They’re back! And even though they’re plunging deeper into financial ruin and edging closer to the repercussions of financial ruin that drove them to armed robbery and the transportation of counterfeit money across the U.S. border to begin with, they haven’t learned that their stab at building a criminal enterprise isn’t alleviating their fiscal woes. At all. So not only are they back; they’re back at it. And it’s destined to be a lot of the same mishaps and defeated sighs that have plagued them since day one.
But you’ve gotta admit they have drive.
Let’s not forget that watching the FBI raid her husband’s (played by Matthew Lillard) car dealership while she rushed to destroy evidence in the women’s restroom wasn’t enough to convince Beth (Christina Hendricks) to find a new (honest) venture. And watching police escort her husband, Stan (Reno Wilson), out of their home in handcuffs as their children looked on wasn’t enough to scare the godforsaken daylights out of Ruby (Retta), who’s the most jittery of them all. And learning that her boyfriend (Sam Huntington) was an undercover FBI agent collecting evidence of her criminal activity was depressing for Annie (Mae Whitman) in every way except the one that should have affected her willingness to conduct unauthorized business as usual.
Clearly, the good girls are desperate. And addicted. And maybe a little bit too sure of themselves by now. But we’re still rooting for them, aren’t we?
Well…yes.
The third season of Good Girls has Beth busying herself with attempts to clear her conscience after fatally (or so she thinks) shooting Rio (Manny Montana) in last season’s finale, Ruby suffering the degradation of watching Stan work security at a gentlemen’s club so they can afford their sick daughter’s (Lidya Jewett) medical care, and Annie going through the motions after realizing her life is a series of crashes that never repair and burns that never heal.
Hearts may ache for Annie the most. She’s never found solid ground, and the odds of doing so anytime soon aren’t in her favor. It also doesn’t help that Beth and Ruby remind Annie of her failures every chance they get. Either Beth has forgotten that her perfect life is incredibly imperfect these days, or pointing out her little sister’s flaws helps her forget where she herself went wrong. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that Beth went from superhousewifemom to superwhateverthehellthisis in one fell swoop, so surely any distraction helps. And Ruby has always followed Beth’s lead. That’s why she’s in this cataclysmal mess in the first place, so why not play along and belittle Annie, too?
No longer under Rio’s thumb, which also means they’re on their own and without his expertise, it’s a rocky start for the trio as they spend weeks trying to assemble the perfect bill. Mastering Alexander Hamilton’s bouffant and the shadow behind his cravat is a lot harder than Annie anticipated. She’s certain that these are just “microscopic inconsistencies,” but JT (Julian Gant), the quick cash employee who isn’t holding a grudge after being kidnapped, tied up, and blindfolded by the good girls in season 2 (maybe hand-feeding him a burrito helped curtail negative feelings?), assures her that these microscopic inconsistencies “will get you ten to twenty in the state pen.” He then proves his point by running the bill through the cash machine and claiming “Denied!” as it lights up red and beeps out the error signal.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Annie, scurrying for optimism in this moment of defeat.
“It burnt down in a night.” Thanks, JT. Very helpful. (Can we keep him this time, though?)
But the chips slowly fall in their favor. The good girls finally perfect Alexander Hamilton’s hair and accessories after eliciting help from an eccentric new character (Charlyne Yi) we’ll hopefully see much much more of, and the only hurdle now blocking their way, that pesky FBI agent (James Lesure) who just won’t get off your back no matter how many times you save his life, coincidentally becomes a lesser hurdle. But haven’t the good girls learned there are no coincidences?
It appears Beth is in for one heck of a surprise. So much for clearing her conscience.
It’s clear, Beth. It’s quite clear.
We have 15 more episodes to gobble up what just might be the most seductive season of Good Girls yet. If we’re lucky. But I’m not betting on their luck.
So now that the good girls are back in business and the new season is in motion, the big question is this: Are Beth and Rio going to have proper hate-sex before they try to kill each other? Please please please let us have this. I mean, it’s not like we’re asking for some clichéd nonsense of a “Beth loves Rio” fairytale ending, are we? No, not… yet.
Watch at https://www.nbc.com/good-girls
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