Good Girls Review: The Dubby (Season 2 Episode 7)
Beth’s new normal is wearing on her family in Good Girls Season 2 Episode 7, “The Dubby.”
Beth’s new life of crime may have her leveraging her intelligence to think like a businesswoman, but it also comes at a cost and it’s a cost that she’s starting to see. While Good Girls Season 2 Episode 6, “Take Off Your Pants,” showed Dean and Beth adjusting to their new roles, “The Dubby,” sees them securely in their new normal.
What’s particularly interesting in this episode is how Beth tries to conceal her life of crime while being a mom. She gets up in the morning, leaves notes on her sleeping kid’s chest, and then goes to work and comes home when they’re in bed.
There’s a bit of remorse in what she’s missing, especially when Rio interupts the dance recital and she misses her daughter’s performance. However, while it would be easy to guilt Beth into thinking she should be home, the show doesn’t do that. Instead she finds a way to make it work.
Yes, this means taking her kids on a delivery.
It’s inevitable that at some point Beth’s young children are going to get entangled with her work and “The Dubby,” shows us the worse case scenario pinned to a typical childhood problem.
Finding out that one of her children left a blanket they’ve had since they were a child is a relatable and seemingly small issue, but here’s the thing: Beth’s a knitter.
What some people probably see as “just a blanket,” is really hours of work, not dissimilar to the housrs Beth currently puts in at the dealership and in her partnership with Rio. Beth can replace it with the right yarn and more time, but as shown by the montage at the top of the episode, that is not time that she has an abundance of.
Still, Beth is a mom and she will do anything to see that her little girl is happy. Including knit another Dubby that looks exactly like the old one.
The scene where Beth confronts a woman over the last skein of Princess Pink is a scene that only crafters will relate to. When someone you care about is missing something that you made them and they’re heartbroken, you will fight someone for the last skein of Princess Pink.
Especially when the person who has it is a woman who is making a scarf for her cat. (I’m not saying cats don’t deserve to look pretty, but really, could Beth have a more pointless argument given everything else she’s got going on?)
Things escalate when Janey goes missing and it’s definitely a reminder of exactly how much Beth has to lose. “The Dubby” does a good job of establishing how much Beth’s kids mean to her right before they pulling the rug out from under Beth.
Beth’s conversation with Rio is also telling when he explains to her that this isn’t a gig selling Arbonne or Mary Kay products, she’s in a business that is dangerous.
Even though this turns out okay and it turns out the Janey is just hiding in the closet because she’s not allowed to cross the street, it begs to question how far Beth will go. Can she stomach going further into this world with her kids at stake or is she ultimately going to have to seperate from them and Dean if she keeps on this path.
It may not be entirely Beth’s choice though, Agent Turner is squeezing Ruby for information. As disappointing as it is to see Ruby flip on her friend, it’s not hard to see why she’s doing this.
She and Stan have a lot to lose, and they also have a relationship that’s pretty solid. It makes sense that Ruby wouldn’t want to be reason that Stan ends up in prison, but it still feels dirty that she’s selling Beth down the river, because–make no mistake–Agent Turner is targeting Beth alone.
Retta gives a very strong performance as Ruby on “The Dubby,” letting us really feel how torn the character is feeling with all of this.
However, the fact that she actually went through with taking Beth’s calendar and calling Agent Turner may be a line that she will regret for the rest of the series, depending on how things play out.
In keeping with the theme of family, Annie and Sadie are continuing to work things out as only a mom and a teenager can. Sadie is a very sympathetic child and she really connects with Nancy’s plight.
The fact that Sadie hides that she’s going to the movies with Sadie from her mom does show an element of sympathy of Sadie’s part, and Annie forgiving her and saying she doesn’t care shows some maturity. Annie’s confession is what drove a wedge between her and her daughter and it wasn’t a confession that was necessarily needed, but I am holding out hope that the writers have plans for this storyline.
Annie also has a bit more of a fluffy plotline when she meets Noah, the new manager of Fine & Frugal. It’s easy to see where Annie is coming from as she spouts off her opinions of the different manager the store’s had because she didn’t have the best experience with Boomer.
Noah’s introduction though, shows a different kind of relationship for Annie. Noah is the first person to say that she deserves more than this place. While the scene does devolve into sex really quickly if they do turn into a relationship it might be the most healthy one Annie has ever had.
How she might eventually explain that they robbed the store twice, is another story.
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.