Dead to Me Review: Now with More Death (Season 1 Episodes 8-10)

Everything comes crashing down on Dead to Me Season 1 Episodes 8-10, and…let’s just say there had better be a Season 2.

On the bright side, it turns out I was right about this show’s similarities to How to Get Away with Murder.

The truth always comes out in the end, even if we have to wait until the second-to-last episode for that to prove true. Distraught at Jen’s own guilt, Judy finally confesses before she can be exposed. It goes about how you’d expect.

We’ve certainly seen mixed morality from Judy before now, caught between her true agony over her actions and the strange disconnect that lets her dismiss the pain that will be caused by the truth of what she’s doing.

Still, that she seems to instantly see her actions as something that can, even must, be forgiven, makes us wonder if she truly understands the impact of what she’s done. She didn’t flirt with Jen’s husband—she killed him.

Jen understandably dismisses her pleas with horror and vitriol. There is a scene where they meet later that has a strange sense of neither of them talking about murder, but it fuels back into screaming and threats soon enough.

It’s an odd and rather painful story choice because until we see Judy pushed to the brink of suicide by her guilt, it’s hard to sympathize with her or even identify her own capacity for empathy.

More effective in making this character something more than a twisted, terrible person is her heartbreak at a false positive pregnancy test. Getting to the root of Judy’s own grief humanizes her and we need more of it.

I also want to go back to that fight with Ted that’s the reason Jen begins blaming herself for his death, thus triggering Judy’s confession. Is it just me, or does it feel way too late to bring this point in?

If we’re meant to believe that this has been resting on Jen’s shoulders all this time, we should have seen a hint of it before now, in either her rage at his cheating or any element of her grief. Why would it only come to mind here?

The answer is most likely that it’s a plot device to make the confession happen, and in that regard, I’m not sure we need it. Judy spends the entire series a breath from spilling the truth. She’d very likely have done so no matter what.

Aside from all this awkwardness in the process of creating chaos, though, the chaos itself is spot-on, if painful to watch. We mourn the loss of this friendship, even knowing it’s been a ticking time bomb from the start.

Though Jen is closer to being our protagonist, the extreme moral gray area in which Judy exists is captivating. We should be as horrified as Jen, not only at her actions, but at her general conviction that they’re for the greater good.

Yet, somehow, we see her strange logic even as we feel sick at how we’d feel in Jen’s shoes. Despite it all, she means well in the wake of such terrible things. At the very least, we don’t want her to die and we do want this friendship to be saved.

In the end, it is, but it takes a dead body to get there. Enraged at Steve’s dismissive attitude toward his own guilt in Ted’s death, Jen (presumably) kills Judy’s own tool of an ex. I guess this makes them…even?

If we’re being completely honest, we know we have to set aside belief a bit to accept this on face value. Yes, Steve was the selfish coward who convinced Judy to leave the scene of the crime and possibly leave Ted to die, but she was still the driver.

It would logically make more sense for Jen to at least sill be as mad at Judy as Steve. If she’s going to be madder at Steve, it would realistically take longer for her to get there emotionally. All that old anger shouldn’t vanish in a flash.

All that said, I’ve rarely been more willing to accept creative license. Now these two aren’t just friends or family, they’re partners in crime. With a body in Jen’s pool, even husbands brutally killed on the side of the road are going to have to play second fiddle.

Will a potential season two be like Bonnie and Clyde, only will two very morally compromised Bonnies? Probably not, with Judy’s sons ruling out the possibility. Regardless, I’m already on the edge of my seat to know what’s coming next.

What did you think of this episode of Dead to Me? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Dead to Me is now streaming on Netflix.

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