Good Girls Review: I’d Rather Be Crafting (Season 2 Episode 1)
Ruby, Beth, and Annie are back on Good Girls Season 2 Episode 1, “I’d Rather Be Crafting,” and it’s just as easy to empathize with them as it was in Season 1.
Picking up right where Good Girls Season 1 Episode 10, “Remix,” left off, the plan to put Rio away has failed, and the fall has started
Honestly, watching the end of “Remix” made me not too worried about Dean. I was more worried about Beth and where the possibility of shooting Rio would take her.
Remember, the circumstances immediately surrounding that final Good Girls Season 1 followed Dean’s lie about being diagnosed with cancer. It’s very hard for me to sympathize with someone who lies about that and it was obvious to me that the only way that character get out of this scene is with a bullet somewhere in his body put there by someone in that room.
It would be easy to write Dean off with this sequence, to let this be the end of his character’s arc. But the writers don’t off Dean in this scene. Instead, he lives, and I that means that he and Beth are going to have to have some very serious conversations.
It does surprise me that it wasn’t Beth who pulled the trigger, but that would be a fall too far too fast.
The thing about Good Girls is that Ruby, Annie, and Beth never take actions that make them instantly unlikeable. They’ve committed crimes, yes, but they haven’t gotten so deep that you can’t sympathize with them.
During Season 1, I kept thinking to myself how much this show reminded me of Weeds with Annie, Beth, and Ruby’s arcs all reminiscent of Mary Louise Parker’s Nancy Botwin in some ways.
What ultimately sets Good Girls apart for me is the fact that the girls always keep a moral center that doesn’t just serve them. They go through with the first robbery for their families, and it was meant to be a one-and-done, but they keep their families as their moral center.
It isn’t even just their own children and spouses, it’s also each other: their chosen family. It was never in question how much Ruby, Annie, and Beth care for each other, and the history they have can be both a strength and a weakness should things start to go south later this season.
The gifts Annie and Sarah present to Ruby to comfort Sarah in the aftermath of her post-transplant recovery are sweet reminders that this isn’t just a business arrangement. This is deeply personal for them. Beth’s gift, in particular, is one of care and time. Making a quilt isn’t an easy or quick task, and the embroidery of quotes is a nice touch. Ruby’s reaction to it understands that.
There are plenty of times that Ruby, Annie, or Beth could have been selfish during this episode, but they aren’t in favor of either each other or a moral dilemma higher than themselves.
A prime example is during the heist of the evidence processing van when Annie and Beth can’t unplug the freezer because of the rape kits. While they don’t want to go to prison, they also don’t want to risk someone else not getting justice just because of an amateur move they made.
But as Beth points out: they’re amateurs.
Their devotion to each other comes through in the arc with Ruby and Stan as he makes an argument for how much prison time Ruby could receive for everything that’s happened so far.
Ruby could have complied with Stan’s suggestion that she turn herself in and sell out Beth and Annie, but she doesn’t. Instead, her observations are what give them the way out of this mess. Ruby also gives Stan a sober reminder, that it isn’t just their family at stake. Both Annie and Beth have kids too and they stand to lose their parents for several birthdays.
The fact that Ruby sees Annie and Beth as equals in this scheme is very telling and it’s going to be interesting to see where and how this pendulum may shift as the season continues.
At the same time, it’s definitely a shift to see Ruby and Stan fighting. Ruby and Stan’s relationship always seemed like the most stable. Aside from Ruby hiding her criminal activities from her cop husband, they have a loving relationship that was focused on their daughter and her illness. They were faithful to each other and supportive of each other’s ventures.
As much as it’s upsetting to see them fight, but also necessary for the plot to progress. The scene where Stan presents Ruby with the pen cap and the silence it leaves between them is deafening.
Stan probably stole the pen cap to save his family and so his kids wouldn’t miss their mother. Ruby’s face as she realizes that she’s now brought Stan into this is one of regret and appreciation at the same time. Stan worked hard to become a cop and he’s just put his job in jeopardy.
“I’d Rather Be Crafting” ends with Rio giving the girls the task to take out Leslie. Leslie is a rather annoying character, and as much as the writers have fleshed out his character from the smarmy man who tried to rape Annie, I’m still not pulling for him.
As much as I wouldn’t miss Leslie, I think this task is going to be a fissure in their relationship that might cause them to break apart by the end of Good Girls Season 2. Giving Annie, Beth, and Ruby the mission to take him out feels really cruel, but I think it’s necessary for the pendulum to shift this season.
Stray Thoughts:
- I expect the 23 & Me test to be Beth’s downfall at some point. Like really? Did the writers not see this sale of their DNA information library to big pharma last summer? Maybe they opted out, but that sample is still there. What are the odds the feds will find it?
- It’s hilarious to me that they are comparing runs of CSI and Law and Order: SVU to figure out how evidence collection works.
- I’m really not on board with Annie getting back with her ex. It felt forced and really just a reason to add more tension to Nancy’s pregnancy. They have a history, and that’s understandable, but they spend all of Season 1 fighting for custody of Sadie. While the impulse fits Annie’s character, this is a story we’ve seen before, and I would rather focus on Annie and Sadie’s relationship on its own.
- I love how meta Beth’s monologue gets in the hospital waiting room. The laughter is not appropriate at all, but it is kind of funny. Seeing Beth aware of this irony makes me wonder exactly how she’s going to handle Dean being home.
What did you think of this episode of Good Girls? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Good Girls airs Sundays at 10/9 on NBC.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.