Good Girls Review: You Have Reached the Voicemail of Leslie Peterson (Season 2 Episode 3)
Way to go Good Girls! You managed to break our hearts over a scumbag character!
Good Girls Season 2 Episode 3, “You Have Reached the Voicemail of Leslie Peterson,” sends off a doomed character with finesse, relying on the show’s brand of dark humor without losing the gravity of the actions.
Things seem to have a way of working out for Annie, Beth, and Ruby, and Leslie’s murder is no exception. While “You Have Reached the Voicemail of Leslie Peterson” opens with Beth ready to pull the trigger, it’s a saving grace that she doesn’t need to in the end.
In my review of Good Girls Season 2 Episode 2, “Slow Down, Children at Play,” I commented on how the tension of this show lies in these three women’s morality being tested constantly.
They’re self-interesting criminals, but they’re not entirely heartless. They can still see a bigger picture. Committing murder is the one thing that can’t be undone or fixed.
The fact that Beth doesn’t go there on this episode is a good thing for her, but I don’t think we can dismiss the idea that Beth will pull the trigger later this season.
“Slow Down, Children at Play,” also made Mary Pat easier to empathize with, and it also made it made satisfying when Boomer met his end at her hand. When Annie, Beth, and Ruby go to her to try to weed him out, it was almost a given considering how unhappy she looks.
The way the events precipitate after she runs Leslie isn’t overly comedic either, and it fits the style of the show well.
It’s not an entirely unexpected choice, to have Mary Pat lay out what happened after she ran him over in an expository scene. Good Girls has never laid heavily on the gore. We’ve seen blood, yes. People getting shot, yes. Chopping up a body, no.
The methods of disposal also feel like there’s a distance to the crime, but it doesn’t diminish the emotional tole placed on the women charged with the disposal.
The scene where they drive to the dumpster is particularly uneasy. There is silence except for breathing and the sound of Leslie’s body shifting back and forth in the trunk. It’s eerie and unsettling, and a solid reminder that these women aren’t hardened criminals.
Retta’s doing an exceptional job as Ruby. Ruby, as a character, has always been somewhat different than Beth and Annie in that her motives come from a different place.
We started seeing cracks in Ruby and Stan’s relationship on Good Girls Season 2 Episode 1, “I’d Rather Be Crafting,” and it was hard to see their relationship rocked like that. It all stems from why Ruby started this in first place, and that was because she wanted better care for her daughter.
While each of them has something to lose, and each of them has valid reasons for wanting to change their lives, Ruby always felt like she had more at stake because she has both kids she loves and a happy marriage.
The drive to the dumpster is heavy with anxiety, and rightfully so.
Disposing of a body makes them accessories to murder, and each step she takes deeper into the criminal enterprise is also something that could take her away from her family. Stan laid out how much time Ruby could get for the crimes he knows she committed so far, but now there’s another layer on top of it.
Good Girls doesn’t just stop at the disposal of the body. They also had to dispose of Leslie’s phone, and that meant some voicemails from his Nana.
When Annie decides to play the messages it reminds us that Leslie was not just a bad guy.
It would be easy to celebrate Leslie’s death. Leslie is a scumbag. His involvement in the FBI investigation was outlandish and ridiculous, and yes very annoying, but he also could have brought down the girls.
Had he continued on this path, the girls would be on their way to prison sooner rather than later, and so while it’s ironic, his death is necessary so the show could continue.
But, he had someone that cared for him. Someone who knew a different side to Leslie. To Annie, he was her attempted rapist, but to his Nana he was her grandson, who called her every night before she went to bed.
Just because Leslie is gone, doesn’t mean that this is a chapter of the story that the girls can put behind them. Depending on how successful they were with the disposal of the body, it’s possible that this could come back to bite them by the end of the season and dig their grave that much deeper.
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 10/9c 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.