A big part of this episode revolved around Beth and Ruby. At the end of the previous episode we saw that Ruby made a phone call asking to meet someone, as a lot of us suspected, that person was Beth although it was nice to have that confirmed. While it was a little heartbreaking to watch this rift between the pair of them, it worked so well that this all came out at the start because then we had the rest of the episode to see them deal with what had happened and overcome it so that by the end, things are seemingly fixed again.

That being said, it wasn’t an easy journey. Ruby is incredibly apologetic and she can’t bring herself to go through with working for Turner, and Beth seems to have lost all trust in Ruby or is at least doubting it. Through the various flashbacks we get in this episode, it’s quickly confirmed that the two of them have been there for each other for a long time and they are each other’s ride or die. It’s not hard to guess that at the time they meet Beth and Annie are essentially looking after themselves so having someone else (Ruby) to lean on, must have meant everything to Beth. It makes sense that Beth is as upset as she is and it takes a while for her to really see things straight. While looking for the money that was stolen from Beth, she and Ruby have words. It’s really the first time that Ruby defends what she did (she did it to protect her family) and gets even remotely angry. It seems to be the thing that knocks Beth because not too long later, when talking about the whole hypothetical Beyonce situation, she practically admits that there will be times where Ruby is going to pick Stan and that’s okay.

While it’s easy to deduce from present day Beth and Ruby that they mean a lot to each other, the flashbacks solidified that. I love that Beth quite literally came crashing into Ruby’s life and they’ve been there for each other ever since. The casting for them (and Annie) was phenomenal and in just a few short scenes we got to really see just how close the two of them are (and by extension the trio as a whole). It really did add another layer and I won’t complain if we get to see more of their younger selves in the future.

As well as trying to deal with their friendship and the fallout of Ruby almost giving Beth up to Turner, we also have Dean throwing a spanner in the works. He’s been set on getting Rio out of their lives and he’s very much decided to hire someone to kill Rio and I mean, are we really surprised that it didn’t work out? Dean is not a mastermind and most often than not his actions lead to some kind of laughable but horrible consequences which in this case involved the two kids he met with stealing all of Beth’s money and leaving Dean tied up with her panties stuffed into his mouth as a gag. Let’s also take a second to appreciate the fact that she stepped right over Dean to check on her money because she was more concerned about that. Of course, Dean is focused on that than actually admitting he messed up. He’s so determined to get rid of Rio that he can’t see he’s being a huge problem that’s only going to cause trouble.

Not only that but we have to once again witness Beth having to clean up his mess although she does a pretty okay job at it. I adore that she called Rio first and it was made even better by the fact that he laughed really hard at the story and then proceeded to tell her that he would handle it. The whole scene may have been short but it was so good to see them be so at ease with each other. There’s always a lot of back and forth between the pair of them so it’s always great to see them be so soft and comfortable with each other to solidly that notion that they’ve come so far and are moving forward. That being said, they do have a difference of opinion when it comes to dealing with the kids and at first, Beth tries her approach.

Surprise, surprise, it doesn’t work. She and Annie try to confront the kids about what happened and she even threatens to go to the cops but in the end, she realises it’s a lost cause and she takes Rio’s advice to set limits and make sure those kids know not to cross her again. They actually managed to tick off a lot of boxes here. The plan forces Beth and Ruby to spend time together (although that wasn’t planned), they teach those kids a lesson by planting the items that Annie reported stolen on them, and getting them arrested is achieved by giving Turner misleading information which is also a step in proving where Ruby’s loyalties are and that she’s willing to do anything to make up for what happened. Now, while the new plan doesn’t get Beth her money back, it at least ensures that she doesn’t have to worry about those kids showing back up at her house demanding more.

It does, however, create an entirely new situation as Beth comes home to find that Dean has left her and taken the kids with him. I talked about this a little on social media but I think it’s easy to deduce that around the time of meeting Ruby, Annie and Beth’s parents were absent in some way shape or form and the pair of them had to rely on each other so it makes a lot of sense to me that Beth would be reluctant to fully commit to kicking Dean out and essentially breaking up their family for good. However, we do see various moments throughout the show where Beth realises more and more that she doesn’t need Dean and while her kids might need their father, he doesn’t need to be around her constantly for that to happen. She hadn’t really made it to the point of really kicking him out and filing for divorce and it sucks that Dean is seemingly beating her to it. While I’m sure he won’t give her the satisfaction of a divorce, he is use her kids against her like a pawn and Beth is going to be backed into a corner which I’m personally not looking forward to.

Now, back tracking slightly, the reason Beth and Ruby are forced to work together to find the money is because something else comes up for Annie and really there is a lot going on in her parts of the episode.

Things are picking up with her and Noah and I think almost all of us suspected that he was a plant from the FBI so it was really no surprise. However, what makes it particularly awful is that during the scene between Noah and Turner, Noah doesn’t come across as a particularly nice guy. That being said, this information is still new. At one point, he says he wants to run with it for a while which tells me that he might be having doubts and wants to see how things progress first which could mean he might change sides later down the line, but we also see him smugly celebrate the fact that he isn’t in the friend-zone anymore which suggests he doesn’t care at all and isn’t even remotely bothered by what might happen. It’s really hard to tell for sure right now. I definitely don’t trust him but I would like to be proven wrong.

Right now, that’s not actually much of a worry for Annie because she’s still completely unaware. She’s more focused on being there while Nancy gives birth. While this clearly isn’t something she would openly choose to do, she did promise Sadie and with everything up in the air, she’s forced to stay and oh boy, was it wonderful. Although tensions are high after the affair, it was nice to finally have Annie and Nancy in the same room and forced to talk to each other. I loved the added comedy element of Nancy being completely savage when talking to Annie and how that helped move her labour along. It was a nice little cushion before things got really serious because I was a complete mess by the time Annie climbed into that pool and hugged Nancy tightly to her chest. Sitting through Nancy crying over how she can’t do it all alone was so upsetting and while I’m sure it’s going to take more for this little family to mend, hopefully she won’t have to do any of it alone moving forward.

Now lastly but equally as important and massive as everything else going on in this episode, we have Sadie coming out as trans, declaring to Annie that they are also a boy. There were various comments throughout season one about Sadie’s identity and the character was written as being gender non-conforming. This little coming out scene may have been small but it was powerful. While there was some hesitation from Sadie, you can see the instant relief once it’s said. Annie’s reaction wasn’t a surprise at all, she has always been supportive when it comes to Sadie, but what was more powerful for me was seeing the two of them laughing and hugging and being with each other despite all of the rockiness in their relationship as of late. In the end, none of that mattered and I’m so happy to see what goes on from here, both with their relationship and just with Sadie.

But with that being said, I’m honestly still reeling from this episode. I keep picking up on little bits and while the season has been fantastic so far, things have really ramped up. With 13 episodes this season, that means we still have 5 more to look forward to and things will probably only continue to get more intense from here with much higher stakes. You just have to look at how season one ended and it’s pretty clear that things probably won’t slow down any time soon. Thankfully we have a season 3 to look forward to no matter how wild things get.